Mass media representations of the evidence as a possible deterrent to recommending exercise for the treatment of depression: Lessons five years after the extraordinary case of TREAD-UK

Exercise or physical activity are recommended options within stepped-care treatment models for depression. However, few physicians present these options to patients, in part because of the impression that the supporting evidence is weak or inconsistent. We speculate that the coocurrence of “counter-messaging” and deficient critical appraisal may lead to such impressions. We focus on TREAD-UK (ISRCTN16900744), the largest trial to investigate “whether physical activity can be an effective treatment for depression within primary care”. In media statements, researchers declared that exercise was ineffective in lowering depression. We examined (a) the results of the trial, critiques, and rejoinders, (b) the impact on internet searches, and (c) whether TREAD-UK was critically appraised, as reflected in citing articles. We show that the results of TREAD-UK were misrepresented. The media campaign resulted in a fourfold increase in relevant internet searches. Of articles characterising the results, 57% adopted the interpretation that exercise failed to lower depression, whereas only 17% were critiques. We identify similarities to media portrayals of the OPERA (ISRCTN43769277), DEMO (NCT00103415), and DEMO-II trials (NCT00695552). We note a disconcerting trend of media campaigns that misrepresent the effects of exercise on depression and call for increased scrutiny in peer reviewing both pre- and post-publication.     

Ethnography and the Italian Ultrà

Abstract

I was enthralled by the energy at the stadium. I was captivated by the visual choreography and visceral energy of fans chanting, jumping and shouting together. For me, the anonymous individuals at the stadium were the spectacle. In graduate school, I learned systematic approaches to research, but the tools of analysis never interested me as much as the thing itself – the social life that occurs in and around a stadium. My goal was to get to the heart of football fandom in Rome, plain and simple. Ultimately, I tried to conceptualize the culture, and wrap my findings into an academic narrative that expresses how important fandom is to the people in the stands. Football fandom is about passion that transcends rationality, and makes life more meaningful for those who partake. The question of how to articulate that phenomenon is an open one. This essay grapples with that question.     

The role of online communities of practice in promoting sociotechnical capital among science teachers

This study explores the diffusion of Web 2.0 technologies among science educators and the ways that these technologies are used to build teacher professional communities of practice (CoP) in life sciences and physical sciences. We used surveys and web analytics collected over a 21-month period to examine factors that motivate teachers to collaborate in these CoPs and the extent to which collaborative participation contributes to the development of sociotechnical capital and job outcomes, such as instructional practices and self-efficacy for science instruction. Results showed that only the lack of co-located peers at teachers’ schools predicted CoP participation. Participation did not predict job outcomes, but it did predict some aspects of sociotechnical capital, such as a cohesive climate and situated knowledge. In addition, sociotechnical capital was associated with job outcomes, including use of inquiry-based instruction, use of inquiry-based classroom activities and teacher self-efficacy. The lack of effect of most of the antecedent variables in predicting participation and the relatively minor role of participation in contributing to sociotechnical capital and job outcomes may be explained by floor effects on participation due to infrequent and ephemeral engagement of CoP members. Although participation rates were generally low, the positive association of participation with sociotechnical capital as well as generally favorable ratings of sociotechnical constructs suggest that online CoPs may have value for distributed science educators. Future research should address whether persistent participation by individuals is needed to build and sustain sociotechnical capital in online CoPs and to enhance development of participants’ teaching attitudes/practices.     

Childhood aerobic fitness predicts cognitive performance one year later

Abstract

Aerobically fit children outperform less fit peers on cognitive control challenges that involve inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The aim of this study was to determine whether, compared with less fit children, more fit 9- and 10-year-old pre-adolescents exhibit superior performance on a modified compatible and incompatible flanker task of cognitive control at the initial time of fitness testing and approximately one year later. We found that more fit children demonstrated increased flanker accuracy at both test sessions, coupled with a superior ability to flexibly allocate strategies during task conditions that required different amounts of cognitive control, relative to less fit children. More fit children also gained a speed benefit at follow-up testing. Structural MRI data were also collected to investigate the relationship between basal ganglia volume and task performance. Bilateral putamen volumes of the dorsal striatum and globus pallidus volumes predicted flanker performance at initial and follow-up testing one year later. The present findings suggest that childhood aerobic fitness and basal ganglia volumes relate to cognitive control at the time of fitness testing and may play a role in cognitive performance in the future. We hope that this research will encourage public health and educational changes that will promote a physically active lifestyle in children.     

The Relation of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury to Chronic Lapses of Attention

We assessed the extent to which failures in sustained attention were associated with chronic mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) deficits in cognitive control among college-age young adults with and without a history of sport-related concussion. Participants completed the ImPACT computer-based assessment and a modified flanker task. Results indicated that a history of mTBI, relative to healthy controls, was associated with inferior overall flanker task performance with a greater number of omission errors and more frequent sequentially occurring omission errors. Accordingly, these findings suggest that failures in the ability to maintain attentional vigilance may, in part, underlie mTBI-related cognition deficits.     

Loves,Suffering and Identification: the Passions of Australian Football League Fans

The people of Melbourne are renowned for their ‘football fever’, yet this fever is under-studied. This paper addresses this fever by exploring the loves, suffering, and strange identifications of Australian Football League fans. Building on and complicating Freud's theories of group psychology, I argue that love, or rather two loves, are at the heart of the experience of being a fan. Fans love their club in a manner that incorporates the club into their sense of self, with the club becoming an ideal that is to be served. This love facilitates a particular form of identification where fans experience the club's trials, tribulations and triumphs, as if they too were being subjected to them. Moreover, in identifying with their club through love, the fan also takes on a second love, that of the club's object of desire, the elusive premiership. This is the love of the conquest and pursuit, a love that entails pain and suffering.     

Diamonds,ovals, and rings: Northwestern shoshone sports at the Washakie colony of Northern Utah, 1903–1929

During the first quarter of the twentieth century Northwestern Shoshone from the Washakie Indian Colony of northern Utah competed with their white neighbours in sporting contests. These events were recorded by white news reporters and, even more conspicuously, by a Shoshone journalist named Willie Ottogary. For 23 years Ottogary reported the daily highlights, struggles, successes and sporting events of his people. His social column was published in several newspapers of northern Utah and southern Idaho. Living descendants of the Washakie, Utah, group provide another key source of information on sporting activities engaged in by the Northwestern Shoshone. These three key sources are combined for the first time, in this essay, to bring to light the fascinating stories of Shoshone athletics from 1903 to 1929.     

The Rise of Athletic Masculinity at the Carlisle Indian School, 1904–1913

Following the dismissal of Captain Richard Pratt from the position of superintendent in 1904, the Carlisle Indian School entered a new era. The school became more focused on vocational education and moved away from offering immediate civilisation to the students. The school even promoted Indian arts and crafts. This move was also reflected in sport at Carlisle. The school became determined to construct a successful athletic programme. This resulted in the rise of masculine gamesmanship among the athletes. This, combined with racial pride, formed the basis of the athletes' manhood in the post-Pratt era. Yet, despite the demonstration of superior masculinity through victories, the school still positioned the students as subordinate to white men. The players were portrayed as comparatively unintelligent; they were apparently incapable of actually coaching the team.     

Comparison of the prevalence and treatment of hypertension in two populations in the United States: Masters swimmers versus the NHANES population

Abstract

This research compares the prevalence of hypertension in a group of adult masters swimmers with an age and sex matched cohort from the 2008 NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey), used to represent the general population in the United States. Masters swimmer data were obtained from a one-time survey of all United States Masters Swimming (USMS) members. Both datasets included demographics, drug therapy, diseases and health status. Characteristics of swimming sessions as well as perceptions of impact of medications on exercise were also collected from the USMS respondents. Of 1346 completed surveys from USMS respondents, 15.8% self-identified as having hypertension while 36.2% participants in the NHANES survey suffered from hypertension (P < 0.001). The two groups were well matched for age and gender but the USMS group was primarily Caucasian, higher income, higher education, and reported higher health status. In the USMS group, not only was hypertension less prevalent but those who suffered from hypertension took fewer medications (P = 0.04) to manage their hypertension than in the NHANES group. Additionally, The USMS group suffering from hypertension considered themselves healthier (P < 0.001) than the NHANES group.