Exergames on Line for Childhood Obesity: Using a Web Platform as an Ambulatory Program to Increase the Acceptance and Adherence to Physical Activity (PA)
Many initiatives exist to promote physical activity (PA) in children but dropouts are a very common outcome. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are considered as useful tools to promote adherence in PA. This study analyzes the acceptance and adherence of an Internet-based exergame (MOVE-IT) to promote PA compared to a non-technological ambulatory intervention (NTI). The role of clinicians support is also analyzed. Thirty one obese children (9–15 aged) were asked to do an exercise routine (3 times/week along 3 months), using a pamphlet (NTI) or MOVE-IT web. In addition, MOVE-IT participants were divided into two groups, with and without (S-EBW/NS-EBW) weekly support. Results s…
Relationship between eating styles and temperament in an Anorexia Nervosa, Healtlhy Control, and Morbid Obesity female sample.
Contains fulltext : 127209.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Objectives: Eating styles have been studied in both Obesity (OB) and Eating Disorders (ED), but they have not been examined in these two weight conditions together. The present study explores differences in eating styles in an Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and OB sample, compared to Healthy Controls (HC), and it analyses their relationship with Body Mass Index (BMI) and personality traits. Method: The total sample consisted of 291 female participants (66 AN, 79 OB and 146 HC). Evaluation: Assessment measures included the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire-DEBQ- and the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised-TCI-R-. Results…
Brain changes in long-term zen meditators using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and diffusion tensor imaging: a controlled study.
Introduction: This work aimed to determine whether 1 H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are correlated with years of meditation and psychological variables in long-term Zen meditators compared to healthy non-meditator controls. Materials and Methods: Design. Controlled, cross-sectional study. Sample. Meditators were recruited from a Zen Buddhist monastery. The control group was recruited from hospital staff. Meditators were administered questionnaires on anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and mindfulness. 1 H-MRS (1.5 T) of the brain was carried out by exploring four areas: bot…
Using Virtual Reality to Distract Overweight Children from Bodily Sensations During Exercise
This study analyzes the potential of virtual reality (VR) to enhance attentional distraction in overweight children as they experience bodily sensations during exercise. It has been suggested that one reason why obese children stop exercising is the perception of bodily sensations. In a counterbalanced design, a total of 109 children (33 overweight, 10-15 years old) were asked to walk twice for 6 minutes on a treadmill under one of two conditions: (a) traditional condition (TC)-focusing their attention on their physical feelings and sensations or (b) distraction condition (DC)-focusing their attention on a virtual environment. Attentional focus during exercise, bad-good feeling states (pre-…
Home-exercise Childhood Obesity Intervention: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Print Versus Web-based (Move It) Platforms.
Abstract Purpose To compare the impact of adhering to a Mediterranean diet plus mixed physical exercise program (Move-It) implemented by means of printed instructions or via a web-platform (with or without e-mail support) on body composition, physical fitness, and blood pressure. Design and Methods Randomized clinical trial. Fifty-two overweight or obese Spanish children and adolescents were randomly assigned to the print-based (n = 18), Move-It (n = 18), or Move-It plus support (n = 16) intervention groups. Two-way mixed ANOVA tests were used to compare any changes between the groups in terms of percentage body fat, physical fitness (VO2peak), handgrip strength, and systolic and diastolic …
Visual Data Mining With Self-organizing Maps for “Self-monitoring” Data Analysis
Data collected in psychological studies are mainly characterized by containing a large number of variables (multidimensional data sets). Analyzing multidimensional data can be a difficult task, especially if only classical approaches are used (hypothesis tests, analyses of variance, linear models, etc.). Regarding multidimensional models, visual techniques play an important role because they can show the relationships among variables in a data set. Parallel coordinates and Chernoff faces are good examples of this. This article presents self-organizing maps (SOM), a multivariate visual data mining technique used to provide global visualizations of all the data. This technique is presented as…
Corrigendum: Psychological Effects of a 1-Month Meditation Retreat on Experienced Meditators: The Role of Non-attachment
Background: There are few studies devoted to assessing the impact of meditation-intensive retreats on the well-being, positive psychology, and personality of experienced meditators. We aimed to assess whether a 1-month Vipassana retreat: (a) would increase mindfulness and well-being; (b) would increase prosocial personality traits; and (c) whether psychological changes would be mediated and/or moderated by non-attachment. Method: A controlled, non-randomized, pre-post-intervention trial was used. The intervention group was a convenience sample (n = 19) of experienced meditators who participated in a 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat. The control group (n = 19) comprised matched experienc…
Assessing decentering: validation, psychometric properties, and clinical usefulness of the Experiences Questionnaire in a Spanish sample.
Decentering is defined as the ability to observe one’s thoughts and feelings in a detached manner. The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ) is a self-report instrument that originally assessed decentering and rumination. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of EQ-Decentering and to explore its clinical usefulness. The 11-item EQ-Decentering subscale was translated into Spanish and psychometric properties were examined in a sample of 921 adult individuals, 231 with psychiatric disorders and 690 without. The subsample of nonpsychiatric participants was also split according to their previous meditative experience (meditative participants, n = 3…
Body awareness and mindfulness: Validation of the Spanish version of the Scale of Body Connection
BACKGROUND: To assess the psychometric properties and the factor structure of the Spanish version of the Scale of Body Connection (SBC) in a community population of meditators and non-meditators and to investigate the relationships among mindfulness, body awareness and body dissociation. METHODS: Design. Validation study. Sampling. An internet-based commercial system was used to recruit the sample. Instruments. In addition to the SBC, the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were administered. RESULTS: A sample of 578 subjects responded to all of the items in the protocol. A total of 55.2% of respondents had some previous experi…
Impact of a Web-based exercise and nutritional education intervention in patients who are obese with hypertension : randomized wait-list controlled trial
Background Internet-based interventions are a promising strategy for promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors. These have a tremendous potential for delivering electronic health interventions in scalable and cost-effective ways. There is strong evidence that the use of these programs can lead to weight loss and can lower patients’ average blood pressure (BP) levels. So far, few studies have investigated the effects of internet-based programs on patients who are obese with hypertension (HTN). Objective The aim of this study is to investigate the short- and long-term efficacy, in terms of body composition and BP parameters, of a self-administered internet-based intervention involving different …
Serious Games to Teach Nutrition Education to Children Between 9 to 12 Years Old. Pickit! and Cookit!
The current trend of increase in children obesity is worrying governments around the world and urgent actions are requested. The promotion of Nutrition Education in early stages has shown to be a factor to prevent the gain of weight in children. A tool that is gaining popularity in teaching contents to children are the Serious Games. The objective of this paper is to describe two Serious Games, Pickit! and Cookit! that has as objective to teach Nutrition Education to children between 9 to 12 years old. These games form part of the Modifying Eating and Attitudes through Learning platform, a pedagogical tool created for nutritionists and primary school teachers to transfer nutritional knowled…
An internet-based self-administered intervention for promoting healthy habits and weight loss in hypertensive people who are overweight or obese: a randomized controlled trial
Background The prevalence of overweight and obesity is on the rise worldwide with severe physical and psychosocial consequences. One of the most dangerous is hypertension. Lifestyle changes related to eating behaviour and physical activity are the critical components in the prevention and treatment of hypertension and obesity. Data indicates that the usual procedures to promote these healthy habits in health services are either insufficient or not efficient enough. Internet has been shown to be an effective tool for the implementation of lifestyle interventions based on this type of problem. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a totally self-administered online intervention programme …
Eating disorders and primary care: The challenge of new technologies
a Servicio de Psiquiatria, Hospital Miguel Servet, Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto Aragones de Ciencias de la Salud, Zaragoza, Espana b Departamento de Psicologia Basica, Clinica y Psicobiologia, Universitat Jaume I, Castellon, Espana c Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluacion y Tratamientos Psicologicos, Universitat de Valencia, Valencia, Espana d Red de Investigacion en Atencion Primaria (RD12/0007), Instituto Carlos III, Espana e CIBER Fisiopatologia, Obesidad y Nutricion (CB06/03), Instituto Carlos III, Espana
Competitive active video games: Physiological and psychological responses in children and adolescents
Recent strategies to reduce sedentary behaviour in children include replacing sedentary screen time for active video games. Active video game studies have focused principally on the metabolic consumption of a single player, with physiological and psychological responses of opponent-based multiplayer games to be further evaluated.To determine whether adding a competitive component to playing active video games impacts physiological and psychological responses in players.Sixty-two healthy Caucasian children and adolescents, nine to 14 years years of age, completed three conditions (8 min each) in random order: treadmill walking, and single and opponent-based Kinect active video games. Affect,…
Analysis of the efficacy of an internet-based self-administered intervention ("Living Better") to promote healthy habits in a population with obesity and hypertension: An exploratory randomized controlled trial.
Este artículo se encuentra disponible en la página web de la revista en la siguiente URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1386505618304647?via%3Dihub This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Mensorio, Marinna S., Cebolla-Martí, Ausiàs, Rodilla, Enrique, Palomar, Gonzalo, Lisón, Juan Francisco, Botella, Cristina, et al. (2019). Analysis of the efficacy of an internet-based self-administered intervention (“Living Better”) to promote healthy habits in a population with obesity and hypertension: an exploratory randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Medical Informatics, vol. 124, pp. 13-23, which has been published in final form at htt…
Corrigendum to “Assessing Decentering: Validation, Psychometric Properties, and Clinical Usefulness of the Experiences Questionnaire in a Spanish Sample” [Behavior Therapy 45 (2014) 863- 871]
Validation of the Spanish version of the 9-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire
Objective To translate and assess the psychometric properties of the 9-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9) for measuring patients' perceptions of how clinicians' performance fits the SDM process. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants Data were collected in primary care health centres. Patients suffering from chronic diseases and facing a medical decision were included in the study. Measurements The original German SDM-Q-9 was translated to Spanish using the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-reported measures as the methodological model for Spanish translation. Reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity [exploratory (EFA) and confirm…