[Human relationship. 10. Interpersonal relationship in the hospital. (2)].
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Hospitals↗
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A coefficient of relationship by isonymy: a method for estimating the genetic relationship between populations.
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Female↗
Testing a pharmacist-patient relationship quality model among older persons with diabetes.
BACKGROUND: Considering recent changes to the Medicare program, pharmacists will have unique opportunities to be reimbursed for providing Medication Therapy Management Services to older persons with diabetes. A high-quality pharmacist-patient relationship can lay the foundation for effective provision of Medication Therapy Management Services and improved care in this cohort. OBJECTIVE: To test a pharmacist-patient relationship quality model in a group of older persons with diabetes from the patient's perspective. Antecedents to relationship quality were pharmacist participative behavior/patient-centeredness of relationship, patient participative behavior, and pharmacist-patient interpersonal communication. Pharmacist-patient relationship commitment was the outcome of relationship quality studied. METHODS: Data were collected via mailed questionnaire from a random sample of 600 community-dwelling adults in the United States who (1) were 65 years of age and older, (2) had type 1 or type 2 diabetes, (3) used at least one prescription medication to treat their diabetes, and (4) used some type of nonmail order pharmacy as their primary source of obtaining prescription medications. Model relationships were tested using path analysis. RESULTS: The adjusted response rate was 41.6% (221/531). The models explained 47% and 49% of the variance in relationship quality and relationship commitment, respectively. In the relationship quality model, pharmacist participative behavior/patient-centeredness of relationship (beta=.51, P<.001) and pharmacist-patient interpersonal communication (beta=.17, P=.008) had direct effects on relationship quality. In the relationship commitment model, relationship quality had a direct effect on relationship commitment (beta=.60, P<.001). Pharmacist participative behavior/patient-centeredness and pharmacist-patient interpersonal communication had indirect effects on relationship commitment through their effects on relationship quality, which is a mediator in the model. CONCLUSIONS: Results affirm findings from previous research showing that patients' perceptions of pharmacist participative behavior/patient-centeredness of relationship and pharmacist-patient interpersonal communication are positively related to perceptions of relationship quality. Also, relationship quality is a strong mediator between pharmacist participative behavior/patient-centeredness of relationship and relationship commitment, as well as between pharmacist-patient interpersonal communication and relationship commitment.
Age Factors↗
Problematic resident-patient relationships: the patient' s perspective.
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were to identify the characteristics of a problematic doctor-patient relationship from the perspective of primary care patients who are cared for by medical residents and to determine whether patients' perception of the relationship is a function of their demographic, clinical, or social attributes. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: An adult primary care practice in an academic medical center. PATIENTS: One hundred fifty-one patients whose primary care physicians were senior internal medicine residents. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients completed a questionnaire addressing several aspects of their doctor-patient relationship, the general health perception item on the SF-12, and items on social support from the Duke Social Support and Stress Scale. By design of the study, approximately half of the patients had been identified by their physicians as being in problematic relationships (n = 74) and half as being in satisfying relationships (n = 77). Among patients in relationships described as satisfying by their resident, 10% viewed the relationship as problematic. Of the patients involved in relationships described as problematic by the resident, 23% viewed their relationship as problematic (P = .03). Patients who rated the relationship as problematic were much more likely to also report low social support compared to patients involved in relationships described as satisfying (76% vs 16%; P < .001). Compared to residents involved in relationships described as satisfying by their patients, residents in problematic relationships were more likely to be described as being less accessible and less capable of handling medical complaints (P < . 001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients were more likely to describe the doctor-patient relationship as problematic if they felt that the resident was less accessible or less capable of handling medical complaints, or if they had low self-perceived social support.
Academic Medical Centers↗
Relationships between God and people in the Bible, Part II: The New Testament, with comparisons with the Torah.
IN AN EARLIER study on the first five books of the Bible, the Torah or Pentateuch, relationships between God and people were assessed with the use of a clinical-quantitative method, the core conflictual relationship theme (CCRT) method. Here, the study is extended to God or Jesus's relationships with people in the New Testament, to obtain the first description of those relationships based on an established measure of relationships. In the New Testament, many different kinds of relationship themes were observed, with benevolent and positive themes as the most frequent. Other results included that: (a) relationships in the New Testament often appeared more positive than in the Torah; (b) New Testament relationships between Jesus and people were less positive than between God and people; and (c) God's relationship with Jesus was more positive than God's relationship with Moses. Relationships with Paul, Peter, and women were also assessed. Relationship patterns were considered within the context of attachment theory, and biblical CCRT patterns were consistent with depiction of both secure and anxious attachments. Biblical relationships portray a variety of models for interpersonal relationships, ranging from the very positive to the very negative.
Bible↗
Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between alcohol consumption and lipids, blood pressure and body weight indices.
OBJECTIVE: Serum lipids, blood pressure and body mass may mediate the U-shaped relationship of alcohol consumption with type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. This study examines the cross-sectional and long-term longitudinal relationships of (changes in) alcohol consumption with (changes in) serum lipids, blood pressure and body mass indices. METHOD: In this prospective, observational cohort study, two measurements of alcohol consumption, serum total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, body weight, the thickness of four skinfolds and waist circumference were performed 4 years apart in healthy volunteers (143 men and 174 women, 32 years old at the first measurement). Alcohol consumption from beer, wine and distilled spirits was assessed using an extensive dietary history interview. Linear regression analyses were performed to study the cross-sectional relationships between the amount of alcohol consumed at the age of 32 years and the levels of the lipids, blood pressure and body weight indices, and to study the longitudinal relationships between the changes in the amount of alcohol consumed over the 4 years of follow-up and the concurrent changes in the lipids, blood pressure and body weight indices. Nonlinearity was investigated for the cross-sectional relationships. RESULTS: A 10-g/day difference in alcohol consumption was positively related with a 0.05 mmol/L (1.9 mg/dl) difference in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in both cross-sectional (p = .004), and longitudinal (p < .0001) analyses. This relationship did not differ for men and women or for the consumption of beer, wine or distilled spirits. Relationships with changes in total cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure, body weight and the sum of four skinfolds were not significant. A borderline significant inverse longitudinal relationship was found with waist circumference. The other lifestyle behaviors (tobacco smoking, physical activity and dietary habits) were major confounders of most cross-sectional relationships between alcohol and serum lipids, blood pressure and body mass indices. The longitudinal relationships, however, were not confounded by changes in the other lifestyle behaviors. A significant nonlinear relationship was found for systolic blood pressure, in which drinkers of about 30 g/day had the lowest values. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate alcohol consumption and moderate long-term changes in alcohol consumption are positively related with the levels and changes in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in healthy adult men and women. A moderate inverse association between alcohol and waist circumference may be expected. No relationships were found with triglycerides, blood pressure, body weight and the sum of the thickness of four skinfolds. Other lifestyle behaviors confound the cross-sectional, but not the longitudinal, relationships between alcohol consumption and serum lipids, blood pressure and body mass indices. Gender and type of beverage do not modify the relationships between alcohol consumption and these indices.
Adult↗
Beyond marital status: relationship type and duration and the risk of low birth weight.
CONTEXT: Unmarried women have higher rates of low birth weight than married women. However, assumptions that unmarried women are uniformly at a disadvantage may be unfounded. A woman's relationship characteristics may be more relevant for infant health than her formal marital status. METHODOLOGY: Data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth were used to analyze associations between relationship characteristics and low birth weight among U.S. women aged 15-44 with a recent singleton live birth. Unadjusted odds ratios were generated to indicate the crude effects of independent variables, including relationship type and relationship duration at the time of conception. Multiple logistic regressions were performed to assess the impact of relationship variables on the likelihood of low birth weight, taking into account the effects of other covariates. RESULTS: In multivariate models of all women and non-Hispanic black women, relationship type and duration were not associated with low birth weight. However, low birth weight was almost six times as likely among Hispanic women in nonmarital, noncohabiting relationships as among those who were married. Surprisingly, among non-Hispanic white women, low birth weight was less likely among those in nonmarital, noncohabiting relationships than among those who were married. Unexpected associations also were found among low birth weight, race and ethnicity, and relationship duration: Low birth weight was more likely among non-Hispanic white women in relationships of from five to 10 years in length than among those in relationships of longer than 10 years and less likely among Hispanic women in relationships of one year or less than among those in a relationship for more than 10 years. CONCLUSION: Although unmarried women in the United States have higher rates of low birth weight than married women, many unmarried women are at no greater risk of low birth weight than their married counterparts. The findings confirm the need to consider the characteristics of relationships when examining the association of mother's "union status" and birth outcomes.
Adolescent↗
Relationship disturbances and parent-child therapy. Sleep problems.
This article has attempted to establish the importance of considering behavioral disturbances in infancy and early childhood as disturbances of the parent-child relationship. When the psychologic and mental mechanisms of the individual infant are too immature to sustain disturbed behavior across several settings and when the behavioral disturbance seems to be specific to a particular relationship, it is more appropriate to diagnose the pathology as being in the relationship. The article has offered a diagnostic framework of relationship pathology that spans the spectrum from normal variation (relationship perturbation) to relationship behaviors that are at risk of becoming a disorder (relationship disturbance) to significant relationship disorders that most likely require a professional intervention. A multiaxial assessment protocol is recommended that evaluates primary relationships (Axis I), parent-infant interaction styles (Axis II), the parent and infant as individuals (Axis III), and more distal contextual factors that affect the relationship (Axis IV). Sleep disturbances in infancy have been used as an example to demonstrate the spectrum of relationship pathology. Additional research is needed to develop more precise, age-relevant cut points for the spectrum of relationship pathology for sleep problems and for other parent-infant relationship disturbances in the areas of feeding, excessive crying, and limit setting or tantrums. More research is also needed to define better when and how relationship pathology becomes transformed into individual pathology and how early intervention may alter the course of this trajectory.
Adolescent↗
The sugar-fat relationship revisited: differences in consumption between men and women of varying BMI.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship of dietary fat and sugar consumption in men and women with different body mass indices (BMI). To determine the actual food sources for sugar intake, comparing differences between men and women across BMI groups. The effect of excluding individuals with low energy intakes (that is, invalid data) on these relationships was also incorporated in the analysis. SUBJECTS: Subjects for this analysis were those individuals who participated in the 1986-1987 Dietary and Nutrition Survey of British Adults (DNSBA). METHOD: In the DNSBA, dietary intake was assessed using seven-day weighed food records, providing estimates of dietary fat and sugar intake. From the DNSBA database food records, sources of sugar intake were classified into five sugar containing food groups (high fat sweet products, fruits, dairy products, sugar products (excluding soft drinks) and sugar products (including soft drinks)). BMI was calculated from the measurement of height and body weight. RESULT: A positive relationship between BMI and dietary fat intake was found for men, both when fat was expressed as a percentage of energy and in absolute terms (g/d). This relationship was only replicated for women when intake was expressed in absolute terms. A negative relationship was found between sugar intake (as a percentage of energy) and BMI in men, but not women. Expressing sugar consumption in absolute terms did not produce a statistically significant relationship with BMI for either men or women. In women the only sugar source associated with BMI was high fat sweet products (for example, cakes, biscuits, chocolate), where higher intakes were related to higher BMIs. The reverse relationship was found for men. In men, BMI was also negatively related to the intake of sugar products (for example, table sugar, preserves, sugar confectionery), both when soft drinks were included and excluded. The inclusion of low energy reporters (LER) in the analysis altered the relationships between nutrients and BMI, particularly among women. The association between overall fat intake (g/d) and BMI was weakened, while the negative relationship with sugar intake was strengthened. In the case of women, the inclusion of LER completely reversed the relationship between consumption of high fat sweet foods (cakes, biscuits, chocolate) and BMI (due to the reduced reporting of these products by obese women). Fewer alterations in the relationships between BMI and the sources of sugar consumed were observed in men than in women when LER were included in the analysis. CONCLUSION: The relationships between dietary fat, sugar and BMI are different in men and women, and are dependent on the inclusion of LER, particularly in women. The results suggest that among women the consumption of high fat sweet products may be a factor in understanding obesity. Furthermore, the observation of high consumption of these foods among obese women is consistent with measured preferences for these high fat sweet foods. The altered representation of the data created by LER appears to distort the relationship between sugar, fat and the degree of obesity in men and women.
Adult↗
Do sibling and friend relationships share the same temperamental origins? A twin study.
BACKGROUND: Friendship and sibling relationships differ in that there is an element of choice in friendships, whilst the latter represent a fixed and given relationship. The present study set out to investigate the temperamental correlates of friendships and sibling relationships, as well as to examine their genetic and environmental components. METHOD: Two hundred and twelve same-sex twin-pairs (102 MZ and 110 DZ; 104 male pairs and 108 female pairs) aged between 12 and 15, together with their parents, comprised the sample. The twins themselves reported on both negative and positive aspects of the two relationships, and all family members provided reports of the twins' temperament (mothers, fathers, and adolescent self-reports). RESULTS: Analyses revealed that negative aspects of both the sibling relationship and friendship were related to emotionality, while the positive aspects of these relationships were associated with sociability and activity. Genetic influences and the shared environment accounted for variance seen in the sibling relationship. In addition, nonshared environment accounted for a moderate amount of the sibling relationship variability and explained most of the variance for the friendship components. Finally, bivariate analyses of the covariance between temperament and close relationships highlighted the importance of nonshared environmental influences during adolescence. CONCLUSION: Three themes emerged. First, congruent temperamental expressions were seen across these two relationships' contexts. Second, friendship and the sibling relationship have distinct etiological profiles, indicating the child-specific character of adolescent friendships versus the reciprocal nature of the sibling relationship. Finally, the common influences to temperament and relationship quality provided evidence for the validity of adolescents' unique, nonshared experiences.
Adolescent↗
Therapeutic working relationships with people with schizophrenia: literature review.
AIM: The aim of this paper is to review the evidence for the necessity and sufficiency of therapeutic relationships when working with people with enduring mental health problems, such as schizophrenia. BACKGROUND: The value of therapeutic relationships in mental health nursing has been the subject of some debate within the profession. This debate has centred on the spectrum of beliefs about therapeutic relationships, ranging from the position that the relationship is both necessary and sufficient to enable change, to more technical approaches, to therapeutic intervention which de-emphasises the influence of the relationship. METHODS: Searches for published material in English between 1986 and 2003 were carried out using the following databases: Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature; MEDLINE; Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts; Sociological abstracts; and social service abstracts. The search terms were: therapeutic alliance; therapeutic relationship; working alliance; and nurse-patient relationships. Papers chosen for inclusion in the review were those with a research focus on the elements and potential benefits/costs of therapeutic relationships in nursing. RESULTS: People who experience a relationship as being therapeutic appear to have better outcomes. A consistent finding of a number of meta-analyses is that therapeutic relationships characterized by facilitative and positive interpersonal relationships with the helper have in-built benefits, and that this is an important element of advanced techniques. In order for cognitive behavioural therapy to be successful, people need to feel understood and involved in the therapeutic relationship. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic relationships are necessary but not sufficient to enable change when working with people with schizophrenia.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗
Developing an NLP and IR-based algorithm for analyzing gene-disease relationships.
OBJECTIVES: High-throughput techniques such as cDNA microarray, oligonucleotide arrays, and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) have been developed and used to automatically screen huge amounts of gene expression data. However, researchers usually spend lots of time and money on discovering gene-disease relationships by utilizing these techniques. We prototypically implemented an algorithm that can provide some kind of predicted results for biological researchers before they proceed with experiments, and it is very helpful for them to discover gene-disease relationships more efficiently. METHODS: Due to the fast development of computer technology, many information retrieval techniques have been applied to analyze huge digital biomedical databases available worldwide. Therefore we highly expect that we can apply information retrieval (IR) technique to extract useful information for the relationship of specific diseases and genes from MEDLINE articles. Furthermore, we also applied natural language processing (NLP) methods to do the semantic analysis for the relevant articles to discover the relationships between genes and diseases. RESULTS: We have extracted gene symbols from our literature collection according to disease MeSH classifications. We have also built an IR-based retrieval system, "Biomedical Literature Retrieval System (BLRS)" and applied the N-gram model to extract the relationship features which can reveal the relationship between genes and diseases. Finally, a relationship network of a specific disease has been built to represent the gene-disease relationships. CONCLUSIONS: A relationship feature is a functional word that can reveal the relationship between one single gene and a disease. By incorporating many modern IR techniques, we found that BLRS is a very powerful information discovery tool for literature searching. A relationship network which contains the information on gene symbol, relationship feature, and disease MeSH term can provide an integrated view to discover gene-disease relationships.
Algorithms↗
Beyond synexpression relationships: local clustering of time-shifted and inverted gene expression profiles identifies new, biologically relevant interactions.
The complexity of biological systems provides for a great diversity of relationships between genes. The current analysis of whole-genome expression data focuses on relationships based on global correlation over a whole time-course, identifying clusters of genes whose expression levels simultaneously rise and fall. There are, of course, other potential relationships between genes, which are missed by such global clustering. These include activation, where one expects a time-delay between related expression profiles, and inhibition, where one expects an inverted relationship. Here, we propose a new method, which we call local clustering, for identifying these time-delayed and inverted relationships. It is related to conventional gene-expression clustering in a fashion analogous to the way local sequence alignment (the Smith-Waterman algorithm) is derived from global alignment (Needleman-Wunsch). An integral part of our method is the use of random score distributions to assess the statistical significance of each cluster. We applied our method to the yeast cell-cycle expression dataset and were able to detect a considerable number of additional biological relationships between genes, beyond those resulting from conventional correlation. We related these new relationships between genes to their similarity in function (as determined from the MIPS scheme) or their having known protein-protein interactions (as determined from the large-scale two-hybrid experiment); we found that genes strongly related by local clustering were considerably more likely than random to have a known interaction or a similar cellular role. This suggests that local clustering may be useful in functional annotation of uncharacterized genes. We examined many of the new relationships in detail. Some of them were already well-documented examples of inhibition or activation, which provide corroboration for our results. For instance, we found an inverted expression profile relationship between genes YME1 and YNT20, where the latter has been experimentally documented as a bypass suppressor of the former. We also found new relationships involving uncharacterized yeast genes and were able to suggest functions for many of them. In particular, we found a time-delayed expression relationship between J0544 (which has not yet been functionally characterized) and four genes associated with the mitochondria. This suggests that J0544 may be involved in the control or activation of mitochondrial genes. We have also looked at other, less extensive datasets than the yeast cell-cycle and found further interesting relationships. Our clustering program and a detailed website of clustering results is available at http://www.bioinfo.mbb.yale.edu/expression/cluster (or http://www.genecensus.org/expression/cluster).
Algorithms↗
Changes in the molar relationship between the deciduous and permanent dentitions: a longitudinal study.
The purpose of this study was to describe the changes in the molar relationship from the deciduous dentition to the permanent dentition in 121 subjects from the Iowa Longitudinal Growth Study. In addition, an attempt was made to determine the association between the various dentofacial variables and the changes in the molar relationship in 55 persons (33 male and 22 female subjects) with normal occlusion. All subjects were evaluated at three stages of dental development: stage I, completion of the deciduous dentition (means age = 4.94 years); stage II, when permanent first molars initially erupt into occlusion (means age = 6.91 years); and stage III, at the completion of eruption of the permanent dentition excluding third molars (means age = 13.01 years). The following sets of variables were evaluated: molar relationship, mesiodistal crown diameters of single and groups of deciduous and permanent teeth, dental arch widths, arch lengths, and various cephalometric dentofacial variables. Correlation coefficients and regression analyses were used to assess the relationships between these measurements and the changes in the molar relationship from the deciduous to the permanent dentition. The findings indicate that of the 242 sides evaluated in the deciduous dentition, 61.6% developed into a Class I molar relationship, 34.3% into Class II, and 4.1% into Class III. Those sides that started with a distal step in the deciduous dentition proceeded to develop into a Class II molar relationship in the permanent dentition. Of the sides with a flush terminal plane relationship in the deciduous dentition, 56% progressed to a Class I molar relationship and 44% to Class II in the permanent dentition. The presence of a mesial step in the deciduous dentition indicates a greater probability for a Class I molar relationship and a lesser probability for a Class II molar relationship. In the 55 subjects who achieved normal occlusion, the magnitude of change in the molar relationship was 1.91 mm in male subjects and 1.64 mm in female subjects. On the average, these cases had a mesial step in the deciduous dentition of 0.8 mm in male subjects and 1.0 mm in female subjects. There was a favorable difference between the maxillary and mandibular leeway spaces of 1.3 mm in male subjects and 1.1 mm in female subjects. There was also a favorable decrease in the Wits appraisal of 1.2 mm in male subjects and 0.6 mm in female subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Adolescent↗
The shape of the force-elbow angle relationship for maximal voluntary contractions and sub-maximal electrically induced contractions in human elbow flexors.
The force-length relationship is a basic property of skeletal muscle. Knowledge of this relationship is necessary for most analyses of human movement, and in simulation models predicting movement control strategies. Studies on animal muscles have shown that force-length relationships for sub-maximal contractions are not related through a simple scaling procedure to the relationship for maximal contractions. Furthermore, potentiation might produce a shift of sub-maximal relative to maximal force-length relationships. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that human force-elbow angle relationships for sub-maximal unpotentiated contractions are shifted to larger elbow angles (i.e. larger muscle lengths) compared to the relationship for maximal voluntary contractions (MVC), and that this shift is reduced, or even abolished, for sub-maximal potentiated contractions. Force-elbow angle relationships (48-160 degrees) were obtained from healthy subjects (n=13). At each of nine tested elbow angles, the test set consisted of a single twitch (ST(pre)) and a doublet twitch (DT(pre)) stimulation of m. biceps brachii, followed by an MVC, followed by another single twitch (ST(post)) and a doublet twitch (DT(post)) stimulation. The single and doublet twitches induced sub-maximal contractions. The force-elbow angle relationships for the pre-MVC (unpotentiated) twitch contractions were shifted to larger angles compared to those obtained for MVC. The force-elbow angle relationships for the post-MVC (potentiated) twitch contractions were shifted to smaller angles compared to those obtained for the unpotentiated twitch contractions. These results support the idea that the shift to larger muscle lengths for the sub-maximal, unpotentiated force-length relationships relative to the relationship for maximal contractions may be caused by a length-dependent Ca(2+) sensitivity that may be offset, at least in part, by potentiation.
Adaptation, Physiological↗
The role of sequential and concurrent sexual relationships in the risk of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents.
PURPOSE: To explore whether patterns of sexual relationships, such as sequential (nonoverlapping in time) or concurrent (overlapping in time), are more important indicators of sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk among adolescents than number of sexual partners. METHODS: Data from 4,707 sexually active adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed based on reported heterosexual relationships during the past 18 months. Adolescents were categorized as engaging in single, sequential, or concurrent sexual relationships. Demographic, behavioral, and social characteristics of each group were compared and multivariate logistic models were fit to determine STD risk associated with sexual relationship patterns and overall number of sexual partners during this same time period. RESULTS: Thirty-five percent of sexually active teens had more than one partner in the past 18 months, and 40% of these multiple partnerships were overlapping or concurrent in time. Teens in sequential and concurrent relationships reported lower condom use and a higher degree of regret of having sex owing to alcohol use than those in single relationships. Teens in concurrent relationships also reported the lowest self-efficacy to use contraceptives. Teens in sequential or concurrent relationships were more likely to report an STD than single-relationship teens (odds ratio 2.3 and 3.9, respectively); however, they were not statistically different from each other. Number of sexual partners during this same time period was not associated with STD risk once relationship pattern was considered. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who engage in sequential or concurrent sexual relationships differ in some important demographic, behavioral, and social characteristics and, when compared with those who engage in single relationships, have a significantly greater risk for STDs over and above the number of sexual partners.
Adolescent↗
The effect of type of physical activity measure on the relationship between body fatness and habitual physical activity in children: a meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND: The relationship between activity levels and body fat in children is unclear, despite a large number of studies. The issue is clouded by the wide variety of methods used to assess children's activity levels. It is important to assess whether the type of activity measure influences the fatness-activity relationship. This is a first step to uncovering the role of modifying variables such as gender, age, maturity, etc. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: This study uses meta-analytic procedures to synthesize the results of such studies and to assess whether the type of activity measure used has an effect on the strength of the relationship observed. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Fifty studies were located that satisfied the inclusion criteria. Seventy-eight per cent of the studies showed a negative relationship, 18% no relationship and 4% a positive relationship between physical activity and body fatness. Data were analysed using the meta-analytic procedures described by Rosenthal (Meta-analytic Procedures for Social Research, Sage, 1991). MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The mean effect size indicated a small to moderate, inverse relationship (r = -0.16). Mean effect sizes differed significantly (F(3,52) = 8.04, p < 0.001) according to the activity measure used: questionnaire, r = -0.14; motion counters, r = -0.18; observation, r = -0.39; heart rate (HR), r = 0.00. Observation measures elicited a significantly stronger relationship with body fat than did questionnaire or heart rate measures (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the effect sizes elicited by observation and motion counters. Correlational analyses revealed no effect of age group or gender on the strength of the relationship between fatness and activity. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests there is a small to moderate relationship between body fat and activity in children. It is important to note, however, that the size of the relationship depends on the activity measure used. It is therefore recommended that direct measures of movement, such as observation or motion counter methods, are used to assess the relationship of activity levels with health.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Evaluation of voluntary and elicited dorsiflexor torque-angle relationships.
The purposes of this study were to determine the relative influence of mechanical (muscle force and moment arm) and neural (activation) factors on the shape of dorsiflexor torque-angle relationships and to determine the interday reliability of measurements of such relationships. Dorsiflexor torque-angle relationships produced with maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) and with electrically elicited contractions (twitch, 20-Hz tetanic, 40-Hz tetanic) were obtained for seven male subjects on 2 separate days. MVC torque-angle relationships were reproducible between days. Elicited relationships were less reproducible than the MVC relationships, with the 40-Hz relationship the most reproducible of the elicited relationships. The shapes of the MVC and elicited twitch torque-angle relationships were significantly different. The shapes of the MVC, 20-, and 40-Hz elicited relationships were similar. The simplest explanation for this latter finding is that the shape the MVC relationship is determined primarily by mechanical factors and is not strongly dependent on neural factors. The results of this study may affect the interpretation of comparisons of torque-angle relationships between subject groups or pre- and posttraining.
Adult↗