Search results for "Children."
showing 10 items of 1606 documents
Improving childhood obesity treatment using new technologies: the ETIOBE System
2011
Childhood obesity is an increasing public health problem in western culture. Sedentary lifestyles and an “obesogenic environment” are the main influences on children leading to an increase in obesity. The objective of this paper is to describe an e-health platform for the treatment and prevention of childhood obesity called ETIOBE. This e-health platform is an e-therapy system for the treatment of obesity, aimed at improving treatment adherence and promoting the mechanisms of self-control in patients, to obtain weight loss maintenance and to prevent relapse by establishing healthy lifestyle habits. ETIOBE is composed of three different applications, the Clinician Support System (CSS), the H…
Management of Childhood Obesity—Time to Shift from Generalized to Personalized Intervention Strategies
2021
As a major public health concern, childhood obesity is a multifaceted and multilevel metabolic disorder influenced by genetic and behavioral aspects. While genetic risk factors contribute to and interact with the onset and development of excess body weight, available evidence indicates that several modifiable obesogenic behaviors play a crucial role in the etiology of childhood obesity. Although a variety of systematic reviews and meta-analyses have reported the effectiveness of several interventions in community-based, school-based, and home-based programs regarding childhood obesity, the prevalence of children with excess body weight remains high. Additionally, researchers and pediatric c…
Associations between cardiorespiratory fitness, motor competence, and adiposity in children
2020
We investigated the associations of motor competence (MC) with peak oxygen uptake (V.O-2peak), peak power output (W-max), and body fat percentage (BF%) and whether measures of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) modify the associations between MC and BF%. Altogether, 35 children (aged 7-11 years) in the CHIPASE Study and 297 in PANIC Study (aged 9-11 years) participated in the study. MC was assessed using KTK and modified Eurofit tests. V.O-2peak and W-max were measured by maximal exercise test on a cycle ergometer and scaled by lean mass (LM) or body mass (BM). BF% was assessed either by bioimpedance (CHIPASE) or DXA (PANIC). MC was not associated with V.O-2peak/LM (standardized regression coe…
Subjective health literacy : Development of a brief instrument for school-aged children
2016
Aims: The present paper focuses on the measurement of health literacy (HL), which is an important determinant of health and health behaviours. HL starts to develop in childhood and adolescence; hence, there is a need for instruments to monitor HL among younger age groups. These instruments are still rare. The aim of the project reported here was, therefore, to develop a brief, multidimensional, theory-based instrument to measure subjective HL among school-aged children. Methods: The development of the instrument covered four phases: item generation based on a conceptual framework; a pilot study ( n = 405); test–retest ( n = 117); and construction of the instrument ( n = 3853). All the samp…
A socio-ecological approach to physical activity interventions in childcare: a systematic review
2014
The promotion of physical activity (PA) in young children requires effective interventions. This article reviews the evidence on PA interventions in childcare by applying a socio-ecological approach. A computer-based literature search for intervention studies aimed at increasing children's PA levels was run across four databases: SPORTDiscus, ISI Web of Science, PsycINFO and ERIC. The participants had to be in childcare, aged 2-6-year-old, and their pre- and post- intervention PA levels measured. Selection was restricted to peer-reviewed publications and to studies conducted in childcare settings. Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria and their methodological quality was assessed.…
The development of children's perception of hierarchical patterns : an investigation across tasks and populations
2011
The thesis investigated the development of children’s global/local processing hierarchical patterns introduced by Navon (1977). The objectives were to understand more comprehensively the developmental characteristics of children’s perception through their global and local processing of hierarchical patterns, by considering the effects of age, stimuli properties, duration of exposure to the stimuli and gender in a perceptual task and a drawing task. These effects were tested in 3 different populations: typically developing children, children with mental retardation and early blind children. The results revealed that typically developing children attended to both the local and global level of…
Association between greenspace and lung function in Italian children-adolescents
2022
Background: Few studies have examined the impact of urban greenspace exposure on lung function in children-adolescents, and the available evidence is still inconsistent. The aim of the current study was to verify the hypothesis that the effects of greenspace exposure vary with differing levels of lung function of children-adolescents. Methods: Between November 2005 and May 2006, 2150 children-adolescents (age-range: 10-15 years) living in the city of Palermo were enrolled in a cross-sectional survey. Parents were interviewed through a modified version of the Italian Studies on Respiratory Disorders in Children and the Environment (SIDRIA) questionnaire. All children-adolescents performed sp…
Item response theory and differential test functioning analysis of the HBSC-Symptom-Checklist across 46 countries
2022
Abstract Background The Symptom Checklist (SCL) developed by the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a non-clinical measure of psychosomatic complaints (e.g., headache and feeling low) that has been used in numerous studies. Several studies have investigated the psychometric characteristics of this scale; however, some psychometric properties remain unclear, among them especially a) dimensionality, b) adequacy of the Graded Response Model (GRM), and c) measurement invariance across countries. Methods Data from 229,906 adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15 from 46 countries that participated in the 2018 HBSC survey were analyzed. Adolescents were selected using representative s…
Adolescent use of social media and associations with sleep patterns across 18 European and North American countries
2023
Objective Over the past decade, concurrent with increasing social media use (SMU), there has been a shift toward poorer sleep among adolescents in many countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-national associations between adolescent SMU and sleep patterns, by comparing 4 different categories of SMU (nonactive, active, intense, and problematic use). Design, setting, and participants Data were from 86,542 adolescents in 18 European and North American countries that participated in the 2017/18 Health Behaviour in School-aged study. Measurements Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to examine cross-national associations between 4 SMU categories and adolescent s…
Diabetes care practices and outcomes in 40.000 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes from the SWEET registry during the COVID-19 pandemic
2023
Aims This study aimed to provide a global insight into initiatives in type 1 diabetes care driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and associations with glycemic outcomes. Methods An online questionnaire regarding diabetes care before and during the pandemic was sent to all centers (n=97, 66,985 youth with type 1 diabetes) active in the SWEET registry. Eighty-two responded, and 70 (42,798 youth with type 1 diabetes) had available data (from individuals with type 1 diabetes duration >3 months, aged ≤21 years) for all 4 years from 2018 to 2021. Statistical models were adjusted, among others, for technology use. Results Sixty-five centers provided telemedicine during COVID-19. Among those centers naiv…