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Attitudes towards air quality during outdoor exercise amongst habitual exercisers
Get PDFThe effects of air pollution on health outcomes are well-established. However, little is known about perceptions of air pollution and how it may influence exercise behaviours. The aim of this study was to understand the perceived importance of air pollution during planned exercise, and where relevant, explore how those perceptions may differ between those living in different locations. A questionnaire was disseminated to several running and cycling clubs in the United Kingdom, covering population characteristics to determine urban, rural or coastal residents and exercisers, self-reported asthma, perceptions of air quality during active travel, planned exercise and attitudes towards learning more about the topic. Anonymised responses were gained from 381 adult participants (≥18 years and 60% female), 119 of whom answered questions related to active travel. More than half (54%) of all respondents think about the air quality they are exposed to during exercise and how it may affect their health. More urban than rural respondents (59% vs. 47% and p = 0.03) think about air quality and the impact it may have on their health when exercising. There were insufficient coastal respondents for direct comparison. Most survey respondents (57%) state that they would take the most severe course of action regarding exercise behaviour by avoiding it altogether during periods of heavy road traffic. Individuals with self-reported asthma (n = 60), irrespective of place of residence, are the most likely to be conscious of the potential effects of air pollution on their health and exercise performance compared to counterparts without self-reported asthma
Gordon Cullen's serial vision: a cinematic urban theory
No full textDuring his long and various career as an architect, urban planner, consultant, and editor of the Architectural Review, Gordon Cullen (1914 - 1994) developed innovative and original urban visions.
Despite that, not many studies have been conducted on him, his projects, numerous sketches, or his personal vision about Townscape. This paper addresses this lacuna, offering, in particular, a thorough analysis of a never-published series of sketches part of the Gordon Cullen Archive held at the University of Westminster.
Focusing on this suggesting sequence of images, this paper will investigate in particular Cullen's original approach, describing properly the serial vision as unique cinematic method that he implemented to express and successfully represent the complexity of urban spaces. The main aim is to re-evaluate Cullen's contribution in relation to the seminal urban research of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, stating his crucial role in influencing the contemporary development of urban theories
Patient experiences of the long COVID–Optimal Health Programme: qualitative interview study in community settings
Get PDFBackground
Long COVID (LC) symptoms persist 12 weeks or more beyond the acute infection. To date, no standardised diagnostic/treatment pathways exist. However, a holistic approach has been recommended. This study explores participants’ experiences of a Long COVID Optimal Health Programme (LC-OHP); a psychoeducational self-efficacy programme.
Aim
To explore perceptions and experiences of people with LC regarding the LC-OHP and identify suggestions to further improve the programme.
Design and setting
Qualitative study with patients with LC recruited through community settings.
Method
This study is part of a wider randomised controlled trial. Eligible participants were 18 years old and above, who have LC, and attended a minimum of five LC-OHP sessions plus a booster session. We interviewed those randomised to the intervention group. Interviews were conducted by an independent researcher and thematically analysed to identify common, emerging themes. This study received ethical approval from the University and HRA ethics committees.
Results
Eleven participants were interviewed, mostly women of White British ethnicity (n=10). Five Four main themes were identified reflecting programme benefits and suggestions for improvement. The programme demonstrated potential for assisting patients in managing their LC, including physical health and mental wellbeing. Participants found the programme to be flexible and provided suggestions to adapting it for future users.
Conclusion
Findings support the acceptability of the LC-OHP to people living with LC. The programme has shown several benefits in supporting physical health and mental wellbeing. Suggestions made to further adapt the programme and improve its delivery will be considered for future trials.
Keywords
Long COVID, mental health, Optimal Health Programme, primary health care, feasibility study, qualitative research
Practitioner usage, applications, and understanding of wearable GPS and accelerometer technology in team sports
Get PDFMonitoring training load is essential for optimizing the performance of athletes, allowing practitioners to assess training programs, monitor athlete progress, and minimize the risk of injury and overtraining. However, there is no universal method for training load monitoring, and the adoption of wearable global positioning system (GPS) and accelerometer technology in team sports has increased the volume of data and therefore the number of possible approaches. This survey investigated the usage, applications, and understanding of this technology by team sports practitioners. Seventy-two practitioners involved in team and athlete performance monitoring using GPS and accelerometer technology completed the survey. All respondents reported supporting the use of GPS technology in their sport, with 70.8% feeling that GPS technology is important for success. Results showed 87.5% of respondents use data from wearable technology to inform training prescription, while only 50% use the data to influence decisions in competition. Additionally, results showed GPS metrics are used more than accelerometer-derived metrics, however both are used regularly. Discrepancies in accelerometer usage highlighted concerns about practitioners’ understanding of accelerometer-derived metrics. This survey gained insight into usage, application, understanding, practitioner needs, and concerns and criticisms surrounding the use of GPS and accelerometer metrics for athlete load monitoring. Such information can be used to improve the implementation of this technology in team sport monitoring, as well as highlight gaps in the literature that will help to design future studies to support practitioner needs
Translation and validation of Vietnamese version of the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R)
Get PDFBackground
The 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) is a quick and easy survey instrument recommended by the International Consortium for Health Outcome Measures as the tool of choice for measuring women’s birth satisfaction.
Aim
To translate and validate a Vietnamese-language version of the BSS-R.
Method
A quantitative cross-sectional method was used to gather data post translation and back-translation of a Vietnamese version of the BSS-R (VN-BSS-R). Data collected were psychometrically evaluated using key indices of validity and reliability.
Participants
Vietnamese women who were within one month postpartum of birth (N = 383) took part in the study.
Results
Findings illustrate that a two-factor model offered excellent psychometric properties. With the two-factor VN-BSS-R, five items loaded onto a subscale ‘Positive birth experiences’ and the other five onto a second subscale ‘Negative birth experiences’. This two-factor model offered a fit to data (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.07, 90% confidence interval [CI] [0.05, 0.09], root square mean residual [RMSE] = 0.04 and comparative fit index [CFI] = 0.97). Mean scores for the exploratory factor analysis [EFA]-derived ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ sub-scales were 17.12 (SD 2.34) and 8.40 (SD 4.18) respectively.
Conclusion
The translated and validated VN-BSS-R is a psychometrically robust tool for measuring birth satisfaction in Vietnamese postpartum women.
The VN-BSS-R is available for use to measure experiences and perceptions of intrapartum care received by Vietnamese women
“Are we sure that he knew that you don't want to have sex?”: Discursive constructions of the suspect in police interviews with rape complainants
Get PDFAbstract: Recent statistics reveal alarming flaws in the Criminal Justice System’s (CJS) handling of rape cases, undermining the pursuit of justice for complainants seeking legal redress. This paper takes a novel approach to exploring police rape stereotype use in interviews with rape complainants; utilising critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis and discursive psychology to understand and critique the balance of power within an interview, and how this might impact attrition and prosecution decisions. Ten police interviews with rape complainants were analysed with several suspect discursive constructions present throughout, including the interviewer constructing the suspect as misunderstanding, the complainant as miscommunicating non-consent, or agentless and passive talk. A significant and original finding was the way constructions interacted with the spectrum of stranger to partner rapes. In stranger rape cases passive language often obscured the suspect and emphasised complainant behavior. Acquaintance rapes frequently involved misunderstandings centred on visible distress and mixed signals. Partner rapes highlighted issues around consent and coercion, with officers often ignorant of coercive control and domestic abuse. These findings align with Operation Bluestone Soteria (OSB), thus the recommendations align with those made by OSB’s Pillar One
Co-developing an autism research funding application to facilitate ethical and participatory research: the autism from menstruation to menopause project
No full textWithin Autism research, many studies fail to meaningfully involve Autistic people. In this chapter, we report on the co-development of a successful funding application where we specifically aimed to involve Autistic people with and without relevant professional experience as partners from the outset and throughout the research. This includes how Aimee’s online consultation with Autistic people who had been pregnant resulted in a complete shift in the study’s boundaries from considering maternity only, to reproductive health across the life course. Next, we detail the in-depth discussions with Autistic community leaders (Kathryn and Willow) and an Autistic midwife (Karen) that shaped the study’s governance and research design prior to submission. Following this, we report the study’s approach to using creative research methods in an individually tailored way, and how this is an appropriate and ethical strategy when working with a heterogeneous group with differing communication needs and preferences for how they would like to take part in research. Finally, we then identify facilitators that may enable Autism researchers to co-develop ethical and participatory research funding applications. We conclude that participatory approaches which acknowledge Autistic strengths and centre the Autistic community have the best likelihood of the research benefitting Autistic people
The pay & conditions debate: what is the reality of the working environment in midwifery higher education?
Get PDFThis series of six articles is inspired by themes arising from the Royal College of Midwives (RCM 2023) State of Midwifery Education report. The series explores the current landscape and challenges in educating the future midwifery workforce, particularly those that relate to the Higher Education (HE) workforce itself. This fourth article in the series looks at what it’s really like to work in midwifery education vs as a midwife. The challenges associated with transition, remuneration, workload, casual working and the breadth of the midwifery education role are examined, particularly in comparison to other disciplines within higher education. We explore how educators can be better supported in their training of the future midwifery workforce, whilst assuring their own progression and equal treatment in an increasingly competitive and tightly regulated sector
The social learning account of trypophobia
Get PDFTrypophobia is the condition in which individuals report a range of negative emotions when viewing clusters of small holes. Since the phenomenon was first described in the peer-reviewed literature a decade ago, 47 papers have appeared together with hundreds of news articles. There has also been much discussion on various internet forums, including medical and health-related websites. In the present article, we examine the degree to which the phenomenon is caused by a form of social learning, specifically, its ubiquitous social media presence. We also examined its prevalence amongst the broad population. In Experiment 1 (n=2558) we assessed whether younger people and females, (i.e., greater social media users), are more sensitive to trypophobic stimuli, as predicted by the social media hypothesis. In Experiment 2 (n=283) we examined whether sensitivity to trypophobic stimuli and rates of trypophobia is greater in people who are aware of the condition’s existence, as opposed to those who have never heard of the phenomenon. In line with the social media theory, results showed that younger people and females are indeed more susceptible to trypophobia. However, 24% of trypophobic individuals have never heard of the condition. Overall, these data suggest that both social learning and non-social learning contributes to trypophobia. We also find that prevalence of trypophobia is approximately 10%
Fine-scale geographic difference of the endangered Big-headed Turtle ( Platysternon megacephalum ) fecal microbiota, and comparison with the syntopic Beale’s Eyed Turtle ( Sacalia bealei )
Get PDFBackground: Studies have elucidated the importance of gut microbiota for an organism, but we are still learning about the important influencing factors. Several factors have been identified in helping shape the microbiome of a host, and in this study we focus on two factors—geography and host. We characterize the fecal microbiota of the Big-headed Turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) and compare across a relatively fine geographic scale (three populations within an 8-km radius) and between two syntopic hosts (P. megacephalum and Sacalia bealei). Both species are endangered, which limits the number of samples we include in the study. Despite this limitation, these data serve as baseline data for healthy, wild fecal microbiotas of two endangered turtle species to aid in conservation management. Results: For geography, the beta diversity of fecal microbiota differed between the most distant sites. The genus Citrobacter significantly differs between sites, which may indicate a difference in food availability, environmental microbiota, or both. Also, we identify the common core microbiome for Platysternon across Hong Kong as the shared taxa across the three sites. Additionally, beta diversity differs between host species. Since the two species are from the same site and encounter the same environmental microbiota, we infer that there is a host effect on the fecal microbiota, such as diet or the recruitment of host-adapted bacteria. Lastly, functional analyses found metabolism pathways (KEGG level 1) to be the most common, and pathways (KEGG level 3) to be statistically significant between sites, but statistically indistinguishable between species at the same site. Conclusions: We find that fecal microbiota can significantly differ at a fine geographic scale and between syntopic hosts. Also, the function of fecal microbiota seems to be strongly affected by geographic site, rather than species. This study characterizes the identity and function of the fecal microbiota of two endangered turtle species, from what is likely their last remaining wild populations. These data of healthy, wild fecal microbiota will serve as a baseline for comparison and contribute to the conservation of these two endangered species