The Relationship Between Prescribed, Perceived, and Actual Delivery Intensity in Cricket Pace Bowling.

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between prescribed (preDI), perceived (perDI), and actual delivery intensity (actDI) in cricket pace bowling. METHODS: Fourteen male club-standard pace bowlers (mean [SD]: age 24.2 [3.2] y) completed 1 bowling session comprising 45 deliveries. The first 15 deliveries composed the warm-up, where participants bowled 3 deliveries each at a preDI of 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, and 95%. Bowlers reported the perDI after each delivery. The fastest delivery in the session was used as a reference to calculate relative ball-release speed for the warm-up deliveries, with this measure representing the actDI. Ball-release speed was captured by a radar gun. RESULTS: For perDI, there was a very large relationship with preDI (rs = .90, P < .001). Similarly, for actDI, there was a large relationship with preDI (rs = .52, P < .001). Higher concordance was observed between perDI and preDI from 60% to 80% preDI. A plateau was observed for actDI from 70% to 95% preDI. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between perDI and actDI was very large and large with respect to preDI, indicating that both variables can be used to monitor delivery intensity against the planned intensity and thus ensure healthy training adaptation. The optimal preDI that allowed pace bowlers to operate at submaximal perDI but still achieve close to maximal ball-release speeds was 70%. Bowling at the optimal preDI may significantly reduce the psychophysiological load per delivery in exchange for a trivial loss in ball-release speed.

Underage purchasing of alcohol from packaged liquor outlets: an Australian study.

Access to the supply of alcohol is an important factor influencing adolescent alcohol consumption. Although alcohol sales outlets are prohibited from selling alcohol to underage youth, there has been limited research investigating compliance. The present study sought to estimate the extent to which adolescents that appeared underage were successfully able to purchase alcohol from packaged liquor outlets in Australia; and to identify store and sales characteristics associated with illegal purchasing. In 2012, purchase surveys were conducted (n= 310) at packaged liquor outlets in 28 urban and rural communities across three states of Australia: Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Confederates successfully purchased alcohol at 60% (95% CI: 55-66) of outlets. The density of general alcohol outlets in the surrounding area and the type of liquor outlet were predictors of successful alcohol purchases; however, this was moderated by the state in which the purchase was made. Regional geographical location was also found to predict underage alcohol purchase. The majority of alcohol sales outlets in Australia breach regulations prohibiting sales to underage youth. Consistent enforcement of policies across the states of Australia, and reducing the number of alcohol outlets, will help prevent alcohol outlets illegally selling alcohol to underage adolescents.

Relationships Between Sport Participation, Problem Alcohol Use, and Violence: A Longitudinal Study of Young Adults in Australia.

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting a link between sport participation and violent behavior outside of the sporting context. However, there have been few studies that have investigated the basis of this relationship. The current study examined longitudinal relationships between sport participation, problem alcohol use, and various violent behaviors, and whether sport participation moderates relationships between problem alcohol use and violence. The sample comprised 2,262 young adults (55% female, age range at Time 1 = 17-24 years) from Victoria, Australia, surveyed in 2010 and 2012. When controlling for common risk factors, substance use, and past violence, sport participation was not associated with any violent behaviors 2 years later. However, sport participation moderated the relationship between problem alcohol use and fighting, whereby problem alcohol use was associated with engaging in fights 2 years later for sport participants, but not for nonparticipants. These findings suggest that it is not sport participation per se that influences later violence but the drinking norms or culture embedded within certain sporting contexts. Prevention approaches that address the drinking culture and social approval of excessive alcohol consumption within sporting contexts may reduce the incidence of violent behavior in the community.

Critical design features for establishing a childhood obesity monitoring program in Australia.

Efforts to combat childhood obesity in Australia are hampered by the lack of quality epidemiological data to routinely monitor the prevalence and distribution of the condition. This paper summarises the literature on issues relevant to childhood obesity monitoring and makes recommendations for implementing a school-based childhood obesity monitoring program in Australia. The primary purpose of such a program would be to collect population-level health data to inform both policy and the development and evaluation of community-based obesity prevention interventions. Recommendations are made for the types of data to be collected, data collection procedures and program management and evaluation. Data from an obesity monitoring program are crucial for directing and informing policies, practices and services, identifying subgroups at greatest risk of obesity and evaluating progress towards meeting obesity-related targets. Such data would also increase the community awareness necessary to foster change.

Trauma-related symptoms in Sri Lankan adult survivors after the tsunami: pretraumatic and peritraumatic factors.

Limited research has addressed factors associated with psychological distress following disasters among non-Western populations. The 2004 tsunami affected 1.7 million people across South Asia and Africa, with considerable variations in trauma-related outcomes. Pretraumatic and peritraumatic conditions associated with trauma-related symptoms in 305 Sri Lankan adult survivors (28% male, aged 18-83 years; mean = 39.9 years; standard deviation = 15.3), clinically assessed 1 month posttsunami, were evaluated retrospectively. Outcome measures were total scores on 11 trauma-related symptoms. Multivariate linear regression analyses tested for associations between pretraumatic and peritraumatic conditions and symptom scores, with peritraumatic conditions adjusted for pretraumatic variables. Pretraumatic conditions of female gender, employment, prior health and social issues, and substance use and peritraumatic conditions of loss of family, witnessing the tsunami, or suffering an injury were associated with trauma-related symptoms. The findings facilitate understanding cultural contexts that define risk factors associated with trauma-related symptoms in Sri Lankans, which are critical for developing culturally appropriate interventions.

Screen time and physical activity behaviours are associated with health-related quality of life in Australian adolescents.

PURPOSE: To explore the cross-sectional relationships between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and physical activity (PA) behaviours and screen-based media (SBM) use among a sample of Australian adolescents. METHODS: Data came from baseline measures collected for the It's Your Move! community-based obesity prevention intervention. Questionnaire data on sociodemographics, PA, SBM and HRQoL were collected from 3,040 students (56% boys) aged 11-18 years in grade levels 7-11 in 12 secondary schools. Anthropometric data were measured. RESULTS: The highest level of PA at recess, lunchtime and after school was associated with higher HRQoL scores (boys, by 5.3, 8.1, 6.3 points; girls, by 4.2, 6.1, 8.2 points) compared with not being active during these periods. Exceeding 2 h of SBM use each day was associated with significantly lower HRQoL scores (boys, by 3.2 points; girls, by 4.0 points). Adolescents who were physically active and low SBM users on school days had higher HRQoL scores (boys, by 6.6 points; girls, by 7.8 points) compared with those who were not physically active every school day and high SBM users on school days. CONCLUSIONS: Several of the relationships between low PA and high SBM use and HRQoL were comparable to those previously observed between chronic disease conditions and HRQoL, indicating that these behaviours deserve substantial attention.

A prospective study of diet quality and mental health in adolescents.

OBJECTIVES: A number of cross-sectional and prospective studies have now been published demonstrating inverse relationships between diet quality and the common mental disorders in adults. However, there are no existing prospective studies of this association in adolescents, the onset period of most disorders, limiting inferences regarding possible causal relationships. METHODS: In this study, 3040 Australian adolescents, aged 11-18 years at baseline, were measured in 2005-6 and 2007-8. Information on diet and mental health was collected by self-report and anthropometric data by trained researchers. RESULTS: There were cross-sectional, dose response relationships identified between measures of both healthy (positive) and unhealthy (inverse) diets and scores on the emotional subscale of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), where higher scores mean better mental health, before and after adjustments for age, gender, socio-economic status, dieting behaviours, body mass index and physical activity. Higher healthy diet scores at baseline also predicted higher PedsQL scores at follow-up, while higher unhealthy diet scores at baseline predicted lower PedsQL scores at follow-up. Improvements in diet quality were mirrored by improvements in mental health over the follow-up period, while deteriorating diet quality was associated with poorer psychological functioning. Finally, results did not support the reverse causality hypothesis. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of diet in adolescence and its potential role in modifying mental health over the life course. Given that the majority of common mental health problems first manifest in adolescence, intervention studies are now required to test the effectiveness of preventing the common mental disorders through dietary modification.

Associations between diet quality and depressed mood in adolescents: results from the Australian Healthy Neighbourhoods Study.

OBJECTIVE: Adolescence frequently coincides with the onset of psychiatric illness and depression is commonly observed in adolescents. Recent data suggest a role for diet quality in adult depression. Given the importance of adequate nutrition for brain development, it is of interest to examine whether diet quality is also related to depression in adolescents. METHODS: The study examined 7114 adolescents, aged 10-14 years, who participated in the Australian Healthy Neighbourhoods Study. Healthy and unhealthy diet quality scores were derived from a dietary questionnaire. The Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire for adolescents measured depression. Adjustments were made for age, gender, socioeconomic status, parental education, parental work status, family conflict, poor family management, dieting behaviours, body mass index, physical activity, and smoking. RESULTS: Compared to the lowest category of the healthy diet score, the adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for symptomatic depression across categories (C) was: C2 = 0.61 (0.45-0.84); C3 = 0.58 (0.43-0.79); C4 = 0.47 (0.35-0.64); and C5 = 0.55 (0.40-0.77). Compared to the lowest quintile, the adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for symptomatic depression across increasing quintiles of the unhealthy diet score were: Q2 = 1.03 (0.87-1.22); Q3 = 1.22 (1.03-1.44); Q4 = 1.29 (1.12-1.50); and Q5 = 1.79 (1.52-2.11). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate an association between diet quality and adolescent depression that exists over and above the influence of socioeconomic, family, and other potential confounding factors.

Preventing childhood obesity: the sentinel site for obesity prevention in Victoria, Australia.

In spite of greater awareness of the need for action to reduce obesity, the evidence on sustainable community approaches to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity is surprisingly sparse. This paper describes the design and methodological components of the Sentinel Site for Obesity Prevention, a demonstration site in the Barwon-South West region of Victoria, Australia, that aims to build the programs, skills and evidence necessary to attenuate and eventually reverse the obesity epidemic in children and adolescents. The Sentinel Site for Obesity Prevention is based on a partnership between the region's university (Deakin University) and its health, education and local government agencies. The three basic foundations of the Sentinel Site are: multi-strategy, multi-setting interventions; building community capacity; and undertaking program evaluations and population monitoring. Three intervention projects have been supported that cover different age groups (preschool: 2-5 years, primary school: 5-12 years, secondary school: 13-17 years), but that have many characteristics in common including: community participation and ownership of the project; an intervention duration of at least 3 years; and full evaluations with impact (behaviours) and outcome measures (anthropometry) compared with regionally representative comparison populations. We recommend the Sentinel Site approach to others for successfully building evidence for childhood obesity prevention and stimulating action on reducing the epidemic.

High childhood obesity in an Australian population.

OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine the prevalences of overweight and obesity in regional Australian children and to examine the association between BMI and indicators of socioeconomic status (SES). RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Regionally representative cross-sectional survey of 2184 children, 4 to 12 years of age, was conducted, and the socio-demographic characteristics of their parents from regional Victoria, Australia, 2003 to 2004, were obtained. RESULTS: The prevalences of overweight and obesity were 19.3 +/- 0.8% (proportion +/- standard error) and 7.6 +/- 0.6%, respectively, using international criteria, and the proportion of overweight/obese girls was significantly higher than that of boys (29.6 +/- 1.4% vs. 23.9 +/- 1.3%, chi2 = 9.01, p = 0.003). Children from households of lower SES had higher odds of being overweight/obese; lower SES was defined by lower paternal education (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.30) and lower area-level SES (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.25), adjusted for age, gender, height, and clustering by school. DISCUSSION: The prevalences of overweight and obesity are increasing in Australian children by about one percentage point per year. This equates to approximately 40,000 more overweight children each year, placing Australian children among those at highest risk around the world. In addition, girls are more likely to be overweight, and there is a general trend for children of lower SES to be at even greater risk of overweight and obesity.

Association between the family environment and television viewing in Australian children.

AIM: To describe the time children spend watching television (TV) and to assess associations between TV viewing time, the family environment and weight status. METHODS: Parents reported the amount of time children watched TV/video both for 'the previous school day' and 'usually' and described aspects of the family environment influencing TV access as part of a large cross-sectional study in the Barwon South-western region of Victoria, Australia. Child weight status was based on measured height and weight. All data were collected in 2003/2004. RESULTS: A total of 1926 children aged 4-12 years participated. Parent-reported mean +/- SE TV time for the previous school day was 83 +/- 1.5 min. Children who lived in a family with tight rules governing TV viewing time (22%), or who never watched TV during dinner (33%), or had only one TV in the household (23%) or had no TV in their bedroom (81%) had significantly less TV time than their counterparts. Overweight or obese children had more TV time than healthy weight children 88 +/- 2.9 versus 82 +/- 1.7 min per day (P=0.04). They were also more likely to live in a household where children had a TV in their bedroom than healthy weight children (25% vs. 17%, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Strategies to reduce TV time should be included as part of broader strategies to prevent childhood obesity. They should include messages to parents about not having a TV in children's bedrooms, encouraging family rules restricting TV viewing, and not having the TV on during dinner.

Calibration and reliability of a school food checklist: a new tool for assessing school food and beverage consumption.

There is a pressing need in Australia and other countries to develop systems for monitoring secular trends in childhood obesity and related behavioural and environmental determinants. Energy from foods and beverages consumed at school is an accessible indicator of children's eating patterns and we have developed a school food checklist (SFC) to measure this. The SFC records the number of serves and source (home, canteen, vending machine) of 20 food and beverage categories. This study aims to assess the accuracy and to calibrate the SFC by comparing it to a weighed record (WR) and to evaluate inter-recorder reliability. Participants were 910 primary school children aged 5 to 12 years from a rural township in Victoria, Australia. WR were collected from a non-random sub-sample of 106 and a second sub-sample (n=46) had intake measured twice using the SFC to assess inter-recorder reliability. Mean energy values were 2992 kJ +/- 924 and 3008 kJ +/- 952 for the SFC and WR respectively and the correlation coefficient was strong (Pearson r = 0.77). The mean difference between the WR and SFC methods was 15 kJ (95% CI, -107 kJ to 138 kJ) and the limits of agreement (+2 standard deviations) were +/- 1270 kJ. The SFC overestimated the energy/serve of breads and fruit drinks and under-estimated energy/serve from fat spreads, biscuits/crackers, muesli/fruit bars and fruit. Inter-recorder reliability was good (kappa 0.51). The SFC was designed to measure energy from food and beverages in schools. It has good accuracy and reliability and the revised version should further improve accuracy of the instrument.

Estimating the effects of energy imbalance on changes in body weight in children.

BACKGROUND: Estimating changes in weight from changes in energy balance is important for predicting the effect of obesity prevention interventions. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to develop and validate an equation for predicting the mean weight of a population of children in response to a change in total energy intake (TEI) or total energy expenditure (TEE). DESIGN: In 963 children with a mean (+/-SD) age of 8.1 +/- 2.8 y (range: 4-18 y) and weight of 31.5 +/- 17.6 kg, TEE was measured by using doubly labeled water. Log weight (dependent variable) and log TEE (independent variable) were analyzed in a linear regression model with height, age, and sex as covariates. It was assumed that points of dynamic balance, called "settling points," occur for populations wherein energy is in balance (TEE = TEI), weight is stable (ignoring growth), and energy flux (EnFlux) equals TEE. RESULTS: TEE (or EnFlux) explained 74% of the variance in weight. The unstandardized regression coefficient was 0.45 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.51; R(2) = 0.86) after including covariates. Conversion into proportional changes (time(1) to time(2)) gave the equation (weight(2)/weight(1)) = (EnFlux(2)/EnFlux(1))(0.45). In 3 longitudinal studies (n = 212; mean follow-up of 3.4 y), the equation predicted the mean follow-up measured weight to within 0.5%. CONCLUSIONS: The relation of EnFlux with weight was positive, which implied that a high TEI (rather than low physical activity and low TEE) was the main determinant of high body weight. Two populations of children with a 10% difference in mean EnFlux would have a 4.5% difference in mean weight.