Is spending time in screen-based sedentary behaviors associated with less physical activity: a cross national investigation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Australia and the USA, national guidelines exist for limiting children's screen-exposure to two hours per day. This study aims to determine whether exceeding the suggested guidelines for screen-based sedentary behavior is associated with reduced levels of physical activity across different geographical regions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data material were taken from the 2005/2006 survey of "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study; A WHO cross-National Survey". Data were collected through questionnaires from 11-,13- and,15- year olds. The final sample included 200,615 adolescents from 39 different countries in Europe and North America. Gender and country stratified analyses regressed time spent in leisure-time vigorous physical activity (VPA) and days of 60 minutes moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on time spent in screen-based sedentary behaviors. To simplify interpretation, the estimates from each country were pooled using a meta-analytic procedure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Exceeding 2 hrs of daily total screen-time was negatively associated with MVPA for both boys and girls, and with VPA for girls. When investigating the different types of screen-based behaviors separately, exceeding 2 hrs daily of TV viewing was associated with less MVPA for both boys and girls and less VPA for girls. Gaming was associated with less MVPA and VPA for boys, and non-gaming computer use was associated with higher levels of VPA for both genders. Stronger negative associations between physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviors were found in countries where mean levels of physical activity were relatively high. The association between physical activity and sedentary behavior was not significantly associated with national levels of screen-based sedentary behaviors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The displacement mechanism does not appear to be universal across countries. On a national level, negative associations between physical activity and screen-based sedentary behaviors are less likely to be found in countries with relatively low levels of physical activity. Consequently, national guidelines for limiting children and adolescents time in screen-based sedentary behavior may not be conducive to increasing levels of physical activity in all countries.</p

Adolescent Bullying Involvement and Perceived Family, Peer and School Relations: Commonalities and Differences Across Race/Ethnicity

Although bullying is recognized as a serious problem in the U.S., little is known about racial/ethnic differences in bullying risk. This study examined associations between bullying and family, peer, and school relations for White, Black and Hispanic adolescents

Validation of the western ontario rotator cuff index in patients with arthroscopic rotator cuff repair: A study protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is described as being a successful procedure. These results are often derived from clinical general shoulder examinations, which are then classified as 'excellent', 'good', 'fair' or 'poor'. However, the cut-off points for these classifications vary and sometimes modified scores are used.</p> <p>Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair is performed to improve quality of life. Therefore, disease specific health-related quality of life patient-administered questionnaires are needed. The WORC is a quality of life questionnaire designed for patients with disorders of the rotator cuff. The score is validated for rotator cuff disease, but not for rotator cuff repair specifically.</p> <p>The aim of this study is to investigate reliability, validity and responsiveness of WORC in patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>An approved translation of the WORC into Dutch is used. In this prospective study three groups of patients are used: 1. Arthroscopic rotator cuff repair; 2. Disorders of the rotator cuff without rupture; 3. Shoulder instability.</p> <p>The WORC, SF-36 and the Constant Score are obtained twice before therapy is started to measure reliability and validity. Responsiveness is tested by obtaining the same tests after therapy.</p

ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE USE IN SEVEN COUNTRIES

Adolescent mental health has been related to a variety of physicalhealth problems and adolescents can have considerable indepen-dence in their use of medicines to treat acute health problems. Therelationship between adolescent mental health and medicine use. (MU) has not received sufficient attention. The present analysesexamine relationships of adolescent mental health and MU andwhether mental health contributes to MU beyond the effect ofexperiencing symptoms of those health problems. Self-reportedmental health, MU for four common health problems (headache,stomachache, difficulties sleeping, and nervousness) and symp-toms for common health problems were assessed in a nationally-representative sample of 7,611 U.S. students in grades 6 through10 and in 26,111 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old students in sixcountries participating in the Health Behavior in School-AgedChildren study: Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland,Macedonia, and Scotland. A brief measure of depression wasincluded in the US HBSC survey and a broader mental healthindex (KIDSCREEN) was included in the surveys of the sixEuropean nations. In US adolescents, depression predicted MU foreach of the four health problems but when both depression andsymptoms were in the regression models depression added to theprediction for difficulties sleeping (p=.0071) and nervousness(p&lt;.0001) only. These findings were replicated in the Europeansample; using hierarchical linear modeling, there no significanteffects due to country. MU for each of the four health problemswas predicted by mental health; however, MU for headache andstomachache were no longer significant when symptoms wereadded to the models. Adolescents with poorer mental/psycholog-ical health are more likely to experience symptoms of commonhealth problems and to take medicine for these problems.However, self-reported symptoms may partially mediate therelationship between adolescent mental health and MU

ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE USE IN SEVEN COUNTRIES

Adolescent mental health has been related to a variety of physicalhealth problems and adolescents can have considerable indepen-dence in their use of medicines to treat acute health problems. Therelationship between adolescent mental health and medicine use. (MU) has not received sufficient attention. The present analysesexamine relationships of adolescent mental health and MU andwhether mental health contributes to MU beyond the effect ofexperiencing symptoms of those health problems. Self-reportedmental health, MU for four common health problems (headache,stomachache, difficulties sleeping, and nervousness) and symp-toms for common health problems were assessed in a nationally-representative sample of 7,611 U.S. students in grades 6 through10 and in 26,111 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old students in sixcountries participating in the Health Behavior in School-AgedChildren study: Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland,Macedonia, and Scotland. A brief measure of depression wasincluded in the US HBSC survey and a broader mental healthindex (KIDSCREEN) was included in the surveys of the sixEuropean nations. In US adolescents, depression predicted MU foreach of the four health problems but when both depression andsymptoms were in the regression models depression added to theprediction for difficulties sleeping (p=.0071) and nervousness(p&lt;.0001) only. These findings were replicated in the Europeansample; using hierarchical linear modeling, there no significanteffects due to country. MU for each of the four health problemswas predicted by mental health; however, MU for headache andstomachache were no longer significant when symptoms wereadded to the models. Adolescents with poorer mental/psycholog-ical health are more likely to experience symptoms of commonhealth problems and to take medicine for these problems.However, self-reported symptoms may partially mediate therelationship between adolescent mental health and MU

Origins and stability of children's health beliefs relative to medicine use

Two hundred and seventy urban school children and their primary caretakers (93% mothers) were interviewed in Washington, D.C., about their health beliefs and behaviors relative to medicine use and expected medicine use for common health problems to test hypotheses about the development of children's health beliefs and behaviors. Results indicated that mothers have a stronger influence on health related orientations of children than previously indicated and that these orientations are relatively stable by school age. Strong similarities were observed between primary caretakers and their children in a health belief based model to predict expected medicine use, and significant correlations between primary caretakers and children were observed for almost three-fourths of the variables in the model; correlations were not higher between mothers and older children than between mothers and younger children, nor were means of variables closer to those of mothers for older than for younger children. Most model variables were stable for children over a 3 year period, and measurement in the earlier period predicted medicine use and expected medicine use 3 years later. Only weak developmental affects were suggested, primarily by perceived vulnerability to illness, a powerful predictor in adult representations of the Health Belief Model, but relatively weak in children's representations.Health Belief Model medicine children parental influences

The food retail environment in school neighborhoods and its relation to lunchtime eating behaviors in youth from three countries

Funding: NHS Health ScotlandThis study examined the relation between the chain food retail environment surrounding schools, youths' lunchtime eating behavior, and youths' obesity levels across three countries. Participants consisted of 26,778 students 13–15 years old from 687 schools across Canada, Scotland and the US. The density of convenience stores, chain fast food restaurants, and chain cafés within 1 km of each school was measured. Lunchtime eating behaviors, weight, and height were self-reported. Although the density of chain food retailers was highest in the US, fewer American students (2.6%) routinely ate their lunch at a food retailer during the school week than did Canadian (7.7%) and Scottish (43.7%) students. The density of chain food retailers was associated with eating lunch at a food retailer in Canada only whereby students attending schools with 1–2, 3–4, and 5+ chain food retailers within 1 km from their schools were 1.39 (95% CI: 0.84–2.29), 1.87 (95% CI: 1.10–3.20), and 2.50 (95% CI: 1.56–4.01) times more likely to eat at a chain food retailer compared to students attending schools with no nearby chain food retailers. No associations were found between chain food retailer density and obesity.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe