Sport for All? Insight into stratification and compensation mechanisms of sporting activity in the 27 European Union member states

Physical activity is an important public health issue and the benefits of an active lifestyle in relation to well-being and health have been strongly emphasised in recent years in Europe, as well as in most parts of the world. However, previous research has shown that physical activity within Europe and its member states is stratified. The present article gains insight into: (1) the geographical stratification; and (2) the social stratification of physical activity in the 27 European Union member states in 2005. Special attention is given to sporting activity in comparison to other forms of physical activity (transport, occupation and household). By doing this we intend to develop a picture of physical activity, in particular sporting activity, within the European Union. In addition, we want to verify whether low sporting activity levels are counterbalanced by other pieces of the total 'menu of physical activities'. Based on Eurobarometer data from 2005 (N=26,688), bivariate analyses show that 4 out of 10 Europeans are not exposed to sporting activity. Moreover, particular subgroups of non-sportive citizens could be distinguished: South and East Europeans, and women, the elderly, individuals with a lower educational level and rural citizens. Our hypothesis that these groups would compensate for their non-sporting activity by being physically active in other domains could only be confirmed for women and rural citizens, in particular with regard to household physical activity. To understand the underlying structure of these possible compensation mechanisms, additional quantitative and qualitative research is needed. Nevertheless, because of societal trends towards an inactive society, the role of sporting activity will be increasingly important in the future for all inactive subgroups. For this purpose, not only should necessary resources and key stakeholders be identified, but also more importantly the social and environmental barriers for sporting activity need to be addressed

A retrospective analysis of policy development on compliance with World Health Organization's physical activity recommendations between 2002 and 2005 in European Union adults: Closing the gap between research and policy

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Physical inactivity (PIA) is a mortality risk factor defined as performing lower levels of physical activity than recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). After 2002, the WHO released the WHA55.23 Resolution and the Global Strategy which produced several changes in policymaking, but with no subsequent analyses of the impact of these changes in European Union (EU) policymaking while examining PIA prevalence. Methods: PIA of 31,946 adults as a whole sample and country-by-country were analyzed in the 2002 and 2005 EU Special Eurobarometers. PIA prevalence between countries was performed with the χ2 test and PIA between both years and between genders was analyzed with the Z-Score test for two population proportions. A retrospective analysis of national plans was performed to interpret the suitability of such policy documents, considering changes in PIA prevalence. Results: Differences in PIA prevalence were observed between countries (p 0.05). When considering gender, there were no gender reductions in subsamples for Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom, neither in Luxemburg for men, nor in France and Italy for women. When analyzing gender differences across the entire sample, PIA was higher in women than men for both years (p < 0.001). Greece and Luxemburg did not release national plans for promoting physical activity. Conclusions: While large differences in PIA prevalence between EU countries prevailed, the overall PIA descended between both years for the whole sample, men, and women. While this points out a general suitability of policymaking for reducing PIA, not all countries reported reductions in PIA for men, women, or both genders. Also, PIA levels were higher for women in both years, suggesting a less than optimal policy implementation, or lack of women-specific focus across the EU. This analysis helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses of PIA policymaking in the EU and provides researchers with targeted intervention areas for future development

Changes in sedentary behaviour in European Union adults between 2002 and 2017

Abstract: Background: Sedentary behaviour (SB) has been identified as an important mortality risk factor. Health organizations have recognised SB as a public health challenge with major health, social, and economic consequences. Researchers have alerted the need to develop specific strategies, to monitor, prevent, and reduce SB. However, there is no systematic analysis of the SB changes in European Union adults. We aimed to examine SB changes between 2002 and 2017 in the European Union (EU) adult population. Methods: SB prevalence (>4h30mins of sitting time/day) of 96,004 adults as a whole sample and country-by-country was analysed in 2002, 2005, 2013, and 2017 of the Sport and Physical Activity EU Special Eurobarometers’ data. The SB question of a modified version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire was considered. SB prevalence between countries and within years was analysed with a χ2 test, and SB between genders was analysed with the Z-Score test for two population proportions. Results: An association between the SB prevalence and the years was found (p < 0.001), with increases for the whole sample (2002: 49.3%, 48.5–50.0 95% confidence interval (CI); 2017: 54.5%, 53.9–55.0 95% CI) and men (2002: 51.2%, 50.0–52.4 95% CI; 2017: 55.8%, 55.0–56.7 95% CI) and women (2002: 47.6%, 46.6–48.7 95% CI; 2017: 53.4%, 52.6–54.1 95% CI) separately. The adjusted standardised residuals showed an increase in the observed prevalence versus the expected during 2013 and 2017 for the whole sample and women and during 2017 for men. For all years, differences were observed in the SB prevalence between countries for the whole sample, and men and women separately (p < 0.001). Besides, the SB prevalence was always higher in men versus women in the overall EU sample (p < 0.001). Conclusions: SB prevalence increased between 2002 and 2017 for the EU as a whole and for both sexes separately. Additionally, differences in SB prevalence were observed for all years between EU countries in the whole sample and both sexes separately. Lastly, SB was consistently higher in men than women. These findings reveal a limited impact of current policies and interventions to tackle SB at the EU population level

Enhancing physical activity coaching through personalized motivational strategies and self-adaptive goal-setting: development of self-adaptive processes in a monitoring and coaching smartphone application

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia BiomédicaThe rising age of the European population brings increased costs in healthcare mainly related to the management of chronic diseases. Regular physical activity has been shown to help in the prevention and control of disease risk. Mobile phones have provided promising and emergent ways of promoting healthy lifestyles, allowing real-time monitoring and coaching to be delivered at any time and any place. The presented work adds new features to the Activity Coach, an ambulatory feedback system that aims to encourage physical activity. The Integral of the Modulus of Body Acceleration (IMA) is the unit used as an estimate for energy expenditure. Although previous research demonstrated the potential of this system, results also showed that adherence drops after a few weeks. The primary goal of this research was to design, implement, and test adaptive goal-setting and personalized feedback strategies in order to encourage physical activity. Regarding the self-adaptive goal-setting feature, the goal for each day is defined automatically based on the physical activity performed at that day of the week since the beginning of the intervention. Hence, the intention is to help the user to increase or maintain his level of physical activity taking his daily routine as a reference. The second element added to the system regards motivational feedback messages, a key factor in interventions aiming at behavior change. Based on the levels of self-efficacy, stage-of-change, and daily activity, the user is assigned to one of the six pre-defined feedback strategies in the system. The content of the motivational cues depends on the selected feedback strategy. The evaluation of the system focused on providing better understandable and more accurate feedback to the user. To do so, we evaluated the challenge and attainability of the goals provided to the user with (1) data acquired during previous studies, and (2) newly gathered data from a single-subject study. As part of the evaluation, we translated IMA counts into ‘steps’, a commonly understandable measure for physical activity, comparing the data acquired from the Activity Coach sensor with a Fitbit, a commercially available pedometer. Although further tests with more subjects and different activities should be performed, we suggest that the default values set to the system are in agreement with the Goal-Setting Theory providing challenging and attainable goals. The results from this research will be used in future experiments using the Activity Coach and can be adapted to other ambulatory feedback systems regarding promotion of physical activity

City, unexpressed spaces, sport. Resilience in the design of new public spaces.

The city evolves and overwrites itself and this overwriting creates an overlap of the various plots that bring out unplanned parts of it. The contemporary city is therefore the result of design and incidental actions that have radically transformed it, leaving around it a “kind of space” of difficult interpretation because of the peculiarity that characterizes them. They are ambiguous, undetermined spaces, often resulting from the informal action of man or the result of stratifications within the urban dimension. This type of space is called “interstitial” because it is located between things. They can be elements in urban spaces, entire buildings, or only portions within their sphere. The aim of the present text is on the one hand to construct a definition of what an interstitial space is inside the contemporary city. On the other hand, thanks to the help of case studies, we can understand the most suitable functions for the reactivation and enhancement of these areas in the city. The need to reactivate existing city spaces has increased following the climate crisis and pandemic. It’s appropriate to recognize the empty spaces of the city as a “new opportunities” ready to host new functions. Therefore, flexible strategies of action are necessary, which find in the void space of primary importance to realize adaptive devices capable of increasing “urban resilience” and that act as relief valves during extraordinary events. The picture that emerges from studies and research related to the European and Italian panorama of sports infrastructure allows us to identify interesting and innovative trends that show, also in this sector, an increasing attention to issues of urban resilience, architectural and social. Based on this premise, the contribution aims to analyze the recent evolution of public space design modalities in sports practices as a field where resilience policies are applied

Exploring the interplay between physical activity levels, motor performance and BMI in children and adolescents: insights from the motor abilities observatory in Puglia

Sedentary habits stand out as primary contributors to the decline in physical activity levels and motor performance during childhood. Physical activity (PA) promotes the development of motor abilities, the acquisition of motor competencies, and provides preventative and protective effects against various non communicable diseases. Alarmingly, children and adolescents in Italy are falling short of complying with the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations for daily physical activity essential for promoting optimal health. This study aimed to assess and compare the physical activity levels and motor performance of a cohort comprising 313 children (M, age: 9.43 ± 0.79 years; F, age: 9.48 ± 0.60 years) and 313 adolescents (M, age: 11.89 ± 0.90 years; F, age: 11.86 ± 0.84 years). The participants were divided into subgroups based on variations in Body Mass Index (BMI). Utilizing a self-report tool (PAQ_C) and two motor tests, our aim was to evaluate the trends in physical activity and motor capabilities. The findings confirmed a significant decline in physical activity levels from childhood to adolescence, coupled with suboptimal motor performance in overweight and obese students. This article presents the initial outcomes of a regional investigation into the assessment of physical activity levels and motor abilities concerning gender and BMI variations among primary and middle school students in Puglia. The identified reduction in physical activity underscores the urgency for inter-institutional initiatives and multicomponent projects. These initiatives should emphasize the pivotal role of relationships between family, school, and sports in addressing and mitigating the alarming decline in physical activity levels among the youth

Valores de referencia y puntos de corte de leptina para identificar anormalidad cardiometabólica en la población española

Antecedentes y objetivo: Estimar los valores de referencia de leptina y calcular los puntos de corte de leptinemia que identifiquen anormalidad cardiometabólica en España. Métodos: Estudio transversal realizado de 2008 a 2010 sobre 11.540 individuos representativos de la población española ≥ 18 años. La información se obtuvo mediante examen físico estandarizado y las analíticas se realizaron en un laboratorio central. La leptinemia se midió por inmunoensayo enzimático. Se definió anormalidad cardiometabólica como la presencia de ≥ 2 de las siguientes anormalidades: presión arterial elevada; triglicéridos elevados; colesterol unido a lipoproteínas de alta densidad bajo; valores altos de resistencia a insulina según homeostasis model assessment; proteína C reactiva y glucosa elevada. Resultados: Los niveles de leptina fueron mayores en mujeres que en varones (media geométrica 21,9 ng/ml y 6,6 ng/ml, respectivamente, p<0.001) y aumentaban con la edad y el índice de masa corporal (p<0,001). La mediana fue 24,5 ng/ml en mujeres (rango intercuartílico P25-P75: 14,1-37,0) y 7,2 ng/ml en varones (P25-P75: 3,3-14,3). La leptinemia fue mayor en sujetos con obesidad general o abdominal, diabetes, hipertensión o síndrome metabólico (p<0.001 en todos los casos). Los valores de leptinemia que identificaron anormalidad cardiometabólica fueron 23,75 ng/ml en mujeres (área bajo la curva 0,722, 72,3% sensibilidad y 58,7% especificidad), y 6,45 ng/ml en varones (área bajo la curva 0,716, 71,4% sensibilidad y 60,2% especificidad). Conclusiones: Estos resultados facilitan la interpretación de los valores de leptinemia en estudios clínicos y poblacionales. La leptina tiene sensibilidad y especificidad moderadas para identificar anormalidad cardiometabólica en ambos sexosLos datos de este análisis proceden del estudio ENRICA, que fue financiado por Sanofi-Aventis. La financiación específica para este análisis procede de los proyectos FIS PI13/02321 y “Cátedra UAM de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular”, Madri

O zdrowiu dzieci i młodzieży

Przy realizacji zadań związanych z edukacją prozdrowotną dzieci i młodzieży konieczna jest współpraca wielu środowisk tworzących przestrzeń dydaktyczną ucznia oraz zintegrowany i możliwie spójny zakresie form i treści program edukacyjny. Program ten – zdaniem autorów artykułu- powinien uwzględniać różne aspekty rozumienia zdrowia, powinien charakteryzować różne czynniki warunkujące zdrowie, powinien akcentować znaczenie zdrowego stylu życia, rolę nawyków żywieniowych, higieny życia codziennego, aktywności ruchowej, zagrożeń chorobowych, głównie wypadków w szkole, znaczenie niektórych nałogów, rolę i sposoby dbania o zdrowie psychiczne.When implementing tasks related to the health educa-tion of children and youth, it is necessary for the various groups creating the student’s didactic space to cooperate. There is also a need for an integrated and possibly formally coherent curriculum. Such a curriculum – according to the authors of this article – should take into account various aspects of understanding health; it should characterise different factors conditioning health; it should place emphasis on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, the role of eating habits, everyday hygiene, physical activity, health risks, mainly accidents at school, as well as the impact of some types of addiction and the role and ways of maintaining mental health