454 research outputs found
Noise vs. News In Equity Returns
What role does noise play in equity markets? Answering this question usually leads immediately to specifying a model of fundamentals and hence the pervasive joint hypothesis quagmire. We avoid this dilemma by measuring noise volatility directly by focusing on the behavior of country closed-end funds (CCEFâs) during foreign (i.e., non-U.S.) holidays â for example, the last days of Ramadan in Islamic countries. These holiday periods are times when the flow of fundamental information relevant to foreign equity markets is substantially reduced and hence trading of CCEFâs in U.S. markets can be responding only weakly, if at all, to fundamental information. We find that, controlling for the effects of industry and global shocks and of the overall U.S. market, there remains a substantial amount of noise in the equity returns of U.S. CCEFâs. In the absence of noise, the noise ratio statistic would be near zero. However, our results indicate statistically significant departures from zero, with values averaged over all U.S. CCEFâs ranging from 76-84%xx depending on assumptions about the leakage of information during holiday periods and kurtosis. Noise is negatively related to institutional ownership of U.S. CCEF's and is much less important for U.K. CCEF's. The lower levels of noise for matched U.K. and U.S. CCEFâs provide some initial evidence that the U.K. securities transaction tax is effective in reducing stock market noise.
Change4Life Sports Clubs research 2016 - part one report
Change4Life Sports Clubs are funded by the Department of Health and managed by the Youth Sport Trust (YST). The clubs were introduced into primary schools in 2011/12 and aim to increase the physical activity, health and wellbeing of less active 7-9 year olds through the provision of fun multi-sport themes and healthy lifestyle activities. The success of the clubs has resulted in additional funding to expand the programme as a central part of a broader healthy lifestyle offer in schools. This is supported by the development of a hub of expertise focused in the areas of greatest health inequalities (priority areas) to support and share effective practice among schools and local authority Health and Wellbeing boards.
In 2015, spear produced a Lifetime Impact Evaluation of the Change4Life Sports Clubs (2011-2015). The evaluation incorporated a controlled experimental evaluation at the forefront of research in the social sciences and NESTA rated 4-5. Data from over 7,500 children in more than 500 clubs showed that Change4Life Sports Clubs have a significant, positive impact on the activity levels, health behaviours and wellbeing of participating children. The Lifetime Evaluation Report included a number of recommendations for enhancing and building upon the evidence base for the programme. These recommendations included assessing the effectiveness of programme infrastructure in the sustainability of the clubs, assessing programme alignment with public health priorities and exploring the possibility of an economic assessment of the impact of the programme.
The Change4Life Sports Clubs Research 2016 has three key objectives:
1. Demonstrate the wider impact of the Change4Life Sports Clubs
2. Assess the value for money and return on investment of the
Change4Life Sports Clubs
3. Capture good practice for embedding and sustaining the
programme (locally and nationally)
This Part 1 Report examines the evidence of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs (objective 1), explored and presented in 5 main sections:
1.Evaluation of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs
on healthy lifestyles
2.Evaluation of the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs
on behaviour and engagement
3.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs are being
embedded and sustained in schools
4.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs programme
supports whole school agenda
5.Exploration of how the Change4Life Sports Clubs programme
supports public health priorities
The final section of this report presents 6 area profiles to provide a geographical context to the wider impact of the Change4Life Sports Clubs
Value for money & return on Investment of Change4Life Sports Clubs â part 2
Headlines
Unit Outcome and Unit Cost Analyses
⢠Change4Life Sports Clubs have a cost of £305 for every new child meeting CMO physical activity guidelines, for which cost an additional
0.2 children were lifted out of inactivity and a further 2.2 children were lifted out of low activity, with each of these children experiencing an
average increase in reported wellbeing and individual development outcomes of 71%.
⢠In comparison to the control condition counterfactual, Change4Life Sports Clubs delivered the following NET outcomes per £1,000 of
expenditure:
⢠41 participants
⢠0.8 sustained clubs
⢠3.9 Young Leaders
⢠2.8 new children meeting CMO physical activity guidelines
⢠8.4 children lifted out of low activity
⢠1.3 children lifted out of inactivity
⢠0.1 children newly eating 5-a-day
⢠0.6 children reporting increased wellbeing and individual development outcomes
⢠5.1 children starting with low activity levels reporting increased wellbeing and individual development outcomes.
Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) Analysis
⢠The cost per QALY generated for the GROSS outcomes of Change4Life Sports Clubs is £3,385 (range:£3,036 to £3,806).
⢠In comparison to the control condition counterfactual, the cost per QALY generated for the NET outcomes of Change4Life Sports Clubs is
ÂŁ3,791 (range: ÂŁ3,413 to ÂŁ4,245).
⢠The cost per QALY generated for Change4Life Sports Clubs is significantly below NICEâs threshold for value for money per QALY of
ÂŁ20,000.
⢠The cost per QALY generated for the GROSS outcomes of Change4Life Sports Clubs compares favourably to GROSS outcomes
estimated for walking buses (ÂŁ4,008 per QALY), dance classes (ÂŁ27,570 per QALY), free swimming (ÂŁ40,462 per QALY) and community
sports (ÂŁ71,456 per QALY).
⢠The cost per QALY generated by the NET outcomes of exercise referral interventions in adulthood is approximately five and a half times
greater than that of Change4Life Sports Clubs.
Analysis of Future Health at Ages 13-15
⢠The Change4Life Sports Clubs cohort are predicted to do around an hour more physical activity per week at ages 13-15 than that
predicted for the control condition counterfactual, and than todayâs 13-15 year olds.
⢠The estimated additional physical activity of the Change4Life Sports Clubs cohort up to ages 13-15 will generate one additional QALY for
every five children that took part in Change4Life Sports Clubs.
⢠In comparison to the control counterfactual, the cost per QALY generated by the estimated future NET outcomes of Change4Life Sports
Clubs up to ages 13-15 is ÂŁ120.
⢠Across the Health Survey for England, the Millennium Cohort Study and the Understanding Society Survey, no data is available to support
a robust estimation of likely health and wellbeing status associated with physical activity levels at ages 13
Lifetime evaluation of the Change4Life Primary School Sports Club Programme
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
The Change4Life Primary School Sports Club programme is funded by the Department of Health and managed by the Youth Sport Trust. The clubs were introduced into primary schools in 2011/12 and aim to increase the physical activity, health and wellbeing of less active 7-9 year olds through the provision of fun multi-sport themes and healthy lifestyle activities. SPEARâs evaluations of the primary programme have consistently demonstrated that Change4Life Clubs can be effective mechanisms for increasing physical activity levels among less active primary children. Through provision of a safe space to learn and play, the opportunity to contribute to club delivery and encouragement of small steps toward increasing activity levels, the clubs have helped less active children build the competencies, confidence and resilience they need to be healthy and active throughout the lifecourse. The success of the Change4Life Primary School Sports Clubs has resulted in additional funding to expand the programme as a central part of a broader healthy lifestyle offer in schools. This is supported by the development of a hub of expertise focused in the areas of greatest health inequalities (priority areas) to support and share effective practice among schools and local authority Health and Wellbeing boards.
ABOUT THE EVALUATION
SPEAR was commissioned from October 2013 to March 2015 to conduct a third, successive evaluation of the Change4Life Primary School Sports Club programme. In October 2014, SPEAR produced an Interim Report including impact and delivery insights and progress and planning for the primary evaluation. SPEAR also recommended inclusion of a lifetime impact assessment to provide additional value to the Final Report findings and the project end date was subsequently extended to May 2015. This Final Report both supplements and supersedes the Interim Report. SPEARâs current evaluation of the Change4Life Clubs reflects both the changing context and priorities of the primary programme and, through a systematic, controlled experimental evaluation, provides the robust evidence base necessary to support and further the programme as it develops into the future. The 2015 Final Report presents a lifetime evaluation of the programme to date. Drawing together extant data from SPEARâs 2011/12 and 2012/13 (2011-20133 ) evaluations with new data collated across 2013/14 and early 2014/154 (2013-20155 ), this report focuses on the lifetime impact of the clubs in key areas, namely physical activity, health behaviours and wellbeing. The report shows how delivery has evolved to address programme aims, discusses challenges faced embedding clubs as a sustainable part of schoolsâ healthy lifestyle offer and considers preliminary evidence of the impact of the new support framework in priority areas. Data informing this report is drawn from the survey returns of over 7,500 children participating in more than 500 Change4Life Clubs and from just under 500 children in 15 control schools. Survey completions from over 2,000 club deliverers and SGOs, telephone interviews with 39 stakeholders and data from 20 site visits complements and triangulates the experimental data allowing the experiences and perspectives of a broad range of stakeholders to be presented. Key messages are summarised at the start of each section (and in the Headlines section on pages 2-5). The report is divided into three substantive sections: Who participated? What worked? and What did the clubs look like? The Influence of the Change4Life Brand is addressed and Recommendations for the programme are presented
Embedding and sustaining Change4Life Sports Clubs: regional case studies â part three
Change4Life Sports Clubs are funded by the Department of Health (DoH) and managed by the Youth Sport Trust (YST). The clubs were introduced into primary schools in 2011/12 and aim to increase the physical activity, health and wellbeing of less active 7-9 year olds through provision of fun multi-sport themes and healthy lifestyle activities. The success of the clubs has resulted in additional funding to expand the programme as a central part of a broader healthy lifestyle offer in schools. This is supported by the development of a hub of expertise focused in the areas of greatest health inequalities to support and share effective practice among schools and local authority Health and Wellbeing boards. In 2015, spear produced a Lifetime Impact Evaluation of the Change4Life Sports Clubs, drawing on data from over 7,500 children in more than 500 clubs. The Change4Life Sports Clubs 2016 research builds upon the Lifetime Evaluation with new data from children, schools and public health directorates to address three key objectives: 1) Demonstrate the wider impact of Change4Life Sports Clubs; 2) Assess the value for money and return on investment of Change4Life Sports Clubs and; 3) Capture good practice for embedding and sustaining the programme. Part Three presents Area Case Studies for six geographical regions in England to provide insight into how the Change4Life Sports Clubs have been embedded and sustained in schools across each area: East, East Midlands, London, North East, North West and South East. Each case study is informed by (re)analysis of club deliverer and School Games Organiser (SGO) survey data, site visit case studies, and interviews conducted with Public Health Teams, senior school staff, Change4Life Sports Club Leads and SGOs. The final section of Part Three presents recommendations for embedding and sustaining the Change4Life Sports Clubs
The engagement of further and higher education with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games II
The second report from a survey of Podium's stakeholders, assessing the Engagement of Further and Higher Education with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
2014/15 Skills2Play/Sport programme evaluation
The Primary School Physical Literacy Framework reflects the importance of the development of childrenâs physical literacy; âthe motivation, confidence, knowledge and understanding that provides children with the movement foundation for lifelong participation in physical activity.â It also provides clear guidance as to how schools can maximise opportunities to develop the physical literacy of their pupils. Skills2Play and Skills2PlaySport are two complementary primary school physical literacy initiatives designed to support the objectives of the new Framework. Together they comprise the Skills2Play/Sport programme. Throughout this report the term Skills2Play/Sport refers to the programme, comprising both initiatives (Skills2Play and Skills2PlaySport). The programme consists of training and a resource and equipment package, which includes activity cards for both Skills2Play (blue cards) and Skills2PlaySport (purple cards) supplied to primary school deliverers by the Youth Sport Trust. Skills2Play is targeted at Key Stage 1 (KS1) and focuses on generic skill development through a range of play activities that focus on stability, object control and locomotion. Skills2PlaySport is targeted at lower Key Stage 2 (KS2) and includes multiskill activities that build from the generic skills but also introduce the connectivity with the sports through the development of skills specific to sporting âthemesâ, namely âInvasionâ, âStriking and Fieldingâ and âNet/Wallâ. Further themes are currently at varying stages of development and include âAquaticsâ, âGymnasticsâ, âAthleticsâ and âWheelsâ.
ABOUT THE EVALUATION
The Centre for Sport, Physical Education & Activity Research (SPEAR) was commissioned by the Youth Sport Trust to conduct an independent evaluation of the Skills2Play/Sport programme between January 2014 and July 2015. The initial stages of the evaluation focused on the pilot programme undertaken in fifty primary schools. In May 2014 SPEAR produced the Pilot Evaluation Report, which captured teachersâ experiences of the training, resources and delivery of the Skills2Play/Sport pilot programme. The programme was then rolled out to 1,000 schools nationally and the objectives of the Evaluation of the national Skills2Play/Sport programme were as follows:
1. To assess how Skills2PlaySport and Skills2Play are being delivered and sustained in primary schools to support childrenâs physical literacy development.
2. To investigate the impact of Skills2PlaySport on the development of lower Key Stage 2 childrenâs physical literacy over 12 weeks of the programme.
3. To investigate the impact of Skills2Play on the development of Key Stage 1 childrenâs physical literacy over 12 weeks of the programme
Embedding physical activity guidance during pregnancy and in postpartum care: âThis Mum Movesâ enhances professional practice of midwives and health visitors
Introduction: The benefits of physical activity during pregnancy and after childbirth are well established, yet many health care professionals do not feel well equipped to provide physical activity guidance to these populations. As such, the objectives of this study were to explore the immediate and longer term effects of training on health care professionalsâ ability to provide physical activity guidance to pregnant women and new mothers (mums).
Methods: Midwives and health visitors from five locations in the United Kingdom were provided with training on the Chief Medical Officers' physical activity guidelines for pregnancy and after childbirth (n=393). Midwives and health visitors attended training to become This Mum Moves Ambassadors, then disseminated education to colleagues through a cascade training model. Changes in knowledge, confidence, and professional practice were assessed by survey before and immediately after training (n=247), and follow-up surveys were completed 3 (n=35) and 6 (n=34) months post training.
Results: At all post training time points, health care professionals reported a significant increase in their confidence to communicate about physical activity (P < .001). The reported frequency of having conversations about physical activity increased significantly 3 and 6 months following training compared to baseline (pregnant women, P = .017; new mums, P = .005). There were changes in the types of advice and resources offered by health care professionals, and an overall increase in health care professionalsâ own reported physical activity levels.
Discussion: The This Mum Moves cascade approach to delivering training in physical activity guidelines improved reported knowledge, confidence and professional practice of midwives and health visitors, both immediately following and 3 and 6 months after training
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