A Prospective Study Comparing Distance-based vs. Time-based Exercise Prescriptions of Walking and Running in Previously Sedentary Overweight Adults

International Journal of Exercise Science 10(5): 782-798, 2017. Prior work has reported that the declines observed in body mass index (BMI) and circumference measurements in their cross-sectional data were twice as large when calculated from distance energy expenditure estimations compared to energy expenditure estimations based on time and intensity. The primary purpose of this study was to compare walking/running for distance to walking/running for time as part of an exercise intervention. This study followed a between-subjects, repeated measures design. Fifteen overweight, but otherwise healthy participants completed the study. The time-based group walked/ran for self-reported time while the distance-based group walked/ran for self-reported distance. A mixed-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare all dependent variables both within-subjects and between-subjects. Weekly adherence rates to the exercise program did not exhibit a significant difference (p \u3e 0.05). Significant interactions were shown for mean body mass loss between groups as well as mean blood glucose level (p \u3c 0.05). Distance-based group exhibited a decline in body mass and blood glucose while the time-based group exhibited an increase in both variables. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present study is the first to directly compare a distance-based vs. a time-based exercise program for walking and running for improvement of risk factors of cardiovascular disease. The results of this study would suggest that a distance-based exercise prescription of walking or running should provide a clinician or researcher with a closer estimation of overall accumulated exercise and resultant weight loss

Selected sociodemographic factors and related differences in patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia

Background: Alcohol use and misuse and their relation to sociodemograhic factors are well studied among university students in Western European countries and the USA, but less is known about students in Eastern Europe. The historical past as communistic countries might have affected the social life among these populations, which is again one of the main factors determining the alcohol consumption among university students. The aim of our study was to assess the association of selected sociodemographic factors with different patterns of alcohol use among university students in Slovakia. Methods: A sample of 813 young adults (mean age 21.1 years, 63.8% females; response rate of 71%) from four universities in Kosice answered questions about their sociodemographic background and about alcohol use. To obtain a detailed picture of different aspects, alcohol use was measured by four variables: frequency of alcohol use, heavy episodic drinking, frequency of drunkenness and problem drinking. Four separate logistic regression models were used to assess the association between sociodemographic and alcohol-related variables. To assess the potentially different effects in both genders, all two-way interactions with gender were tested. Results: While 41% of the students drank alcohol once a week or more often, 77% reported heavy episodic drinking and 49% had been drunk more than once in the last month. Problem drinking existed in 23.3% of the sample. Gender was consistently associated with all four alcohol-related variables, with males being at higher risk. A higher study year was associated only with lower levels of heavy episodic drinking, but displayed no association with the other studied variables. Living with parents during the semester was consistently associated with less frequent heavy episodic drinking, drunkenness episodes, and problem drinking while having an intimate relationship was associated with less problem drinking only. Conclusions: Our findings for the university students from Slovakia are in line with previous studies in Western Europe. Additionally, it appears that frequent alcohol use, excessive alcohol use (heavy episodic drinking and drunkenness) and problem drinking among university students represent a continuum and are influenced by the same sociodemographic factors

Physician-assisted suicide: a review of the literature concerning practical and clinical implications for UK doctors

BACKGROUND: A bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the UK recently made significant progress in the British House of Lords and will be reintroduced in the future. Until now there has been little discussion of the clinical implications of physician-assisted suicide for the UK. This paper describes problematical issues that became apparent from a review of the medical and psychiatric literature as to the potential effects of legalized physician-assisted suicide. DISCUSSION: Most deaths by physician-assisted suicide are likely to occur for the illness of cancer and in the elderly. GPs will deal with most requests for assisted suicide. The UK is likely to have proportionately more PAS deaths than Oregon due to the bill's wider application to individuals with more severe physical disabilities. Evidence from other countries has shown that coercion and unconscious motivations on the part of patients and doctors in the form of transference and countertransference contribute to the misapplication of physician-assisted suicide. Depression influences requests for hastened death in terminally ill patients, but is often under-recognized or dismissed by doctors, some of whom proceed with assisted death anyway. Psychiatric evaluations, though helpful, do not solve these problems. Safeguards that are incorporated into physician-assisted suicide criteria probably decrease but do not prevent its misapplication. SUMMARY: The UK is likely to face significant clinical problems arising from physician-assisted suicide if it is legalized. Terminally ill patients with mental illness, especially depression, are particularly vulnerable to the misapplication of physician-assisted suicide despite guidelines and safeguards

Elite squash players nutrition knowledge and influencing factors

Background There is a reported mismatch between macronutrient consumption and contemporary macronutrient guidelines in elite standard squash players. Suboptimal dietary practices could be due to a lack of nutrition knowledge among players. Subsequently, the purpose of this study was to assess the sports nutrition knowledge of elite squash players through the Nutrition for Sport Knowledge Questionnaire (NSKQ) and provide an indication of whether players require nutrition support to increase their nutrition knowledge. Methods This cross-sectional study assessed the nutrition knowledge of 77 elite squash players via the NSKQ over the period of June 2020 to August 2020. Results Players conveyed average nutrition knowledge with a mean NSKQ score of 48.78 ± 10.06 (56.07% ± 11.56%). There were no significant differences in NSKQ score between male and female players (p = .532). There was found to be a weak positive association between world ranking and NSKQ score (r = .208) and age and NSKQ score (r = .281). Players who had a relevant undergraduate degree (e.g. BSc Sport & Exercise Science) had significantly greater NSKQ score than players with no relevant qualifications (p = .022). Players who consulted a sports nutritionist to obtain their main source of nutrition information were shown to have significantly greater knowledge than those who acquired knowledge from a sports scientist (p = .01) or the internet / social media (p = .007). Conclusions Players should consult with a sports nutritionist to increase their sport nutrition knowledge. Future research should quantify the effectiveness of a nutritional education intervention at increasing nutrition knowledge in players