Global Handbook on Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion, 2013
ABSTRACT The World Health Organization identified physical activity in 2009 as the fourth leading... more ABSTRACT The World Health Organization identified physical activity in 2009 as the fourth leading contributor to risk of death from NCDs (World Health Organization, 2009). A more recent meta-analysis estimated that physical activity accounts for over five million deaths annually, very similar to the population health threat posed by tobacco smoking (Lee et al., 2012). The health evidence for the protective and health promoting effects of physical activity in adults and children, and across the age span, is compelling. Physical activity protects against death and disability from the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as well as a range of other conditions, especially among older adults (Lee et al., 2012; Haskell et al., 2007). In relation to mental health physical activity is effective in preventing and treating depression and anxiety (Warburton et al., 2006).
New urbanism advocates for the design of the compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments... more New urbanism advocates for the design of the compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments thought to promote walking. New urbanist proponents also claim their developments incur other social and wellbeing benefits, including enhanced safety from crime; however there is limited empirical evidence supporting this. We tested the premise that new urbanism inhibits crime by examining the relationship between compliance with a planning policy based on new urbanism and: (1) residents' reports of victimisation; and (2) objective crime measures. RESIDE Participants (n = 603) who had lived in their new developments for 36 months completed a questionnaire that included items on their experiences of victimisation. Detailed measures quantifying the degree to which these developments (n = 36) complied with the policy requirements were generated in Geographic Information Systems. Logistic regression examined the associations between policy compliance and self-report victimisation, and ...
Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education, Jan 4, 2015
Few studies use comprehensive ecological approaches considering multilevel factors to understand ... more Few studies use comprehensive ecological approaches considering multilevel factors to understand correlates of healthy (and unhealthy) dietary intake. The aim of this study was to examine the association between individual, social, and environmental factors on composite measures of healthy and unhealthy dietary intake in adults. Participants (n = 565) of the Australian RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) project self-reported dietary intake, home food availability, and behavioral and perceived social and physical environmental influences on food choices. A geographic information system measured proximity of supermarkets from each participant's home. "Healthy" and "unhealthy" eating scores were computed based on adherence to dietary guidelines. Univariate and multivariate models were constructed using linear regression. After full adjustment, "healthy" eating (mean = 6.25, standard deviation [SD] = 1.95) was significantly associated with having confiden...
Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents... more Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents by influencing various social determinants of health - for example, neighbourhood walkability and access to public transport, public open space, local amenities, and social and community facilities. This study will develop national liveability indicators that are (a) aligned with state and federal urban policy, (b) developed using national data (where available), (c) standard and consistent over time, (d) suitable for monitoring progress towards creating more liveable, equitable and sustainable communities, (e) validated against selected noncommunicable disease risk behaviours and/or health outcomes, and (f) practical for measuring local, national and federal built environment interventions. Protocol. Over two years, the National Liveability Study, funded through The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (TAPPC), will develop and validate a national set of spatially derived built env...
In Portugal, there are no representative data on how many people are actively trying to control t... more In Portugal, there are no representative data on how many people are actively trying to control their weight and which strategies and motives underlie those attempts. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of weight loss/maintenance attempts and to identify the associated behavioral strategies and motives, in a representative sample of Portuguese adults. Cross-sectional study with a sample of 1098 Portuguese adults. Sociodemographic information, anthropometric data and weight loss/maintenance strategies and motives were assessed by telephone interview. About 44% of Portuguese adults (53% women and 35% men) are actively trying to control their weight. About 22% of women with normal weight are trying to lose weight while 53% of men and 34% of women with excess weight are not trying to manage their weight. About 49% of men with higher educational level are trying to control their weight, which compares to 32% among the least educated men. The most frequently used strategy...
One of the convenient ways to achieve recommended levels of physical activity is through 'act... more One of the convenient ways to achieve recommended levels of physical activity is through 'active transport,' such as walking or cycling to and from work or school. Although studies have shown that participants can reliably recall information about recent transport-related physical activity, it is not known if the reliability remains high when asking about lifetime behavior. This study tested the reliability of questions that collect information about transport-related physical activity performed over the lifetime. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questions about transport-related physical activity on 2 separate occasions. The questions asked about cycling and walking to and from work and/or school during 3 age periods: 15-24 years, 25-39 years, and 40 years and above. A lifetime average was also calculated for cycling, walking, and total activity. There was fair to good test-retest reliability of the age-period specific questions for transport-related cy...
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2010
Racemic mefloquine is a highly effective antimalarial whose clinical utility has been compromised... more Racemic mefloquine is a highly effective antimalarial whose clinical utility has been compromised by its association with neuropsychiatric and gastrointestinal side effects. It is hypothesized that the cause of the side effects may reside in the (-) enantiomer. We sought to compare the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of (+)-mefloquine with racemic mefloquine in a randomized, ascending-dose, double-blind, active and placebo-controlled, parallel cohort study in healthy male and female adult volunteers. Although differing in its manifestations, both study drugs displayed a substantially worse tolerability profile compared with placebo. The systemic clearance was slower for (-)-mefloquine than (+)-mefloquine. Thus, (+)-mefloquine has a different safety and tolerability profile compared with racemic mefloquine but its global safety profile is not superior and replacement of the currently used antimalarial drug with (+)-mefloquine is not warranted.
This study investigated the relationship between individual and neighborhood environmental factor... more This study investigated the relationship between individual and neighborhood environmental factors and cycling for transport and for recreation among adults living in Perth, Western Australia. Baseline cross-sectional data from 1813 participants (40.5% male; age range 18 to 78 years) in the RESIDential Environment (RESIDE) project were analyzed. The questionnaire included information on cycling behavior and on cycling-specific individual, social environmental, and neighborhood environmental attributes. Cycling for transport and recreation were dichotomized as whether or not individuals cycled in a usual week. Among the individual factors, positive attitudes toward cycling and perceived behavioral control increased the odds of cycling for transport and for recreation. Among the neighborhood environmental attributes, leafy and attractive neighborhoods, access to bicycle/walking paths, the presence of traffic slowing devices and having many 4-way street intersections were positively as...
Instruments to assess physical activity are needed for (inter)national surveillance systems and c... more Instruments to assess physical activity are needed for (inter)national surveillance systems and comparison. Male and female adults were recruited from diverse sociocultural, educational and economic backgrounds in 9 countries (total n = 2657). GPAQ and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were administered on at least 2 occasions. Eight countries assessed criterion validity using an objective measure (pedometer or accelerometer) over 7 days. Reliability coefficients were of moderate to substantial strength (Kappa 0.67 to 0.73; Spearman's rho 0.67 to 0.81). Results on concurrent validity between IPAQ and GPAQ also showed a moderate to strong positive relationship (range 0.45 to 0.65). Results on criterion validity were in the poor-fair (range 0.06 to 0.35). There were some observed differences between sex, education, BMI and urban/rural and between countries. Overall GPAQ provides reproducible data and showed a moderate-strong positive correlation with IPAQ, a...
This study explored definitions of sedentary behavior and examined the relationship between sitti... more This study explored definitions of sedentary behavior and examined the relationship between sitting time and physical inactivity using the sitting items from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Participants (N = 289, 44.6% male, mean age = 35.93) from 3 countries completed self-administered long- and short-IPAQ sitting items. Participants wore accelerometers; were classified as inactive (no leisure-time activity), insufficiently active, or meeting recommendations; and were classified into tertiles of sitting behavior. Reliability of sitting time was acceptable for men and women. Correlations between total sitting and accelerometer counts/min <100 were significant for both long (r = .33) and short (r = .34) forms. There was no agreement between tertiles of sitting and the inactivity category (kappa = .02, P = .68). Sedentary behavior should be explicitly measured in population surveillance and research instead of being defined by lack of physical activity.
To assess current practice, perceived desirable practice and barriers related to the promotion of... more To assess current practice, perceived desirable practice and barriers related to the promotion of physical activity in general practice, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to all 1228 general practitioners in Perth. From these, 789 valid returns were received (71 per cent response). The mean age of the respondents was 45 years, 69 per cent were male, 52 per cent had postgraduate qualifications and 73 per cent were in full-time practice. General practitioners most frequently asked patients about their current level of physical activity and discussed physical activity programs when seeing patients with symptoms of conditions that could benefit from exercise, rather than asking all patients, new patients or patients previously seen. Walking specifically for fitness was the activity most likely to be recommended. General practitioners felt more able to offer general advice than specific advice on physical activity. Lack of time was reported most frequently as a barrier to the...
Global Handbook on Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Promotion, 2013
ABSTRACT The World Health Organization identified physical activity in 2009 as the fourth leading... more ABSTRACT The World Health Organization identified physical activity in 2009 as the fourth leading contributor to risk of death from NCDs (World Health Organization, 2009). A more recent meta-analysis estimated that physical activity accounts for over five million deaths annually, very similar to the population health threat posed by tobacco smoking (Lee et al., 2012). The health evidence for the protective and health promoting effects of physical activity in adults and children, and across the age span, is compelling. Physical activity protects against death and disability from the major non-communicable diseases (NCDs), as well as a range of other conditions, especially among older adults (Lee et al., 2012; Haskell et al., 2007). In relation to mental health physical activity is effective in preventing and treating depression and anxiety (Warburton et al., 2006).
New urbanism advocates for the design of the compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments... more New urbanism advocates for the design of the compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use developments thought to promote walking. New urbanist proponents also claim their developments incur other social and wellbeing benefits, including enhanced safety from crime; however there is limited empirical evidence supporting this. We tested the premise that new urbanism inhibits crime by examining the relationship between compliance with a planning policy based on new urbanism and: (1) residents' reports of victimisation; and (2) objective crime measures. RESIDE Participants (n = 603) who had lived in their new developments for 36 months completed a questionnaire that included items on their experiences of victimisation. Detailed measures quantifying the degree to which these developments (n = 36) complied with the policy requirements were generated in Geographic Information Systems. Logistic regression examined the associations between policy compliance and self-report victimisation, and ...
Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education, Jan 4, 2015
Few studies use comprehensive ecological approaches considering multilevel factors to understand ... more Few studies use comprehensive ecological approaches considering multilevel factors to understand correlates of healthy (and unhealthy) dietary intake. The aim of this study was to examine the association between individual, social, and environmental factors on composite measures of healthy and unhealthy dietary intake in adults. Participants (n = 565) of the Australian RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) project self-reported dietary intake, home food availability, and behavioral and perceived social and physical environmental influences on food choices. A geographic information system measured proximity of supermarkets from each participant's home. "Healthy" and "unhealthy" eating scores were computed based on adherence to dietary guidelines. Univariate and multivariate models were constructed using linear regression. After full adjustment, "healthy" eating (mean = 6.25, standard deviation [SD] = 1.95) was significantly associated with having confiden...
Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents... more Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents by influencing various social determinants of health - for example, neighbourhood walkability and access to public transport, public open space, local amenities, and social and community facilities. This study will develop national liveability indicators that are (a) aligned with state and federal urban policy, (b) developed using national data (where available), (c) standard and consistent over time, (d) suitable for monitoring progress towards creating more liveable, equitable and sustainable communities, (e) validated against selected noncommunicable disease risk behaviours and/or health outcomes, and (f) practical for measuring local, national and federal built environment interventions. Protocol. Over two years, the National Liveability Study, funded through The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (TAPPC), will develop and validate a national set of spatially derived built env...
In Portugal, there are no representative data on how many people are actively trying to control t... more In Portugal, there are no representative data on how many people are actively trying to control their weight and which strategies and motives underlie those attempts. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of weight loss/maintenance attempts and to identify the associated behavioral strategies and motives, in a representative sample of Portuguese adults. Cross-sectional study with a sample of 1098 Portuguese adults. Sociodemographic information, anthropometric data and weight loss/maintenance strategies and motives were assessed by telephone interview. About 44% of Portuguese adults (53% women and 35% men) are actively trying to control their weight. About 22% of women with normal weight are trying to lose weight while 53% of men and 34% of women with excess weight are not trying to manage their weight. About 49% of men with higher educational level are trying to control their weight, which compares to 32% among the least educated men. The most frequently used strategy...
One of the convenient ways to achieve recommended levels of physical activity is through 'act... more One of the convenient ways to achieve recommended levels of physical activity is through 'active transport,' such as walking or cycling to and from work or school. Although studies have shown that participants can reliably recall information about recent transport-related physical activity, it is not known if the reliability remains high when asking about lifetime behavior. This study tested the reliability of questions that collect information about transport-related physical activity performed over the lifetime. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questions about transport-related physical activity on 2 separate occasions. The questions asked about cycling and walking to and from work and/or school during 3 age periods: 15-24 years, 25-39 years, and 40 years and above. A lifetime average was also calculated for cycling, walking, and total activity. There was fair to good test-retest reliability of the age-period specific questions for transport-related cy...
The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 2010
Racemic mefloquine is a highly effective antimalarial whose clinical utility has been compromised... more Racemic mefloquine is a highly effective antimalarial whose clinical utility has been compromised by its association with neuropsychiatric and gastrointestinal side effects. It is hypothesized that the cause of the side effects may reside in the (-) enantiomer. We sought to compare the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profile of (+)-mefloquine with racemic mefloquine in a randomized, ascending-dose, double-blind, active and placebo-controlled, parallel cohort study in healthy male and female adult volunteers. Although differing in its manifestations, both study drugs displayed a substantially worse tolerability profile compared with placebo. The systemic clearance was slower for (-)-mefloquine than (+)-mefloquine. Thus, (+)-mefloquine has a different safety and tolerability profile compared with racemic mefloquine but its global safety profile is not superior and replacement of the currently used antimalarial drug with (+)-mefloquine is not warranted.
This study investigated the relationship between individual and neighborhood environmental factor... more This study investigated the relationship between individual and neighborhood environmental factors and cycling for transport and for recreation among adults living in Perth, Western Australia. Baseline cross-sectional data from 1813 participants (40.5% male; age range 18 to 78 years) in the RESIDential Environment (RESIDE) project were analyzed. The questionnaire included information on cycling behavior and on cycling-specific individual, social environmental, and neighborhood environmental attributes. Cycling for transport and recreation were dichotomized as whether or not individuals cycled in a usual week. Among the individual factors, positive attitudes toward cycling and perceived behavioral control increased the odds of cycling for transport and for recreation. Among the neighborhood environmental attributes, leafy and attractive neighborhoods, access to bicycle/walking paths, the presence of traffic slowing devices and having many 4-way street intersections were positively as...
Instruments to assess physical activity are needed for (inter)national surveillance systems and c... more Instruments to assess physical activity are needed for (inter)national surveillance systems and comparison. Male and female adults were recruited from diverse sociocultural, educational and economic backgrounds in 9 countries (total n = 2657). GPAQ and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were administered on at least 2 occasions. Eight countries assessed criterion validity using an objective measure (pedometer or accelerometer) over 7 days. Reliability coefficients were of moderate to substantial strength (Kappa 0.67 to 0.73; Spearman's rho 0.67 to 0.81). Results on concurrent validity between IPAQ and GPAQ also showed a moderate to strong positive relationship (range 0.45 to 0.65). Results on criterion validity were in the poor-fair (range 0.06 to 0.35). There were some observed differences between sex, education, BMI and urban/rural and between countries. Overall GPAQ provides reproducible data and showed a moderate-strong positive correlation with IPAQ, a...
This study explored definitions of sedentary behavior and examined the relationship between sitti... more This study explored definitions of sedentary behavior and examined the relationship between sitting time and physical inactivity using the sitting items from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Participants (N = 289, 44.6% male, mean age = 35.93) from 3 countries completed self-administered long- and short-IPAQ sitting items. Participants wore accelerometers; were classified as inactive (no leisure-time activity), insufficiently active, or meeting recommendations; and were classified into tertiles of sitting behavior. Reliability of sitting time was acceptable for men and women. Correlations between total sitting and accelerometer counts/min <100 were significant for both long (r = .33) and short (r = .34) forms. There was no agreement between tertiles of sitting and the inactivity category (kappa = .02, P = .68). Sedentary behavior should be explicitly measured in population surveillance and research instead of being defined by lack of physical activity.
To assess current practice, perceived desirable practice and barriers related to the promotion of... more To assess current practice, perceived desirable practice and barriers related to the promotion of physical activity in general practice, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to all 1228 general practitioners in Perth. From these, 789 valid returns were received (71 per cent response). The mean age of the respondents was 45 years, 69 per cent were male, 52 per cent had postgraduate qualifications and 73 per cent were in full-time practice. General practitioners most frequently asked patients about their current level of physical activity and discussed physical activity programs when seeing patients with symptoms of conditions that could benefit from exercise, rather than asking all patients, new patients or patients previously seen. Walking specifically for fitness was the activity most likely to be recommended. General practitioners felt more able to offer general advice than specific advice on physical activity. Lack of time was reported most frequently as a barrier to the...
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