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To assess if a high-level mobility programme (HLMP) can promote sustained participation in physical activity by adolescents with cerebral palsy. Eight adolescents with cerebral palsy, Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I-II, 11–16 years, participated in 24 community-based group HLMP sessions across 12 weeks. Participants set attendance, involvement, and physical performance goals, completed activity diaries over 58 weeks and undertook physical capacity tests. Measures of activity frequency and diversity (attendance) and involvement level were collected weekly across baseline (4–6 weeks), intervention (12 weeks), and nine months follow-up (including Covid lockdown). Median attendance was 23 of 24 HLMP sessions. Attendance goal/s attainment was highest during COVID lockdown. Involvement goals were consistently attained throughout all phases. Physical performance goal/s attainment was highest during intervention phase but reduced during nine months follow-up. Frequency of participation in physical activities varied greatly across study phases (range 0–33 episodes/week) with stable variety of activities and generally high 'involvement.' During the intervention, seven participants improved physical capacity and six maintained, or increased, the gains six months later. Most participants improved physical capacity post-intervention but only some had sustained attendance and involvement in physical activity, highlighting the complexity of physical activity participation. Health professionals' promotion of sustained participation in physical activity needs to consider individual preferences for frequency, diversity and duration. Supporting and measuring involvement in physical activity should be prioritised as a key outcome of an intervention. Physical activity interventions should be followed up for longer than six months to determine sustained changes in participation outcomes Measuring physical capacity and performance gains alone is insufficient to determine sustained, meaningful participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Children sometimes wait 12 months or longer to access speech-language pathology services. Information on websites may support families' active waiting for speech-language pathology; however, there are few user-friendly, evidence-based websites specifically designed for children and families for this purpose. The current study aimed to: (1) ascertain appropriate website content, format, features and functions; (2) evaluate the quality of existing speech and language sites and (3) obtain feedback on a prototype website. Method: A three-stage explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. Stage 1 involved 119 participants completing an online questionnaire recommending website content, format, features and functions. Stage 2 involved evaluating the quality of 25 online sites about children's speech and language. Stage 3 involved focus groups with 16 participants to explore aspirations and feedback on a website to support active waiting. Result: Participants wanted information about typical development and services to access while waiting; strategies to stimulate children's speech and language development; simple web architecture; and high readability. High scoring sites contained evidence-based information from trustworthy sources. Strategies from the theory of preparative waiting arose in the focus groups. Conclusion: Participants considered easily identifiable, trustworthy sources of information, and user-friendly strategies and resources to be important on a website to support active waiting for speech-language pathology. The theory of preparative waiting may be a viable framework informing waiting for speech-language pathology for children with speech and language difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that health-promoting storylines in developed nations' fictional television programs can have a beneficial impact on viewers' beliefs, attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The sizes of the effects are generally modest; however, the audience reach is substantial. Given thatmany fictional programs may hold the prolonged attention of millions of viewers, it is of value to examine potential strategies for enhancing the persuasive impact of their health-promoting storylines. Complementary public service announcementsmay be a promising strategy. This randomized experimental study (N = 310) examined the effects of viewing a complementary public service announcement after an organ donation story in an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Results indicated that the public service announcement enhanced the beneficial impact of the story on viewers' discussion behavior (about one's organ donor wishes), discussion intention, and perceived learning. This experimental study is the first to examine the effects of viewing a non-character public service announcement after a health-related storyline in a developed nation's fictional program compared to viewing the same episode of the program on its own. It is important for future research to examine whether these findings replicate for different health issues and with a nationally representative sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food addiction is increasingly being recognised as a contributory factor in overweight and obesity. Management of eating compulsivity, a key component of food addiction, may assist greatly in the successful treatment of obesity. Measurement of food addiction and its core characteristic of eating compulsivity is fundamental to increasing understandings of the concept of food addiction, its prevalence among people with and without obesity and its utility within a treatment context. The current study describes the development and initial validation of a brief measure of eating compulsivity that can be used within clinical and research settings to establish a person's level of eating compulsivity. Sixty five participants with a BMI ≥30 (mean BMI 38.1) were recruited from a general population sample within Christchurch, New Zealand. Participants completed the test version of the Measure of Eating Compulsivity (MEC) and the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) as well as providing self-reported measures of height and weight. The 10-item MEC was developed. This measure was shown to have excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =.946), based on a single factor accounting for 67.4% of the variance and excellent test-retest reliability (r =.923). MEC10 score was strongly predictive of being categorised as having food addiction based on the YFAS, although not associated with BMI. This brief tool is likely to have high utility in clinical and research settings and requires further validation with a range of populations including those with and without obesity, binge eating disorder and other eating disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:Engaging and inspiring the next generation of physician-scientists at an early stage is recognised as key to ensure the future of medical research. However, little is known about medical student perceptions of research. Objectives:We attempted to ascertain perceptions of research and research-orientated careers from medical students studying in different countries. Methods:An online questionnaire was developed, piloted, and promoted to medical students in various countries. Results:1625 responses were collected from 38 countries. Analysis was restricted to data collected from countries with >100 responses (n = 890). Less than half the respondents felt their medical school provided adequate research training. Key perceived barriers to research participation as a student included lack of time and difficulty finding mentors or projects. A significant gender disparity existed in research ambitions of students with females desiring less research involvement. The importance of barriers and satisfaction with research training differed significantly between countries. Conclusions:Students perceive a number of key barriers to research involvement and pursuit of research-orientated careers. Programmes designed to engage students with research should focus on overcoming identified barriers. Greater effort is needed to engage female students who report more significant barriers and less desire to follow research-orientated careers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background Falls and fail-related injuries are a problem for many adults with intellectual disability. Most previous studies have collected falls data retrospectively, using organisational incident reports. We developed tools to specifically collect fall-related data and potential fall risk data. This paper reports on the development of these tools and the fall-related data collected in 3 prospective studies. Method Consultations with 33 stakeholders representing 29 organisations and 5 focus group discussions were used to develop 2 tools for gathering information. Studies in 3 cities applied the tools to explore their acceptability, utility, and cultural appropriateness. Results Two simple tick box forms were developed; both were easy and quick to complete. In the studies, 135 individuals participated (70 males, 65 females, aged 45 [SD = 11] years), of whom 27% experienced a fall; 39% of these resulted in an injury. Injuries were mostly bruises (30%) and grazes (28%), particularly to the facial area (42%). The 6-month period prevalence of fails was 0.76%. Most falls occurred indoors and during the daytime. Individuals appeared more likely to experience a fail if they had had previous falls and/or fractures, epilepsy, orthopaedic-related conditions, and problems with gait and balance. Conclusion A robust process ensured the acceptability, utility, face and content validity, and cultural safety of our data collection tools. Falling is a serious problem for many people with intellectual disability, but the reasons for failing appear multifaceted and complex, complicating the development of fall prevention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary objective: To determine how visible markers of brain injury interact with people's knowledge about brain injury to influence people's attributions for undesirable behaviours of a person with brain injury. Research design, method and procedures: Scenarios in Experiment 1 ( n = 98) and Experiment 2 ( n = 148) described an adolescent pictured with or without a head scar, who showed four behavioural changes. Participants rated two causal attributions for each behaviour: brain injury and adolescence. Experiment 1 varied information that the adolescent had a brain injury and Experiment 2 assessed participants' familiarity with brain injury. Main outcomes and results: The presence of a head scar increased attributions to brain injury. In Experiment 1, participants not informed about the brain injury attributed the behaviours more to adolescence than to brain injury than informed participants. In Experiment 2, in the 'no scar' condition participants familiar with brain injury attributed the behaviours more to brain injury than those who were not. Conclusion: Markers of brain injury interact with people's knowledge about brain injury in shaping people's attributions for the behaviour of persons with brain injury. When people attribute sequelae of the brain injury to other causes, this may hinder appropriate treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]