1,721,221 research outputs found
The long term effects and sustainability of supervised exercise therapy in the treatment of intermittent claudication
Full text linkBackground: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), affects 10-20% of people over the age of 70. The causal risk factors include cigarette smoking and diabetes. It is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality and its social and economic implications are staggering. Exercise therapy has been proven to be an effective first line therapy for treating the primary symptom of PAD, Intermittent Claudication (IC). The addition of supervision to this therapy has resulted in superior clinical improvement in the short term. However, the long term clinical and behavioural impact of supervised exercise therapy remains unevaluated. Methodology: A systematic review, in accordance with the Cochrane Guidelines, was performed to examine the evidence on the sustained clinical and behavioural effects of supervised exercise therapy (SET) in the treatment of intermittent claudication. Results: The review was limited by the quality and the number of studies that met the criteria. Only three small-scaled studies were identified. The evidence suggests that the superior short-term improvements in claudication markers induced by SET are sustained for as long as six months post-trial. There was a paucity of evidence on the long term behavioural as well as the quality of life impact of SET. As a result of the findings of the systematic review, a protocol for a randomized controlled clinical trial “The Get SET Go Study!” was designed to more effectively evaluate the short and long term clinical and behavioural impact SET on patients with IC. A cost effectiveness analysis was integrated within the trial protocol to ensure that SET sustainability was more completely addressed. Conclusion: The conclusions of the review were limited by the number and quality of the trials reviewed. The evidence available does suggest that the superior clinical effects of SET appear to be sustained in the long term up until six months following rehabilitation. There was insufficient evidence to conclude on behavioural modifications and improvements, if any in the Quality of Life. The by-product of the review-“The Get SET Go Study!” randomized controlled trial protocol should be implemented to determine the long term value and cost effectiveness of SET in the management of patients with intermittent claudication
A systematic review of how researchers characterize the school environment in determining its effect on student obesity
No full textBackground: obesity in early childhood is a robust predictor of obesity later in life. Schools provide unparalleled access to children and have subsequently become major intervention sites. However, empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of school-based interventions against childhood obesity is of limited scope and unknown quality. The aim of this systematic review is to critically assess how researchers have characterized the school environment in determining its effect on childhood weight status in order to improve the quality and consistency of research in this area. We conducted a narrative review with a systematic search of the literature in line with PRISMA guidelines (2009). Original peer-reviewed research articles in English were searched from Medline, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL and PsycINFO databases from earliest record to January 2014. We included empirical research that reported at least one measure of the primary/elementary school environment and its relationship with at least one objective adiposity-related variable for students aged 4-12 years. Two authors independently extracted data on study design, school-level factors, student weight status, type of analysis and effect.Results: five studies met the inclusion criteria. Each study targeted different parts of the school environment and findings across the studies were not comparable. The instruments used to collect school-level data report no validity or reliability testing.Conclusions: our review shows that researchers have used instruments of unknown quality to test if the school environment is a determinant of childhood obesity, which raises broader questions about the impact that schools can play in obesity prevention.</p
Drug using offenders’ beliefs and preferences about physical activity : implications for future interventions
No full textThe health benefits of regular physical activity are well established and there may be additional benefits for drug users. Given the economic, social and health costs of illegal drug use, interventions which effectively help individuals to reduce or stop their drug use are important. This qualitative study explored general understandings of physical activity by drug using offenders and perceived opportunities and barriers to achieving an active lifestyle in both the community and prison.We conducted four focus groups with
28 participants: 14 drug-using offenders and 14 prison staff. The reasons why drug users participate in physical activity in prison and the community were similar: to meet people, to look better, and to promote health. There were several barriers to participation in physical activity: lack of motivation, ill health, and body consciousness. Specific barriers in the community included expense, distance, and child-care issues. In prison, barriers included limited staffing, a lack of time, and short sentences. The findings provide important insights into drug using offenders’ beliefs and preferences regarding physical activity. Intervention strategies designed to increase participation in the general population may be appropriate for this group but issues specific to the prison environment and to gender should be considered
The Effectiveness of Interventions on Sustained Childhood Physical Activity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Studies
No full textBackground
Increased physical activity (PA) has been associated with a reduction in non-communicable disease risk factors and outcomes. However, interventions to increase childhood PA typically produce small to negligible effects. Recent reviews are limited due to lack of post-intervention follow-up measurement. This review aimed to examine measured effects at least six months post-intervention.
Methods and Findings
We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, ScienceDirect, SportDiscus and Google Scholar between 1st January 1991 and 1st November 2014 for controlled studies reporting six-month post-intervention measurement for children aged 5 to 18 years. 14 studies met inclusion criteria; 12 reported moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) (n = 5790) and 10 reported total PA (TPA) (n = 4855). We calculated overall effect estimates and 95% CI’s using random effects modelling with inverse variance weighting. Mean difference was calculated for MVPA, with standardised mean difference calculated to TPA due to measurement variation. Meta-regression assessed heterogeneity by continuous level variables. Negligible mean difference in MVPA existed in favour of the intervention group, amounting to 1.47 (95% CI -1.88, 4.82) mins/day compared to controls, while no difference was recorded on TPA. Sub-group analyses revealed males (2.65 mins/day: 95% CI 2.03, 3.27) reported higher levels of MVPA than females (-0.42 mins/day: 95% CI -7.77, 6.94), community settings (2.67 mins/day: 95% CI 2.05, 3.28) were more effective than school settings (1.70 mins/day: 95% CI -4.84, 8.25), and that treatment (4.47 mins/day: 95% CI -0.81, 9.76) demonstrated greater effects than population approaches (1.03 mins/day: 95% CI -2.54, 4.60). Meta-regression revealed no significant differences by factor on pooled effects. Significant heterogeneity existed between studies and potential for small study effects was present.
Conclusions
Improved PA levels subsequent to intervention were not maintained six month post-intervention. A potentially useful avenue of future research is to specifically explore community treatment of high risk individuals
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Bewegungsförderung : evidenzen und perspektiven
No full textAngesichts der gut dokumentierten gesundheitlichen Konsequenzen körperlicher Inaktivität besteht ein wachsendes Interesse an der Förderung regelmäßiger körperlicher Aktivität und an entsprechenden Interventionen. Die wissenschaftliche Evidenz hinsichtlich der Effektivität von Interventionen zur Änderung des körperlichen Aktivitätsverhaltens Erwachsener lässt sich anhand der Ergebnisse randomisierter Kontrolluntersuchungen einschätzen.\ud
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Interventionsansätze zur Förderung der körperlichen Aktivität lassen sich dabei voneinander unterschieden in:\ud
• Individuumsbezogene Interventionen\ud
• Bevölkerungsbezogene Interventionen\ud
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Die nachfolgende Zusammenfassung bietet einen ersten Überblick über die Evidenzlage zu beiden Ansätzen. Vorliegende Forschungsergebnisse werden miteinander verglichen und die forschungsbezogenen sowie praktischen Stärken, aber auch Schwächen der entsprechenden Interventionsansätze werden aufgezeigt
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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