Research question: The current study investigates the income elasticities and socio-economic determinants of direct and indirect sports expenditure categories by means of a log normal hurdle regression. Research methods: The data stem from a representative sample of 3005 Flemish families with school-aged children, gathered through a sports-specific survey. A log normal hurdle regression was used to calculate the determining factors and expenditure elasticities of expenditure on sports participation. Results and findings: The results indicate that income, education and the age of the youngest child are positively related to almost all sports expenditure categories, while the number of family members and degree of urbanisation are significant for only a number of the expenditure categories. The elasticity value of the direct sports expenses is smaller than is the case for indirect sports expenditure. Between the expenditure categories large differences exist, as relatively large elasticities are found for sports holidays, transport and sports food and drinks, as opposed to low values of sports events, sports club membership, entrance fees for sports infrastructure, sports camps, clothing, footwear and equipment. Implications: The fact that income significantly influences all expenditure categories demonstrates that further policy intervention is required to make sports consumption more accessible to lower income groups. Sports enterprises and policymakers need to be aware that negative income shifts have a more profound impact on the indirect expenditure categories, and that certain sports activities (e.g. participation events) are relatively more favoured by low-income groups than is the case for sports club membership
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Toenemende prevalentie van overgewicht en obesitas onder jeugd wordt, in ieder geval ten dele, veroorzaakt door te weinig fysieke activiteit. Omdat ieder kind een groot deel van zijn of haar jeugdige leven op school doorbrengt kunnen scholen een centrale rol spelen in het tegengaan van deze bewegingsarmoede. Het meest voor de hand liggende schoolvak lijkt hierbij de lichamelijke opvoeding1 (LO) te zijn. De belangrijkste doelstelling van het schoolvak LO is immers om leerlingen dusdanig te motiveren en enthousiast te maken voor sport en bewegen zodat dit uiteindelijk resulteert in een actieve leefstijl, zowel buiten school als in het verdere leven. Daarnaast is LO tevens het enige verplichte schoolvak waar fysieke activiteit een centrale plek inneemt; de les zelf is in potentie ook een structurele bron van fysieke activiteit. Globaal gezien kan LO dus op een indirecte en een directe manier bijdragen aan de fysieke activiteit van leerlingen, een tweedeling die werd geïntroduceerd in hoofdstuk 1. Waar echter tot op heden onduidelijkheid over bestaat, zeker wat betreft de Nederlandse situatie, is hoe groot de bijdrage van de LO aan dagelijkse fysieke activiteit feitelijk is. De vraag die daarom centraal staat in dit proefschrift is in hoeverre het vak LO, zoals dat op dit moment gegeven wordt op basis- en voortgezet onderwijs, een bijdrage levert aan de fysieke activiteit van kinderen en adolescenten, zowel direct (de les als bron van fysieke activiteit), als indirect (motivatie voor een actieve leefstijl). Voor de beantwoording van deze vraag zijn een aantal studies uitgevoerd. Allereerst is in hoofdstuk 2 door middel van een literatuurstudie onderzocht in hoeverre interventies met een LO-component effectief zijn in het stimuleren van fysieke activiteit. Hieruit blijkt dat er alleen overtuigend bewijs bestaat voor een directe bijdrage van de les LO aan de fysieke activiteit van kinderen en adolescenten. Oftewel, in de les LO zelf wordt er matig-tot-intensief bewogen. De effecten van interventies met een LO component op de fysieke activiteit buiten school of in het latere leven zijn minder overtuigend of zelfs afwezig. In hoofdstuk 3 wordt een cross-sectionele studie beschreven waarin middels het combineren van gegevens vanuit een hartslag-versnellingsmeter met de gegevens uit een activiteitendagboek voor het eerst inzicht verkregen wordt in de daadwerkelijke bijdrage van een reguliere les LO (naast andere fysieke activiteiten zoals fietsen) aan de totale dagelijkse fysieke activiteit van middelbare scholieren. De resultaten wijzen uit dat 17% van de totale hoeveelheid beweging onder schooltijd zijn oorsprong vindt in de lessen LO en dat op dagen dat een leerling een les LO heeft, deze les verantwoordelijk is voor ongeveer 30% van de totale fysieke activiteit op die dag. Opvallend is daarnaast dat 15% van de totale fysieke activiteit op een weekdag zijn oorsprong vindt in het actief transport naar school, voornamelijk fietsen. Hoofdstuk 4 beschrijft een studie waarin de focus ligt op de intensiteit van lessen LO in het voortgezet onderwijs (VO) en het basisonderwijs (BO). Tevens is gekeken naar factoren die de intensiteit van een les beïnvloeden. De resultaten wijzen uit dat 47% en 40% van een les LO op respectievelijk het VO en het BO voldoet aan de intensiteit van bewegen zoals omschreven in de Nederlandse Norm voor Gezond Bewegen (matig-tot-intensief fysiek actief). Dit komt overeen met ongeveer een derde van de dagelijks aanbevolen hoeveelheid beweging voor deze doelgroep. Opvallend is dat op het VO jongens significant actiever zijn tijdens de lessen LO dan meisjes. Dit verschil blijkt zijn oorsprong te hebben in lessen waarin competitieve spelvormen (basketbal, voetbal etc.) centraal staan. Mogelijkerwijs verhindert de dominantie van jongens tijdens spelvormen dat meisjes in een les even actief kunnen zijn als jongens. Dit is een serieuze beperking van de mate waarin een les LO kan bijdragen aan het totale beweeggedrag van meisjes, gezien het feit dat ongeveer 60% van het Nederlandse LO curriculum uit (veelal competitieve) spelvormen bestaat.
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BACKGROUND: Ambulatory children with Spina Bifida (SB) often show a decline in physical activity leading to deconditioning and functional decline. Therefore, assessment and promotion of physical activity is important. Because energy expenditure during activities is higher in these children, the use of existing pediatric equations to predict physical activity energy expenditure (PAEE) may not be valid. AIMS: (1) To evaluate criterion validity of existing predictions converting accelerocounts into PAEE in ambulatory children with SB and (2) to establish new disease-specific equations for PAEE. METHODS: Simultaneous measurements using the Actical, the Actiheart, and indirect calorimetry took place to determine PAEE in 26 ambulatory children with SB. DATA ANALYSIS: Paired T-tests, Intra-class correlations limits of agreement (LoA), and explained variance (R2) were used to analyze validity of the prediction equations using true PAEE as criterion. New equations were derived using regression techniques. RESULTS: While T-tests showed no significant differences for some models, the predictions developed in healthy children showed moderate ICC’s and large LoA with true PAEE. The best regression models to predict PAEE were: PAEE = 174.049 + 3.861 × HRAR – 60.285 × ambulatory status (R2 = 0.720) and PAEE = 220.484 + 0.67 × Actical counts – 60.717 × ambulatory status (R2 = 0.681). CONCLUSIONS: Existing equations to predict PAEE are not valid for use in children with SB for the individual evaluation of PAEE. The best regression model was based on HRAR in combination with ambulatory status, followed by a new model for the Actical monitor. A benefit of HRAR is that it does not require the use of expensive accelerometry equipment. Further cross-validation of these models is still needed.
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Athlete impairment level is an important factor in wheelchair mobility performance (WMP) in sports. Classification systems, aimed to compensate impairment level effects on performance, vary between sports. Improved understanding of resemblances and differences in WMP between sports could aid in optimizing the classification methodology. Furthermore, increased performance insight could be applied in training and wheelchair optimization. The wearable sensor-based wheelchair mobility performance monitor (WMPM) was used to measure WMP of wheelchair basketball, rugby and tennis athletes of (inter-)national level during match-play. As hypothesized, wheelchair basketball athletes show the highest average WMP levels and wheelchair rugby the lowest, whereas wheelchair tennis athletes range in between for most outcomes. Based on WMP profiles, wheelchair basketball requires the highest performance intensity, whereas in wheelchair tennis, maneuverability is the key performance factor. In wheelchair rugby, WMP levels show the highest variation comparable to the high variation in athletes’ impairment levels. These insights could be used to direct classification and training guidelines, with more emphasis on intensity for wheelchair basketball, focus on maneuverability for wheelchair tennis and impairment-level based training programs for wheelchair rugby. Wearable technology use seems a prerequisite for further development of wheelchair sports, on the sports level (classification) and on individual level (training and wheelchair configuration).
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Background: Although the general assumption is that patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have decreased levels of physical activity, no review has addressed whether this assumption is correct. Methods: Our objective was to systematically review the literature for physical activity levels and aerobic capacity (VO2max). in patients with (RA), compared to healthy controls and a reference population. Studies investigating physical activity, energy expenditure or aerobic capacity in patients with RA were included. Twelve studies met our inclusion criteria. Results: In one study that used doubly labeled water, the gold standard measure, physical activity energy expenditure of patients with RA was significantly decreased. Five studies examined aerobic capacity. Contradictory evidence was found that patients with RA have lower VO2max than controls, but when compared to normative values, patients scored below the 10th percentile. In general, it appears that patients with RA spend more time in light and moderate activities and less in vigorous activities than controls. Conclusion: Patients with RA appear to have significantly decreased energy expenditure, very low aerobic capacity compared to normative values and spend less time in vigorous activities than controls
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Injuries and lack of motivation are common reasons for discontinuation of running. Real-time feedback from wearables can reduce discontinuation by reducing injury risk and improving performance and motivation. There are however several limitations and challenges with current real-time feedback approaches. We discuss these limitations and challenges and provide a framework to optimise real-time feedback for reducing injury risk and improving performance and motivation. We first discuss the reasons why individuals run and propose that feedback targeted to these reasons can improve motivation and compliance. Secondly, we review the association of running technique and running workload with injuries and performance and we elaborate how real-time feedback on running technique and workload can be applied to reduce injury risk and improve performance and motivation. We also review different feedback modalities and motor learning feedback strategies and their application to real-time feedback. Briefly, the most effective feedback modality and frequency differ between variables and individuals, but a combination of modalities and mixture of real-time and delayed feedback is most effective. Moreover, feedback promoting perceived competence, autonomy and an external focus can improve motivation, learning and performance. Although the focus is on wearables, the challenges and practical applications are also relevant for laboratory-based gait retraining.
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The objective of this study is to investigate the heart rate (HR) accuracy measured at the wrist with the photoplethysmography (PPG) technique with a Fitbit Charge 2 (Fitbit Inc) in wheelchair users with spinal cord injury, how the activity intensity affects the HR accuracy, and whether this HR accuracy is affected by lesion level.
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Free newspapers may offer different news contents to different audiences, when compared with traditional, paid-for newspapers, but they, nevertheless, concentrate on news, and thereby provide society with information on current affairs. These papers have seen circulation rise until 2008; after that, a decline set in, leading to closures and often a monopoly situation in the mature European newspaper markets covered in our research. Free newspapers seem to follow a typical life cycle pattern, moving from growth to maturity, and to saturation and decline. Diversification strategies – home-delivery, weekend, sports, afternoon, and financial – have been disappointing so far. There is no evidence, however, of total extinction, indicating that there is room for at least one title – possibly two – in every market. The situation in the surveyed markets also suggests that a free newspaper may be a ‘natural’ monopoly.
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In this thesis we analyzed clinimetric measurement properties of physical fitness tests in wheelchair-using youth with SB. Furthermore, the amount of physical behavior in wheelchair-using youth with SB was quantified and associations with age, gender, VO2peak and Hoffer classification were evaluated. Finally, we described the factors associated with physical behavior in youth with SB and youth with physical disabilities, after which the evidence of interventions to improve physical behavior in youth with physical disabilities was analyzed. This last chapter presents the theoretical and clinical implications. At the end, methodological considerations and directions for further research will be discussed after which the overall conclusion is presented.
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Introduction Physical activity is suggested to be important for low back pain (LBP) but a major problem is the limited validity of the measurement of physical activities, which is usually based on questionnaires. Physical fitness can be viewed as a more objective measurement and our question was how physical activity based on self-reports and objective measured levels of physical fitness were associated with LBP. Materials and methods We analyzed cross-sectional data of 1,723 police employees. Physical activity was assessed by questionnaire (SQUASH) measuring type of activity, intensity, and time spent on these activities. Physical fitness was based on muscular dynamic endurance capacity and peak oxygen uptake (VO2 peak). Severe LBP, interfering with functioning, was defined by pain ratings C4 on a scale of 0–10. Results Higher levels of physical fitness, both muscularand aerobic, were associated with less LBP (OR: 0.54; 95%CI: 0.34–0.86, respectively, 0.59: 95%CI: 0.35–0.99). For self-reported physical activity, both a low and a high level of the total physical activity pattern were associated with an increase of LBP (OR: 1.52; 95%CI: 1.00–2.31, respectively, 1.60; 95%CI: 1.05–2.44). Conclusion These findings suggest that physical activity of an intensity that improves physical fitness may be important in the prevention of LBP
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