An investigation of the effectiveness of a school-based sport leadership program and its impact on students' psychological development

This study systematically explored the outcomes and implementation processes of the School Sport Leadership Program (SSLP), which was integrated into some secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. The main principle behind the SSLP was to train secondary school-aged students to become sport leaders, who deliver sporting activities to primary schools with the aim to encourage participation in sports and physical activities and develop their competencies. The overarching aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of the program utilising rigour methodology design, and to provide a comprehensive view of the developmental outcomes for the young people, as well as the program’s impact on the school community

A prototype software framework for transparent, reusable and updatable computational health economic models

Most health economic analyses are undertaken with the aid of computers. However, the ethical dimensions of implementing health economic models as software (or computational health economic models (CHEMs)) are poorly understood. We propose that developers and funders of CHEMs share ethical responsibilities to (i) establish socially acceptable user requirements and design specifications; (ii) ensure fitness for purpose; and (iii) support socially beneficial use. We further propose that a transparent (T), reusable (R) and updatable (U) CHEM is suggestive of a project team that has largely fulfilled these responsibilities. We propose six criteria for assessing CHEMs: (T1) software files are open access; (T2) project team contributions and judgments are easily identified; (R1) programming practices promote generalisability and transferability; (R2) licenses restrict only unethical reuse; (U1) maintenance infrastructure is in place; and (U2) new releases are systematically retested and appropriately deprecated. To facilitate CHEMs that meet TRU criteria, we have developed a prototype software framework in the open-source programming language R. The framework comprises six code libraries for authoring CHEMs, supplying CHEMs with data and undertaking analyses with CHEMs. The prototype software framework integrates with services for software development and research data archiving. We determine that an initial set of youth mental health CHEMs we developed with the prototype software framework wholly meet criteria T1-2, R1-2 and U1 and partially meet criterion U2. Our assessment criteria and prototype software framework can help inform and improve ethical implementation of CHEMs. Resource barriers to ethical CHEM practice should be addressed by research funders.Comment: 17 pages, 4 tables, 1 figur

An investigation of the effectiveness of a school-based sport leadership program and its impact on students' psychological development

This study systematically explored the outcomes and implementation processes of the School Sport Leadership Program (SSLP), which was integrated into some secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. The main principle behind the SSLP was to train secondary school-aged students to become sport leaders, who deliver sporting activities to primary schools with the aim to encourage participation in sports and physical activities and develop their competencies. The overarching aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of the program utilising rigour methodology design, and to provide a comprehensive view of the developmental outcomes for the young people, as well as the program’s impact on the school community