Attendance and pricing at sporting events : empirical results from Granger Causality Tests for the Melbourne Cup

This study applies Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between attendance, admission prices and real income at the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia's premier horseracing event and one of the world's leading handicap races. The motivation for the paper is that while market demand suggests that causation should run from admission price to attendance, it is equally plausible that sporting authorities could alter admission prices in response to a change in demand reflected in attendance. The main findings are that in the short-run there is unidirectional Granger causality running from income to attendance, attendance to admission price and income to admission price, while in the long run both admission price and income Granger cause attendance.

Experimental evidence for the influence of food availability on incubation attendance and hatching asynchrony in the Australian reed warbler Acrocephalus australis

The amount of time a bird allocates to incubation is likely to be limited by energetic constraints. If food is abundant, energetic constraints may be reduced and the time spent incubating (incubation attendance) may increase. Moreover, the onset of incubation in relation to clutch completion may be advanced, resulting in a higher degree of hatching asynchrony. We measured the effect of experimentally increased food availability on incubation attendance and an estimate of hatching asynchrony in the Australian reed warbler Acrocephalus australis. Supplementary food was provided every other day, from a few days before the start of egg laying until just prior to hatching. Incubation attendance was measured with temperature loggers at nests receiving supplementary food and control nests. Hatching asynchrony was inferred from mass and size differences between siblings shortly after hatching. We found that 1) food supplementation resulted in an increase in incubation attendance, when comparing both nests receiving supplementary food to control nests as well as feeding to non-feeding days in nests receiving supplementary food, and 2) food supplementation resulted in a greater hatching asynchrony, without affecting clutch size, average egg volume or the likelihood of eggs hatching. This suggests that food availability acts in a proximate way to modify the extent of incubation attendance and hatching asynchrony. We discuss the adaptive significance of increased incubation attendance and a shift in the degree of hatching asynchrony in relation to food availability.

Theory of planned behaviour and implementation intentions in dental attendance

The thesis used a model of health behaviour to examine the predictors of dental attendance. Older respondents who had strong intentions, low perceived vulnerability, stable plans to attend, and were influenced by significant others were more likely to have attended the dentist for preventive care in the last 12 months. The portfolio concludes that attachment theory is a useful conceptual framework for enhancing our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of childhood sexual abuse.

Measuring the intrinsic benefits of arts attendance

There is an emerging dissatisfaction with the current evaluative regimes for the quality and effectiveness of funded arts organizations. Far too much evaluation rests on audience satisfaction surveys and quantitative measures of audience attendance numbers, production numbers and revenue sources. The intrinsic benefits of the arts to audiences and to society are recognized to be of major importance, but the means to measure these in an acceptable and on-going manner has not been found. This article changes that. It shows, through almost three years of data collection on arts audiences, that a newly developed and tested Arts Audience Experience Index can be used and embedded by companies and government funding agencies to measure the audience experience of quality, alongside other acquittal tools.

Attendance at cardiac rehabilitation is associated with lower all-cause mortality after 14 years of follow-up

Objective To investigate whether attendance at cardiac rehabilitation (CR) independently predicts all-cause mortality over 14 years and whether there is a dose–response relationship between the proportion of CR sessions attended and long-term mortality.

Design Retrospective cohort study.

Setting CR programmes in Victoria, Australia

Patients The sample comprised 544 men and women eligible for CR following myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass surgery or percutaneous interventions. Participants were tracked 4 months after hospital discharge to ascertain CR attendance status.

Main outcome measures All-cause mortality at 14 years ascertained through linkage to the Australian National Death Index.

Results In total, 281 (52%) men and women attended at least one CR session. There were few significant differences between non-attenders and attenders. After adjustment for age, sex, diagnosis, employment, diabetes and family history, the mortality risk for non-attenders was 58% greater than for attenders (HR=1.58, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.15). Participants who attended <25% of sessions had a mortality risk more than twice that of participants attending ≥75% of sessions (OR=2.57, 95% CI 1.04 to 6.38). This association was attenuated after adjusting for current smoking (OR=2.06, 95% CI 0.80 to 5.29).

Conclusions This study provides further evidence for the long-term benefits of CR in a contemporary, heterogeneous population. While a dose–response relationship may exist between the number of sessions attended and long-term mortality, this relationship does not occur independently of smoking differences. CR practitioners should encourage smokers to attend CR and provide support for smoking cessation.

Associations between usual school lunch attendance and eating habits and sedentary behaviour in French children and adolescents

Background/Objective: Our objective was to investigate whether school lunch attendance was associated with overall eating habits and sedentary behaviour in a French sample of children and adolescents.

Subjects/Methods: Data for the study were taken from the second French cross-sectional dietary survey (INCA2-2006-07). In total, 1413 school children aged 3–17 years old were classified according to their school type and their usual school lunch attendance. Eating habits included meal regularity, dietary diversity, purchase in vending machine, snacking habits and frequency of eating in fast-foods. Two composite indices of eating habits were derived from multiple correspondence analyses. Sedentary behaviour was assessed by the average daily screen times for TV and computer. The association between school lunch attendance and each variable was tested. Multivariate association between school lunch attendance and the composite indices of eating habits and sedentary behaviours was studied.

Results: In all, 69.0% (CI95%: 64.2–73.9) of secondary school children and 63.0% (CI95%: 58.5–67.5) of pre- and elementary school children usually attended school lunch at least once a week. Pre- and elementary school children attending school lunches showed a higher dietary diversity score (P=0.02) and ate morning snacks more frequently (P=0.02). In secondary school children, attending school canteen was related to a lower rate of skipping breakfast (P=0.04) and main meals (P=0.01). In all school children, school lunch attendance was simultaneously associated with healthier overall eating habits and less sedentary behaviour.

Conclusion: In France, children attending school canteens seem to have healthier eating habits and display less sedentary behaviour, independently of their socio-economic and demographic background.

How significant is partnership formation in area-based projects to increase parental attendance at maternal and child health services

Objectives: