Background: Over the last decades, the prevalence of AST has decreased significantly. Barriers to active school transport (AST) have been extensively examined in the literature, while psychosocial factors that facilitate AST have received less attention. To our best knowledge, there are currently no reviews on this subject. Therefore, the objective of this review was to scope the literature and identify published research about psychosocial factors related to AST.

Methods: Systematic searches conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, TRID, Scopus, and ERIC resulted in a total of 1933 publications, and 77 of them were considered eligible for this review.

Results: The results of the included articles were categorised into four psychosocial factors: confidence in ability, attitudes, social support, and social norms, which were all generally positively related to AST, with a few exceptions.

Conclusion: The findings of this review indicate that these psychosocial factors may be important to consider when developing interventions and highlight that both children and parents should be involved in the process. This knowledge can serve as a valuable guide for developing interventions to promote AST. However, the evidence base supporting these psychosocial factors requires further investigation to fully understand how and when to incorporate them to maximise AST efficacy.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) impact distraction by unexpected deviant sounds and vibrations. The hypothesis was that there would be a difference between individuals with low and high ADHD symptom severity in deviance distraction. In a cross-modal oddball task, we measured the impact of to-be-ignored deviating auditory and vibro-tactile stimuli in 45 adults who were 18 years or older, and self-reported ADHD symptoms using the screening tool of the adult ADHD self-report scale (ASRS). Results did not show a difference between groups with low and high symptoms of ADHD in their propensity for distraction in any modality using both frequentist and Bayesian methods of analysis. The impact of the deviating sounds and vibrations on performance were similar between groups. However, the amount of missed trials, which possibly reflects mind wandering or attention away from the focal task, was higher in the high symptom group (0.5 % difference in missing data between groups). The findings indicate a difference in missed responses between groups, despite no differences in the likelihood of distraction being indicated between vibro-tactile and auditory modalities. Overall, the complexity of adult ADHD symptomatology, especially behavioral differences in attentional control is reflected in the results of this study.

Background

The absence of appropriate Swedish-language instrumentation to assess active commuting to school has largely hampered the study of the individual factors of the children, such as autonomy, competence, and relatedness to active commuting to school.

Purpose

Building upon self-determination theory, the objective of this research was to gather evidence of the validity and reliability of the Swedish version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction in Active Commuting to and from School (BPNS-ACS) tool.

Methods

The cross-sectional and purposive sample included 273 children (51.28% girls) from urban areas.

Results

Confirmatory factor analysis underpinned the three-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender. Evidence in support of discriminant and convergent validity and reliability was gathered. Criterion validity evidence was met by positive and significant predictions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction on active commuting to and from school.

Conclusions

The Swedish version of the BPNS-ACS is a psychometrically robust measure of children’s perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction in active commuting to school and could be used to assess the effects of school-based interventions on need satisfaction for active commuting to school.

Insufficient physical activity among children is a critical issue and health promoting initiatives are required to reverse this trend. In response to the current situation, a school-based intervention aiming to increase physical activity with the aid of active school transportation (AST) was implemented in one municipality in northern Sweden. By adopting the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior, we aimed to analyse beliefs among parents whose children were or were not involved in the AST intervention. All municipality schools were included. There were 1024 responses from parents, comprising 610 who responded either 'yes' or 'no' to participating in the intervention. An adjusted linear regression analysis showed that children's intervention participation was significantly associated with more positive beliefs towards AST among parents. These results indicates that it is possible to influence beliefs that are important in the parental decision-making process by the use of an AST intervention. Therefore, to make children´s active transport to school the more favorable choice for parents, it seems to be worthwhile to not only give children the opportunity to participate but also to involve parents and address their beliefs when designing interventions.Not enough physical activity among children is an important issue and health promoting initiatives are needed to reverse this trend. In response to the current situation, a school-based intervention aiming to increase physical activity using active school transportation (AST) was implemented in one municipality in northern Sweden. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework, we aimed to analyse beliefs among parents whose children were or were not involved in the AST intervention. Children’s participation in the intervention was significantly associated with more positive beliefs towards AST among parents. These results indicate that it is possible to influence beliefs that are important in the parental decision-making process by the use of an AST intervention. Therefore, to make children’s active transport to school the more favourable choice for parents, it seems to be worthwhile to not only give children the opportunity to participate but also to involve parents and address their beliefs when designing interventions.

Background

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is considered a heterogenic syndrome with systemic effects, including muscle dysfunction. There is evidence of postural control impairments among individuals with COPD, partly related to muscle weakness. However, research is scarce regarding the other underlying systems of postural control, such as the visual, somatosensory and vestibular system. The aim was to compare postural control, as well as the motor and sensory systems, between individuals with and without COPD.

Methods

Twenty-two participants with COPD (mean age 74.0 ±6.2 years) and 34 non-obstructive references (mean age 74.9 ±4.9 years) participated in this cross-sectional study. Postural control was assessed with center of pressure trajectory of postural sway in quiet as well as a limits of stability test, calculating mediolateral and anteroposterior amplitudes for each test. Assessment of function in the motor system included maximum hand grip strength, as well as maximum strength in muscles around the hip, knee and ankle joints. Visual acuity, pressure sensibility, proprioception, vestibular screening, and reaction time were also included. Data was compared between groups, and significant differences in postural control were further analyzed with an orthogonal projection of latent structures regression model.

Results

There was a significantly increased sway amplitude in the mediolateral direction in quiet stance on soft surface with eyes open (p = 0.014) as well as a smaller anteroposterior amplitude in the limits of stability test (p = 0.019) in the COPD group. Regression models revealed that the mediolateral amplitude was related to visual acuity and the burden of tobacco smoking assessed as pack-years. Further, muscle strength associated with anteroposterior amplitude in limits of stability test in the COPD group, and with age and ankle dorsal flexion strength among the referents. Besides for lower ankle plantar flexion strength in the COPD group, there were however no significant differences in muscle strength.

Conclusions

Individuals with COPD had a decreased postural control and several factors were associated with the impairments. The findings imply that the burden of tobacco smoking and reduced visual acuity relate to increased postural sway in quiet stance, and that muscle weakness is related to decreased limits of stability, among individuals with COPD.

Background: Aging is associated with a decline in postural control and an increased risk of falls. The Center of Pressure (CoP) trajectory analysis is a commonly used method to assess balance. In this study, we proposed a new method to identify balance impairments in older adults by analyzing their CoP trajectory frequency components, sensory inputs, reaction time, motor functions, and Fall-related Concerns (FrC).

Methods: The study includes 45 older adults aged 75.2(±4.5)75.2(±4.5) years who were assessed for sensory and motor functions. FrC and postural control in a quiet stance with open and closed eyes on stable and unstable surfaces. A Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) was used to detect features in frequency scales, followed by the K-means algorithm to detect different clusters. The multinomial logistic model was used to identify and predict the association of each group with the sensorimotor tests and FrC.

Results: The study results showed that by DWT, three distinct groups of subjects could be revealed. Group 2 exhibited the broadest use of frequency scales, less decline in sensorimotor functions, and lowest FrC. The study also found that a decline in sensorimotor functions and fall-related concern may cause individuals to rely on either very low-frequency scales (group 1) or higher-frequency scales (group 3) and that those who use lower-frequency scales (group 1) can manage their balance more successfully than group 3.

Conclusions: Our study provides a new, cost-effective method for detecting balance impairments in older adults. This method can be used to identify people at risk and develop interventions and rehabilitation strategies to prevent falls in this population.

Although growing attention has been paid to motivation in explaining active travel to school among young people at the international level, no measures of motivation for active commuting to school (ACS) were found in Sweden. Guided by self-determination theory, this research aimed to adapt the Behavioral Regulation in Active Commuting to and from School (BR-ACS) questionnaire to the Swedish context and test the resulting version’s psychometric properties. The purposive and cross-sectional sample included 273 students (58 % girls, aged 10–12 years) from four Swedish urban schools. Results from confirmatory factor analyses psychometrically supported the six-factor correlated model (intrinsic motivation, integrated regulation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation, and amotivation) and the hierarchical three-factor model (autonomous, controlled motivation, and amotivation), which were invariant across gender. Latent correlations underpinned a symplex-like pattern. Discriminant and convergent validity and reliability were gathered. Criterion validity evidence was met with positive associations from intrinsic motivation, integrated and identified regulation to ACS, and a negative relationship between amotivation and ACS. The Swedish version of the BR-ACS questionnaire is a valid and reliable measure of children’s motivation toward ACS.

Objectives:

The aim was to explore how the time to the first fall and 6-month fall incidence relates to rapidly and easily collected data in persons with acute stroke.

Methods:

Out of consecutively admitted patients with stroke at three stroke units, 284 with at least one follow-up were included in this prospective cohort study. During 6 months following discharge, participants reported falls using a diary and monthly phone calls. Data about participants’ characteristics, functions, and activities were collected during hospital stay and analyzed in relation to time to first fall by Cox regression and fall incidence by negative binomial regression.

Results:

Use of ⩾9 medications, paresis in arms, paresis in legs (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale), impaired protective reactions in sitting (Postural Reactions Test), and limitations in self-care (Barthel Index) were decisive risk factors for time to first fall. Limitations in mobility (Step Test, 30-s Chair Stand Test) were decisive risk factors for high fall incidence (p < 0.0005).

Conclusion:

Several easily collected participant characteristics, functions, and activities were identified as risk factors for falls. The findings emphasize the width of assessments that can be used for the identification of individuals at risk for falls and that the risk factors vary in different strata of the population. These results are important when developing multivariate risk models. The risk factors differed in part when analyzing the time to the first fall and 6-month fall incidence.