The influence of dog ownership on objective measures of free-living physical activity and sedentary behaviour in community-dwelling older adults : a longitudinal case-controlled study

Background: There is some evidence to suggest that dog ownership may improve physical activity (PA) among older adults, but to date, studies examining this, have either depended on self-report or incomplete datasets due to the type of activity monitor used to record physical activity. Additionally, the effect of dog ownership on sedentary behaviour (SB) has not been explored. The aim of the current study was to address these issues by using activPAL monitors to evaluate the influence of dog ownership on health enhancing PA and SB in a longitudinal study of independently-mobile, community-dwelling older adults. Methods: Study participants (43 pairs of dog owners and non-dog owners, matched on a range of demographic variables) wore an activPAL monitor continuously for three, one-week data collection periods over the course of a year. Participants also reported information about their own and their dog demographics, caring responsibilities, and completed a diary of wake times. Diary data was used to isolate waking times, and outcome measures of time spent walking, time spent walking at a moderate cadence (>100 steps/min), time spent standing, time spent sitting, number of sitting events (continuous periods of sitting), and the number of and of time spent sitting in prolonged events (>30 min). For each measure, a linear mixed effects model with dog ownership as a fixed effect, and a random effects structure of measurement point nested in participant nested in pair was used to assess the effect of dog ownership. Results: Owning a dog indicated a large, potentially health improving, average effect of 22 min additional time spent walking, 95%CI (12, 34), and 2760 additional steps per day, 95%CI (1667, 3991), with this additional walking undertaken at a moderate intensity cadence. Dog owners had significantly fewer sitting events. However, there were no significant differences between the groups for either the total time spent sitting, or the number or duration of prolonged sedentary events. Conclusions: The scale of the influence of dog ownership on PA found in this study, indicates that future research regarding PA in older adults should assess and report dog ownership and/or dog walking statu

Integrating patients with intermittent claudication into an established cardiac rehabilitation programme: a feasibility study with embedded pilot

The Excel spreadsheet contains the raw data for the research project “Integrating patients with intermittent claudication into an established cardiac rehabilitation programme: a feasibility study with embedded pilot.”This study aimed to assess the feasibility of integrating patients with intermittent claudication (IC) into an established Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme (CRP), and to evaluate trial procedures, and to collect pilot data to guide the methodology for a future randomised control trial (RCT).A prospective, non-randomised controlled trial was conducted using two NHS hospitals. Feasibility was evaluated using a mixed methods approach, with quantitative measures including eligibility, consent, adherence, and adverse event rates, and qualitative interviews and focus groups assessed the acceptability among patients and service providers. Descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.People with symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD) were considered for inclusion if they were aged 18 or over, diagnosed with PAD within the past 12 months, and had not had previous treatment for PAD. People with coronary artery disease (CAD) were considered for inclusion if they were aged 18 or over, diagnosed with CAD in the past 12 months, and had no previous diagnosis of PAD. Of eligible IC patients referred to the integrated CRP, 24% (n=17) consented to participate in the trial. A total of 10 IC and CAD patients from the integrated CRP, and 10 CRP staff members took part in the qualitative component of the study.Participants diagnosed with PAD were referred to either an IC only rehabilitation programme or a novel integrated cardiovascular rehabilitation programme (CRP). Both programmes consisted of once-a-week session for twelve weeks incorporating exercise and educations.The spreadsheet includes (on separate tabs):Participant demographicsParticipant anthropometricsParticipant activity dataExercise test resultsQuality of life questionnairesThere is a separate Word document which provides an overview of the individual tabs and details about abbreviations used.This project did not recieve any funding and was part of a Professional Doctorate.</p

Measuring postural physical activity in people with chronic low back pain

&lt;p&gt;Background: The objective measurement of free-living physical activity may facilitate the rehabilitation of people with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Objective: This study was designed to investigate the validity of a novel monitor which purports to measure physical activity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods: Ten participants with CLBP (9 female, 1 male; age 51 ± 10 years; BMI 27 ± 5 kg.m^{-2}) wearing an activPAL™ activity monitor, were videoed performing a range of everyday tasks in a semi-constrained environment. From the video recordings the activity involved in the tasks was visually classified (criterion method) into four postures: lying/sitting; upright (standing and walking); standing; and walking. This provided a second-by-second recording of movement and posture. Observational data were compared to the activity monitor output for the same four postures. The accuracy of the monitor in measuring step count and cadence was also compared to visual observation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results: Overall agreement between the monitor and observation was 97%, with overall sensitivity and positive predictive values ranging from 92% to 99%. The 95% limits of agreement for step count and cadence was &#60;1%.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusion: The activPAL™ activity monitor is a valid device for measuring postural physical activity, step count and cadence in people with CLBP in a semi-constrained environment.&lt;/p&gt

Step accumulation per minute epoch is not the same as cadence for free-living adults

Purpose: The term cadence has been used interchangeably to describe both the rate of stepping and the number of steps in a minute epoch. This is only strictly true if walking is continuous within that epoch. This study directly compared these two outcomes in minute epochs of data from free-living adults to assess the scale of any difference between them.Methods: A convenience sample of healthy adults wore an activPAL activity monitor for seven days. The event record output of the activPAL, providing the start time and duration of each stride to the nearest 0.1s, was used to calculate step accumulation (number of steps), duration of walking and cadence (number of steps/ duration of walking) for each minute of measurement.Results: Data from 117 individuals (78 female, mean age 46±16 years, mean BMI 24.9±3.7 kg·m) were analysed. Twenty-one percent of minutes (n=310/day) contained walking. The distribution (most minutes less than 40 steps/min) and mean (34±9 steps/min) of step accumulation, was very different from that of cadence (most minutes between 60-100 steps/min, mean 76±6 steps/min). Only 12% of minutes with stepping were walked continuously, while 69% of minutes with stepping contained less than 30s of walking. This is key to the difference between step accumulation and cadence, and means that cadence cannot be reconstructed from step accumulation without also knowing the duration that was walked.Conclusion: Step accumulation, the number of steps in a fixed period of time, and cadence, the rate of stepping whilst walking, are not interchangeable outcome measures. It is vitally important that unambiguous terminology is used to describe the rate of stepping so that the outcomes of studies can be correctly interpreted