Shintaido in the elderly: the new way for physical and psychological health

The research aims to investigate the effects of a Shintaido practice in terms of physical and psychological functioning in a group of elderly. Forty seniors, of both gender, with a mean age of (69 ± 6) years, self-sufficient and without highly invalidating diseases participated in the study. The experimental group (EG) attended the Shintaido physical training of 20 weeks (1 hour per session, twice a week), while the control group (CG) maintained his usual routine. The exercise protocol included specific activities of joint mobility, balance and breathing. At the begin and at the end of intervention were administered to both groups the following validated instruments: 1) One-leg Stance test for the measure of monopodalic static balance; 2) 6-Minutes Walking test for the endurance assessment; 3) Self-Efficacy Perception in Physical Activity (APEF) questionnaire for the selfefficacy evaluation. Data were treated with the not-parametric test for paired and unpaired samples, the Spearman correlation and the linear regression. The results show that: 1) the EG improves the endurance in walking and the monopodalic balance as well as his self-efficacy after the Shintaido program; 2) there are strong associations among Shintaido physical activity and physical/psychological variables; 3) there is a mediating effect of walking endurance between the participation to Shintaido training and the self-efficacy. The results suggest that a well structured Shintaido training can help to maintain a good level of physical and psychological functioning in old people

Relation among perceived weight change, sedentary activities and sleep quality during covid-19 lockdown: A study in an academic community in Northern Italy

In Italy, COVID-19 lockdown was imposed from 8 March until 3 May 2020 with negative consequences on the lifestyles and health of people. Within this context, the paper aims: (i) to analyse the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on perceived weight changes; (ii) to evaluate factors associated with the perception of weight changes (Body Mass Index (BMI), sleep quality, time spent in sedentary activities), in an Italian academic community of students and workers. A total of 3666 participants took part in this cross-sectional study (2838 students and 828 workers, of whom 73.0% were female). T-test, Chi-square test and the two-way ANOVA were used. Results showed that 43.3% of participants perceived a weight gain. Workers experienced a more substantial increase in body weight (0.7 kg) compared to students (0.3 kg; p = 0.013). A significant difference between preobese/obese workers (0.9 kg) and students (−0.3 kg; p < 0.001) was found. Overall, 57.0% of the sample was characterized by high levels of sedentary activities. Sedentary people noticed a higher weight gain (0.4 kg) compared to less sedentary people (0.3 kg; p = 0.048). More than 45% of participants reported a worsening of sleep quality and showed a perceived increase in body weight (0.5 kg) in comparison to those who improved their sleep quality (no weight change; p = 0.001). Designing tailored interventions to promote health-related behaviours during lockdown periods is essential

he Cut-Off Value for Classifying Active Italian Children Using the Corresponding National Version of the Physical Activity Questionnaire

The present study aimed to determine a cut-off value following the filling in of a questionnaire (PAQ-C-It) to identify active Italian children. One-hundred-twenty-nine primary school children (5 Piedmont schools; 47.3% female; mean age = 10 ± 1 years) wore an accelerometer (Actigraph wGT3X-BT) to objectively quantify individual moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during one week. Afterwards, the PAQ-C-It was filled in by participants. A ROC curve procedure was applied to obtain an active/non-active cut-off point. Spearman's correlation coefficient was also applied to establish the relationship between the two parameters. According to the ROC analysis, the PAQ-C-It cut-off point value is identifiable at >2.75 to indicate active children (area under the curve = 0.62; standard error = 0.05; p = 0.025; coefficient intervals = 0.518-0.716; sensitivity = 0.592, specificity = 0.382), determining that 65 participants (55%) were non-active (mean PAQ-C-It value = 2.3 ± 0.4; active mean PAQ-C-It value = 3.3 ± 0.4). Spearman's correlation coefficient results were significant but with a small effect size (rho = 0.214; p = 0.008). In conclusion, the present results suggest that the PAQ-C-It can be cautiously used as tool to practically classify active Italian children because of a non-solid relationship between respective accelerometer data and MVPA daily data

Associations of frailty and psychosocial factors with autonomy in daily activities: a cross-sectional study in Italian community-dwelling older adults

Anna Mulasso,1 Mattia Roppolo,1,2 Fabrizia Giannotta,3 Emanuela Rabaglietti1 1Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy; 2Department of Developmental Psychology, Rijksuniversiteit of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 3Department of Psychology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden Abstract: Frailty has been recognized as a risk factor for geriatric adverse events. Little is known of the role of psychosocial factors associated with frailty in explaining negative outcomes of aging. This study was aimed at 1) evaluating the differences in psychosocial factors among robust, prefrail, and frail individuals and 2) investigating whether there was any interaction effect of frailty status with empirically identified clusters of psychosocial factors on autonomy in the activities of daily living (ADLs). Two-hundred and ten older adults (age 73±6 years, 66% women) were involved in this study. Frailty was assessed using an adapted version of the frailty phenotype. The psychosocial factors investigated were depressive symptoms using the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, social isolation using the Friendship Scale, and loneliness feeling using the eight-item UCLA Loneliness Scale. The autonomy in ADLs was measured with the Groningen Activity Restriction Scale. Thirty-one percent of participants were robust, 55% prefrail, and 14% frail. We performed an analysis of covariance which showed differences between robust, prefrail, and frail individuals for all the psychosocial variables: Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, F(2, 205)=18.48, P<0.001; Friendship Scale, F(2, 205)=4.59, P=0.011; UCLA Loneliness Scale, F(2, 205)=5.87, P=0.003, controlling for age and sex. Using the same covariates, the two-way analysis of covariance indicated an interaction effect of frailty with psychosocial factors in determining ADLs, F(4, 199)=3.53, P=0.008. This study demonstrates the close relationship between frailty and psychosocial factors, suggesting the need to take into account simultaneously physical and psychosocial components of human functioning. Keywords: functional decline, psychological resources, social resources, disability, interaction effec

A comparison between uni- and multidimensional frailty measures: prevalence, functional status, and relationships with disability

Mattia Roppolo,1,2 Anna Mulasso,1 Robbert J Gobbens,3,4 Cristina O Mosso,1 Emanuela Rabaglietti1 1Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Torino, Italy; 2Department of Developmental Psychology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 3Faculty of Health, Sports and Social Work, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 4Zonnehuisgroep Amstelland, Amstelveen, the Netherlands Background: Over the years, a plethora of frailty assessment tools has been developed. These instruments can be basically grouped into two types of conceptualizations – unidimensional, based on the physical–biological dimension – and multidimensional, based on the connections among the physical, psychological, and social domains. At present, studies on the comparison between uni- and multidimensional frailty measures are limited.Objective: The aims of this paper were: 1) to compare the prevalence of frailty obtained using a uni- and a multidimensional measure; 2) to analyze differences in the functional status among individuals captured as frail or robust by the two measures; and 3) to investigate relations between the two frailty measures and disability.Methods: Two hundred and sixty-seven community-dwelling older adults (73.4±6 years old, 59.9% of women) participated in this cross-sectional study. The Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) index and the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) were used to measure frailty in a uni- and multidimensional way, respectively. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire, the Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, and the Loneliness Scale were administered to evaluate the functional status. Disability was assessed using the Groningen Activity Restriction Scale. Data were treated with descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, correlations, and receiver operating characteristic analyses through the evaluation of the areas under the curve.Results: Results showed that frailty prevalence rate is strictly dependent on the index used (CHS =12.7%; TFI =44.6%). Furthermore, frail individuals presented differences in terms of functional status in all the domains. Frailty measures were significantly correlated with each other (r=0.483), and with disability (CHS: r=0.423; TFI: r=0.475). Finally, the area under the curve of the TFI (0.833) for disability was higher with respect to the one of CHS (0.770).Conclusion: Data reported here confirm that different instruments capture different frail individuals. Clinicians and researchers have to consider the different abilities of the two measures to detect frail individuals. Keywords: functional decline, older adults, health outcomes, active aging, indexes selection&nbsp