Edward M. Heath

Effects of cognitive strategy and exercise setting on running performance, perceived exertion, affect, and satisfaction ☆

Abstract Objective : To investigate the effects of cognitive strategies, exercise setting, and participants’ gender on performance, perceived exertion, affect, and satisfaction in recreational runners. Methods : A 3×2×2 mixed experimental design with Exercise Setting (i.e., treadmill, indoor track, and outdoor route) as a within-groups independent variable and Cognitive Strategy (association vs. dissociation) and Gender as between-groups factors. Dependent measures were performance time, Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE), Exercise-Induced Feeling Inventory (EFI) scores, and course satisfaction following a 5 km run. Results and conclusions : Strong effects were found for Exercise Setting. The treadmill setting was rated as least satisfying, while resulting in the highest RPE and slowest performance time. Alternately, the outdoor route resulted in the highest levels of positive engagement, revitalization, tranquillity, and course satisfaction, while also yielding the lowest levels of physical exhaustion and RPE. There were no overall differences in RPE or course satisfaction between the Cognitive Strategies; however, the association group ran faster and experienced lower levels of tranquillity than the dissociation group. The only statistically significant difference found for Gender was that males ran faster than females.

Evaluation of the Institutionalization of the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) in a U.S./Mexico Border Community

El Paso Coordinated Approach to Child Health (El Paso CATCH) was evaluated in 24 schools for outcome measures of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during physical education (PE), content of PE lessons, content of school meals, and numerous process measures. Chi-square analyses compared frequency data across time for activity during PE and percentage fat in school meals. Descriptive summarieswere used for process questionnaire results. Data were also compared to CATCH program goals. For most intervention schools, El Paso CATCH significantly increased MVPA, decreased fat in school meals, and decreased sodium in school breakfasts. However, some schools were not meeting the fat content goals for school lunches, and no schools met the vigorous physical activity (VPA) goals for PE or the sodium goals for school lunches.

Adoption and Institutionalization of the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) in El Paso, Texas

One goal of national health-promotion research is to disseminate and institutionalize experimentally tested programs in local communities. In 1997, the national Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) was chosen by the Paso del Norte Health Foundation as their first community-wide preventive health initiative for the El Paso, Texas/Juárez, México border region. With help from researchers at the University of Texas at Houston, evaluators from the University of Texas at El Paso, and the Region 19 Educational Services Center, CATCH was implemented in 18 Title I pilot schools. Known as the Coordinated Approach to Child Health 5 years later, the El Paso CATCH program has been embraced by the border community and reaches 108 elementary schools from New Mexico to West Central Texas. There are also plans to implement CATCH in Juárez. This article describes the institutionalization of CATCH in a predominately Hispanic, low income border region.

Using momentary time sampling to estimate minutes of physical activity in physical education: validation of scores for the system for observing fitness instruction time.

A number of major organizations and influential individuals involved in promoting physical activity have emphasized the importance of valid and reliable physical activity measures (Pate et al., 1995; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Given some of the problems with self-reported activity, many recommendations for monitoring physical activity have included objective measurement devices and direct observation (Dishman, 1994; Dishman & Buckworth, 1996; Freedson & Miller, 2000; Lamonte & Ainsworth, 2001; Sallis & Saelens, 2000; Welk, Corbin, & Dale, 2000). The System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time (SOFIT) is a direct observation system specifically developed for use during physical education (PE; McKenzie, 1991; McKenzie, Sallis, & Nader, 1991). Although the SOFIT has been used extensively to evaluate physical activity outcomes for large community-based studies of children’s health, such as the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH; Luepker et al., 1996) and Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids (SPARK; Sallis et al., 2003), only four published peerreviewed studies have validated its intensity categories (McKenzie et al., 1991; McKenzie, Sallis, & Armstrong, 1994; Pope, Coleman, Gonzalez, Barron, & Heath, 2002; Rowe, Schuldheisz, & van der Mars, 1997). Of these studies, only two were done during actual PE classes in which use of the SOFIT was likely to occur (McKenzie, Sallis et al., 1994; Pope et al., 2002), and one was published in abstract form only (McKenzie, Sallis et al., 1994). The data collected with the SOFIT are most commonly expressed as a percentage of lesson time during PE devoted to a specific physical activity intensity (Luepker et al., 1996; McKenzie, Strickmiller, & Stone, 1994; Heath & Coleman, 2002). It is not a direct measure of the time spent in an activity but an estimate based on a behavioral observation every 20 s throughout the PE period. Because of this estimation method, the SOFIT may not accurately reflect the actual time children spend in a particular intensity category, such as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). All recommendations for physical activity for adults and children have included intensity, frequency, and duration (Council on Physical Education for Children, 2004; Pate et al., 1995; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996). To expand the use of the SOFIT as an indicator of children’s activity in relation to public health guidelines, its scores must be established as valid indicators of both the intensity and the time spent in various types of activity. The purpose of this study was to validate the estimates of time spent in various physical activity intensities obtained with the paper and pencil versions of the five(McKenzie et al., 1991) and six-category (Pope et al., 2002) Using Momentary Time Sampling to Estimate Minutes of Physical Activity in Physical Education: Validation of Scores for the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time

Validation of a single-stage submaximal treadmill walking test

Abstract The single-stage treadmill walking test of Ebbeling et al. is commonly used to predict maximal oxygen consumption ([Vdot]O2max) from a submaximal effort between 50% and 70% of the participants age-predicted maximum heart rate. The purpose of this study was to determine if this submaximal test correctly predicts [Vdot]O2max at the low (50% of maximum heart rate) and high (70% of maximum heart rate) ends of the specified heart rate range for males and females aged 18 – 55 years. Each of the 34 participants completed one low-intensity and one high-intensity trial. The two trials resulted in significantly different estimates of [Vdot]O2max (low-intensity trial: mean 40.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1, s = 9.3; high-intensity trial: 47.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1, s = 8.8; P < 0.01). A subset of 22 participants concluded their second trial with a [Vdot]O2max test (mean 47.9 ml · kg−1 · min−1, s = 8.9). The low-intensity trial underestimated (mean difference = −3.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1; 95% CI = −6.4 to −0.6 ml · kg−1 · min−1; P = 0.02) and the high-intensity trial overestimated (mean difference = 3.5 ml · kg−1 · min−1; 95% CI = 1.1 to 6.0 ml · kg−1 · min−1; P = 0.01) the measured [Vdot]O2max. The predictive validity of Ebbeling and colleagues single-stage submaximal treadmill walking test is diminished when performed at the extremes of the specified heart rate range.

Overweight and aerobic fitness in children in the United States/Mexico border region

OBJECTIVEnTo study overweight and aerobic fitness among children in the third and fourth grades of elementary schools in a city in the United States of America (El Paso, Texas) and a city in Mexico (Chihuahua, Chihuahua) that are on or near the border between those two countries, and to compare the results from those two cities with earlier findings for other children in the United States.nnnMETHODSnWe followed the El Paso children (427 boys and 385 girls, 93% of them of Mexican descent) from third to fourth grade and assessed the change in their body mass index (BMI). In the city of Chihuahua we cross-sectionally measured the BMI of a sample of third grade children (221 boys and 237 girls) and a sample of fourth grade children (268 boys and 215 girls). BMI and triceps skinfolds were measured for all the children studied in the two cities. BMI was used to assess risk for overweight (at least the 85th percentile BMI for age and gender) and overweight (at least the 95th percentile BMI for age and gender) in all the children. The distance that El Paso children ran in nine minutes was used to assess their aerobic fitness (aerobic fitness was not measured in the Chihuahua children). The data from El Paso were collected in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and the Chihuahua data were collected in 2000 and 2001.nnnRESULTSnIn the El Paso boys, overweight significantly increased in the one year from third grade to fourth grade, from 22% to 28%, while risk for overweight significantly increased, from 37% to 44%. In the El Paso girls, risk for overweight significantly increased over the same one-year period, from 29% to 37%. The El Paso boys and girls were significantly less fit when compared to samples of children from throughout the United States. Third and fourth grade children from Chihuahua had similar rates of risk for overweight and of overweight when compared to the children from the same grades in El Paso.nnnCONCLUSIONSnChildren in both El Paso and Chihuahua were more overweight than were non-Hispanic white children throughout the United States. In addition, the children in El Paso were less aerobically fit than were non-Hispanic white children and than were other Mexican-American children in the United States. These results clearly show that efforts should be made in the border regions of both Mexico and the United States to develop physical activity and nutrition programs to help stem rising rates of overweight.