Non-professional runners make extensive use of consumer-available wearable devices and smartphone apps to monitor training sessions, health, and physical performance. Despite the popularity of these products, they usually neglect subjective factors, such as psychosocial stress, unexpected daily physical (in)activity, sleep quality perception, and/or previous injuries. Consequently, the implementation of these products may lead to underperformance, reduced motivation, and running-related injuries. This paper investigates how the integration of subjective training, off-training, and contextual factors from a 24/7 perspective might lead to better individual screening and health protection methods for recreational runners. Using an online-based Ecological Momentary Assessment survey, a seven-day cohort study was conducted. Twenty participants answered daily surveys three times a day regarding subjective off-training and contextual data; e.g., health, sleep, stress, training, environment, physiology, and lifestyle factors. The results show that daily habits of people are unstructured, unlikely predictable, and influenced by factors, such as the demands of work, social life, leisure time, or sleep. By merging these factors with sensor-based data, running-related systems would be able to better assess the individual workload of recreational runners and support them to reduce their risk of suffering from running-related injuries
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The aim was to report (1) the injury incidence in recreational runners in preparation for a 8-km or 16-km running event and (2) which factors were associated with an increased injury risk.
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Drug consumption estimates are of relevance because of public health effects as well as associated criminal activities. Wastewater analysis of drug residues enables the estimation of drug consumption and drug markets. Short-term and long-term trends of cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamine (speed) and methamphetamine (crystal meth), were studied for the city of Amsterdam. MDMA (+41%) and cocaine (+26%) showed significantly higher weekend vs. week consumption, while no differences were observed for the other drugs. The consumption of MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine significantly increased between 2011 and 2019. Weekly trends emerging from wastewater analyses were supported by qualitative and quantitative data from a recreational drug use monitoring scheme. However, information collected in panel interviews within nightlife networks and surveys among visitors of pubs, clubs and festivals only partially reflected the long term increase in consumption as registered from wastewater analysis. Furthermore, methamphetamine use was not well presented in survey data, panel studies and test service samples, but could be monitored trough wastewater analysis. This illustrates that wastewater analysis can function as an early warning if use and user groups are small or difficult to reach trough other forms of research. All in all, this study illustrates that wastewater-based epidemiology is complementary to research among user groups, and vice versa. These different types of information enable to connect observed trends in total drug consumption to behaviour of users and the social context in which the use takes place as well as validate qualitative signals about (increased) consumption of psychoactive substances. Such a multi angular approach to map the illicit drug situation on local or regional scale can provide valuable information for public health.
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The last decades have seen an increase in the use of illicit recreational drugs. In this article we take a detailed look at the current state of normalisation of the three most popular illicit recreational drugs among Dutch university students in the Netherlands (MDMA/Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine) by zooming in on five established aspects of normalisation and expanding on one of those aspects: social accomodation, by adding a behavioural subcomponent (setting of use). For this purpose, we used quantitative data, obtained from four studies (2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020) among Dutch university students in a prototypical university city in the Netherlands (Groningen). Results show that three aspects of normalisation are clearly observable. The drugs are perceived as highly accessible, the last year prevalence of use is high, and experimenting, especially with MDMA/Ecstasy, is common. Accurate knowledge of the drugs and acceptance of occasional use, account in some measure for social accommodation. However, as students do not talk openly about their drug use with everyone in their environment, one cannot speak of cultural accommodation. Thus, although clear signs of normalisation of illicit recreational drugs, especially MDMA/Ecstasy, are observable among Dutch university students, there is no full-scale normalisation of these drugs.
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This study aims to help professionals in the field of running and running-related technology (i.e., sports watches and smartphone applications) to address the needs of runners. It investigates the various runner types—in terms of their attitudes, interests, and opinions (AIOs) with regard to running—and studies how they differ in the technology they use. Data used in this study were drawn from the standardized online Eindhoven Running Survey 2016 (ERS2016). In total, 3723 participants completed the questionnaire. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to identify the different running types, and crosstabs obtained insights into the use of technology between different typologies. Based on the AIOs, four distinct runner types were identified: casual individual, social competitive, individual competitive, and devoted runners. Subsequently, we related the types to their use of sports watches and apps. Our results show a difference in the kinds of technology used by different runner types. Differentiation between types of runners can be useful for health professionals, policymakers involved in public health, engineers, and trainers or coaches to adapt their services to specific segments, in order to make use of the full potential of running-related systems to support runners to stay active and injury-free and contribute to a healthy lifestyle.
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Background: Since 2000, the prevalence of recreational nitrous oxide (N 2O) use has increased in the Western world. Although N 2O is a relatively safe drug, the overall increase in the use of N 2O has concomitantly also initiated a modest but important increase in the number of young excessive users. The recent introduction of large 2 kg N 2O tanks, allowing high and prolonged dosing, has facilitated this excessive use. This is of concern, because repeated exposure to high doses of N 2O for a prolonged time is known to induce neurological damage, such as (irreversible) neuropathy and paralysis due to N 2O-induced vitamin B 12 deficiency. The increasing trend of recreational users with N 2O-induced neurological damage at emergency departments confirms the urgency of this development. Objective/Methods: This narrative review describes recent trends in N 2O use and misuse, the adverse health effects associated with excessive use and the risk factors of excessive use. Results: Considering the rising trend in N 2O use, particularly among young and other vulnerable people, we propose to take legislative action to limit the availability of N 2O, and also advocate for better and timely education of non-users, users and medical professionals about the serious side-effects associated with excessive N 2O use. Conclusion: It is concluded that the increase in excessive N 2O use is of serious concern.
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The recreational use of nitrous oxide (N2O; laughing gas) has largely expanded in recent years. Although incidental use of nitrous oxide hardly causes any health damage, problematic or heavy use of nitrous oxide can lead to serious adverse effects. Amsterdam care centres noticed that Moroccan–Dutch young adults reported neurological symptoms, including severe paralysis, as a result of problematic nitrous oxide use. In this qualitative exploratory study, thirteen young adult Moroccan–Dutch excessive nitrous oxide users were interviewed. The determinants of problematic nitrous oxide use in this ethnic group are discussed, including their low treatment demand with respect to nitrous oxide abuse related medical–psychological problems. Motives for using nitrous oxide are to relieve boredom, to seek out relaxation with friends and to suppress psychosocial stress and negative thoughts. Other motives are depression, discrimination and conflict with friends or parents. The taboo culture surrounding substance use—mistrust, shame and macho culture—frustrates timely medical/psychological treatment of Moroccan–Dutch problematic nitrous oxide users. It is recommended to use influencers in media campaigns with the aim to decrease the risks of heavy nitrous oxide use and improve treatment access. Outreach youth workers can also play an important role in motivating socially isolated users to seek medical and or psychological help.
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In dit artikel wordt gekeken naar de relatie tussen het gebruik van mobiele applicaties en fysieke activiteit en gezonde leefstijl. Dit is gedaan op basis van een vragenlijst onder deelnemers aan een hardloopevenement, de Dam tot Damloop. Er werden aparte analyses gedaan voor 8km lopers en 16 km lopers. Een positieve relatie werd gevonden tussen app gebruik en meer bewegen en zich gezonder voelen. App gebruik was ook positief gerelateerd aan beter voelen over zichzelf, je voelen als een atleet, anderen motiveren om te gaan hardlopen en afvallen. Voor de 16 km lopers was app gebruik gerelateerd aan gezonder eten, zich meer energieker voelen en een hogere kans om het sportgedrag vol te houden. De resultaten van dit onderzoek laten zien dat app gebruik mogelijk een ondersteunende rol kunnen hebben in de voorbereiding op een hardloopevenemen, aangezien het gezondheid en fysieke activiteit stimuleert.
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Background: A large number of people participate in individual or unorganized sports on a recreational level. Furthermore, many participants drop out because of injury or lowered motivation. Potentially, physical activity–related apps could motivate people during sport participation and help them to follow and maintain a healthy active lifestyle. It remains unclear what the quality of running, cycling, and walking apps is and how it can be assessed. Quality of these apps was defined as having a positive influence on participation in recreational sports. This information will show which features need to be assessed when rating physical activity–related app quality. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify expert perception on which features are important for the effectiveness of physical activity–related apps for participation in individual, recreational sports. Methods: Data were gathered via an expert panel approach using the nominal group technique. Two expert panels were organized to identify and rank app features relevant for sport participation. Experts were researchers or professionals in the field of industrial design and information technology (technology expert panel) and in the field of behavior change, health, and human movement sciences who had affinity with physical activity–related apps (health science expert panel). Of the 24 experts who were approached, 11 (46%) agreed to participate. Each panel session consisted of three consultation rounds. The 10 most important features per expert were collected. We calculated the frequency of the top 10 features and the mean importance score per feature (0-100). The sessions were taped and transcribed verbatim; a thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data. Results: In the technology expert panel, applied feedback and feedforward (91.3) and fun (91.3) were found most important (scale 0-100). Together with flexibility and look and feel, these features were mentioned most often (all n=4 [number of experts]; importance scores=41.3 and 43.8, respectively). The experts in the health science expert panels a and b found instructional feedback (95.0), motivating or challenging (95.0), peer rating and use (92.0), motivating feedback (91.3), and monitoring or statistics (91.0) most important. Most often ranked features were monitoring or statistics, motivating feedback, works good technically, tailoring starting point, fun, usability anticipating or context awareness, and privacy (all n=3-4 [number of experts]; importance scores=16.7-95.0). The qualitative analysis resulted in four overarching themes: (1) combination behavior change, technical, and design features needed; (2) extended feedback and tailoring is advised; (3) theoretical or evidence base as standard; and (4) entry requirements related to app use. Conclusions: The results show that a variety of features, including design, technical, and behavior change, are considered important for the effectiveness of physical activity–related apps by experts from different fields of expertise. These insights may assist in the development of an improved app rating scale.
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