Journal of healthy eating and active living最新文献

Physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior that was impacted for many by the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In many places, indoor recreational facilities were required to close; however, many outdoor spaces like trails were available for recreational use. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a mixed-use trail before, during, and after COVID-19 restrictions in a large Colorado city and explore if recreational PA behavior differed between trail users and non-users during those periods. Trail user counts on a mixed-use trail were extracted for 2019 and 2020 from continuous-count data. Trail use habits and recreational PA behavior from before, during, and after restrictions were collected via a retrospective internet survey (N=183). Minutes per week of walking, moderate-to-vigorous PA and total PA were calculated from survey responses. Trail use data were analyzed with a two-way ANOVA and PA data were analyzed with a two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Trail use (average count/day) during COVID-19 restrictions was greater than before by 178 users and after by 96 users. During restrictions, trail users reported 153.5 more minutes of total PA per week than non-users. These results suggest the importance of maintaining accessible outdoor infrastructure for promoting positive PA behaviors in general, and especially in a pandemic situation.

School closures and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic changed opportunities for youth physical activity (PA). We sought to identify school and other contextual conditions associated with youth PA during the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationally representative, United States sample consisted of 500 parents of children ages 6-10 years old and 500 parent-child dyads with children and adolescents ages 11-17 years old who completed a web-based questionnaire. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess the association between days per week of at least 60 minutes of PA with school, family, and neighborhood characteristics, controlling for child age and gender. Youth engaged in significantly more days per week of PA when they attended school in person; participated in school physical education (PE), school sports, and community sports; and had parents that engaged in high versus low levels of PA. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted youth PA, in part, due to restriction of school-based PA opportunities. During future pandemics or conditions that necessitate remote learning, attention to opportunities for PA outside of PE class may be important for equitable PA promotion across school modalities.

The Girls on the Run (GOTR) is a national positive youth development program to promote self-confidence, resilience, and self-esteem for girls through physical activity. It also includes an opportunity for parental support through involvement in a 5K event at the end of the program. There is significant evidence on the importance of family support and parent role modeling for children's physical activity, but little is known on how children can encourage adult physical activity. This study aimed to explore parents' perceptions of their daughters' participation in GOTR, and their attitudes toward physical activity while exploring variations in these perceptions between parents in different socioeconomic groups. Parents were recruited from high and low-resource sites for participation in online focus group discussions. Questions included perspectives on their daughter's participation in GOTR, their physical activity, and participation in the GOTR 5K event. Discussions were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed from two focus groups with parents from low-resource sites (N=10) and two with parents from high-resource sites (N= 15). A common theme across resource groups was that GOTR enhances self-confidence, communication skills, and physical activity. More parents from the high-resource sites reported being physically active and having supportive environments than parents from low-resource sites. While some parents noted the intention to participate in the 5K with their daughter, more parents in the low-resource group reported barriers to physical activity and participation in the 5K event. There is an opportunity to encourage and facilitate parental 5K participation to create a ripple effect for the benefits of the GOTR program.

Excellent self-rated health has been associated with decreased mortality and positive health outcomes in adults. However, less is known about youth populations. The FLASHE study, conducted by the National Cancer Institute, is a cross-sectional survey with publicly available self-reported data. The present study evaluated lifestyle behaviors and their relationship with excellent self-rated health in an adolescent population in the United States utilizing complete FLASHE data from 1250 adolescents (males N=626, mean age=14.5y, SD = 1.61y; and females N=624, mean age=14.4y, SD=1.57y). Logistic regression models were used to analyze associations between lifestyle behavior exposures and the outcome of excellent self-rated health. Lifestyle exposures included: free-time physical activity; sedentary behavior time; beneficial and detrimental food intake; perception of the importance of family meals; meeting sleep duration guidelines, having trouble sleeping, and having a regular bedtime. In addition, potential confounders included weight status, smoking, sex, age, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity in adjusted models. Approximately 47% of males (n=295) and 35% of females (n=217) reported having excellent self-rated health. In the fully adjusted model, the frequency of beneficial food intake (OR=1.06, 95%CI=1.02-1.11 for each additional exposure, p=0.004); perception of the importance of family meals (OR=1.88, 95%CI=1.35-2.63, strongly agree vs. not agree, p<0.001); frequency of physical activity in free-time (OR=2.17, 95%CI=1.20-3.92, very often vs. none, p<0.001; ); and had no trouble sleeping (OR=0.42, 95%CI=0.27-0.64, yes vs. no, p<0.001), were significantly associated with excellent self-rated health. These results support the importance of enhancing future efforts to implement salutogenic interventions that address health behaviors to improve health outcomes in adolescents, focusing on everyday living situations and actively promoting health.