Activity-Based Prospective Memory in Insomniacs.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the activity-based prospective memory performance in patients with insomnia, divided, on the basis of actigraphic evaluation, into sleep onset, maintenance, mixed and negative misperception insomnia. METHODS: A total of 153 patients with insomnia (I, 83 females, mean age + SD = 41.37 + 16.19 years) and 121 healthy controls (HC, 78 females, mean age + SD = 36.99 + 14.91 years) wore an actigraph for one week. Insomnia was classified into sleep onset insomnia (SOI), maintenance insomnia (MaI), mixed insomnia (MixI) and negative misperception insomnia (NMI). To study their activity-based prospective memory performance, all the participants were required to push the actigraph event marker button twice, at bedtime (task 1) and at get-up time (task 2). RESULTS: Only patients with maintenance and mixed insomnia had a significantly lower accuracy in the activity-based prospective memory task at get-up time compared with the healthy controls. CONCLUSION: The results show that maintenance and mixed insomnia involve an impaired activity-based prospective memory performance, while sleep onset and negative misperception insomnia do not seem to be affected. This pattern of results suggests that the fragmentation of sleep may play a role in activity-based prospective memory efficiency at wake-up in the morning.

Pentatonic sequences and monaural beats to facilitate relaxation: an EEG study.

Introduction: In two studies we investigated if specific acoustic stimulations could be more effective to induce a relaxation response in comparison to silence. Acoustic stimulations included monaural beats and musical sequences based on a pentatonic scale. Methods: In the first study, 47 participants evaluated monaural beats and pentatonic sequences presented through loudspeakers and varying along three frequencies (0.2, 2, 4 Hz). In the second study, 31 participants relaxed with their eyes closed for 10 min during a passive listening of monaural beats and a pentatonic sequence presented through loudspeakers. A silence condition was introduced as control. All auditory stimuli were designed with a temporal modulation of 0.2 Hz. Concomitant EEG was recorded with a 64-channel system and spectral analysis was performed on delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations to test if each of the three auditory stimulations had a significant effect on EEG spectral power in comparison to silence. Results: In the first study, pentatonic sequences were evaluated as more pleasant and more relaxing than monaural beats. Pleasantness and relaxation were inversely related to frequency. Visual imagery and emotion induction had higher frequency and were rated with a more positive valence in pentatonic sequences than in monaural beats. In the second study monaural beats in comparison to silence strongly decreased beta and gamma oscillations in the first three minutes and strongly increased theta oscillations in the last three minutes. Pentatonic sequences increased delta, theta, and alpha oscillations in the last three minutes while decreasing beta, and gamma oscillations for the whole auditory stimulation. Discussion: The results show that auditory signals with a very low temporal modulation (0.2 Hz) could be more effective than silence in inducing a relaxation response. Although 0.2 Hz monaural beats were effective in inducing a relaxation response, they tended to be perceived as unpleasant. Pentatonic sequences could be considered as a better alternative to promote relaxation by auditory stimulation.

Cognitive trajectories after surgery: Guideline hints for assessment and treatment.

Elderly patients who undergo major surgery (not-neurosurgical) under general anaesthesia frequently complain about cognitive difficulties, especially during the first weeks after surgical "trauma". Although recovery usually occurs within a month, about one out of four patients develops full-blown postoperative Neurocognitive disorders (NCD) which compromise quality of life or daily autonomy. Mild/Major NCD affect approximately 10% of patients from three months to one year after major surgery. Neuroinflammation has emerged to have a critical role in the postoperative NCDs pathogenesis, through microglial activation and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines which increase blood-brain-barrier permeability, enhance movement of leukocytes into the central nervous system (CNS) and favour the neuronal damage. Moreover, pre-existing Mild Cognitive Impairment, alcohol or drugs consumption, depression and other factors, together with several intraoperative and post-operative sequelae, can exacerbate the severity and duration of NCDs. In this context it is crucial rely on current progresses in serum and CSF biomarker analysis to frame neuroinflammation levels, along with establishing standard protocol for neuropsychological assessment (with specific set of tools) and to apply cognitive training or neuromodulation techniques to reduce the incidence of postoperative NCDs when required. It is recommended to identify those patients who would need such preventive intervention early, by including them in pre-operative and post-operative comprehensive evaluation and prevent the development of a full-blown dementia after surgery. This contribution reports all the recent progresses in the NCDs diagnostic classification, pathogenesis discoveries and possible treatments, with the aim to systematize current evidences and provide guidelines for multidisciplinary care.

A more accurate assessment of circadian typology is achieved by asking persons to indicate their preferred times rather than comparing themselves with most people.

The aim of the present work was to compare two circadian questionnaires: the Preference Scale (PS) and the reduced version of the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (rMEQ). A sample of 849 (35.10% men) university students, 421 of whom were Spanish (27.55% men; mean age 21.07 + 2.31) and 428 Italian (42.52% men; mean age 23.26 + 3.01), were administered both questionnaires. Gender (higher morningness in women) and nationality (higher eveningness in Spaniards) differences were replicated with rMEQ but not with PS, in which an inverse association between nationality and circadian preference was observed (i.e. higher morningness in Spaniards). Taking into account that the formulation of the rMEQ items, with its specific times, makes the answers less influenced by socio-cultural bias, we conclude that rMEQ is preferable to PS when evaluating circadian preference in young adults.

The Longitudinal Interplay between Sleep, Anthropometric Indices, Eating Behaviors, and Nutritional Aspects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Sleep is fundamental for adolescents' healthy development but undergoes dramatic changes in quantity and quality due to the conflict between biological and social rhythms. Insufficient sleep has been associated with worse physical health status and irregular eating behaviors in adolescents. This review aims to systematically synthesize the longitudinal associations between adolescents' sleep dimensions (i.e., duration, timing, quality, and insomnia symptoms) and physical health indicators (i.e., anthropometric indices, fat percentage, and risk of obesity), eating behaviors, and nutritional aspects (i.e., type of diet related to the intake of specific foods and nutrients, amount and timing of food consumption, energy expenditure). A total of 28 longitudinal studies were included. The meta-analytic results showed that longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, and lower insomnia symptoms were associated with lower BMI and fat percentage and that shorter sleep duration (<7 h) and lower sleep quality were associated with a higher risk of obesity. Conversely, anthropometric indices were not related to sleep over time. Limited literature examined the bidirectional association between adolescents' sleep and their eating behaviors and nutritional aspects. Such knowledge sheds new light on the role of sleep for adolescents' health, highlighting the need to examine further the interplay between these variables.

Activity-Based Prospective Memory in ADHD during Motor Sleep Inertia.

Prospective memory (PM) is essential in everyday life because it concerns the ability to remember to perform an intended action in the future. Individuals diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often show poor performance in PM. Because age can be confounding, we decided to test PM in ADHD patients (children and adults) and healthy controls (children and adults). We examined 22 children (four females; mean age = 8.77 ± 1.77) and 35 adults (14 females; mean age = 37.29 ± 12.23) with ADHD, in addition to 92 children (57 females; mean age = 10.13 ± 0.42) and 95 adults (57 females; mean age = 27.93 ± 14.35) as healthy controls. Each participant originally wore an actigraph around the non-dominant wrist and was requested to push the event-marker at get-up time. To assess the efficiency of PM performance, we calculated the time elapsing between the end of sleep in the morning and the pushing of the event-marker button. The results showed lower PM performance in ADHD participants, regardless of age. However, the differences between ADHD and control groups were more evident in the children group. Our data seem to confirm that PM efficiency is compromised in individuals diagnosed with ADHD regardless of age, and agree with the idea of considering the PM deficit as a neuropsychological marker of ADHD.

Modeling Electric Fields in Transcutaneous Spinal Direct Current Stimulation: A Clinical Perspective.

Clinical findings suggest that transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS) can modulate ascending sensitive, descending corticospinal, and segmental pathways in the spinal cord (SC). However, several aspects of the stimulation have not been completely understood, and realistic computational models based on MRI are the gold standard to predict the interaction between tsDCS-induced electric fields and anatomy. Here, we review the electric fields distribution in the SC during tsDCS as predicted by MRI-based realistic models, compare such knowledge with clinical findings, and define the role of computational knowledge in optimizing tsDCS protocols. tsDCS-induced electric fields are predicted to be safe and induce both transient and neuroplastic changes. This could support the possibility to explore new clinical applications, such as spinal cord injury. For the most applied protocol (2-3 mA for 20-30 min, active electrode over T10-T12 and the reference on the right shoulder), similar electric field intensities are generated in both ventral and dorsal horns of the SC at the same height. This was confirmed by human studies, in which both motor and sensitive effects were found. Lastly, electric fields are strongly dependent on anatomy and electrodes' placement. Regardless of the montage, inter-individual hotspots of higher values of electric fields were predicted, which could change when the subjects move from a position to another (e.g., from the supine to the lateral position). These characteristics underlines the need for individualized and patient-tailored MRI-based computational models to optimize the stimulation protocol. A detailed modeling approach of the electric field distribution might contribute to optimizing stimulation protocols, tailoring electrodes' configuration, intensities, and duration to the clinical outcome.

External validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents: an actigraphic study.

The aim of this study was to examine the external validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents, using circadian motor activity, assessed through actigraphy, as an external criterion. Overall, 458 participants (269 females), with a mean (standard deviation) age of 15.75 (1.16) years, took part in this study. Each adolescent was requested to wear the actigraph Micro Motionlogger Watch actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., Ardlsey, NY, USA) around the non-dominant wrist for 1 week. At the end of the actigraphic recording, participants completed the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents. We extracted the motor activity counts, minute-by-minute over the 24 h, to depict the 24-h motor activity pattern, and we adopted the statistical framework of functional linear modelling to examine its changes according to chronotype. According to the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents cut-off scores, 13.97% of participants (n = 64) belonged to the evening-types category, 9.39% (n = 43) to morning-types, while the remaining (76.64%, n = 351) to the intermediate-types category. Evening types moved significantly more than the intermediate and morning types from around 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., while the opposite pattern of results was observed around 4:00 a.m. The results highlighted a significant difference in the 24-h motor activity pattern between chronotypes, in line with the expectations based on their well-known behaviour. Therefore, this study shows that the external validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, established by considering motor activity (recorded through actigraphy) as an external criterion, is satisfactory.

Gender composition of pairs influences joint action effect.

Research on joint action has demonstrated that individuals are sensitive to a coactor's attentional relation to jointly attend stimuli. It has also been suggested that some features are necessary to resolve the discrimination problem (i.e., self-own and other-own actions). In the present study, we aimed to test whether the gender composition of interacting pairs modulated the joint action effect. Same- (female-female or male-male) and mixed- (female-male) gender pairs performed a joint version of flanker tasks in Experiment 1 (90 participants, 50% males), while in Experiment 2 (154 participants, 50% males) Navon tasks were performed. In Experiment 1, a higher joint flanker effect in same-gender pairs than in mixed-gender pairs, and this joint effect was similar to the classical flanker effect reported by males and females in a classical procedure of the task (70 participants, 50% males). In Experiment 2, the same-gender pairs reported a joint Navon effect, which was reversed in mixed-gender pairs. In conclusion, our findings support how the gender composition of interacting pairs plays a role in joint attentional tasks.

The Association between Sleep Patterns, Educational Identity, and School Performance in Adolescents.

Adolescents' school experience can be developmentally related to adolescents' sleep. This study aimed to understand how sleep patterns (i.e., sleep duration and sleep-schedule) and weekend sleep-recovery strategies (i.e., social jetlag and weekend catch-up sleep) are associated with adolescents' school experience (i.e., educational identity and school performance). Moreover, the differences in the school experiences between adolescents with different numbers of weekend-sleep-recovery strategies were assessed. For this purpose, 542 Italian adolescents (55.2% females, mean age 15.6 years) wore an actigraph for one week. After the actigraphic assessment, questionnaires on educational identity and school performance were administered. Results showed that short sleep-duration, later bedtime during weekdays and weekends, and a higher amount of social jetlag were negatively associated with school performance. Furthermore, adolescents who did not use any sleep-recovery strategy during the weekend presented lower levels of educational in-depth exploration compared to adolescents with higher levels of catch-up sleep but not social jetlag. These data pointed out a potentially detrimental role of social jetlag on school performance and differences in identity processes between adolescents who used and those who did not use sleep-recovery strategies, which could affect adolescents' psychosocial adjustment.

The Effects of a New Integrated and Multidisciplinary Cognitive Rehabilitation Program Based on Mindfulness and Reminiscence Therapy in Patients with Parkinson's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study.

Background: Mindfulness trainings have shown promising results as treatment for behavioural symptoms in several pathologies. In addition, mindfulness protocols induced an improvement in memory and attention. Therefore, mindfulness could be an effective intervention for patients affected by Parkinson's disease (PD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who are characterized by both behavioural and cognitive dysfunctions. Methods: We assessed differences in Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores and in Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) scores in patients affected by PD and MCI enrolled in two different rehabilitation programs (an experimental vs. an usual structured program for cognitive rehabilitation). Participants in the experimental group (MILC-tr) underwent innovative rehabilitation program involving mindfulness and reminiscence activities. Assessments were performed before (T0) and at the end of the rehabilitation program (T1). Results: Friedman test showed a significant improvement between timepoints in MoCA global score (x2 = 4.000, p = 0.046), MoCA memory sub-scale score (x2 = 4.571, p = 0.033), and BDI-II cognitive and affective factors (x2 = 4.000, p = 0.046) only for patients in MILC-tr group. Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference between group comparing differences in Δ scores between T0 and T1 in the MoCA memory sub-scale score (U = 190.50, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Mindfulness-based rehabilitation programs could be effective in patients affected by PD and MCI.

Relationship between Reaction Times and Post-COVID-19 Symptoms Assessed by a Web-Based Visual Detection Task.

Long-COVID is a clinical condition in which patients affected by SARS-CoV-2 usually report a wide range of physical and cognitive symptoms from 3 to 6 months after the infection recovery. The aim of the current study was to assess the link between self-reported long-COVID symptoms and reaction times (RTs) in a self-administered Visual Detection Task (VDT) in order to identify the predictor symptoms of the slowing in reaction times to determine attention impairment. In total, 362 participants (age (mean ± S.D.: 38.56 ± 13.14); sex (female-male: 73.76-26.24%)) responded to a web-based self-report questionnaire consisting of four sections: demographics, disease-related characteristics, and medical history questions. The final section consisted of a 23 item 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire related to long-term COVID-19 symptoms. After completing the questionnaire, subjects performed a VDT on a tablet screen to assess reaction times (RTs). An exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) was performed on the 23 long-COVID symptom questions, identifying 4 factors (cognition, behavior, physical condition, presence of anosmia and/or ageusia). The most important predictors of RTs were cognition and physical factors. By dissecting the cognitive and physical factors, learning, visual impairment, and headache were the top predictors of subjects' performance in the VDT. Long-COVID subjects showed higher RTs in the VDT after a considerable time post-disease, suggesting the presence of an attention deficit disorder. Attention impairment due to COVID-19 can be due to the presence of headaches, visual impairments, and the presence of cognitive problems related to the difficulty in learning new activities. The link between the slowing of reaction times and physical and cognitive symptoms post-COVID-19 suggests that attention deficit disorder is caused by a complex interaction between physical and cognitive symptoms. In addition, the study provides evidence that RTs in a VDT represent a reliable measure to detect the presence of long-COVID neurological sequelae.

Emergency department care of ABSSSI with dalbavancin infusion, direct discharge, and outpatient telemedicine follow up: a study protocol.

Novel therapeutic strategies such as the long-acting lipoglycopeptide antibiotics allow for the treatment and discharge of selected emergency department (ED) patients with Acute Bacterial Skin and Skin Structure Infections (ABSSSI), who require intravenous antibiotics and would otherwise be hospitalized. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to develop strategies that may reduce hospitalization. The telehealth approach has shown success in remote management of cellulitis patients and could aid in the remote follow up of overall ABSSSI patients. This article describes a study protocol for the telemedicine follow up of patients diagnosed with ABSSSI in the ED, requiring intravenous treatment, receiving a single dalbavancin dose, and directly discharged. A telehealth system for remote follow up is evaluated as well as the possible inclusion of point-of-care ultrasound for the appropriate diagnosis of ABSSSI. The study will be conducted in compliance with regulatory requirements; and all collected data will be kept strictly confidential and in accordance with all relevant legislation on the control and protection of personal information. Dissemination of the study protocol may help increasing knowledge and awareness on this topic, with the aim of optimizing patient management, reducing hospitalization and lower the impact on healthcare associated costs.

Time Course of Motor Activity Wake Inertia Dissipation According to Age.

The time course of motor activity sleep inertia (maSI) dissipation was recently investigated through actigraphy in an everyday life condition from middle childhood to late adulthood. Motor activity sleep inertia was dissipated in 70 min, and the sleep inertia phenomenon was more evident in younger participants than in older participants. The aim of the current secondary analysis of previously published data was to examine, within the same sample, the time course of motor activity wake inertia (maWI) dissipation, i.e., the motor pattern in the transition phase from wakefulness to sleep, according to age. To this end, an overall sample of 374 participants (215 females), ranging in age between 9 and 70 years old, was examined. Each participant was asked to wear an actigraph around their non-dominant wrist for one week. The variation in the motor activity pattern of the wake-sleep transition according to age was examined through functional linear modeling (FLM). FLM showed that motor activity wake inertia dissipated around 20 min after bedtime. Moreover, a lower age was significantly associated with greater motor activity within the last two hours of wakefulness and the first twenty minutes after bedtime. Overall, this pattern of results seems to suggest that maWI dissipation is comparable to that of maSI.

Time Course of Motor Sleep Inertia Dissipation According to Age.

Sleep inertia (SI) refers to a complex psychophysiological phenomenon observed after morning awakening that can be described as the gradual recovery of waking-like status after a night of sleep. The time course of SI dissipation in an everyday life condition is little studied. The present study aims to investigate the SI dissipation in motor activity, as a function of age, upon spontaneous morning awakening after a usual night-time sleep. To this end, we performed a retrospective study in a naturalistic setting in a wide life span sample: 382 healthy participants (219 females) from middle childhood (9 years old) to late adulthood (70 years old). Participants were required to wear the actigraph on the non-dominant wrist for at least seven consecutive nights. Results show that SI of motor activity is dissipated in 70 min. Mean motor activity in such a time window was significantly modulated by age: lower age corresponded to higher motor activity.

Circadian motor activity of non-dominant hand reaches acrophase later than dominant hand.

Motor activity during the first half of nocturnal sleep is lateralized to the non-dominant hand. What remains is to determine which account could explain this phenomenon: the more pronounced homeostatic deactivation of the dominant hemisphere or the circadian asymmetry in the hemispheric activation. To better understand the nature of these motor asymmetries, we performed an ecological study assessing the circadian motor activity in 34 evening, 52 intermediate, and 27 morning types. We observed a significant circadian phase delay of the 24-h motor activity pattern of the left hand in comparison to the right hand, regardless of chronotype. Moreover, we replicated higher motor activity in the left hand in comparison to the right hand in late evening that reached statistical significance only in evening and intermediate types. Analysing motor activity around bedtime and wake-up time, we observed a reverse pattern between circadian typologies: evening types showed higher activity in the left hand in comparison to the right hand before bedtime, while morning types showed significantly higher motor activity in the right hand in comparison to the left after wake-up time. Results support the hypothesis of a different circadian phase relationship between the two hemispheres.

The vertical space-time association.

The space-time interaction suggests a left-to-right directionality in the mind's representation of elapsing time. However, studies showing a possible vertical time representation are scarce and contradictory. In Experiment 1, 32 participants had to judge the duration (200, 300, 500, or 600 ms) of the target stimulus that appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen, compared with a reference stimulus (400 ms) that always appeared in the centre of the screen. In Experiment 2, 32 participants were administered the same procedure, but the reference stimulus appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen and the target stimulus was fixed in the centre location. In both experiments, a space-time interaction was found with an association between short durations and bottom response key as well as between long durations and top key. The evidence of a vertical mental timeline was further confirmed by the distance effect with a lower level of performance for durations close to that of the reference stimulus. The results suggest a bottom-to-top mapping of time representation, more in line with the metaphor "more is up."

Is there a Link between Non Melanoma Skin Cancer and Hydrochlorothiazide?

AIMS: Here in we evaluated the association between the use of Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) and the risk of NMSC both, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). BACKGROUND: Even though the use of HCTZ is not linked with the development of serious adverse drug reactions, non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) has been reported in patients treated with the drug in recent years, most likely due to its photosensitizing ability. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the statistically significant difference (P<0.05) in the development of NMSC between HCTZ users and non-users and the correlation (P<0.05) between HCTZ use and NMSC. METHODS: We performed a retrospective study on patients referred to general practitioners who developed skin cancer or NMSC whether or not they were treated with antihypertensive drugs. Controls were matched with the test by age and sex. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) for skin cancer and NMSC associated with hydrochlorothiazide using conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: We enrolled 19,320 patients in the present study, out of a total of 10,110 (52.3%) who were treated with antihypertensive drugs. Of 10,110 patients, 3,870 were treated with HCTZ (38.3%). During the study, we failed to report an increased risk of NMSC in HCTZ-treated vs. untreated patients. Gender stratification revealed an OR for NMSC of 1.36 for men and 0.56 for women. We did not find a dose-response relationship between HCTZ use and NMSC. CONCLUSION: In the present study, we failed to report an association between the use of HCTZ and the development of NMSC.

Different Effects of Social Jetlag and Weekend Catch-Up Sleep on Well-Being of Adolescents According to the Actual Sleep Duration.

The aim of this study was to explore the potentially different associations between two common aspects of adolescents' life, namely social jetlag and weekend catch-up sleep, with well-being and physical health, according to the actual sleep duration, i.e., <7 h and ≥7 h. To this end, 504 participants (42.1% males), with a mean age of 16.17 (standard deviation = 1.39), were examined in the this cross-sectional study. Participants were asked to wear the Micro Motionlogger Watch actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., Ardlsey, NY, USA) around their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days in order to objectively assess social jetlag and weekend catch-up sleep. Participants were also asked to fill in the Mental Health Continuum­Short Form for the assessment of subjective, social, and psychological well-being, as well as the SF-36 Health Survey for the perception of physical health. In adolescents sleeping less than 7 h, those experiencing weekend catch-up sleep longer than 120 min reported significantly lower subjective well-being compared to those with a weekend catch-up sleep duration between 0 and 59 min. These data pointed out the detrimental effect of long weekend catch-up sleep on self-reported well-being only in adolescents getting less than the recommended amount of sleep.

Validity of the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children: An Actigraphic Study.

This study aimed to provide evidence of the validity of the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children against an external-objective criterion of the 24 h motor activity pattern assessed through actigraphy. A total of 107 children (60 females; mean age 10.25 ± 0.48) were originally enrolled. Children wore the actigraph model Actiwatch AW64 (Cambridge Neurotechnology Ltd., Fenstanton, UK) for seven days, 24 h per day, around the non-dominant wrist. At the beginning of the actigraphic recording, participants filled in the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children. Functional Linear Modeling was used to examine variation in the 24 h motor activity pattern according to the total score in the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children. Higher physical self-efficacy was significantly related to greater levels of motor activity in the afternoon. Overall, this pattern of results supports the validity of the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children against the external-objective criterion of the 24 h motor pattern. The Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children could represent a promising endpoint for studies assessing the effectiveness of physical activity promotion interventions.