Randomized controlled trial of effectiveness of pedometers on general practitioners' attitudes to engagement in and promotion of physical activity

Abstract

Pedometers have been identified as a tool for health professionals to promote physical activity. This study, which aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of wearing a pedometer on general practitioners' attitudes to promoting physical activity, was a pragmatic, multi-centred, randomized controlled trial within a primary care trust in England. The participants were 102 general practitioners (GPs). Eighty-five (48 males, 37 females) of the GPs completed pre and post questionnaires, 43 of whom were in the intervention group. Statistical analysis revealed no significant changes between the control and intervention groups for attitude to engage in physical activity (t ₈₃ = 1.13, CI ?0.362 to 0.099) or attitude to promote physical activity in their patients (t ₈₃ = 1.7, CI ?0.593 to 0.045). A higher volume of walking was significantly correlated with a more positive attitude to engage in physical activity (r = 0.58, P < 0.01) but not with a more positive attitude to promoting physical activity. Wearing a pedometer had no significant effect on GPs' attitudes to engaging in physical activity or promoting physical activity in their patients.     

Running economy,mechanics, and marathon racing shoes

ABSTRACT

The choice of marathon racing shoes can greatly affect performance. The purpose of this study is to metabolically and mechanically compare the consumer version of the Nike Vaporfly 4% shoe to two other popular marathon shoes, and determine differences in running economy. Nineteen subjects performed two 5-minute trials at 4.44m/s wearing the Adidas Adios Boost (AB), Nike Zoom Streak (ZS), and Nike Vaporfly 4% (VP) in random order. Oxygen uptake was recorded during minutes 3–5 and averaged across both shoe trials. On a second day, subjects wore reflective markers, and performed a 3-minute trial in each shoe. Motion and force data were collected over the final 30 seconds of each trial. VP oxygen uptake was 2.8% and 1.9% lower than the AB and ZS. Stride length, plantar flexion velocity, and center of mass vertical oscillation were significantly different in the VP. The percent benefit of the VP over AB shoe was predicted by subject ground time. These results indicate that use of the VP shoe results in improved running economy, partially due to differences in running mechanics. Subject variation in running economy improvement is only partially explained by variation in ground time.     

Team-Referent Attributions Among Sport Performers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a team-referent attribution scale. Conducted over three studies, Study 1 modified items from McAuley, Duncan, and Russell's (1992) Causal Dimension Scale II by rewording items to reflect team attributions and adding one item per factor. This led to the development of a 16-item scale (Causal Dimension Scale-T, CDS-T). Study 2 tested competing models of attribution theory among a sample of 433 team sport players. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated strongest support for a four-factor model (robust comparative fit index = .961; root mean squared error of approximation = .054). Study 3 tested the predictive validity of the scale among a sample of 201 team players. Results indicated that winners reported more internal and stable attributions than losers. Further, performances perceived as successful were associated with stable attributions. The results of the study, therefore, suggest that the CDS-T provides a valid measure of team-referent attributions in sport.     

Collaborative learning online

The decision to offer a course by online delivery involves a range of issues relating to teaching/learning methodology, instructional design, and delivery software. This article describes the development of a Masters course that uses collaborative learning as the teaching/ learning method. The theoretical basis for collaborative learning is explained and related to instructional design for online delivery. Evaluation data from the first three subjects are included. These are based on questionnaires and content analysis of computer conferences. Evaluation data reveal issues that are important to successful outcomes using this way of teaching.     

Why Throw the Negs Out with the Bathwater? A Study of Students' Attitudes to Digital and Film Photographic Media

As today's digital applications hold our gaze and become increasingly ubiquitous, it is easy to dismiss the previous technologies and processes that provided yesterday's creative opportunities. Photography has been revolutionised by digital capture and transmission in the past decade. It could be argued that there is a digital orthodoxy in education, which has democratized and engaged increasing numbers of students, and has had a particular influence in A Level Photography. Over the past decade many traditional darkrooms have been replaced by computer suites. My concern is that if secondary schools and colleges with the facilities to teach film are forced to convert to a singular digital mode, we may be throwing the negs out with the bathwater. This study uses qualitative and quantitative research that I have undertaken at a Further Education college in England. It explores students' attitudes to learning Photography with an artistic curiosity, which includes experiential learners, and those that eschew the digital age who are content with the organic variety of analogue learning that film offers. They make their own case for maintaining the opportunity to learn through hybrid activity that embraces both media, for a multiplicity of learning opportunities and media that are not limited by any orthodoxy, digital or otherwise.     

Why Men Run

The philosophical groundwork of modern (naturalistic) physical education is based on the doctrines of dualism and empiricism—together, empiricistic dualism. Dualism has taught that the intellectual and physical aspects of our experience are qualitatively distinct substances. Empiricism has argued that all knowledge has its origin in, and takes the fundamental form of sensory experience, of experience rooted in bodily sensations. On first inspection, both dualism and empiricism give the impression of promoting a respectful regard for the body and its main expressions, including physical education. They tend to get physical education widely advocated and widely practiced. They do not, however, succeed in promoting a fully humanistic regard for physical education, and they thus prove ultimately unfavorable to its practice. Dualism stands in the way of a balanced interpretation of humanity's intellectual and physical parts; empiricism fails to account for the balanced contributions of reason and sense to human consciousness. The one-sided philosophical basis of modern physical education is therefore opposed to an authentically human practice of physical education and is in the greatest need of reformulation.     

Problems and Inconsistencies with Kolb's Learning Styles

Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) (1984) is frequently used within many areas of study and research as a method of assigning students to a given learning style. However, this paper argues that there are substantial problems with the theoretical foundations of his work. Anomalies are noted with the claimed relationship with Jung's styles (1977) and with Kolb's use of 'possibility processing' (Tyler, 1978). It is argued that these anomalies make it impossible for firm conclusions about the nature of Kolb's learning style to be made. Implications for the use of Kolb's learning styles are presented.     

A comparison of methods to determine bilateral asymmetries in vertical leg stiffness

Whilst the measurement and quantification of vertical leg stiffness (K_vert) asymmetry is of important practical relevance to athletic performance, literature investigating bilateral asymmetry in K_vert is limited. Moreover, how the type of task used to assess K_vert may affect the expression of asymmetry has not been properly determined. Twelve healthy males performed three types of performance tasks on a dual force plate system to determine K_vert asymmetries; the tasks were (a) bilateral hopping, (b) bilateral drop jumping and (c) unilateral drop jumping. Across all the three methods, K_vert was significantly different between compliant and stiff limbs (P < 0.001) with a significant interaction effect between limb and method (P = 0.005). Differences in K_vert between compliant and stiff limbs were ?5.3% (P < 0.001), ?21.8% (P = 0.007) and ?15.1% (P < 0.001) for the bilateral hopping, bilateral drop jumping and unilateral drop jumping methods, respectively. All the three methods were able to detect significant differences between compliant and stiff limbs, and could be used as a diagnostic tool to assess K_vert asymmetry. Drop jumping tasks detected larger K_vert asymmetries than hopping, suggesting that asymmetries may be expressed to a greater extent in acyclic, maximal performance tasks.