Low back pain in junior Australian Rules football: a cross-sectional survey of elite juniors, non-elite juniors and non-football playing controls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Low back pain in junior Australian Rules footballers has not been investigated despite findings that back pain is more prevalent, severe and frequent in senior footballers than non-athletic controls and findings that adolescent back pain is a strong predictor for adult back pain. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, intensity, quality and frequency of low back pain in junior Australian Rules footballers and a control group and to compare this data between groups.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional survey of male non-elite junior (n = 60) and elite junior players (n = 102) was conducted along with a convenience sample of non-footballers (school children) (n = 100). Subjects completed a self-reported questionnaire on low back pain incorporating the Quadruple Visual Analogue Scale and McGill Pain Questionnaire (short form), along with additional questions adapted from an Australian epidemiological study. Linear Mixed Model (Residual Maximum Likelihood) methods were used to compare differences between groups. Log-linear models were used in the analysis of contingency tables.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For current, average and best low back pain levels, elite junior players had higher pain levels (p < 0.001), with no difference noted between non-elite juniors and controls for average and best low back pain. For low back pain at worst, there were significant differences in the mean pain scores. The difference between elite juniors and non-elite juniors (p = 0.040) and between elite juniors and controls (p < 0.001) was significant, but not between non-elite juniors and controls. The chance of suffering low back pain increases from 45% for controls, through 55% for non-elite juniors to 66.7% for elite juniors. The chance that a pain sufferer experiences chronic pain is 16% for controls and 41% for non-elite junior and elite junior players. Elite junior players experienced low back pain more frequently (p = 0.002), with no difference in frequency noted between non-elite juniors and controls. Over 25% of elite junior and non-elite junior players reported that back pain impacted their performance some of the time or greater.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study demonstrated that when compared with non-elite junior players and non-footballers of a similar age, elite junior players experience back pain more severely and frequently and have higher prevalence and chronicity rates.</p

SARS-CoV-2 infections in migrants and the role of household overcrowding: a causal mediation analysis of Virus Watch data

BACKGROUND: Migrants are over-represented in SARS-CoV-2 infections globally; however, evidence is limited for migrants in England and Wales. Household overcrowding is a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection, with migrants more likely to live in overcrowded households than UK-born individuals. We aimed to estimate the total effect of migration status on SARS-CoV-2 infection and to what extent household overcrowding mediated this effect. METHODS: We included a subcohort of individuals from the Virus Watch prospective cohort study during the second SARS-CoV-2 wave (1 September 2020-30 April 2021) who were aged ≥18 years, self-reported the number of rooms in their household and had no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection pre-September 2020. We estimated total, indirect and direct effects using Buis' logistic decomposition regression controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, clinical vulnerability, occupation, income and whether they lived with children. RESULTS: In total, 23 478 individuals were included. 9.07% (187/2062) of migrants had evidence of infection during the study period vs 6.27% (1342/21 416) of UK-born individuals. Migrants had 22% higher odds of infection during the second wave (total effect; OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.47). Household overcrowding accounted for approximately 36% (95% CI -4% to 77%) of these increased odds (indirect effect, OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.12; proportion accounted for: indirect effect on log odds scale/total effect on log odds scale=0.36). CONCLUSION: Migrants had higher odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the second wave compared with UK-born individuals and household overcrowding explained 36% of these increased odds. Policy interventions to reduce household overcrowding for migrants are needed as part of efforts to tackle health inequalities during the pandemic and beyond

Low back pain status in elite and semi-elite Australian football codes: a cross-sectional survey of football (soccer), Australian rules, rugby league, rugby union and non-athletic controls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our understanding of the effects of football code participation on low back pain (LBP) is limited. It is unclear whether LBP is more prevalent in athletic populations or differs between levels of competition. Thus it was the aim of this study to document and compare the prevalence, intensity, quality and frequency of LBP between elite and semi-elite male Australian football code participants and a non-athletic group.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional survey of elite and semi-elite male Australian football code participants and a non-athletic group was performed. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire incorporating the Quadruple Visual Analogue Scale (QVAS) and McGill Pain Questionnaire (short form) (MPQ-SF), along with additional questions adapted from an Australian epidemiological study. Respondents were 271 elite players (mean age 23.3, range 17–39), 360 semi-elite players (mean age 23.8, range 16–46) and 148 non-athletic controls (mean age 23.9, range 18–39).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Groups were matched for age (p = 0.42) and experienced the same age of first onset LBP (p = 0.40). A significant linear increase in LBP from the non-athletic group, to the semi-elite and elite groups for the QVAS and the MPQ-SF was evident (p < 0.001). Elite subjects were more likely to experience more frequent (daily or weekly OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.29–2.42) and severe LBP (discomforting and greater OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.29–2.38).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Foolers in Australia have significantly more severe and frequent LBP than a non-athletic group and this escalates with level of competition.</p

Re/configuring possible selves and broadening future horizons: the experiences of working-class British Asian women navigating higher education

Improving ‘‘non-traditional’’ students’ access to higher education has been an aim of United Kingdom (UK) governments since 1997. However, less is known about what enables ‘non-traditional’ British Asian female students to consider different career options on completion of their studies, and if/how their degree course has enabled them to reconfigure their possible future professional selves. In this paper, we draw on interviews to examine the experiences of working-class British Asian women undertaking an undergraduate degree in Greater London. We highlight the support provided by the participants’ families to enable their aspirations for higher education. We also examine the importance of work placements in enabling a reimagination of their future possible professional selves. Our data lead us to argue that reconfiguring did occur, and work placements and the confidence gained through placements enabled our participants to construct professional future selves that would otherwise be unthinkable

From PhD to ECR: Supervisory relationships, precarity and the temporal regimes of academia

The expansion of higher education in the United Kingdom (UK), the multiplication of doctoral routes  and  the  increased  precarity  of  academic  jobs  (Leathwood &Read  2020)  have  been associated  with  more  uncertainties  regarding  the  transition  taken  to  a  permanent  academic position  (Le  Feuvre  2015).  This  paper  seeks  to  examine  and  problematise  the  structures  and practices recent PhD graduates from UK universities face as they navigate the transition to their first  post-PhD  position  in  higher  education  contexts  characterised  by  temporal  regimes  which regulate  access  to  an  academic  position.  The  data  informing  this  paper  are  derived  from  our projectstudying the transition from PhD to academic position (Precarious transitions? Doctoral students negotiating  the shift  to academic positions, funded by British Academy-Leverhulme, 2020–2022). Particular attention is drawn to the role of supervisors as gatekeepers, able to give and withdraw opportunities to their doctoral students with significant consequences for career prospects. The concepts of mentorship and sponsorship are used to make sense of the different support  received  by  doctoral  students.  We  argue  that  practices of  mentoring  and,  to  an  even greater extent, sponsoring, ease the transition from doctoral research to early career academics, with patterns of supervisory support legitimised through the mobilisation of narratives such as elective affinities or talent spotting.</p

Policy discourses in school texts

In this paper, we focus on some of the ways in which schools are both productive of and constituted by sets of 'discursive practices, events and texts' that contribute to the process of policy enactment. As Colebatch (2002: 2) says, 'policy involves the creation of order - that is, shared understandings about how the various participants will act in particular circumstances'. In schools, part of the 'creation of order' takes place around the production and circulation of signs, signifiers and policy symbols. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, this paper details and describes some of the discursive artefacts and activities that reflect, and 'carry' within them, some of the key policy discourses that are currently in circulation in English secondary schools. Most policy analysis omits the artefactual and in documenting and theorising policy enactment this paper begins to consider the role that artefacts play in this process. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Children and young people's perspectives on and experiences of COVID-19 in global contexts

This special issue was proposed by Children & Society editors specifically for the journal's strategic aims to enhance its internationalisation; and to embrace children's perspectives and experiences in producing knowledge about childhoods in challenging times and underrepresented contexts (Berriman et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic is such an ongoing challenge and has profoundly affected the daily lives of children around the globe (Cowie & Myers, 2021). Lockdowns, social distancing, and quarantine increase children's anxiety and stress and reduce access to vital family members, friends, and care services. The COVID-19 pandemic re-sets the boundaries and spaces of formal education, by bringing it directly into homes across the globe and shifting the family involvement in children's education and care. In addition to social, developmental and mental health issues caused to children due to lockdowns and constraints with learning (Cowie & Myers, 2021), there is a high proportion of children worldwide who live in difficult circumstances and experience issues such as poverty, lack of food, water, sanitation or hygiene, domestic violence and abuse, special needs, conflicts and those who are refugees and migrants (UNICEF, 2020). They may have already been in those disadvantaged situations, and the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately has worsened the circumstances for them

Policy subjects and policy actors in schools: some necessary but insufficient analyses

This paper explores two different ontological positions from which policy in schools and teachers can be viewed. On the one hand, it explores the ways in which policies make up and make possible particular sorts of teacher subjects - as producers and consumers of policy, as readers and writers of policy. On the other, it begins to conceptualise the hermeneutics of policy, that is the ways in which policies in schools are subject to complex processes of interpretation and translation. We suggest that both views are necessary to understand the work of policy and 'policy work' in schools but that neither view is sufficient on its own. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

Me, my child and Covid-19: Parents’ reflections on their child’s experiences of lockdown in the UK and China

Over the past two years, the world has been living through the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. Children have had to adapt to online classrooms and lessons of some sort, and many parents have been forced to work from home whilst supervising their child’s home learning activities. We used participatory visual methods to understand how children and their parents have coped during this time, engaging parents as co-researchers to ask their child to photograph and/or draw pictures that represent their daily lived experiences over the lockdown period. We then asked parents to interview their children (24 in total, 13 in the UK and 11 in China) using children’s artwork as prompts, and finally we interviewed parents. Through the data collection process, parents captured their children’s experiences and feelings since the coronavirus struck. The data was analysed using Foucault’s theory of discourse to provide unique and comparative insights into children’s experiences in the UK and China during this exceptional time. Ours is the first study to integrate parents’ and children’s views of Covid-19, drawing on parents as co-researchers. We argue here that the combination of the data collection methods used and drawing on parents as co-researchers enabled parents to gain insights into an understanding of their child’s lived experiences throughout the pandemic that might otherwise have been unknown. These insights were often unexpected for parents, and have been grouped around themes of parental relief, anxiety and understanding