Asymmetry during Functional Movement Screening and injury risk in junior football players: A replication study.

An indicator of movement quality and potential injury risk during Functional Movement Screen (FMS) testing is the presence of asymmetry when comparing the left and right sides of the body. The aim of the study was to investigate the reproducibility of the injury risk model proposed in our previous research (Chalmers et al. 2017; derivation study) that showed an increased injury risk for elite junior Australian football players demonstrating ≥2 asymmetrical FMS subtests. We used a direct replication design. Players underwent pre-season FMS testing, and an injury surveillance system monitored 277 male participants during the subsequent regular season competition. Designated club officials monitored the weekly competition participation of players. The definition of an injury was "a trauma or medical condition which caused a player to miss a competitive game". Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the relationship between asymmetry and number of games played before first injury (ie, survival time). The level of reproducibility was determined according to statistical significance, effect size, and subjective assessment. Demonstrating asymmetry during FMS testing was not associated with a significant increase in prospective injury risk in the replication study (P > .05). Moreover, effect sizes (hazard ratios) from the derivation dataset were not within the 95% confidence intervals of the respective asymmetry predictor in the replication dataset. Subjectively, researchers were in agreement that the findings from the derivation data were not successfully reproduced. Clinicians and researchers should be cautious about using FMS asymmetry findings to derive injury risk for junior football players.

Money as motivation to quit: a survey of a non-random Australian sample of socially disadvantaged smokers' views of the acceptability of cash incentives.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to a) assess acceptability of personal financial incentives to socially disadvantaged smokers and non-smokers; b) examine factors associated with acceptability; and c) examine preferred levels of incentive amounts. METHODS: A cross-sectional touch screen computer survey was conducted between February and October 2010 in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were clients experiencing financial or social hardship and receiving emergency welfare aid from a non-government social and community service organisation. RESULTS: Of 383 participants (69% response rate), 46% believed personal financial incentives were an excellent/good idea, 47% believed personal financial incentives did more good than harm and 61% agreed they would motivate smokers to quit. High acceptability ratings were associated with participants being female, current smokers, living in low socioeconomic areas, experiencing smoking-induced deprivation, making a previous quit attempt and intending to quit in the next 6 months. When asked what amount of incentive they felt would be acceptable, 23% selected amounts between $50 and $500 AUD and 37% selected amounts over $500 AUD. CONCLUSIONS: Given high smoking prevalence among socially disadvantaged groups and consequent health disparities, it is imperative novel methods of encouraging smoking cessation are explored and tested. This survey found financial incentives may be an acceptable method. Further research to understand all possible positive and negative effects is warranted.

Financial and social impact of supporting a haematological cancer survivor.

Support persons of haematological cancer survivors may be faced with unique challenges due to the course of these diseases and the treatments required. This study aimed to examine the social and financial impacts associated with their role. Eight hundred adult survivors of haematological cancer within 3 years of diagnosis were invited via an Australian state population-based cancer registry to complete a survey. Survivors were mailed two questionnaire packages, one for themselves and one for their primary support person. Non-respondents were mailed reminders via the survivor after 3 weeks. One hundred and eighty-two support persons completed the questionnaire (85% response rate). Of these, 67 (46%) support persons reported having at least one personal expense and 91 (52%) experienced at least one financial impact. Male support persons and support persons of survivors in active treatment reported experiencing more personal expenses than other support persons. Older participants reported fewer financial consequences. A greater number of social impacts were reported by those born outside Australia, those who had to relocate for treatment and support persons of survivors in active treatment. Future research should focus on practical solutions to reducing these impacts on support persons.

Evaluation of a Health Promoting Schools program to reduce smoking in Australian secondary schools.

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of a multicomponent Health Promoting Schools (HPS) intervention program in improving self-reported smoking outcomes among a cohort of adolescents in 22 public secondary schools in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. Pre-test surveys were completed by students in the first 2 years of secondary school, with a 2-year post-test survey. Multivariate analyses examined intervention effect for the main outcome, post-test smoking behavior, controlling for pre-test smoking status, school and other confounders. The sample comprised the cohort of 1852 students who completed both surveys. The results demonstrated that the HPS program failed to improve smoking behavior over the 2 years (equal increase of 10% in both groups). The program was successful in improving smoking knowledge, but not attitudes, in intervention versus control group (P < 0.001). Independent predictors of post-test smoking included: pre-test smoking [odds ratio (OR) = 5.44; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.20-9.28], being female (OR = 0.55; CI = 0.35-0.87), having more close friends who smoked (OR = 1.42; CI = 1.33-1.52), peer group having no clear opinion about smoking (OR = 3.23; CI = 1.27-8.27), having more positive and less negative attitudes towards smoking, and being less involved in school activities. We discuss methodological issues in multicomponent community-based interventions, and highlight the strengths and limitations of this study.

Lessons learned from the Hunter Region Health Promoting Schools Project in New South Wales, Australia.

This paper describes development, over a five-year period, of the Hunter Region Health Promoting Schools Project in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The project implemented the principles and philosophy of the Health Promoting Schools concept and evaluated its effectiveness using a randomized controlled trial involving 22 public secondary schools. An overview of the preliminary intervention model based on the health promoting schools philosophy and trialed in a pilot study is provided. The authors also outline barriers to, and difficulties in, implementing the philosophically based intervention model in the secondary school setting. The current intervention approach, which evolved over five years, is described in relation to the roles played by project team members and school communities. In addition, the authors outline guiding principles arising from the new approach which facilitated adoption of health promotion strategies in secondary school settings.