Accelerometry cut points for physical activity in underserved African Americans

Background: Despite their increased use, no studies have examined the validity of Actical accelerometry cut points for moderate physical activity (PA) in underserved (low-income, high-crime), minority populations. The high rates of chronic disease and physical inactivity in these populations likely impact the measurement of PA. There is growing concern that traditionally defined cut points may be too high for older or inactive adults. The present study aimed to determine the self-selected pace associated with instructions to walk for exercise and the corresponding accelerometry estimates (e.g. Actical counts/minute) for underserved, African American adults. Method: Fifty one participants (61% women) had a mean age of 60.1 (SD=9.9) and a mean body mass index of 30.5 kg/m2 (SD=60). They performed one seated task, on standing task, and three walking tasks: strolling ; walking for exercise ; and walking in an emergency. Results: The average pace for strolling, walking for exercise, and walking in an emergency were 1.62 miles per hour (mph; SD=.51), 2.51 mph (SD=.53), and 2.86 mph (SD=.58), respectively. Regression analyses showed that the predicted counts/minute for a pace of 2.0 mph (which is used as the criterion for moderate exercise in this study) was 1075 counts/minute (SEM=73). Conclusions: The cut point associated with subjectively determined moderate PA is similar to those previously published for older adults and extends to the use of adjusted cut points to African American populations. These results indicate that accurate cut points can be obtained using this innovative methodology

Validity of the WHO cutoffs for biologically implausible values of weight, height, and BMI in children and adolescents in NHANES from 1999 through 2012

The WHO cutoffs to classify biologically implausible values (BIVs) for weight, height, and weight-for-height in children and adolescents are widely used in data cleaning

Results of the Active by Choice Today (ACT) Randomized Trial for Increasing Physical Activity in Low-Income and Minority Adolescents

Objective - This study reports the results of the Active by Choice Today (ACT) trial for increasing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in low-income and minority adolescents. Design - The ACT program was a randomized controlled school-based trial testing the efficacy of a motivational plus behavioral skills intervention on increasing MVPA in underserved adolescents. Twenty-four middle schools were matched on school size, percentage minorities, percentage free or reduced lunch, and urban or rural setting before randomization. A total of 1,563 6th grade students (mean age, 11.3 years, 73% African American, 71% free or reduced lunch, 55% female) participated in either a 17-week (over one academic year) intervention or comparison after-school program. Main Outcome Measure - The primary outcome measure was MVPA based on 7-day accelerometry estimates at 2-weeks postintervention and an intermediate outcome was MVPA at midintervention. Results - At midintervention students in the intervention condition engaged in 4.87 greater minutes of MVPA per day (95% CI: 1.18 to 8.57) than control students. Students in intervention schools engaged in 9.11 min (95% CI: 5.73 to 12.48) more of MVPA per day than those in control schools during the program time periods; indicating a 27 min per week increase in MVPA. No significant effect of the ACT intervention was found outside of school times or for MVPA at 2-weeks postintervention. Conclusions - Motivational and behavioral skills programs are effective at increasing MVPA in low-income and minority adolescents during program hours, but further research is needed to address home barriers to youth MVPA

The Association of Self-Efficacy and Parent Social Support on Physical Activity in Male and Female Adolescents

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown that cognitive factors may account for the relationship between interpersonal factors and health behaviors. Given these findings, the current study sought to further explore the direct and indirect relationship between parental social support and adolescent physical activity (PA). METHOD: Data were collected from 1,421 sixth graders (73% African American, 54% females, 71% on free or reduced lunch) in South Carolina. Measures for emotional social support, instrumental social support, and adolescent self-efficacy (SE) were assessed and PA was assessed via accelerometry. RESULTS: Parent instrumental social support was directly related to girls’ PA and parent emotional social support was inversely related to girls’ PA. Parent instrumental social support was indirectly related to boys’ PA through boys’ SE. The covaried association of SE with PA was significant for boys and marginal for girls. CONCLUSIONS: SE for overcoming barriers may be an important construct for understanding the relationship between parent instrumental social support and boys’ PA in underserved populations. The mechanisms for engaging in PA may be different for adolescent girls and boys

Accelerometry cut points for physical activity in underserved African Americans

Abstract Background Despite their increased use, no studies have examined the validity of Actical accelerometry cut points for moderate physical activity (PA) in underserved (low-income, high-crime), minority populations. The high rates of chronic disease and physical inactivity in these populations likely impact the measurement of PA. There is growing concern that traditionally defined cut points may be too high for older or inactive adults. The present study aimed to determine the self-selected pace associated with instructions to “walk for exercise” and the corresponding accelerometry estimates (e.g., Actical counts/minute) for underserved, African American adults. Method Fifty one participants (61% women) had a mean age of 60.1 (SD = 9.9) and a mean body mass index of 30.5 kg/m2 (SD = 6.0). They performed one seated task, one standing task, and three walking tasks: “strolling”; “walking for exercise”; and “walking in an emergency.” Results The average pace for strolling, walking for exercise, and walking in an emergency were 1.62 miles per hour (mph; SD = .51), 2.51 mph (SD = .53), and 2.86 mph (SD = .58), respectively. The average Actical counts/minute for the five activities were: 4 (SD = 15), 16 (SD = 29), 751 (SD = 591), 2006 (SD = 1095), and 2617 (SD = 1169), respectively. Regression analyses showed that the predicted counts/minute for a pace of 2.0 mph (which is used as the criterion for moderate exercise in this study) was 1075 counts/minute (SEM = 73). Conclusions The cut point associated with subjectively determined moderate PA is similar to those previously published for older adults and extends the use of adjusted cut points to African American populations. These results indicate that accurate cut points can be obtained using this innovative methodology.</p

Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long-Term Recall in Toddlers: Distractions and Recall

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants’ abilities to encode and retain information over a 6‐month period. Sixty‐six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional‐ relation and enabling‐relation action sequences. Half the children were distracted by a “Mister Monkey” mechanical toy during the conventional‐relation sequence, while the other half was distracted during the enabling‐relation sequence. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire indexed endogenous factors at both ages. Immediate postmodel production of target actions indexed encoding efficiency, and 6‐month production of target actions indexed long‐term recall. The exogenous distracter impacted encoding efficiency (i.e., immediate recall), but not long‐term recall. Endogenous factors (i.e., temperament) were primarily associated with long‐term recall. Of special interest was our finding that endogenous factors, especially surgency, moderated the effect of the exogenous distracter. It appears that when learning conventional‐relation sequences in the presence of exogenous distracters, surgency mobilizes attentional resources toward the learning objective; however, when learning enabling‐relation sequences under the same conditions, surgency either boosts the saliency of the distracters or boosts children’s susceptibility to them