A Current Analysis of Black Head Football Coaches and Offensive Coordinators at the NCAA DI-FBS Level

At the start of the 2015 college football season, 15 of the 128 NCAA DI-FBS programs took the field with a new head coach. Of note, is that none of the newly hired head coaches were Black, and 11 of the 15 hires climbed the coaching ranks on the offensive side of the ball. Given that 11.7% of the head coaching jobs in the league were available this offseason and none were filled by a Black coaching candidate could signify that the positive trends found after the 2010 season regarding the hiring of Black head football coaches (Bopp & Sagas, 2012) may have plateaued, or even worse, declined. The purpose of this study was to ascertain if significant strides are being made in the promotion of Black coaches to head coach and offensive coordinator positions in college football, and evaluate how successful they have been in those positions. The findings of our study, which were interpreted using racial tasking (Bopp & Sagas, 2014) as our theoretical lens, found that a) Black representation at the head coach and offensive coordinator position has plateaued, b) White head coaches statistically have higher winning percentages than their Black counterparts, c) White head coaches are afforded nearly a year more on average than Black head coaches to lead their programs, and d) that White offensive coordinators tend to manage more prolific passing teams (e.g., attempts, yards, and touchdowns) than their Black counterparts. The performance of Black coaches compared with their White counterparts has not favored Black coaches which may create prejudice in the mind of athletic administrators. Implications and suggestions for change are discussed

An Examination of African American NCAA DI-FBS Football Coaches: A Five-Year Update

Past studies have concluded that institutional and access discrimination remain potential deterrents in achieving a more diverse and equal representation of racial minority head coaches in college football. This study sought to examine and compare the career paths of all DI-FBS coaches to determine the potential continued existence of discrimination and its impact. Findings revealed an overall positive shift in the representation of African American coaches, particularly at the assistant coach level. Thus, the coaching career paths of current head coaches and coordinators appear to be paving a more equitable path for assistant and future coaches. However, the data also portray the existence of both institutional and access discrimination. Such biases facilitate and maintain an underrepresentation of African American coaches; and while the increased acceptance of upper-level coaches with diverse racial, playing, and coaching backgrounds suggests a positive shift toward racial equality among coaches, the movement for a balanced representation perseveres

Chasing Stars: Racial Tasking of Recruiting Responsibilities among Power-5 Football Coaches

During the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college football season, eight of the 65 Power-5 head coaches were Black. The racial composition of assistant coaches, however, was nearly 50% Black and 50% White. While the head coach of a Power-5 football team serves as the leader of the program, the 10 assistant coaches permitted by the NCAA oversee a variety of critical roles; the most valuable of which is recruiting. This study extends previous work by examining the racial composition of Power-5 football coaching staffs and recruiting responsibilities through the lens of racial tasking. An analysis of Power-5 football recruiting classes from 2019 and 2020 illustrates that assistant coaches are tasked with recruiting recruits racially similar to themselves 58% of the time. Furthermore, Black assistant coaches are disproportionately tasked with recruiting Black recruits and higher rated recruits (i.e., five- and four-star) compared to their White counterparts. We contend such racialized responsibilities and expectations may affect opportunities for advancement among Black assistant coaches

Are You Welcomed? A Racial and Ethnic Comparison of Perceived Welcomeness in Sport Participation

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(6): 833-844, 2017. Sport has become racialized such that minority youth accrue limited health and academic benefits from participation, compared to their White counterparts. Understanding the welcomeness that minorities feel in sport, leisure and physical activities plays an important role in breaking down barriers to participation. Thus, the overall aim of this study is to further examine the determinants of sport participation, particularly as it relates to race, socialization and perceived welcomeness. College students (N = 451) scored their perceived level of welcomeness for Whites, African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos in 14 sports. Results reveal significant differences in the perceived welcomeness felt by Whites, African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos in most of the sports analyzed. The discussion focuses on the socialization agents that facilitate such racialized perceptions and hinder access and opportunities for racial and ethnic minority youth to experience the health, academic and social benefits of sport participation

Development of the Life After Sports Transition (LAST) Online Course for Collegiate Student-Athletes: Pretest-Posttest Study

Transitioning into athletic retirement can have negative impacts on college student-athletes’ psychological, social, emotional, and physical well-being, yet few educational programs exist to help augment college student-athlete preparation for embracing life after sports. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a new Life After Sports Transition (LAST) online course for college student athletes. A single group pretest-post-test study evaluated effects of the LAST course among a convenience sample of college student-athletes (n=10) attending a NCAA Division I university. Paired sample t-tests examined changes in athletic identity, psychological well-being, hope, and self-reflection/insight. Propensity score matching (PSM) of pretest scores and age was used to reduce effects of the pretest differences in the small sample. At posttest, participants were also asked to assess the overall quality of the online LAST course. There was a decrease observed in athletic identity scores from pretest to posttest which approached statistical significance (P=.06). PSM analyses indicated that participants with higher GPA scores had significantly higher environmental mastery (b=2.28, SE=0.49, Pb=2.78, SE=1.20, P=.02, 95% CI: 0.42 to 5.14) scores at post-test than participants with lower GPA scores. However, contrary to our hypotheses, participants also reported lower scores on self-reflection/insight (P=.004, Hedges g = 1.65) and self-acceptance (P=.042, Hedges’ g = 0.93) at post-test. Despite these counter intuitive findings, participants rated the LAST course highly on most distance education quality dimensions. While student-athlete participation in the LAST course was associated with a decline in athletic identity, findings suggest that future life after sports programs focus more on introspective mediators of lifestyle change (i.e., self-reflection and self-acceptance) in order to foster more positive life transitions for college student-athletes

Moving Beyond the Gym: A Content Analysis of YouTube as an Information Resource for Physical Literacy

The Internet, and particularly YouTube, has been found to be and continues to develop as a resourceful educational space for health-related information. Understanding physical literacy as a lifelong health-related outcome and facilitator of an active lifestyle, we sought to assess the content, exposure, engagement, and information quality of uploaded physical literacy videos on YouTube. Two researchers collected 300 YouTube videos on physical literacy and independently coded each video’s: title, media source of upload, content topics related to physical literacy, content delivery style, and adherence to adapted Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) principles of information quality. Physical literacy videos that focused on physical activity and behaviors were the strongest predictor of high quality ratings, followed closely by videos covering affective domains (motivation, confidence, and self-esteem) of physical literacy. The content delivery method was also important, with videos utilizing presentations and testimonials containing high quality information about physical activity. Thus, providers of physical literacy and health-related online video content should be aware of and adhere to the expected quality standards. As health information expectations and ethical standards increase, the Internet, and specifically YouTube, has the potential to enhance video resources, virtual networking opportunities, as well as the sharing, dissemination, accumulation, and enrichment of physical literacy information for all

Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants

Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities(.)(1,2) This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity(3-6). Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017-and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions-was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing-and in some countries reversal-of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.Peer reviewe

Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension can be detected at the primary health-care level and low-cost treatments can effectively control hypertension. We aimed to measure the prevalence of hypertension and progress in its detection, treatment, and control from 1990 to 2019 for 200 countries and territories. METHODS: We used data from 1990 to 2019 on people aged 30-79 years from population-representative studies with measurement of blood pressure and data on blood pressure treatment. We defined hypertension as having systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg or greater, diastolic blood pressure 90 mm Hg or greater, or taking medication for hypertension. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the prevalence of hypertension and the proportion of people with hypertension who had a previous diagnosis (detection), who were taking medication for hypertension (treatment), and whose hypertension was controlled to below 140/90 mm Hg (control). The model allowed for trends over time to be non-linear and to vary by age. FINDINGS: The number of people aged 30-79 years with hypertension doubled from 1990 to 2019, from 331 (95% credible interval 306-359) million women and 317 (292-344) million men in 1990 to 626 (584-668) million women and 652 (604-698) million men in 2019, despite stable global age-standardised prevalence. In 2019, age-standardised hypertension prevalence was lowest in Canada and Peru for both men and women; in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and some countries in western Europe including Switzerland, Spain, and the UK for women; and in several low-income and middle-income countries such as Eritrea, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Solomon Islands for men. Hypertension prevalence surpassed 50% for women in two countries and men in nine countries, in central and eastern Europe, central Asia, Oceania, and Latin America. Globally, 59% (55-62) of women and 49% (46-52) of men with hypertension reported a previous diagnosis of hypertension in 2019, and 47% (43-51) of women and 38% (35-41) of men were treated. Control rates among people with hypertension in 2019 were 23% (20-27) for women and 18% (16-21) for men. In 2019, treatment and control rates were highest in South Korea, Canada, and Iceland (treatment >70%; control >50%), followed by the USA, Costa Rica, Germany, Portugal, and Taiwan. Treatment rates were less than 25% for women and less than 20% for men in Nepal, Indonesia, and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Control rates were below 10% for women and men in these countries and for men in some countries in north Africa, central and south Asia, and eastern Europe. Treatment and control rates have improved in most countries since 1990, but we found little change in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Improvements were largest in high-income countries, central Europe, and some upper-middle-income and recently high-income countries including Costa Rica, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, and Iran. INTERPRETATION: Improvements in the detection, treatment, and control of hypertension have varied substantially across countries, with some middle-income countries now outperforming most high-income nations. The dual approach of reducing hypertension prevalence through primary prevention and enhancing its treatment and control is achievable not only in high-income countries but also in low-income and middle-income settings. FUNDING: WHO

Worldwide trends in hypertension prevalence and progress in treatment and control from 1990 to 2019: a pooled analysis of 1201 population-representative studies with 104 million participants

Background Hypertension can be detected at the primary health-care level and low-cost treatments can effectively control hypertension. We aimed to measure the prevalence of hypertension and progress in its detection, treatment, and control from 1990 to 2019 for 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 1990 to 2019 on people aged 30-79 years from population-representative studies with measurement of blood pressure and data on blood pressure treatment. We defined hypertension as having systolic blood pressure 140 mm Hg or greater, diastolic blood pressure 90 mm Hg or greater, or taking medication for hypertension. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the prevalence of hypertension and the proportion of people with hypertension who had a previous diagnosis (detection), who were taking medication for hypertension (treatment), and whose hypertension was controlled to below 140/90 mm Hg (control). The model allowed for trends over time to be non-linear and to vary by age. Findings The number of people aged 30-79 years with hypertension doubled from 1990 to 2019, from 331 (95% credible interval 306-359) million women and 317 (292-344) million men in 1990 to 626 (584-668) million women and 652 (604-698) million men in 2019, despite stable global age-standardised prevalence. In 2019, age-standardised hypertension prevalence was lowest in Canada and Peru for both men and women; in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and some countries in western Europe including Switzerland, Spain, and the UK for women; and in several low-income and middle-income countries such as Eritrea, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Solomon Islands for men. Hypertension prevalence surpassed 50% for women in two countries and men in nine countries, in central and eastern Europe, central Asia, Oceania, and Latin America. Globally, 59% (55-62) of women and 49% (46-52) of men with hypertension reported a previous diagnosis of hypertension in 2019, and 47% (43-51) of women and 38% (35-41) of men were treated. Control rates among people with hypertension in 2019 were 23% (20-27) for women and 18% (16-21) for men. In 2019, treatment and control rates were highest in South Korea, Canada, and Iceland (treatment >70%; control >50%), followed by the USA, Costa Rica, Germany, Portugal, and Taiwan. Treatment rates were less than 25% for women and less than 20% for men in Nepal, Indonesia, and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Control rates were below 10% for women and men in these countries and for men in some countries in north Africa, central and south Asia, and eastern Europe. Treatment and control rates have improved in most countries since 1990, but we found little change in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Improvements were largest in high-income countries, central Europe, and some upper-middle-income and recently high-income countries including Costa Rica, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, and Iran. Interpretation Improvements in the detection, treatment, and control of hypertension have varied substantially across countries, with some middle-income countries now outperforming most high-income nations. The dual approach of reducing hypertension prevalence through primary prevention and enhancing its treatment and control is achievable not only in high-income countries but also in low-income and middle-income settings. Copyright (C) 2021 World Health Organization; licensee Elsevier