Validity of the Fitbit Ace and Moki Devices for Assessing Steps During Different Walking Conditions in Young Adolescents.

PURPOSE: Using wearable monitoring devices is increasingly ubiquitous, including among young people. However, there is limited evidence of the validity of devices which are aimed at children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of Fitbit Ace and Moki monitors in healthy young adolescents. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 17 young adolescents (ages 11-13 y) ambulating between 3 different walking conditions (incidental [∼6 min], controlled, and treadmill [each 3 min], while wearing wrist-worn devices [Fitbit Ace, Moki] on each wrist [left and right, respectively]). Data from the devices were compared with observer counts (criterion). Bland-Altman plots and mean absolute percentage errors were computed. RESULTS: Analyses identified that the Fitbit Ace showed higher levels of bias across conditions compared with the Moki device: (mean difference [SD]; Fitbit Ace: 30.0 [38.0], 3.0 [13.0], and 13.0 [23.0] steps and Moki: 1.0 [19.0], 4.0 [16.0], and 6.0 [14.0] steps, incidental, controlled, and treadmill, respectively). Mean absolute percentage errors ranged from 3.1% to 9.5% for the Fitbit Ace and 3.0% to 4.0% for the Moki device. CONCLUSION: The Fitbit Ace and Moki devices might not provide acceptable validity under all walking conditions, but the Moki provides more accurate estimates of incidental walking and might therefore be a good choice for free-living research or school-based interventions.

Supporting school teachers' rapid engagement with online education.

In response to Philipsen et al.'s (Educ Technol Res Dev 67:1145-1174, 2019) article titled "Improving teacher professional development [TPD] for online and blended learning [OBL]: a systematic meta-aggregative review", we apply their proposed framework of important components of TPD for OBL to the support we provided to primary and secondary teachers as they engaged with online education during the COVID-19 pandemic. We reflect on observations of particular challenges for school teachers and the reasons behind them. While this framework is a useful reflection tool to guide professional learning for teachers beyond the emergency situations, we found that it is biased towards TPD for OBL in higher education settings. Thus, we suggest future work to differentiate educational levels in order to account for operational differences.

Understanding the Importance of Context: A Qualitative Study of a Location-Based Exergame to Enhance School Childrens Physical Activity.

Many public health interventions are less effective than expected in 'real life settings', yet little work is undertaken to understand the reasons why. The effectiveness of complex public health interventions can often be traced back to a robust programme theory (how and why an intervention brings about a change in outcome(s)) and assumptions that are made about the context in which it is implemented. Understanding whether effectiveness (or lack thereof) is due to the intervention or the context is hugely helpful in decisions about whether to a) modify the intervention; b) modify the context; c) stop providing the intervention. Exergames-also known as Active Video Games or AVGS-are video games which use the player's bodily movements as input and have potential to increase physical activity in children. However, the results of a recent pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a location-based exergame (FitQuest) in a school setting were inconclusive; no significant effect was detected for any of the outcome measures. The aim of this study was to explore whether the programme theory for FitQuest was correct with respect to how and why it would change children's perceptions of physical activity (PA) and exercise self-efficacy in the school setting. A further aim was to investigate the features of the school setting (context) that may impact on FitQuest's implementation and effectiveness. Qualitative data (gathered during the RCT) were gathered from interviews with teachers and children, and observation of sessions using FitQuest. Thematic analysis indicated that whilst children enjoyed playing the game, engaged with goal setting within the game context and undertook low to vigorous physical activity, there were significant contextual factors that prevented it from being played as often as intended. These included environmental factors (e.g. size of the playground), school factors (cancellations due to other activities), school technology policy (rules relating to mobile phone usage) and teacher factors (engagement with the intervention). A revised logic model for the FitQuest intervention indicates how both the design of exergame technology (intervention) and features of the school environment (context) could be improved to increase chances of effectiveness in the future.

Effects of social integration on health: A prospective study of community engagement among African American women.

Research indicates that engagement in community organizations is positively associated with health, particularly among aging populations, yet few studies have examined in detail the influence of community engagement (CE) on later health among African Americans. This study provides a longitudinal assessment of the effects of CE over a 22-year period on physical and mental health among a population of urban African American women. Data were from the Woodlawn Study, a prospective study of children and their families from an African American community in Chicago. Mothers who were assessed in 1975 and in 1997 reported involvement in religious and secular organizations. These reports were combined to create a five-category construct: no CE, early CE only, late CE only, persistent CE (either type at both assessments), and diverse and persistent CE (both types at both assessments). Multivariate regression analyses with multiple imputation (for N = 680) estimated the impact of CE on four measures of physical and mental health: SF-36 physical functioning, self-rated health, anxious mood, and depressed mood. Women with late only, persistent, and diverse and persistent CE reported significantly better health compared to non-involved women. Persistently engaged women were less likely to report anxious or depressed mood than those with early CE only. Persistent and diverse CE was more highly associated with better physical functioning than was persistent CE. Results highlight the strong positive link between health and concurrent, persistent, and diverse CE among African American women.

Living Arrangements during Childrearing Years and Later Health of African American Mothers.

Using longitudinal data from the Woodlawn Project (N=680), this study examined how patterns of living arrangements among a community cohort of African American mothers were associated with later physical and emotional health. We identified eight patterns of stability and transition in living arrangements during the childrearing years. Health outcomes include SF-36 Physical Functioning, SF-36 Bodily Pain, depressed mood, and anxious mood. Specific patterns of living arrangements were related to later health, controlling for age, earlier health, education, and poverty. Poverty explained many, but not all, of the relationships between living arrangements and health. Findings underscored the benefits of social support and social integration and highlighted the negative effects of marital dissolution on health.

From anxiety to enthusiasm: facilitating graduate nursing students' knowledge development in science and theory.

Knowledge development of theory can be challenging for graduate nursing students when they experience deficits related to theoretical foundations, evaluation, or application. This article recounts the experiences of the students and course facilitator with a graduate-level nursing science and theory course, which required critical analysis of a concept, theory critique, and poster presentation. The idea for this article was generated when the students realized the profound importance of nursing theories and their applicability to practice and research. Students' anxiety gave way to enthusiasm with the implementation of teaching and learning strategies based on adult learning theory. Knowles' four characteristics of adult learners are discussed in relation to the experiences of the students and course facilitator. These characteristics include learners' wish to be self-directed, need to bring life experiences to their learning, recognition of their social and occupational role competencies, and need to take a more immediate, problem-solving approach to their learning.

Assessing health status and health care utilization in adolescents with chronic kidney disease.

Few validated health status measures have been assessed in children with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The objective was to assess the validity of a generic health status measure, the Child Health and Illness Profile-Adolescent Edition (CHIP-AE), in adolescents with CKD. A case-control study was performed (1) to assess scores on the CHIP-AE in adolescents with CKD compared with two control groups of age-, socioeconomic-, and gender-matched peers and (2) to compare health of patients who had chronic renal insufficiency (CRI), were on dialysis, and were posttransplantation. Seven pediatric nephrology centers recruited 113 patients (mean age, 14 yr; 39 CRI, 21 dialysis, 53 posttransplantation). Compared with 226 control subjects, patients with CKD had lower overall satisfaction with health and more restriction in activity. Positively, patients with CKD had more family involvement, better home safety and health practices, and better social problem-solving skills and were less likely to participate in risky social behaviors or socialize with peers who engaged in risky behavior. Patients who received dialysis were less physically active and experienced more physical discomfort and limitations in activities than did transplant or CRI patients. It is concluded that patients with CKD have poorer functional health status than age-matched peers. Among CKD patients, dialysis patients have the poorest functional health status. These results suggest that the CHIP-AE can be used to measure functional health status in adolescent patients with CKD.

The NITE XML Toolkit: flexible annotation for multimodal language data.

Multimodal corpora that show humans interacting via language are now relatively easy to collect. Current tools allow one either to apply sets of time-stamped codes to the data and consider their timing and sequencing or to describe some specific linguistic structure that is present in the data, built over the top of some form of transcription. To further our understanding of human communication, the research community needs code sets with both timings and structure, designed flexibly to address the research questions at hand. The NITE XML Toolkit offers library support that software developers can call upon when writing tools for such code sets and, thus, enables richer analyses than have previously been possible. It includes data handling, a query language containing both structural and temporal constructs, components that can be used to build graphical interfaces, sample programs that demonstrate how to use the libraries, a tool for running queries, and an experimental engine that builds interfaces on the basis of declarative specifications.

Social class gradients and health in childhood.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if there are social class gradients in health in children aged 6 to 11 years. METHODS: Self and parent reports of health of children in 5 sites across the United States were assessed using the Child Health and Illness Profile-Child Edition. Distribution of scores in 4 domains: satisfaction (with health); comfort; resilience; and risk avoidance were used to create profiles of health. Social class was defined as a composite of parental education and work participation. RESULTS: Social class gradients were found for all but the satisfaction domain and for most subdomains in the parent version; the most notable gradient was in the risk avoidance domain, with better health the higher the social class. Apparent gradients did not reach statistical significance in the child reports. Children from a higher social class were more likely to be in excellent/average health and less likely to be in poor health profiles than were lower class children. CONCLUSIONS: The findings generally mirror those from a prior study of adolescents, using the same conceptual framework for health and the same measure of social class, and are consistent with a cumulative effect for most aspects of health, and with a critical-period effect for risky behaviors.