Physical activity and sedentary behaviour counselling: Attitudes and practices of mental health professionals

Despite recent interest in the mental health benefits of increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behaviour (SB), little is known about PA and SB counselling provided by mental health professionals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the attitudes and practices of mental health professionals in recommending more PA and less SB to their clients. Quantitative data were collected using a modified version of the Exercise in Mental Illness Questionnaire in a sample of 17 Australian mental health professionals. The collected data were reported using percentages (for categorical data) and means and standard deviations (for numerical data). Additionally, in focus group discussions, 10 mental health professionals provided in-depth information about their clinical practice, facilitators, and perceived barriers in recommending more PA and less SB. They also provided suggestions on how to potentially improve their PA and SB counselling practices. The focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.Only 35.3% of participants have undergone formal training in recommending PA in the treatment of mental illness. Most participants (64.7%) ranked PA counselling among the top three types of mental health treatment. All participants reported recommending PA to their clients at least "occasionally", while 88% of them also provided SB counselling. However, the recommendations provided were usually not specific. The most commonly reported barriers for providing PA and SB counselling were a lack of knowledge and confidence. Participants also believed that, if they were more active themselves, they would be in a better position to recommend PA to their clients, by sharing their own experience of evidence-informed strategies designed to increase PA and reduce SB. The findings of this study indicate that mental health professionals commonly provide generic PA and SB counselling to their clients. PA and SB counselling in the mental health setting could be improved by: including training on PA and SB counselling in formal education and continued professional training for mental health professionals; implementing interventions to increase PA and reduce SB among mental health professionals themselves; and ensuring support from an exercise or PA promotion specialist as a part of a multi-disciplinary approach to mental health care

Health benefits of different sports:A systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal and intervention studies Including 2.6 million adult participants

Background Several reviews have examined the health benefits of participation in specific sports, such as baseball,cricket, cross-country skiing, cycling, downhill skiing, football, golf, judo, rugby, running and swimming. However, newprimary studies on the topic have recently been published, and the respective meta-analytic evidence needs to beupdated.Objectives To systematically review, summarise and appraise evidence on physical health benefits of participationin different recreational sports.Methods Searches for journal articles were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, SpoLit, SPORTDiscus, SportsMedicine & Education Index and Web of Science. We included longitudinal and intervention studies investigatingphysical health outcomes associated with participation in a given sport among generally healthy adultswithout disability.Results A total of 136 papers from 76 studies conducted among 2.6 million participants were included in the review.Our meta-analyses of available evidence found that: (1) cycling reduces the risk of coronary heart disease by 16%(pooled hazard ratio [HR] = 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.80, 0.89), all-cause mortality by 21% (HR = 0.79; 95% CI:0.73, 0.84), cancer mortality by 10% (HR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.85, 0.96) and cardiovascular mortality by 20% (HR = 0.80; 95%CI: 0.74, 0.86); (2) football has favourable effects on body composition, blood lipids, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure,cardiovascular function at rest, cardiorespiratory fitness and bone strength (p < 0.050); (3) handball has favourableeffects on body composition and cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.050); (4) running reduces the risk of all-causemortality by 23% (HR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.85), cancer mortality by 20% (HR = 0.80; 95% CI: 0.72, 0.89) and cardiovascularmortality by 27% (HR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.94) and improves body composition, cardiovascular function at restand cardiorespiratory fitness (p < 0.010); and (5) swimming reduces the risk of all-cause mortality by 24% (HR = 0.76;95% CI: 0.63, 0.92) and improves body composition and blood lipids (p < 0.010).ConclusionsA range of physical health benefits are associated with participation in recreational cycling, football, handball, running and swimming. More studies are needed to enable meta-analyses of health benefits of participation in other sports.PROSPERO registration number CRD42021234839

Levels and correlates of domain-specific physical activity in university students: cross-sectional findings from Croatia | [Razina i korelati tjelesne aktivnosti u razliĉitim domenama kod studenata: Rezultati transverzalnog istraẑivanja iz Hrvatske]

This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine domain-specific physical activity (PA) levels and their relationship with self-rated health, socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics among Croatian university students. The data were collected using self-administered questionnaires on a random sample of 1,254 students (62.4% females) living in university residence halls in Zagreb, Croatia. PA levels were assessed by using the long version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), with additional questions asked on gender, age, current year of study, personal monthly budget, community size, smoking status, alcohol intake, body mass index, and self-rated health. The prevalence of insufficient PA was 28.4% (95% CI, 25.1–31.7) and 28.8% (95% CI, 24.6–33.1) among female and male students, respectively. No significant difference was found between genders (p=.867). Male students were significantly more active in the leisure-time domain, while female students reported significantly higher domestic PA (p<.001). A multiple regression analysis showed that leisure-time PA is negatively associated with smoking (partial correlation [rXY∙Z]=-.07; p=.028), and positively associated with male gender (rXY∙Z=.06; p=.040), year of study (rXY∙Z=.09; p=.003), size of community (rXY∙Z=.08; p=.010), and self-rated health (rXY∙Z=.13; p<.001) (multiple R=.23; p<.001). In conclusion, low levels of PA are prevalent among Croatian university students, which indicates a need for PA promotion efforts among this population. Future interventions should especially target females, earlier years of study, students from smaller communities, smokers, and students reporting poorer general health status

Improving Practices of Mental Health Professionals in Recommending More Physical Activity and Less Sedentary Behaviour to Their Clients: An Intervention Trial

We investigated the effects of increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behaviour (SB) of mental health professionals on their attitudes towards and practices in recommending more PA and less SB to their clients. A 4-week pre-post intervention trial was conducted involving 17 mental health professionals. The participants who increased their own physical activity during the intervention increased the frequency of recommending more PA (p = 0.009) and less SB (p = 0.005) to their clients. A relatively simple, low-cost intervention, consisting of group behaviour change counselling, goal setting and positive feedback, may improve the practices of mental health professionals