Correlates of sport participation in adults with long-standing illness or disability.

Background: Little is known about why people with a long-standing illness/disability are less likely to participate in sport than others. This study aimed to identify for the first time sport participation levels and their correlates among Northern Ireland (NI) adults who report a long-standing illness/disability. Method Using data collected in the Continuous Household Survey, an annual survey of a random sample of the NI population, during 2007–2011, we examined responses for the total sample, those with a long-term illness/disability and those with no long-term health issues. We conducted univariate binary regression analysis for the whole sample and for those with a long-standing illness or disability, using sport participation as the dependent variable, and then carried significant variables into a multivariate analysis. Results: The sample included 13 683 adults; 3550 (26%) reported a long-term illness or disability. Multivariate analysis showed that, for the total sample and for those with a long-standing illness or disability, sport participation correlated positively with being male, aged <56 years, having a household car/van, health being ‘fairly good’/‘good’ in the previous year, doing work and living in an urban location. Also, for those with a long-standing illness or disability, being single and less socioeconomically deprived correlated positively with sport participation. Conclusions: The findings suggest that more focused efforts may promote sport participation for people with a long-standing illness or disability who are female, older, not working, living rurally, married/cohabiting, socioeconomically deprived and report having had poor health in the past year. Our findings should inform public health policy and help in developing initiatives to support sport participation and reduce health inequalities.

Physical activity and sport participation for people with long-term illness

Purpose:Physical activity is recommended for optimal prevention of cardiovascular disease(CVD) and participation in sport is associated with improved well-being. However, people with long-standing illness/disability are less likely to participate in sport than others. Evidence of factors associated with their participation is limited and the best approach to encourage participation is unknown. This study aimed to identify sport participation levels and their correlates, among adults with long standing illness/disability in Northern Ireland, where CVD prevalence is high. Method:Using routinely collected data in annual surveys of population samples from 2007 to 2011, descriptive statistics were derived. Chi-squared tests were used to compare characteristics of those with a long-term illness/disability and those without long-term health problems. Uni-variate binary regression analysis for the whole sample and those with a long-standing illness/disability, using sport participation as the dependent variable, was performed and variables with a p-value of 0.1 or less were taken into a multi-variate analysis. Results:The sample included 13,683 adults; 3550(26%) reported having long-term illness/disability. Fewer of those with, than without, long-term illness/disability reported sport participation in the previous year (868/3550(24.5%) v 5615/10133(55.6%)). Multi-variate analysis showed that, for those with long-standing illness/disability, being single and less socio-economically deprived correlated positively with sport participation. For both those with long-standing illness/disability and the full sample, sport participation correlated positively with being male, aged <56 years, access to a household car/van, sports club membership, health ‘fairly good’ or ‘good’ in the previous year, doing paid/unpaid work, and living in an urban location. For the full sample but not those with long-standing illness/disability, sport participation correlated positively with being a non-smoker, higher educational status and personal internet access. Of note, personal internet access was less for those with, than without, long-term illness/disability (41% v 70%). Conclusions:Efforts to promote physical activity in sport for those with long-standing illness/disability should target older people, married females, those who live rurally, and those who are socio-economically deprived and report their health as ‘not good’. Implementation of initiatives should not rely on the internet, to which these people may not have ready access, to help support their sport participation and physical activity in optimal CVD prevention.

Musculoskeletal (MSK) and Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) in General Practice (GP): A Novel GP-based clinic

The problem-Musculoskeletal (MSK) symptoms are common within primary care but some GPs are not comfortable managing these; waiting times for hospital appointments are a major cause of patients’ complaints. Current UK healthcare policies emphasise a need for more community-based management. We aimed to pilot an innovative general practice-based clinic to improve the management of MSK and Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) symptoms within general practice.

The approach-This project was conducted in an inner-city practice of approximately 9,000 patients and 5 GP partners. The practice commissioned a novel monthly 4-hour clinic staffed by one GP with a specialist interest in MSK and SEM conditions. Each patient was allocated a 20-minute appointment. All primary care staff within the practice could refer any patient for whom they considered hospital referral appropriate, with no specific exclusion criteria. Management plans included injection therapy, exercise prescription and onward referral. After three months (August-October 2014) numbers of consultations, sources of referral, reasons for referral and management outcomes were described; patient satisfaction was assessed by questionnaire, offered to 10 randomly selected patients by reception staff and self-completed by patients. Costs of the clinic were compared to current options.

Findings- All patients (14 males; 21 females; aged 35-77 years), were seen within four weeks of referral (one third of orthopaedic referrals in 2013 waited over 9 weeks for appointment). Most were referred from other GPs; some came from physiotherapy and podiatry. Shoulder problems were the most frequent reason for referral. The commonest management option was steroid injection, with most patients being given advice regarding exercise and analgesia; there were 3 onward referrals (2 physiotherapy; 1 rheumatology).

Comparing August-October data in 2014 and 2013, total, orthopaedic and rheumatology referrals were reduced by 147, 2 and 3, respectively; within the practice MSK presentations and physiotherapy and x-ray referrals were 60, 47 and 90 fewer, respectively.

The cost per attendance at the clinic was £61; initial orthopaedic-ICAT assessments cost £82 and a consultant appointment £213.

Satisfaction questionnaires were returned by all 10 selected participants and provided positive feedback, expressing preference for community-based, rather than hospital, management.

Consequence- Our pilot study indicates that this novel service model has potential for efficient and effective management of MSK and SEM complaints in primary care, reducing the need for hospital referral and the clinical burden on general practices. The innovation deserves further evaluation in a full-scale trial to determine its generalisability to other practice settings and populations.

Understanding perception and action in sport:How can virtual reality technology help?

Although technology can facilitate improvements in performance by allowing us to understand, monitor and evaluate performance, improvements must ultimately come from within the athlete. The first part of this article will focus on understanding how perception and action relate to performance from two different theoretical viewpoints. The first will be predominantly a cognitive or indirect approach that suggests that expertise and decision-making processes are mediated by athletes accruing large knowledge bases that are built up through practice and experience. The second, and alternative approach, will advocate a more 'direct' solution, where the athlete learns to 'tune' into the relevant information that is embedded in their relationship with the surrounding environment and unfolding action. The second part of the article will attempt to show how emerging virtual reality technology is revealing new evidence that helps us understand elite performance. Possibilities of how new types of training could be developed from this technology will also be discussed. © 2014 Crown Copyright.

Knowledge dilemmas : the perspective of two Portuguese organisations

A presente investigação pretende examinar se existe uma convergência entre as diferentes percepções dos actores organizacionais, no que respeita à criação e uso/partilha de conhecimento durante o processo de inovação e mudança organizacional. Iremos igualmente tentar compreender se o conhecimento individual – técnico e organizacional – tem impacto na inovação organizacional e no processo de mudança e, consequentemente, no rumo da organização. Iremos conceptualizar o conhecimento individual como conhecimento tácito e assumir que poderá impulsionar a inovação organizacional e, consequentemente, o desenvolvimento da organização. Contudo, iremos assumir que a partilha do conhecimento explícito não poderá ser separada do processo de compreensão, sendo necessário o conhecimento tácito individual para completar a partilha. O conhecimento explícito e o conhecimento tácito serão ambos estudados como dois elementos inseparáveis porque consideramos que o conhecimento explícito necessita de uma compreensão tácita da linguagem que estrutura o conhecimento explícito. Neste contexto, este estudo apresenta as conclusões acerca dos métodos e formas de interacção e partilha de conhecimento entre os actores organizacionais no que toca à inovação organizacional e aos processos de mudança. A informação será recolhida por via de entrevistas e a técnica Group Recall usando a metodologia de investigação-acção. Este estudo contribui, de várias formas, para o desenvolvimento de um quadro teórico e empírico sobre o conhecimento e a partilha de conhecimento tácito em contextos de inovação organizacional e de processos de mudança. Em primeiro lugar, identifica e analisa as diferentes percepções dos actores organizacionais sobre a partilha e o uso do conhecimento individual durante os processos de inovação organizacional. Em segundo lugar, apresenta o impacto do uso do conhecimento individual partilhado e/ou criado durante os projectos de inovação organizacional nos processoe e práticas da organização. Em terceiro lugar, propõe um conjunto de perfis de conhecimento que podem potenciar a criação e partilha de conhecimento entre os actores organizacionais. Em quarto lugar, sugere um modelo facilitador da partilha de conhecimento que pode servir de referência para investigadores e para profissionais das organizações em processos de inovação organizacional e de mudança. Finalmente, este estudo propõe algumas direcções para futuras investigações e sugere algumas questões de estudo que emergiram desta investigação e que poderão ser exploradas.

A governance approach to integrated rural tourism: factors influencing organisational performance and tourism support of local development organisations

Ao longo das últimas três décadas, o envolvimento das comunidades na formulação de políticas locais tem vindo a ganhar cada vez mais atenção como uma abordagem sustentável para o desenvolvimento rural na União Europeia (UE) e no mundo. Emergendo da globalização, novas estruturas de governação têm desafiado a base territorial restricta da autoridade do Estado soberano através do envolvimento de uma rede complexa e de autoorganização de atores governamentais e não-governamentais na tomada de decisões coletivas. A reestruturação territorial e institucional das zonas rurais, associada à expansão da governança rural, ganhou atenção considerável na literatura. No entanto, o potencial de empregar princípios de governança como fatores que determinam as direções de desenvolvimento rural através de desempenho organizacional e apoio no turismo não tem sido amplamente explorado na literatura. Deste modo, o principal objetivo desta tese consiste no emprego de ‘integração’, ‘participação’ e ‘empowerment’ como fatores críticos que influenciam os rumos do desenvolvimento rural (1) através do desempenho organizacional das organizações de governança rural e (2) apoio no turismo de organizações de desenvolvimento rural tendo em vista a validação da abordagem de governança para o turismo integrado. Ao longo deste duplo objectivo geral, a tese é dividida numa componente qualitativa de ‘desempenho’ e numa componente quantitativa de ‘apoio’. Seguindo uma abordagem sistemática baseada num sistema conceptual, foram realizadas 38 entrevistas em profundidade com pessoas chave envolvendo gestores do programa LEADER da UE na Hungria (34% do número total de Grupos de Ação Local [GAL]), seguido por um levantamento de campo transversal realizado através de um sistema de recolha de dados na Internet, tendo resultado em 662 questionários válidos para uma taxa de resposta de 63.6%. Os resultados da componente “desempenho” revelaram padrões na implementação dos princípios de governança, que por sua vez permitiram a identificação de fatores que permitem e restringem o desempenho organizacional. Os resultados da componente “apoio” permitiram destacar que o ponto de vista de redes de desenvolvimento local nos princípios de governança não é homogéneo. Diferenças significativas foram encontradas entre organizações responsáveis pelo planeamento e os grupos de aconselhamento. Contudo, os resultados sugeriram que a dimensão sustentável de turismo rural integrado é um prognosticador da contribuição do turismo para o desenvolvimento global da comunicade e para o apoio do turismo ao longo das redes de desenvolvimento local. Este estudo responde a uma necessidade crescente de investigação, que resulta da proliferação à escala mundial de formações de governança em sistemas de administração pública, tanto no lado dos investigadores como no lado dos praticantes.

Neurophysiologic, psychological, sport and health dimensions of three meditation techniques

The aim of this study was to record experiences of three meditation conditions: Ratio Breathing, Transcendental Meditation and Zazen, with special reference to sport, health, neuro-physiology and sense of coherence. The participants (N=9), seven males and two females were all British, actively competing across a range of individual and team sports, with no experience of using meditation techniques or practices in their sporting or daily lives. Their mean age was 31.56 years with an age range of 22 to 44 years. The study employed a within-subjects, repeated measures design, with each participant practising each meditation condition in a randomly counterbalanced order. Integrative findings support the value of all three meditation conditions for health and to a lesser extent for sport, especially with regard to their effect on focus. All three meditation conditions were associated with a decrease in respiration. The differential effect of the meditations was apparent. Participants valued Ratio breathing for its effect on concentration, Transcendental Meditation for its depth of meditation and Zazen for its effect on self and removal of external distractions. These qualitative findings were associated with differentially significant quantitative effects on lowered respiration rate in the Ratio Breathing group, increased physical relaxation and alpha activity in the Transcendental Meditation group, and increases in both alpha and theta activity in the Zazen group.

Les sources de motivation au regard de la carrière des jeunes inscrits aux programmes Sport-études à l'ordre d'enseignement secondaire

Lorsqu'il est question de l'impact du sport sur le développement de jeunes adolescents' c'est généralement en fonction de leurs comportements. Toutefois, lorsqu'il s'agit d'évaluer l'influence de la pratique sportive sur le développement scolaire et professionnel des élèves-athlètes, nombreux sont les gens qui voient le sport comme une distraction notable à l'engagement et à la poursuite de leurs études. Pourtant nous remarquons, depuis quelques années, l'apparition et la multiplication de programmes d'études voulant favoriser à la fois la réussite scolaire ainsi que la réussite sportive de jeunes athlètes. Conformément aux propos de Boute, Lepert, Syndiqué et Taupin (1981), nous croyons que les programmes Sport-études concrétisent deux idées (et deux désirs) qui mûrissaient depuis longtemps: l'idée qu'il n'est pas nécessaire d'abandonner ses études pour se consacrer à un sport, et plus important, l'idée qu'il n'est pas nécessaire d'abandonner le sport pour mener à bien ses études secondaires. Selon cette perspective, il serait logique de penser que les programmes scolaires misant sur la combinaison des études et de la pratique du sport de haut niveau s'associent à des caractéristiques particulières notamment, en ce qui à trait à leur motivation au regard de leur projet professionnel. Notre étude vise donc à identifier les sources spécifiques de motivation des élèves inscrits aux programmes Sport-études et régulier à l'ordre d'enseignement secondaire et de vérifier l'existence possible de différences entre ces deux groupes de sujets. Ce mémoire se divise en trois parties. La première partie vise à exposer la problématique de notre recherche. Nous identifions d'abord notre problème de recherche en dressant un portrait général de la situation actuelle des jeunes à l'ordre d'enseignement secondaire puis nous traitons du rôle qu'occupe l'orientation quant à la motivation des élèves au regard de leurs études. À cela s'ajoute l'examen d'une littérature appropriée aux élèves-athlètes et aux sources de motivation particulières qui leur sont attribuées. Nous présentons ensuite le cadre théorique de notre recherche en analysant les concepts de motivation et de développement de carrière. Nous complétons cette partie par l'étude de certaines recherches et expériences en lien avec notre problématique et nous démontrons la pertinence de notre recherche avant d'identifier les objectifs poursuivis. En ce qui à trait à la deuxième partie de notre étude, elle concerne la méthodologie. Nous présentons dans cette section les principales démarches utilisées afin de rencontrer nos objectifs de recherche. Il s'agit entre autres de l'instrument de mesure retenu, les sujets sélectionnés, du déroulement de l'expérience, de la présentation des programmes Sport-études, des limites de notre recherche et des techniques statistiques employées pour analyser et interpréter les résultats obtenus. Quant à la troisième partie, elle contient essentiellement les données obtenues au cours de notre recherche. Dans un premier temps, nous dégageons un portrait général des sources de motivation au regard de la carrière des élèves inscrits aux programmes réguliers et Sport-études. Puis, dans un deuxième temps, nous essayons de dégager les particularités du profil motivationnel de ces élèves en fonction du programme d'études auquel ils sont inscrits. Enfin, quelques implications possibles de nos résultats pour la pratique de l'orientation professionnelle font l'objet de la conclusion de ce mémoire.

Dis)located Olympic Patriots: Sporting Connections, Administrative Communications and Imperial Ether in Interwar New Zealand

During the interwar period (1919-1939) protagonists of the early New Zealand Olympic Committee [NZOC] worked to renegotiate and improve the country’s international sporting participation and involvement in the International Olympic Committee [IOC]. To this end, NZOC effectively used its locally based administrators and well-placed expatriates in Britain to variously assert the organisation’s nascent autonomy, independence and political power, progress Antipodean athlete’s causes, and, counter any potential doubt about the nation’s peripheral position in imperial sporting dialogues. Adding to the corpus of scholarship on New Zealand’s ties and tribulations with imperial Britain (in and beyond sport) (e.g. Beilharz and Cox 2007; Belich 2001, 2007; Coombes 2006; MacLean 2010; Phillips 1984, 1987; Ryan 2004, 2005, 2007), in this paper I examine how the political actions and strategic location of three key NZOC agents (specifically, administrator Harry Amos and expatriates Arthur Porritt and Jack Lovelock) worked in their own particular ways to assert the position of the organisation within the global Olympic fraternity. I argue that the efforts of Amos, Porritt and Lovelock also concomitantly served to remind Commonwealth sporting colleagues (namely Britain and Australia) that New Zealand could not be characterised as, or relegated to being, a distal, subdued, or subservient colonial sporting partner. Subsequently I contend that NZOC’s development during the interwar period, and particularly the utility of expatriate agents, can be contextualised against historiographical shifts that encourage us to rethink, reimagine, and rework narratives of empire, colonisation, national identity, commonwealth and belonging.