Did the 2000 Sydney Olympics increase physical activity among adult Australians?

BACKGROUND: The Olympic Games' (OG) organisers typically hope that a diverse range of health legacies, including increases in physical activity and sport participation will result from their hosting of the OG. Despite these aspirations, the effects of the Olympics on physical activity levels remain to be demonstrated in large-scale population studies. METHODS: This study examined the short-term impact of the Sydney 2000 OG, using serial cross-sectional population physical activity surveys of Australian adults in November 1999 and November 2000. Random sample surveys of adults asked about physical activity participation, intention to be more active, and in 2000, response to the OG. RESULTS: There were no significant effects of the Olympics on physical activity participation among adult Australians, measured 6 weeks after the end of the Games. Total minutes of leisure-time physical activity did not change significantly between 1999 and 2000 (295-303 min/week), and the proportion reaching the recommended levels of 150 min/week did not change (56.6% and 56.8%, respectively, in 1999 and 2000). The intention to be active in the next month increased after the Games (adjusted OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.24), but was not associated with physical activity behaviour change. CONCLUSIONS: The legacy of the OG may be apparent through new infrastructure and other urban improvements, but evidence of their influence on physical activity levels remains elusive. Without multiyear integrated and well-funded programmes to promote physical activity, the Olympic legacy of a more active community may remain more rhetoric than reality.

Brain activity and perceived exertion during cycling exercise: an fMRI study.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Currently, the equipment and techniques available to assess brain function during dynamic exercise are limited, which has restricted our knowledge of how the brain regulates exercise. This study assessed the brain areas activated during cycling by making use of a novel cycle ergometer, constructed to measure functional MRI (fMRI) brain images during dynamic exercise. Furthermore, we compared brain activation at different levels of ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) generated during the exercise. METHODS: Seven healthy adults performed cycling exercise in a novel MRI compatible cycle ergometer while undergoing brain  fMRI. Participants completed a cycling block protocol comprising six trials of 2 min cycling with 16-s intervals between trials. Participants reported their RPE every minute through an audio link. The MRI cycling ergometer transferred the torque generated on the ergometer through a cardan system to a cycling ergometer positioned outside the MRI room. For data analysis, the effects of cycling as opposed to rest periods were examined after motion correction. RESULTS: The multiparticipant analysis revealed in particular the activation of the cerebellar vermis and precentral and postcentral gyrus when periods of cycling versus rest were compared. Single participant analysis in four participants revealed that activation of the posterior cingulate gyrus and precuneus occurred in cycling blocks perceived as 'hard' compared with exercise blocks that were less demanding. CONCLUSIONS: The present study offers a new approach to assess brain activation during dynamic cycling exercise, and suggests that specific brain areas could be involved in the sensations generating the rating of perceived exertion.

The urban brain: analysing outdoor physical activity with mobile EEG.

BACKGROUND: Researchers in environmental psychology, health studies and urban design are interested in the relationship between the environment, behaviour settings and emotions. In particular, happiness, or the presence of positive emotional mindsets, broadens an individual's thought-action repertoire with positive benefits to physical and intellectual activities, and to social and psychological resources. This occurs through play, exploration or similar activities. In addition, a body of restorative literature focuses on the potential benefits to emotional recovery from stress offered by green space and 'soft fascination'. However, access to the cortical correlates of emotional states of a person actively engaged within an environment has not been possible until recently. This study investigates the use of mobile electroencephalography (EEG) as a method to record and analyse the emotional experience of a group of walkers in three types of urban environment including a green space setting. METHODS: Using Emotiv EPOC, a low-cost mobile EEG recorder, participants took part in a 25 min walk through three different areas of Edinburgh. The areas (of approximately equal length) were labelled zone 1 (urban shopping street), zone 2 (path through green space) and zone 3 (street in a busy commercial district). The equipment provided continuous recordings from five channels, labelled excitement (short-term), frustration, engagement, long-term excitement (or arousal) and meditation. RESULTS: A new form of high-dimensional correlated component logistic regression analysis showed evidence of lower frustration, engagement and arousal, and higher meditation when moving into the green space zone; and higher engagement when moving out of it. CONCLUSIONS: Systematic differences in EEG recordings were found between three urban areas in line with restoration theory. This has implications for promoting urban green space as a mood-enhancing environment for walking or for other forms of physical or reflective activity.

Challenges with cost-utility analyses of behavioural interventions among older adults at risk for dementia.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive decline is one of the most prominent healthcare issues of the 21st century. Within the context of combating cognitive decline through behavioural interventions, physical activity is a promising approach. There is a dearth of health economic data in the area of behavioural interventions for dementia prevention. Yet, economic evaluations are essential for providing information to policy makers for resource allocation. It is essential we first address population and intervention-specific methodological challenges prior to building a larger evidence base. We use a cost-utility analysis conducted alongside the exercise for cognition and everyday living (EXCEL) study to illustrate methodological challenges specific to assessing the cost-effectiveness of behavioural interventions aimed at older adults at risk of cognitive decline. METHODS: A cost-utility analysis conducted concurrently with a 6-month, three-arm randomised controlled trial (ie, the EXCEL study) was used as an example to identify and discuss methodological challenges. RESULTS: Both the aerobic training and resistance training interventions were less costly than twice weekly balance and tone classes. In critically evaluating the economic evaluation of the EXCEL study we identified four category-specific challenges: (1) analysing costs; (2) assessing quality-adjusted life-years; (3) Incomplete data; and (4) 'Intervention' activities of the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Resistance training and aerobic training resulted in healthcare cost saving and were equally effective to balance and tone classes after only 6 months of intervention. To ensure this population is treated fairly in terms of claims on resources, we first need to identify areas for methodological improvement.

Impact of accelerometer wear time on physical activity data: a NHANES semisimulation data approach.

BACKGROUND: Current research practice employs wide-ranging accelerometer wear time criteria to identify a valid day of physical activity (PA) measurement. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of varying amounts of daily accelerometer wear time on PA data. METHODS: A total of 1000 days of accelerometer data from 1000 participants (age=38.7 ± 14.3 years; body mass index=28.2 ± 6.7 kg/m(2)) were selected from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Study data set. A reference data set was created using 200 random days with 14 h/day of wear time. Four additional samples of 200 days were randomly selected with a wear time of 10, 11, 12 and 13 h/day(1). These data sets were used in day-to-day comparison to create four semisimulation data sets (10, 11, 12, 13 h/day) from the reference data set. Differences in step count and time spent in inactivity (<100 cts/min), light (100-1951 cts/min), moderate (1952-5724 cts/min) and vigorous (≥5725 cts/min) intensity PA were assessed using repeated-measures analysis of variance and absolute percent error (APE). RESULTS: There were significant differences for moderate intensity PA between the reference data set and semisimulation data sets of 10 and 11 h/day. Differences were observed in 10-13 h/day(1) for inactivity and light intensity PA, and 10-12 h/day for steps (all p values <0.05). APE increased with shorter wear time (13 h/day=3.9-14.1%; 12 h/day=9.9-15.2%, 11 h/day=17.1-35.5%; 10 h/day=24.6-40.3%). DISCUSSION: These data suggest that using accelerometer wear time criteria of 12 h/day or less may underestimate step count and time spent in various PA levels.

Responsiveness of motion sensors to detect change in sedentary and physical activity behaviour.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine the responsiveness of two motion sensors to detect change in sedentary behaviour (SB) and physical activity (PA) during an occupational intervention to reduce sitting time. METHODS: SB and PA were assessed using a hip-worn Actigraph GTX3 (AG) and a thigh-worn activPAL (AP) during three consecutive workdays throughout baseline and intervention periods. Mean scores at baseline and intervention were estimated by hierarchical linear models (HLM) with robust SEs, adjusting for random variance of average scores between participants. Change scores (mean baseline minus mean intervention) were calculated for each device. Response to change was assessed for each device using the standardised response mean. RESULTS: 67 adults (45 ± 11 years; 29.3 ± 7.7 kg/m(2)) wore the acceleration-based motion sensors for 8.3 (SD=1.2) and 8.3 (SD=1.1) h during the baseline and intervention periods, respectively. HLM showed that AP sitting/lying time (-16.5 min, -5%), AP stepping (+7.5 min, 19%), AP steps/day (+838 steps/day, +22%), AP sit-to-stand transitions (+3, +10%), AG SB (-14.6 min, -4%), AG lifestyle moderate-intensity PA (LMPA, +4 min, +15%) and AG MPA (+3 min, 23%) changed significantly between the baseline and the intervention period. Standardised response means for AP sitting/lying time, stepping, steps/day, sit-to-stand transitions and AG SB, LMPA and MPA were above 0.3, indicating a small but similar responsiveness to change. CONCLUSIONS: Responsiveness to change in SB and PA was similar and comparable for the AP and AG, indicating agreement across both measurement devices.

Adding maps (GPS) to accelerometry data to improve study participants' recall of physical activity: a methodological advance in physical activity research.

OBJECTIVE: Obtaining the 'when, where and why' of healthy bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) provides insights into natural PA. DESIGN: In Salt Lake City, Utah, adults wore accelerometer and Global Positioning System (GPS) loggers for a week in a cross-sectional study to establish baseline travel and activity patterns near a planned Complete Street intervention involving a new rail line, new sidewalks and a bike path. RESULTS: At the end of the week, research assistants met with the 918 participants who had at least three 10 h days of good accelerometer readings. Accelerometer and GPS data were uploaded and integrated within a custom application, and participants were provided with maps and time information for past MVPA bouts of ≥3 min to help them recall bout details. Participants said that 'getting someplace' was, on average, a more important motivation for their bouts than leisure or exercise. A series of recall tests showed that participants recalled most bouts they were asked about, regardless of the duration of the bout, suggesting that participant perceptions of their shorter lifestyle bouts can be studied with this methodology. Visual prompting with a map depicting where each bout took place yielded more accurate recall than prompting with time cues alone. CONCLUSIONS: These techniques provide a novel way to understand participant memories of the context and subjective assessments associated with healthy bouts of PA. Prompts with time-stamped maps that illustrate places of MVPA offer an effective method to improve understanding of activity and its supportive sociophysical contexts.

Exercise for anxiety disorders: systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety disorders are commonly treated with antidepressants and psychological treatments. Some patients may prefer alternative approaches such as exercise. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the treatment effects of exercise compared with other treatments for anxiety disorders. DATA SOURCES: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of exercise interventions for anxiety disorders were identified by searching six online databases (July 2011). A number of journals were also hand searched. MAIN RESULTS: Eight RCTs were included. For panic disorder: exercise appears to reduce anxiety symptoms but it is less effective than antidepressant medication (1 RCT); exercise combined with antidepressant medication improves the Clinical Global Impression outcomes (1 RCT, p<0.05); exercise combined with occupational therapy and lifestyle changes reduces Beck Anxiety Inventory outcomes (1 RCT, p=0.0002). For social phobias, added benefits of exercise when combined with group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) were shown (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise groups (1 RCT, p>0.1) with both seeming to reduce anxiety symptoms (1 RCT, p<0.001). It remains unclear as to which type of exercise; moderate to hard or very light to light, is more effective in anxiety reduction (2 RCTs). CONCLUSIONS: Exercise seems to be effective as an adjunctive treatment for anxiety disorders but it is less effective compared with antidepressant treatment. Both aerobic and non-aerobic exercise seems to reduce anxiety symptoms. Social phobics may benefit from exercise when combined with group CBT. Further well-conducted RCTs are needed.

What physical activity surveillance needs: validity of a single-item questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Self-report instruments to assess physical activity are still the most feasible option in many population-wide surveys, and often need to be very short owing to resource constraints. The aim of this study was to test the criterion validity of a single-item physical activity measure using accelerometers and to compare its measurement properties by gender, age group (including older adults) and language region. METHODS: A validation study was carried out within the second follow-up of a large Swiss cohort study (Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Disease in Adults, SAPALDIA, n=208) and included an additional convenient sample (n=110). Participants wore an accelerometer over eight consecutive days and then completed the single-item measure. Spearman's rank-order correlations were used to assess the criterion validity. RESULTS: Physical activity levels were higher in men, younger individuals and those from the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Correlation coefficients for the number of days with at least 30 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity according to the single item and different accelerometer activity outcomes ranged from 0.40 to 0.54. Correlations were higher for women, younger individuals and participants from the French-speaking and the Italian-speaking parts. CONCLUSIONS: The single-item physical activity measure performed at least as well as other physical activity questionnaires. The differences in criterion validity between sub groups indicate that factors such as gender and age should be taken into account when developing physical activity questionnaires and in future validation studies.