Joan Carles Martori

Patterns of Impact Resulting from a ‘Sit Less, Move More’ Web-Based Program in Sedentary Office Employees

Purpose Encouraging office workers to ‘sit less and move more’ encompasses two public health priorities. However, there is little evidence on the effectiveness of workplace interventions for reducing sitting, even less about the longer term effects of such interventions and still less on dual-focused interventions. This study assessed the short and mid-term impacts of a workplace web-based intervention (Walk@WorkSpain, W@WS; 2010-11) on self-reported sitting time, step counts and physical risk factors (waist circumference, BMI, blood pressure) for chronic disease. Methods Employees at six Spanish university campuses (n=264; 42±10 years; 171 female) were randomly assigned by worksite and campus to an Intervention (used W@WS; n=129; 87 female) or a Comparison group (maintained normal behavior; n=135; 84 female). This phased, 19-week program aimed to decrease occupational sitting time through increased incidental movement and short walks. A linear mixed model assessed changes in outcome measures between the baseline, ramping (8 weeks), maintenance (11 weeks) and follow-up (two months) phases for Intervention versus Comparison groups. Results A significant 2 (group) × 2 (program phases) interaction was found for self-reported occupational sitting (F[3]=7.97, p=0.046), daily step counts (F[3]=15.68, p=0.0013) and waist circumference (F[3]=11.67, p=0.0086). The Intervention group decreased minutes of daily occupational sitting while also increasing step counts from baseline (446±126; 8,862±2,475) through ramping (+425±120; 9,345±2,435), maintenance (+422±123; 9,638±3,131) and follow-up (+414±129; 9,786±3,205). In the Comparison group, compared to baseline (404±106), sitting time remained unchanged through ramping and maintenance, but decreased at follow-up (-388±120), while step counts diminished across all phases. The Intervention group significantly reduced waist circumference by 2.1cms from baseline to follow-up while the Comparison group reduced waist circumference by 1.3cms over the same period. Conclusions W@WS is a feasible and effective evidence-based intervention that can be successfully deployed with sedentary employees to elicit sustained changes on “sitting less and moving more”.

Uptake and factors that influence the use of 'sit less, move more' occupational intervention strategies in Spanish office employees

BackgroundLittle is known about the types of ‘sit less, move more’ strategies that appeal to office employees, or what factors influence their use. This study assessed the uptake of strategies in Spanish university office employees engaged in an intervention, and those factors that enabled or limited strategy uptake.MethodsThe study used a mixed method design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with academics and administrators (n = 12; 44 ± 12 mean SD age; 6 women) at three points across the five-month intervention, and data used to identify factors that influenced the uptake of strategies. Employees who finished the intervention then completed a survey rating (n = 88; 42 ± 8 mean SD age; 51 women) the extent to which strategies were used [never (1) to usually (4)]; additional survey items (generated from interviewee data) rated the impact of factors that enabled or limited strategy uptake [no influence (1) to very strong influence (4)]. Survey score distributions and averages were calculated and findings triangulated with interview data.ResultsRelative to baseline, 67% of the sample increased step counts post intervention (n = 59); 60% decreased occupational sitting (n = 53). ‘Active work tasks’ and ‘increases in walking intensity’ were the strategies most frequently used by employees (89% and 94% sometimes or usually utilised these strategies); ‘walk-talk meetings’ and ‘lunchtime walking groups’ were the least used (80% and 96% hardly ever or never utilised these strategies). ‘Sitting time and step count logging’ was the most important enabler of behaviour change (mean survey score of 3.1 ± 0.8); interviewees highlighted the motivational value of being able to view logged data through visual graphics in a dedicated website, and gain feedback on progress against set goals. ‘Screen based work’ (mean survey score of 3.2 ± 0.8) was the most significant barrier limiting the uptake of strategies. Inherent time pressures and cultural norms that dictated sedentary work practices limited the adoption of ‘walk-talk meetings’ and ‘lunch time walking groups’.ConclusionsThe findings provide practical insights into which strategies and influences practitioners need to target to maximise the impact of ‘sit less, move more’ occupational intervention strategies.

Identifying patients with advanced chronic conditions for a progressive palliative care approach: a cross-sectional study of prognostic indicators related to end-of-life trajectories

Objectives 2 innovative concepts have lately been developed to radically improve the care of patients with advanced chronic conditions (PACC): early identification of palliative care (PC) needs and the 3 end-of-life trajectories in chronic illnesses (acute, intermittent and gradual dwindling). It is not clear (1) what indicators work best for this early identification and (2) if specific clinical indicators exist for each of these trajectories. The objectives of this study are to explore these 2 issues. Setting 3 primary care services, an acute care hospital, an intermediate care centre and 4 nursing homes in a mixed urban–rural district in Barcelona, Spain. Participants 782 patients (61.5% women) with a positive NECPAL CCOMS-ICO test, indicating they might benefit from a PC approach. Outcome measures The characteristics and distribution of the indicators of the NECPAL CCOMS-ICO tool are analysed with respect to the 3 trajectories and have been arranged by domain (functional, nutritional and cognitive status, emotional problems, geriatric syndromes, social vulnerability and others) and according to their static (severity) and dynamic (progression) properties. Results The common indicators associated with early end-of-life identification are functional (44.3%) and nutritional (30.7%) progression, emotional distress (21.9%) and geriatric syndromes (15.7% delirium, 11.2% falls). The rest of the indicators showed differences in the associations per illness trajectories (p<0.05). 48.2% of the total cohort was identified as advanced frailty patients with no advanced disease criteria. Conclusions Dynamic indicators are present in the 3 trajectories and are especially useful to identify PACC for a progressive PC approach purpose. Most of the other indicators are typically associated with a specific trajectory. These findings can help clinicians improve the identification of patients for a palliative approach.

Utility of the NECPAL CCOMS-ICO© tool and the Surprise Question as screening tools for early palliative care and to predict mortality in patients with advanced chronic conditions: A cohort study

Background: The Surprise Question (SQ) identifies patients with palliative care needs. The NECPAL CCOMS-ICO© (NECPAL) tool combines the Surprise Question with additional clinical parameters for a more comprehensive assessment. The capacity of these screening tools to predict mortality is still unknown. Aim: To explore the predictive validity of the NECPAL and SQ to determine 12- to 24-month mortality. Design: Longitudinal, prospective and observational cohort study. Setting/participants: Three primary care centres, one general hospital, one intermediate care centre, and four nursing homes. Population cohort with advanced chronic conditions and limited life prognosis. Patients were classified according to SQ and NECPAL criteria and followed for 24 months. Results: Data available to assess 1059 of 1064 recruited patients (99.6%) at 12 and 24 months: 837 patients were SQ+ and 780 were NECPAL+. Mortality rates at 24 months were as follows: 44.6% (SQ+) versus 15.8% (SQ−) and 45.8% (NECPAL+) versus 18.3% (NECPAL−) (p = 0.000). SQ+ and NECPAL+ identification was significantly correlated with 24-month mortality risk (hazard ratios: 2.719 and 2.398, respectively). Both tools were highly sensitive (91.4, CI: 88.7–94.1 and 87.5, CI: 84.3–90.7) with high negative predictive values (84.2, CI: 79.4–89.0 and 81.7, CI: 77.2–86.2), with low specificity and positive predictive value. The prognostic accuracy of SQ and NECPAL was 52.9% and 55.2%, respectively. The predictive validity was slightly better for NECPAL. Conclusion: SQ and NECPAL are valuable screening instruments to identify patients with limited life prognosis who may require palliative care. More research is needed to increase its prognostic utility in combination with other parameters.

Población inmigrante y espacio urbano. Indicadores de segregación y pautas de localización

Given the importance of immigrant population growth in Spain, it would be interesting to study its distribution throughout the urban area. The field of statistics suggests different indicators that have a long tradition and permit the quantification of segregation of minority population groups. Through the application of these tools in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona, this paper demonstrates the utility of analyzing segregation patterns within a city and detecting local patterns of this phenomenon. A new perspective of segregation can be obtained with the use of indicators designed for spatial statistics. The combination of these measures represents a useful procedure for the analysis of the distribution of the immigrant population in urban areas and its extension to different areas such as sociology, economics, urban studies, and housing policy.

An Open-Source Software for Calculating Indices of Urban Residential Segregation

The aim of this article is to introduce a new stand-alone application—Geo-Segregation Analyzer—that is capable of calculating 43 residential segregation indices, regardless of the population groups or the metropolitan region under study. In practical terms, the user just needs to have a Shapefile geographic file containing counts of population groups that differ in ethnic origin, birth country, age, or income across a metropolitan area at a small area level (e.g., census tracts). Developed in Java using the GeoTools library, this free and open-source application is both multiplatform and multilanguage. The software functions on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux operating systems and its user interface currently supports 10 languages (English, French, Spanish, Catalan, German, Italian, Portuguese, Creole, Vietnamese, and Chinese). The application permits users to display and manipulate several Shapefile geographic files and to calculate 19 one-group indices, 13 two-group indices, 8 multigroup indices, and 3 local measures that could be mapped (location quotient, entropy measure, and typology of the ethnic areas proposed by Poulsen, Johnson, and Forrest).

The influence of sex and gender-role orientation in the decision to become an entrepreneur

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between sex, gender-role orientation (GRO) and the decision to become an entrepreneur. Because of the fact that gender stereotypes have influences on the preferences and choices of individuals in their career, this research proposes the following objectives: to determine the existence of gender stereotypes that have an influence on human behaviour and specially in this research context; to measure the GRO of each individual; and, finally, to analyze the relationship between the entrepreneurial intention, the sex and the GRO of participants.,Based on a questionnaire, this study follows the Bem Sex-Role Inventory methodology to perform an analysis by means of the multiple regression model. This study uses two different samples of 760 students who attend business administration and management undergraduate programs.,The outcomes show that GRO is a better predictor of the decision to become an entrepreneur than biological sex. Moreover, the results for the whole sample confirm the relationship between masculine and androgynous GRO with entrepreneurial intention, whereas there is also evidence of feminine GRO when we consider only women.,In line with previous studies that link GRO and entrepreneurship, in this paper, the authors have analyzed business administration students’ view to draw conclusions. The next step is to apply the gender perspective to advance in the analysis of the features that characterize business managers. Likewise, it is interesting to continue the study of gender social construction in entrepreneurship focusing on the discourse used by entrepreneurs or in the media.,The conclusions of this study are relevant for educators and trainers of future entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial archetype evolves from masculinity to androgyny. This may help women entrepreneurial intentions. Emphasizing androgynous traits is a way to disable male stereotype domination and threat. This possibility is open, not only for educators who have the ability to improve this perception but also for media, advertising companies and women to push and value female entrepreneurship.,The implicit dynamism in GROs leads to the possibility of changes in workplace views and especially in entrepreneurship as a career option. In this way, it is possible that the general belief that the company owners are men may change. Improving women entrepreneurs’ social visibility, which acts as “role models” may increase female entrepreneur intention. Moreover, emphasis on the androgynous entrepreneur traits in forums at different levels of education, in entrepreneur training activities, will certainly increase the women entrepreneur intention if they perceive they have positively valued traits for entrepreneurship.,Selecting 31 items related with the entrepreneur person, this work tests empirically their gender categorization. This procedure allows to measure participants’ GRO following the four gender categories and classify them by sex. Finally, the authors analyze the influence the GRO and sex exert over entrepreneurial intention and provide empirical evidence in favour that GRO is a more robust variable to predict entrepreneurial intention than sex, and androgynous GRO is the most influential category on entrepreneurial intention.

A quadtree approach based on European geographic grids: reconciling data privacy and accuracy

Methods to preserve confidentiality when publishing geographic information conflict with the need to publish accurate data. The goal of this paper is to create a European geographic grid frame- work to disseminate statistical data over maps. We propose a methodology based on quadtree hierarchical geographic data structures. We create a varying size grid adapted to local area densities. High populated zones are disaggregated in small squares to allow dissemination of accurate data. Alternatively, information on low populated zones is published in big squares to avoid identification of individual data. The methodology has been applied to the 2014 population register data in Catalonia

Discrete choice and survival models in employee turnover analysis

The purpose of this paper is to assess the capacity of two methodological approaches – discrete choice and survival analysis models – to investigate the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and turnover in a retailing company. A comparison of the estimation results under each model and their interpretation is carried out. The study provides a guide to determine, assess and interpret the effects of different driving factors behind turnover.,The authors use a data set containing information about 1,199 workers followed up between January 2007 and December 2009. First, not distinguishing voluntary and involuntary resignation, a binary logistic regression model and a Cox proportional hazards (PH) model for univariate survival data are set up and estimated. Second, distinguishing voluntary and involuntary resignation, a multinomial logistic regression model and a Cox PH model for competing risk data are set up and estimated.,When no distinction is made, the results point that wage and age exert a negative effect on turnover. Risk of resignation is higher for male, single, not married and Spanish nationals. When the distinction is made, previous results hold for voluntary turnover: wage, age, gender, marital status and nationality are significant. However, when explaining involuntary turnover, all variables except wage lose explaining power. The survival analysis approach is better suited as it measures risk of resignation in a longitudinal way. Discrete choice models only study the risk at a particular cut-off point (24 months in case of this study).,This paper is a systematic application, evaluation and comparison of four different statistical models for analysing employee turnover in a single firm. This work is original because no systematic comparison has been done in the context of turnover.

Bridging boundaries with Bernstein: approach, procedure and results of a school support project in Catalonia

Abstract This article presents the theoretical foundations, methodological approach and results of a school support project involving 154 primary school pupils, with low academic performance, in a region of Catalonia (Enxaneta Project). Drawing on the later work of Basic Bernstein, specifically his notion of pedagogic device, the project is based, on a theoretical level, on the use of the notions of classification and framing and of distributive, recontextualising and evaluative rules to analyse the dominant pedagogic practice and propose alternatives. Methodologically, the project works through an intense, professional mentoring with children and families. It is based on mixed pedagogies with four objectives: a) to question the current school pedagogic practice characterised by a regulatory discourse that generates inequalities in its link between power, knowledge, pedagogic identities and forms of consciousness; b) to enable families to enter the school physically and symbolically and share it with mentors and teachers; c) to improve teacher expectations towards children and families; d) to reduce or subvert, as the final goal, initial inequalities. The results obtained (quasi-experimental design) enable us to affirm that the Enxaneta children improve significantly more than the non-Enxaneta children in linguistic and mathematical tests, but not in school marks.