Influences on preschool children's physical activity

This study explored mothers' perceptions of influences on preschoolers' physical activity. Six semistructured focus groups with 23 mothers were conducted across a range of socioeconomic position locations. Mothers identified 4 key areas of influence: child fundamentals (eg, sex, personality), parent power (eg, rules, support), people to share with (eg, peers, adults), and places and things (eg, physical environments, toys). No substantial differences in themes were identified among socioeconomic position groups. Influences on preschoolers' physical activity are multidimensional, multifactorial, and support the use of ecological models to conceptualize and understand the influencing factors. Associations among factors influencing preschoolers' physical activity should be further investigated through quantitative research.

Is a perceived supportive physical environment important for self-reported leisure time physical activity among socioeconomically disadvantaged women with poor psychosocial characteristics? An observational study

Background Over the past decade, studies and public health interventions that target the physical environment as an avenue for promoting physical activity have increased in number. While it appears that a supportive physical environment has a role to play in promoting physical activity, social-ecological models emphasise the importance of considering other multiple levels of influence on behaviour, including individual (e.g. self-efficacy, intentions, enjoyment) and social (e.g. social support, access to childcare) factors (psychosocial factors). However, not everyone has these physical activity-promoting psychosocial characteristics; it remains unclear what contribution the environment makes to physical activity among these groups. This study aimed to examine the association between the perceived physical environment and self-reported leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) among women living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas demonstrating different psychosocial characteristics.

Methods In 2007–8, 3765 women (18–45 years) randomly selected from low socioeconomic areas in Victoria, Australia, self-reported LTPA, and individual, social and physical environmental factors hypothesised within a social-ecological framework to influence LTPA. Psychosocial and environment scores were created. Associations between environment scores and categories of LTPA (overall and stratified by thirds of perceived environment scores) were examined using generalised ordered logistic regression.

Results Women with medium and high perceived environment scores had 20-38% and 44-70% greater odds respectively of achieving higher levels of LTPA than women with low environment scores. When stratified by thirds of psychosocial factor scores, these associations were largely attenuated and mostly became non-significant. However, women with the lowest psychosocial scores but medium or high environment scores had 76% and 58% higher odds respectively of achieving ≥120 minutes/week (vs. <120 minutes/week) LTPA.

Conclusions Acknowledging the cross-sectional study design, the findings suggest that a physical environment perceived to be supportive of physical activity might help women with less favourable psychosocial characteristics achieve moderate amounts of LTPA (i.e. ≥120 minutes/week). This study provides further support for research and public health interventions to target perceptions of the physical environment as a key component of strategies to promote physical activity.

Perceived neighborhood environmental attributes associated with adults’ transport-related walking and cycling: Findings from the USA, Australia and Belgium

Background : Active transportation has the potential to contribute considerably to overall physical activity levels in adults and is likely to be influenced by neighborhood-related built environment characteristics. Previous studies that examined the associations between built environment attributes and active transportation, focused mainly on transport-related walking and were conducted within single countries, limiting environmental variability. We investigated the direction and shape of relationships of perceived neighborhood attributes with transport-related cycling and walking in three countries; and examined whether these associations differed by country and gender.

Methods Data from the USA (Baltimore and Seattle), Australia (Adelaide) and Belgium (Ghent) were pooled. In total, 6,014 adults (20–65 years, 55.7% women) were recruited in high-/low-walkable and high-/low-income neighborhoods. All participants completed the Neighborhood Environmental Walkability Scale and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Generalized additive mixed models were used to estimate the strength and shape of the associations.

Results Proximity to destinations, good walking and cycling facilities, perceiving difficulties in parking near local shopping areas, and perceived aesthetics were included in a ‘cyclability’ index. This index was linearly positively related to transport-related cycling and no gender- or country-differences were observed. The ‘walkability’ index consisted of perceived residential density, land use mix access, proximity of destinations and aesthetics. A non-linear positive relationship with transport-related walking was found. This association was stronger in women than in men, and country-specific associations were identified: the strongest association was observed in Seattle, the weakest in Adelaide. In Ghent, the association weakened at higher levels of walkability.

Conclusions For cycling, consistent correlates were found in the three countries, but associations were less straightforward for transport-related walking. Moreover, the identified neighborhood environmental correlates were different for walking compared to cycling. In order to further clarify the shape of these associations and reach more specific international guidelines for developing walkable and bikeable neighborhoods, future studies should include even more countries to maximize environmental variability.

The correlates of preschoolers' compliance with screen recommendations exist across multiple domains

Objective:
To investigate the individual, social and physical environment correlates of preschool children's compliance with Australian/Canadian and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) screen recommendations.

Method:
An Ecological Model (EM) was used to identify constructs potentially associated with children's screen time. In 2008–2009, parents in Melbourne, Australia, reported their child's screen time and on a range of potential correlates. Children (n = 935; 54% boys, mean age 4.54 ± 0.70 years) were assessed as meeting or not meeting each of the screen recommendations. Logistic regression assessed bivariable and multivariable associations.

Results:
In total, 15 explanatory variables, across the three domains of the EM were associated with boys' and/or girls' compliance with either Australian/Canadian or AAP recommendations. Correlates varied by sex and recommendation. Maternal television viewing time was the only consistent correlate for both boys' and girls' compliance with both recommendations. No demographic groups were identified as being less likely to comply with screen recommendations.

Conclusion:
Public health programs should take account of the sex-specific nature of correlates of preschool children's screen time. Preschool children across all demographic groups need support to engage in less screen use. Parents may benefit from education and parenting skills to minimize potentially harmful effects of excessive screen time for their child.

Key influences on motivations for utility cycling (cycling for transport to and from places)

Issue addressed: 

Evaluation of management scenarios for controlling eutrophication in a shallow tropical urban lake

Urban lakes are typically smaller, shallower, and more exposed to human activities than natural lakes. Although the effects of harmful algal blooms (HABs) associated with eutrophication in urban lakes has become a growing concern for water resources management and environmental protection, studies focussing on this topic in relation to urban lakes are rare and knowledge of the ecological dynamics and effective management strategies for controlling eutrophication in urban lakes is lacking. This study applied an integrated three-dimensional hydrodynamics-ecological model for a small shallow tropical urban lake in Singapore and evaluated various management scenarios to control eutrophication in the lake. It is found that in-lake treatment techniques including artificial destratification, sediment manipulation and algaecide addition are either ineffective or possess environmental concerns; while watershed management strategies including hydraulic flushing and inflow nutrients reduction are more effective and have posed less environmental concerns. In this study, inflow phosphorus reduction was found to be the best strategy after evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of the management strategies studied. Runoff from the watershed exerts significant influence on urban lakes and thus an integrated water resources management at the watershed level is critical for the control of eutrophication

Iterative development of Stand Up Australia : a multi-component intervention to reduce workplace sitting

Sitting, particularly in prolonged, unbroken bouts, is widespread within the office workplace, yet few interventions have addressed this newly-identified health risk behaviour. This paper describes the iterative development process and resulting intervention procedures for the Stand Up Australia research program focusing on a multi-component workplace intervention to reduce sitting time. The development of Stand Up Australia followed three phases. 1) Conceptualisation: Stand Up Australia was based on social cognitive theory and social ecological model components. These were operationalised via a taxonomy of intervention strategies and designed to target multiple levels of influence including: organisational structures (e.g. via management consultation), the physical work environment (via provision of height-adjustable workstations), and individual employees (e.g. via face-to-face coaching). 2) Formative research: Intervention components were separately tested for their feasibility and acceptability. 3) Pilot studies: Stand Up Comcare tested the integrated intervention elements in a controlled pilot study examining efficacy, feasibility and acceptability. Stand Up UQ examined the additional value of the organisational- and individual-level components over height-adjustable workstations only in a three-arm controlled trial. In both pilot studies, office workers’ sitting time was measured objectively using activPAL3 devices and the intervention was refined based on qualitative feedback from managers and employees. Results and feedback from participants and managers involved in the intervention development phases suggest high efficacy, acceptance, and feasibility of all intervention components. The final version of the Stand Up Australia intervention includes strategies at the organisational (senior management consultation, representatives consultation workshop, team champions, staff information and brainstorming session with information booklet, and supportive emails from managers to staff), environmental (height-adjustable workstations), and individual level (face-to-face coaching session and telephone support). Stand Up Australia is currently being evaluated in the context of a cluster-randomised controlled trial at the Department of Human Services (DHS) in Melbourne, Australia. Stand Up Australia is an evidence-guided and systematically developed workplace intervention targeting reductions in office workers’ sitting time.

The inter-section of political history and health policy in Asia - the historical foundations for health policy analysis

One of the challenges for health reform in Asia is the diverse set of socio-economic and political structures, and the related variability in the direction and pace of health systems and policy reform. This paper aims to make comparative observations and analysis of health policy reform in the context of historical change, and considers the implications of these findings for the practice of health policy analysis. We adopt an ecological model for analysis of policy development, whereby health systems are considered as dynamic social constructs shaped by changing political and social conditions. Utilizing historical, social scientific and health literature, timelines of health and history for five countries (Cambodia, Myanmar, Mongolia, North Korea and Timor Leste) are mapped over a 30-50 year period. The case studies compare and contrast key turning points in political and health policy history, and examines the manner in which these turning points sets the scene for the acting out of longer term health policy formation, particularly with regard to the managerial domains of health policy making. Findings illustrate that the direction of health policy reform is shaped by the character of political reform, with countries in the region being at variable stages of transition from monolithic and centralized administrations, towards more complex management arrangements characterized by a diversity of health providers, constituency interest and financing sources. The pace of reform is driven by a country's institutional capability to withstand and manage transition shocks of post conflict rehabilitation and emergence of liberal economic reforms in an altered governance context. These findings demonstrate that health policy analysis needs to be informed by a deeper understanding and questioning of the historical trajectory and political stance that sets the stage for the acting out of health policy formation, in order that health systems function optimally along their own historical pathways.

Demo abstract: wind measurements for water quality studies in urban reservoirs

Water quality monitoring and prediction are critical for ensuring the sustainability of water resources which are essential for social security, especially for countries with limited land like Singapore. For example, the Singapore government identified water as a new growth sector and committed in 2006 to invest S$ 330 million over the following five years for water research and development [1]. To investigate the water quality evolution numerically, some key water quality parameters at several discrete locations in the reservoir (e.g., dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and temperature) and some environmental parameters (e.g., the wind distribution above water surface, air temperature and precipitation) are used as inputs to a three-dimensional hydrodynamics-ecological model, Estuary Lake and Coastal Ocean Model - Computational Aquatic Ecosystem Dynamics Model (ELCOM-CAEDYM) [2]. Based on the calculation in the model, we can obtain the distribution of water quality in the whole reservoir. We can also study the effect of different environmental parameters on the water quality evolution, and finally predict the water quality of the reservoir with a time step of 30 seconds. In this demo, we introduce our data collection system which enables water quality studies with real-time sensor data.

A psicologia comunitária como agente de transformações sociais

Nas últimas décadas tem ocorrido, no que se refere à Psicologia, uma mudança de abordagem do modelo intrapsíquico para uma perspectiva social, relativa ao comportamento humano. Uma das propostas essenciais do novo movimento consiste em declarar que as desordens emocionais originam-se do mau funcionamento das fontes básicas de suporte social. Foi nesse clima que em 1965 surgiu a Psicologia Comunitária. Esta se caracteriza pela busca de novos paradigmas que estão baseados, principalmente, na concepção preventiva de ajustamento e saúde, e no modelo ecológico. Neste trabalho pretendeu-se oferecer também como modelo alternativo da Psicologia Comunitária a aprendizagem social. Deste ponto de vista, ou seja, da aprendizagem social, os comportamentos considerados "desajustados" são vistos não como manifestações de problemas intrapsíquicos, e sim, como comportamentos que as pessoas aprenderam a copiar do ambiente através de reforços ou por meio de modelos oferecidos pela sociedade. Tal posição embora implique em que o comportamento humano pode ser manipulado pelo controle dos estímulos ambientais, não exclui uma visão fenomenológica do homem. Estas duas abordagens, aparentemente antagônicas, foram aqui apresentadas como um possível elemento dinamizador da Psicologia Comunitária. Ao mesmo tempo em que se tentou demonstrar ser o comportamento humano de alguma maneira controlado, pôs-se em relevo a liberdade que tem o homem de fazer escolhas, podendo ainda esforçar-se para evitar reforços aversivos e contribuir para uma sociedade menos repressora. O objetivo deste estudo foi apresentar uma visão histórica, teórica e ideológica da Psicologia Comunitária e abrir novas perspectivas em termos de sua praxis e sobretudo de suas metas. Daí por que indagou-se a respeito das mudanças pretendidas pela Psicologia Comunitária e alertou-se para que elas tenham um sentido transideológico, visando sobretudo ao bem estar da comunidade.

Saúde mental em operadores de petróleo do Rio Grande do Norte

The importance of identifying the consequence of the hours worked on people in society has been well recognized within Organizational and Work Psychology. From this point of view, the present research had the objective of analysing the effects of work regimes on the mental health of petroleum operators of Petrobrás. The sample totaled 144 subjects, corresponding to 27% of the work population. The mental health of the participants was evaluated using the following instruments of measurement: QSG-12, Scale of self-esteem, Scale of Positive and Negative Affections and the Scale of Valuable Attributes of IMST, each representing an empirical factor used to indicate and measure the five dimensions of mental health. The subjects perceptions of their work regime and the rest of their conditions of work were evaluated using scales of descriptive attributes of IMST, by applying a semi-structured questionnaire and by use of interviews. A socio-demographic file was used to collect information related to the biographical and socio-occupational profile of the worker sample. The answers to the questionnaire were inserted into the data bank of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science), for statistical analysis, and the interviews were analised based on the technique of Contents Analysis recommended by Bardin (1995). The main results revealed that one third of the worker sample were tense; however, the mental health of the majority was preserved. Cluster Analysis applied to the group of seven factors which measured the five dimensions of mental health identified four profiles of psychological well-being shared between members of the sample. It was observed that the people working in the system of Continuous Shift Alternation (TIR) and in the system of Pre-advising tended to present balanced and satisfactory profiles, while the ones which worked in the Administrative Field tended to present anxious and oscillating profiles, and thus were more affected psychologically. These were also the ones that also perceived the more negative aspects of their laborious conditions (reduced chances of self-improvement, physically stressful and financial resources below expectations with which to supply family and personal necessities. In agreement with the ecological model formulated by Warr (1987), the present study concluded that the positive and negative effects on the psychological well-being tended to occur as a consequence of the perceptions the petrol operators developed to face their work conditions

An objective reconstruction of the chain of contagion

North's clustering method, which is based on a much used ecological model, the nearest neighbor distance, was applied to the objective reconstruction of the chain of household-to-household transmission of variola minor (the mild form of smallpox). The discrete within-household outbreaks were considered as points which were ordered in a time sequence using a 10-40 day interval between introduction of the disease into a source household and a receptor household. The closer points in the plane were assumed to have a larger probability of being links of a chain of household-to-household spread of the disease. The five defining distances (Manhattan or city-block distance between presumptive source and receptor dwellings) were 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 m. The subchain sets obtained with the five defining distances were compared with the subchains empirically reconstructed during the field study of the epidemic through direct investigation of personal contacts of the introductory cases with either introductory or subsequent cases from previously affected households. The criteria of fit of theoretical to empirical clusters were: (a) the number of clustered dwellings and subchains, (b) number of dwellings in a subchain and (c) position of dwellings in a subchain. The defining distance closet to the empirical findings was 200 m, which fully agrees with the travelling habits of the study population. Less close but acceptable approximations were obtained with 100, 300, 400 and 500 m. The latter two distances gave identical results, as if a clustering ceiling had been reached. It seems that North's clustering model may be used for an objective reconstruction of the chain of contagious whose links are discrete within-household outbreaks. © 1984.

Ecologia, educação ambiental, ambiente e meio ambiente: modelos conceituais e representações mentais

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)