Oldemar Mazzardo

Anti-Fat Bias by Professors Teaching Physical Education Majors.

Anti-fat bias by professors in physical education departments may interfere with the training provided to pre-service teachers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the attitudes of professors in physical education departments toward obese individuals. Professors from randomly selected institutions across all four US regions participated in the study (N = 94). Participants took the Implicit Association Test and answered the Anti-Fat Attitude Scale and two questions specifically designed to measure their attitudes toward physical education teachers and majors who are obese. The participants exhibited implicit good–bad (p < .001) and lazy–motivated (p < .001) anti-fat biases. Professors favored accepting majors who are obese (p < .001), but they strongly disapproved of obese physical education teachers as role models to their students (p < .001). Explicit anti-fat bias was associated with a stronger disapproval of physical education teachers who are obese as role models to students (p < .001) and accepting majors who are obese (p < .001). Implicit good–bad anti-fat bias was associated with a stronger disapproval of obese physical education teachers as role models to students (p = .047). The anti-fat bias demonstrated by the professors may negatively affect the training of pre-service physical education teachers to work with students of all body sizes. Awareness programs may be necessary to diminish anti-fat bias among professors in physical education teacher education programs.

The Association Between Physical Activity and Quality of Life Domains Among Older Women

This study examined whether the weekly volume and frequency of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and light walking (LW) were associated with quality of life (QOL) domains of 1,806 older women from Brazil. The WHOQOL-BREF and WHOQOL-OLD instruments were used to measure QOL, while the weekly volume and frequency of MVPA and LW were assessed by IPAQ. An ordinal logistic regression was used as a measure of association. The weekly volumes of MVPA and LW were associated with several domains of QOL. Higher frequency of MVPA was associated with better scores in 10 QOL domains. The weekly frequency of LW, in turn, was associated with all QOL domains. In conclusion, promoting active transport and encouraging physical activity in older adults, for at least 150 min and distributed several days per week, help to increase QOL.

Step-Count Guidelines for Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND The aim of this systematic review was to identify the most optimal step-count cutoff for children and adolescents (5-19 years old) among guidelines currently available in the literature. METHODS The databases searched were PubMed, SportDiscus, Science Direct, Web of Science and LILACS. Studies were categorized into Health Cohort studies or Physical Activity (PA) Cohort studies according to the reference standard used. The quality of the studies was assessed using the QUADAS-2 instrument. RESULTS Six Health and 3 PA Cohort studies were included in the final pool of papers after Full Text reading. With the exception of a single study, studies demonstrated a high risk of methodological bias in at least 1 of the QUADAS-2 domains. Guidelines ranged from 10,000 to 16,000 steps/day for the Health studies (5-16 years old), and from 9,000 to 14,000 steps/day for PA studies (6-19 years old). Due to the high risk of methodological bias, none of the Health Cohort guidelines were endorsed. The PA Cohort study with the lowest risk of methodological bias suggested 12,000 steps/day for children and adolescents irrespective of gender. CONCLUSION PA Cohort studies demonstrated lower risk of methodological bias than Health Cohort studies. The optimal youth step-count guideline of 12,000 steps/day was endorsed.