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Approximately 1·5 billion people worldwide live with a physical, mental, sensory, or intellectual disability, about 80% of which are in low-income and middle-income countries. This Series paper provides a global overview of the prevalence, benefits, and promotion policies for physical activity for people living with disabilities (PLWD). PLWD are 16-62% less likely to meet physical activity guidelines and are at higher risk of serious health problems related to inactivity than people without disabilities. Meta-analyses have shown that physical activity has beneficial effects on cardiovascular fitness (average standardised mean difference [SMD] 0·69 [95% CI 0·31-1·01]), musculoskeletal fitness (0·59 [0·31-0·87]), cardiometabolic risk factors (0·39 [0·04-0·75]), and brain and mental health outcomes (0·47 [0·21-0·73]). These meta-analyses also show that health benefits can be achieved even with less than 150 min of physical activity per week, and suggest that some physical activity is better than none. Meta-analyses of interventions to increase physical activity for PLWD have reported effect sizes ranging from SMD 0·29 (95% CI 0·17-0·41, k=10) to 1·00 (0·46-1·53, k=10). There is increasing awareness among policy makers of the needs of PLWD for full participation in physical activity. Physical activity action plans worldwide must be adequately resourced, monitored, and enforced to truly advance the fundamental rights of PLWD to fully participate in physical activity.

Abstract Background Active transport can contribute to physical activity accumulation and improved health in adults. The built environment is an established associate of active transport behaviours; however, assessment of environmental features encountered during journeys remains challenging. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of wearable cameras to objectively audit and quantify environmental features along work-related walking and cycling routes. Methods A convenience sample of employed adults was recruited in New Zealand, in June 2011. Participants wore a SenseCam for all journeys over three weekdays and completed travel diaries and demographic questionnaires. SenseCam images for work-related active transport journeys were coded for presence of environmental features hypothesised to be related to active transport. Differences in presence of features by transport mode and in participant-reported and SenseCam-derived journey duration were determined using two-sample tests of proportion and an independent samples t-test, respectively. Results Fifteen adults participated in the study, yielding 1749 SenseCam images from 30 work-related active transport journeys for coding. Significant differences in presence of features were found between walking and cycling journeys. Almost a quarter of images were uncodeable due to being too dark to determine features. There was a non-significant tendency for respondents to under-report their journey duration. Conclusion This study provides proof of concept for the use of the SenseCam to capture built environment data in real time that may be related to active transportation. Further work is required to test and refine coding methodologies across a range of settings, travel behaviours, and demographic groups.

Abstract Background Accelerometers can identify certain physical activity behaviours, but not the context in which they take place. This study investigates the feasibility of wearable cameras to objectively categorise the behaviour type and context of participants’ accelerometer-identified episodes of activity. Methods Adults were given an Actical hip-mounted accelerometer and a SenseCam wearable camera (worn via lanyard). The onboard clocks on both devices were time-synchronised. Participants engaged in free-living activities for 3 days. Actical data were cleaned and episodes of sedentary, lifestyle-light, lifestyle-moderate, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were identified. Actical episodes were categorised according to their social and environmental context and Physical Activity (PA) compendium category as identified from time-matched SenseCam images. Results There were 212 days considered from 49 participants from whom SenseCam images and associated Actical data were captured. Using SenseCam images, behaviour type and context attributes were annotated for 386 (out of 3017) randomly selected episodes (such as walking/transportation, social/not-social, domestic/leisure). Across the episodes, 12 categories that aligned with the PA Compendium were identified, and 114 subcategory types were identified. Nineteen percent of episodes could not have their behaviour type and context categorized; 59% were outdoors versus 39% indoors; 33% of episodes were recorded as leisure time activities, with 33% transport, 18% domestic, and 15% occupational. 33% of the randomly selected episodes contained direct social interaction and 22% were in social situations where the participant wasn’t involved in direct engagement. Conclusion Wearable camera images offer an objective method to capture a spectrum of activity behaviour types and context across 81% of accelerometer-identified episodes of activity. Wearable cameras represent the best objective method currently available to categorise the social and environmental context of accelerometer-defined episodes of activity in free-living conditions.

Professional sports clubs (PSCs) are potentially effective settings for health promotion; however, their role within policy is unclear. Potential reasons include lack of awareness about existing provision of health and wellbeing (H&W) programmes and adequacy of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practices. This review aimed to: (i) map the provision of H&W programmes delivered by PSCs in the United Kingdom (UK), and (ii) explore current M&E practices of PSCs and consider the policy implications of this. Websites from eight professional sport leagues were hand-searched for programmes and impact reports. Suitable programmes were quantified, whilst impact reports were analysed via inductive documentary content analysis. Results identified 176 H&W programmes and 36 impact reports, as well as 43 H&W impact statements, but only 14 of these were aligned to specific H&W outcomes. The H&W aims of programmes were typically vague, measurement tools were rarely used, and evaluations were usually anecdotal case studies and based on engagement figures, which may not only limit the potential uptake of these programmes but also the relevance of PSCs to public policy. Further research is thus needed to build a stronger evidence base for the use of PSCs as vehicles of public health promotion and policy, and to better address the challenges faced when seeking to monitor and evaluate PSC programmes effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conducting large multi-site research within universities highlights inconsistencies between universities in approaches, requirements and responses of research ethics committees. Within the context of a social science research study, we attempted to obtain ethical approval from 101 universities across England to recruit students for a short online survey. We received varied responses from research ethics committees of different universities with the steps to obtaining ethics approval ranging from those that only required proof of approval from our home institution, to universities that facilitated fast-track applications to those that required a full ethics review. Some universities also completely refused. After contacting all 101 universities in England, 60 universities gave clearance to our study. In this article, we present the different approaches universities adopted in response to our application to sample from students in their institution. We consider a number of conceptual and ethical issues pertinent to considering ethics approval for researchers from other universities in England and critically discuss three possible models of ethics governance that would cover all universities in England.

Background: The International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) is a leading global organization working to advance research, policy, and practice to promote physical activity. Given the expanding evidence base on interventions to promote physical activity, it was timely to review and update a major ISPAH advocacy document—Investments that Work for Physical Activity (2011). Methods: Eight investment areas were agreed upon through consensus. Literature reviews were conducted to identify key evidence relevant to policymakers in each sector or setting. Results: The 8 investment areas were as follows: whole-of-school programs; active transport; active urban design; health care; public education; sport and recreation; workplaces; and community-wide programs. Evidence suggests that the largest population health benefit will be achieved by combining these investments and implementing a systems-based approach. Conclusions: Establishing consensus on 'what works' to change physical activity behavior is a cornerstone of successful advocacy, as is having appropriate resources to communicate key messages to a wide range of stakeholders. ISPAH has created a range of resources related to the new investments described in this paper. These resources are available in the 'advocacy toolkit' on the ISPAH website (www.ispah.org/resources). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]