Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods (URBAN) Study: research design and methodology

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Built environment attributes are recognized as being important contributors to physical activity (PA) engagement and body size in adults and children. However, much of the existing research in this emergent public health field is hindered by methodological limitations, including: population and site homogeneity, reliance on self-report measures, aggregated measures of PA, and inadequate statistical modeling. As an integral component of multi-country collaborative research, the Understanding the Relationship between Activity and Neighbourhoods (URBAN) Study seeks to overcome these limitations by determining the strengths of association between detailed measures of the neighborhood built environment with PA levels across multiple domains and body size measures in adults and children. This article outlines the research protocol developed for the URBAN Study.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>The URBAN Study is a multi-centered, stratified, cross-sectional research design, collecting data across four New Zealand cities. Within each city, 12 neighborhoods were identified and selected for investigation based on higher or lower walkability and Māori demographic attributes. Neighborhoods were selected to ensure equal representation of these characteristics. Within each selected neighborhood, 42 households are being randomly selected and an adult and child (where possible) recruited into the study. Data collection includes: objective and self-reported PA engagement, neighborhood perceptions, demographics, and body size measures. The study was designed to recruit approximately 2,000 adults and 250 children into the project. Other aspects of the study include photovoice, which is a qualitative assessment of built environment features associated with PA engagement, an audit of the neighborhood streetscape environment, and an individualized neighborhood walkability profile centered on each participant's residential address. Multilevel modeling will be used to examine the individual-level and neighborhood-level relationships with PA engagement and body size.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The URBAN Study is applying a novel scientifically robust research design to provide urgently needed epidemiological information regarding the associations between the built environment and health outcomes. The findings will contribute to a larger, international initiative in which similar neighborhood selection and PA measurement procedures are utilized across eight countries. Accordingly, this study directly addresses the international priority issues of increasing PA engagement and decreasing obesity levels.</p

Mobility, satisfaction with functional capacity and perceived quality of life (PQOL) in older persons with self-reported visual impairment: The pathway between ability to get around and PQOL

Research shows that ability to get around (AGA) is significantly associated with perceived quality of life (PQOL) among older persons with self-reported visual impairment. Much of this impact, however, is through satisfaction with one's functional capacity. Satisfaction with functional capacity is a construct composed of five items: satisfaction with (1) activities of daily living, (2) capacity to work, (3) self, (4) health and (5) sleep. At present, it is not known how AGA interacts individually with these items to influence PQOL. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which AGA interacts with each of these five items to affect PQOL. Methods: Structural equation modelling was employed in a secondary-analysis of data from 356 persons (aged 56-72) with self-reported visual impairment to identify the pathways by which AGA affects PQOL. Results: Satisfaction with self and health were the only items found to be both directly related to QOL and to provide a significant pathway between AGA and PQOL.Conclusion: AGA significantly affects PQOL both directly and indirectly through its impact on people's satisfaction with self and health. Lessons may be learnt from this to better focus mobility interventions to enhance PQOL in this population. Implications for Rehabilitation: The findings of this study indicate that ability to get around (AGA) has a significant impact on perceived quality of life (PQOL): the stated goal of many rehabilitation programs for older persons who are visually impaired. The study also found that the primary pathway by which AGA influenced PQOL was indirect through its association with both satisfaction with one's self and health rather than direct. Attempts to enhance PQOL by increasing AGA may be most effective if the focus of intervention was on restoring one's sense of self and health as opposed to focusing on meeting practical needs

Adult learning in veterinary education: theory to practice

This paper argues the case for the Increased application of adult learning principles to veterinary education. It encapsulates evidence from the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and Australia to explain why it has taken veterinary schools so long to transform their curricula to best facilitate the development of lifelong learning skills, such as Independent and self-directed learning, problem solving, and critical thinking. Despite the variation in training programs In these different regions, the paper identifies common Issues-conflicting educational paradigms and the need for faculty development-and ultimately concludes that professional and continuing education should be viewed as a continuous process, supporting the adult learner's cognitive development and facilitated through experiential learnin