Adult Women\u27s Perceived Facilitators, Barriers, and Health Benefits of Sustaining a Membership in a Commercial Fitness Facility

Objective: The purpose of this study was to gain in depth knowledge on the perceived facilitators, barriers, and health benefits of sustaining a membership in a commercial fitness facility (CFF) amongst active and less active adult women between the ages 35 – 55. Method: This qualitative focus group study segmented participants into those who met Canada’s physical activity (PA) guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA and those who do not. Inductive analysis of the focus group data was carried out after deductively creating codes. Measures were incorporated throughout the study to ensure data trustworthiness. Results: The analysis led to the creation of barrier-related themes. Less active women desired a more welcoming and friendly staff and environment, and wanted more support to facilitate sustained membership, than did active women. Active women had one less barrier than less active women. Less active women perceived there was a lack of support and programs for their current ability level, and active participants seldom mentioned this barrier. Both groups shared similar perceived health benefits to the CFF membership in comparison to other forms of exercise and venues for PA, and the active women cited one additional benefit than did the less active women. Conclusions: Health was an important facilitator and benefit to using a CFF membership for the women of this study. Less active women identified that the CFF environment needs to be more supportive and welcoming in order to minimize barriers and facilitate membership. A less intimidating environment and more access to professional support without additional cost would make the CFF space more favourable for the women of this study. Recommendations from the findings of the current study are presented and directions for further research are provided

Freedom to Be - An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experience of Connection with Nature in the Forest

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the experience of connection with nature in the forest setting. Research on nature-based therapies and health promotion interventions suggests that connecting with nature is important to receive optimal health benefits from nature contact. The research evidence suggests that the concept of connection with nature is commonly characterized as a stable trait, typically assessed using quantitative psychometric scales. However, the experience of connection with nature varies from person to person and from place to place, and there is scant research that explores the intricacies of the lived experience of this phenomenon. Employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study aimed to investigate the lived experiences of adults who value connecting with nature in the forest and what this experience means to the informant’s health and well-being. Two research questions guided this study. The primary research question was: What is the experience of connection with nature in the forest setting? The secondary research question was: What does the experience of connection with nature mean to health and well-being? Semi-structured interviews and the go-along method were used to generate rich, detailed descriptions of the phenomenon from ten (n=10) adults residing in Ontario, Canada. Data analysis from the informant’s accounts illuminated four superordinate themes: (a) grounded body awareness; (b) temporal awareness; (c) nurturing and nourishing relationships; (d) personal wellness promotion practice. Informants expressed that the experience was grounding, relaxing, and restorative, relieved bodily tension and stress, and enhanced vitality, mindfulness, and overall mood. The experience was also viewed as an opportunity for solitude, self-care, and reflection, which enhanced feelings of belonging and created meaning in informants’ lives. This study is one of the first to investigate the lived experience of connection with nature in the forest setting. Insights generated in this paper provide new contributions to our understanding of connection with nature as a subjective experience. Implications for ecotherapy, health promotion, and future research are provided

A dynamic data structure for approximate Proximity queries in trajectory data

Let S be a set of n polygonal trajectories in the plane and k be a fixed constant. We present a data structure to store S so that, given a k-vertex query trajectory Q, we can answer the following queries approximately: • Nearest neighbor query: given a query trajectory Q, report the trajectory in S with minimum Fréchet distance to Q. • Top-j query: given a query trajectory Q and a positive integer j, report the j trajectories in S with minimum Fréchet distance to Q. • Range reporting query: given a query trajectory Q and a number max , report all trajectories in S with Fréchet distance at most max to Q. • Similarity query: given a query trajectory Q and a trajectory ? S, report the Fréchet distance between Q and . Our data structure answers these queries approximately, with an additive error that is at most · reach(Q) for a given fixed constant > 0, where reach(Q) is the maximum distance between the start vertex of Q and any other vertex of Q. Furthermore, our query procedures ignore trajectories whose Fréchet distance to the query Q is very large. That is, if no trajectory is close to the query trajectory then no answer might be returned. The data structure uses O(n/ 2k ) space and answers each of the queries above in time O(1 + #answers). Our data structure is the first one that can answer all these queries with provable error guarantees. Moreover, it is fully dynamic: inserting and deleting a trajectory with m vertices takes O(1/ 2k (m + log(1/))) and O(1/ 2k ) amortized time, respectively. Finally, we empirically evaluate our data structure

What every reader should know about studies using electronic health record data but may be afraid to ask

10.2196/22219Journal of Medical Internet Research233e2221