What older people tell us about the role of physical activity in the management of depression

Reports on a study which set out to explore the way in which older people admitted to hospital with depression experience exercise groups and the manner in which they engage in physical activity once discharged. Eleven participants aged 69 to 86 years were purposively selected using exercise group attendance records. The findings from this study support the use of exercise groups for older people admitted to hospital with depression. Community based interventions designed to promote physical activity in older people recovering from mental illness are most likely to be effective if they address individually identified functional goals and take into account the social needs of the older service users

Understanding the older traveller: stop, look and listen!

Getting around would be difficult without roads, rail and pedestrian walkways. Despite what we take for granted, the older traveller is often left feeling frustrated by the current transport infrastructure. Based on their research, Dr Greg Marsden et al explore in this article why this is the case, they look at the barriers that prevent older people getting out and about and the considerations when planning transport for the older traveller

Injecting equipment schemes for injecting drug users : qualitative evidence review

This review of the qualitative literature about needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) for injecting drug users (IDUs) complements the review of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. It aims to provide a more situated narrative perspective on the overall guidance questions

The association between social capital and loneliness in different age groups: a population-based study in Western Finland

Background - Previous studies of loneliness have largely focused on establishing risk factors in specific age groups such as in later life or in young people. Researchers have paid less attention to the link between social capital and loneliness across different age groups. The aim of this study was to examine the association between social capital and experienced loneliness in different age groups in a Finnish setting. Methods - The data originates from a population-based cross-sectional survey conducted among 4618 people aged 15–80 in Western Finland in 2011. The response rate was 46.2 %. The association between social capital, measured by frequency of social contacts, participation in organisational activities, trust and sense of belonging to the neighbourhood and loneliness was tested by logistic regression analyses stratified by four age groups. Results - Frequent loneliness (defined as experienced often or sometimes) was higher among younger people (39.5 %) compared to older people (27.3 %). Low levels of trust were linked to loneliness in all four age groups. The association between other aspects of social capital and loneliness varied across age groups. Conclusions - Frequent loneliness is common among the general adult population and could be seen as a public health issue. Our findings imply that low social capital, especially in terms of low trust, may be a risk factor for loneliness. However, further research is needed to assess the influence of poor health and reverse causality as explanations for the findings

Child–parent interaction in relation to road safety education : Part 2 – main report

• Children and young people are particularly vulnerable road users. • Child pedestrian injury rates are poor compared with the rest of Europe. • The factors that impact on children’s road safety and their capability in traffic are numerous, multi-faceted and complex. • • The systematic review conducted by Cattan et al. (2008) as the initial phase of this study shows that: • parents see themselves as being responsible for developing their children’s road safety awareness and skills; • holding hands is the most common road-crossing interaction between parents and children; • adults rarely make use of road-crossing events to give oral instructions; • few parents and children are consistent in their road-crossing behaviour; • roadside training by volunteer parents for groups of children can lead to significant improvements in children’s road safety behaviour; • belief in fate seems to influence the likelihood of parents using restraints, such as seat belts or car seats, with their children; and • parents’ understanding of the child’s perspective in carrying out road safety tasks and their motivation to actively involve their child in making decisions at the roadside can be improved through training. • Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) suggests that the modelling role of parents can make a significant contribution to children’s learning about road use and their development of traffic competence whether or not parents are aware of this. • The main aim of this study was to explore the way parents influence children and young people aged 0–16 years to be safer road users. • This study included children and young people aged 5–16 and parents of children aged 0–16 years old

Child–parent interaction in relation to road safety education : part 1 – A critical literature review

The purpose of this review was: • to identify and provide a critical review of the research and literature concerned with parentchild interaction in relation to road safety education in order to inform the Child–parent interaction in relation to road safety education study completed in 2007; and • to consider the published evidence for the effect of strategies that parents use in training their children to be safer road users and to consider ways of engaging parents in road safety education. The term ‘children’ refers to the age group 0 to 18. The reason for this is that, although most research on childparent interaction tends to focus on the 0 to 14 age group, some studies, mainly those concerned with teen drivers, include young people aged 16 to 18. The term ‘parent’ refers to any adult accompanying the child