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.     

Heart rate prescribed walking training improves cardiorespiratory fitness but not glycaemic control in people with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of a supervised, heart rate intensity prescribed walking training programme on cardiorespiratory fitness and glycaemic control in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. After receiving local ethics approval, 27 individuals (21 males, 6 females) with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to an experimental (“walking”) or control group. Participants completed a Balke-Ware test to determine peak heart rate, peak oxygen consumption ([Vdot]O_2peak), and peak gradient. The walking group then completed a 7-week (four sessions a week) supervised, heart rate prescribed walking training programme, whereas the control group continued daily life. After training, participants completed another Balke-Ware test. Fasting blood glucose and glycosylated haemoglobin were measured at rest. The results showed that walking training elicited 80% (s = 2) of peak heart rate and a rating of perceived exertion of 11 (s = 1). Peak heart rate and [Vdot]O_2peak were higher in the walking than in the control group after training (P < 0.05). Based on the peak gradient before training, the respiratory exchange ratio was significantly lower (P < 0.05) and there was a strong trend for [Vdot]O₂ (P = 0.09) and heart rate (P = 0.09) to be lower after training at the same gradient in the walking compared with the control group. These improvements increased walking peak gradient by 5 min (s = 4 min) compared with the control (P < 0.05). There was no change in fasting blood glucose or glycosylated haemoglobin after training. Despite no change in glycaemic control, heart rate prescribed walking improved peak and sub-maximal cardiorespiratory responses. The beneficial adaptations support the use of heart rate monitoring during walking in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.     

Waist Circumference,Pedometer Placement,and Step-Counting Accuracy in Youth

This study examined whether differences in waist circumference (WC) and pedometer placement (anterior vs. midaxillary vs. posterior) affect the agreement between pedometer and observed steps during treadmill and self-paced walking. Participants included 19 pairs of youth (9–15 years old) who were matched for sex, race, and height and stratified by WC (high WC: HWC; low WC: LWC). Participants performed 3-min treadmill-walking trials at speeds of 59, 72, and 86 m·min-1 and a 400-m self-paced walking trial on level ground. Bland-Altman plots were used to assess the agreement between pedometer and observed steps of spring-levered pedometers by WC, pedometer placement, and walking speed. In the HWC group, the posterior pedometer placement consistently agreed most closely with observed steps at all treadmill speeds and during self-paced walking. In the LWC group, no single pedometer placement consistently agreed most closely with observed steps at all treadmill speeds and during self-paced walking. We conclude that a posterior pedometer placement improves step-count accuracy in most youth with an HWC at a range of walking speeds on level ground.     

Treadmill Adaptation and Verification of Self-Selected Walking Speed

Abstract

Eighty-two male college students were divided into three equal-size groups for the purpose of testing the transfer effects between motor skills judged similar in perceptual components but different in motor components.

Criterion measures of gross movement ability and static balance were analyzed and practice tasks similar to these criterion measures in perceptual components but different in motor components were developed. All subjects were pretested on the criterion measures, after which groups 1 and 2 practiced 3 min. per day for 28 days on the practice tasks while group 3 performed unrelated isometric exercises. On the post-test, the experimental groups were found to be significantly superior to the control group on gross movement accuracy and static balance. It was implied that the transfer resulted from the similarity in perceptual components of the two motor skills, and that perceptual abilities were subject to improvement through practice.     

交叉学科知识模型融人高校辅导员与学生谈话言语技巧实证研究

高校辅导员谈话方法的有效利用,对于了解学生发展动态,确保高校思想政治教育工作顺利开展具有重要价值和意义。利用交叉学科知识,从中提取思想理论模型并应用到谈话言语技巧中,对于提高学生谈话可接受性具有积极作用。     

Delphi与Word的结合技术在结构化面试系统中的应用

该文介绍了在Delphi7运行环境下通过Servers组件控制Word保存结构化面试系统中考试成绩的基本原理,并在此基础上给出了具体的实现过程。     

Cognitive Interviewing: A Qualitative Tool for Improving Questionnaires in Sport Science

This study sought to determine whether body fat percentage estimates using an inexpensive bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) device (Tanita TBF-521, Tanita Corp, of America, Arlington Heights, IL) could be freely substituted for those obtained utilizing skinfolds (method equivalence). Data were analyzed from measurements on 38 children age 6 to 12 years. Random effect intraclass correlation (r = .930; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .87 to .96), fixed effect intraclass correlation (r = .932; 95% CI = .87 to .96), and least-products regression supported the equivalence of the 2 methods. The technical error between the 2 methods (3.7; coefficient of variation = 12.2%) was small and also supported the equivalence of the two methods. The ability of the BIA device to categorize into normal and obese categories when compared to the skinfold technique was also impressive (κ = .95; 95% CI = .73 to .99). However, the results of the limits of agreement analysis showed that the approximate 95% CI for the differences between methods was wide (-9.1 to 11.4).     

Turning a City into a Milieu of Study: University Pedagogy as “Frontline”

In 2016 Bruno Latour delivered a lecture at Cornell University in which he responded to what he called the actual situation of disorientation and (literal) lack of common ground by offering some “hints for a neo‐Humboldtian university.” One hint he offered was that we should consider pedagogy as the frontline for staging an approach to societal challenges that links basic research and public engagement. Here, Jan Masschelein follows and extends upon this hint through exploring some ways to reclaim or reinvent the university as pedagogic form. Concretely, he describes the development of a course on designing educational practices that is conceived as a way to turn cities into a milieu of public and collective study. Masschelein's contribution to this symposium offers a “technical story” about physical, material experiences, one that contains some prepositions and propositions, an example, many detours, and a few practical notes and considerations. By this means, he explores the meaning and form pedagogy takes when we do not reduce it to teaching and extension, but instead approach it as the genus and the locus of a nexus between public engagement and basic research. Masschelein concludes by proposing the “public design studio” as a pedagogic form suited to the neo‐Humboldtian university.     

乌江、酉水民间文学中的"走龙"崇拜——渝东南少数民族地区"两河流域"龙崇拜的文化特质

渝东南乌江、酉水构成重庆东南部少数民族独特的“两河流域”,此地少数民族人民创作才情丰富干练,他们对本区域山川地理、风光景物、风俗民情等耳濡目染,充满感情,体会独特,创作出许多神奇的神话故事和传说,他们可能根本没到过某些地方,却能根据这些地方的自然或社会现象创作出神话故事、传说、歌谣,其“走龙”崇拜就突显出渝东南“两河流域”的民族特色,此少数民族民间文化现象相当神奇,值得研究和借鉴。