scholarly journals EXERCISE AS AN EDUCATIONAL TOOL: A PILOT PROJECT

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. e39-e40
Author(s):  
Sumeet Bhardwaj ◽  
Alexandre McDougall ◽  
Navpreet Dhillon ◽  
Jasleen Grewal ◽  
Sharon Burey

Abstract BACKGROUND Exercise has been shown to have long term effects in improving social skills, scholastic performance and quality of life in all children. Unfortunately, physical education courses continue to have their dedicated curricular times reduced. Students may have as little as one period of curricular physical activity per week. Conversely, there is middle school in Windsor, Ontario that has implemented a daily curricular period dedicated to physical activity. This study aimed to assess the effects of this schools’ exercise programme on their students’ social skills, scholastic performance and quality of life. OBJECTIVES Our objective is to study the effects of a daily physical activity period as part of an educational curriculum on student physical fitness, academic performance and self reported quality of life. DESIGN/METHODS We undertook a naturalistic observational study that examined the results of a daily exercise program for Grade 7 students attending École Secondaire E.J. Lajeunesse in Windsor. At this school, all students in Grade 7 and Grade 8 participate in a daily one-and-a-half-hour exercise programme consisting of two different streams: hockey or dance. All Grade 7 students and their families attending the school were asked to participate in our research trial. To study the effects of the exercise programme, student physical fitness, academic performance, and self-rated quality of life were assessed. Specific outcome measures used include: 20 metre sprint test, beep test, squat strength, bench press strength, the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory, academic grades in mathematics, English and French, and academic learning skills. RESULTS Due to difficulties in participant recruitment and retention, only the following results could be analyzed. After one year of the structured hockey exercise program, the participants demonstrated significant increases in sprint speed (p < 0.0001), beep test (p < 0.005), squat strength (p < 0.0001) and bench press strength (p < 0.0001). There was also an increase in scores assessing organization, independence, collaboration, initiative and self regulation. An increase was noted in the participant’s grades in English and French. Little change was seen in mathematics and science grades. CONCLUSION After one year of consistent exercise, study participants demonstrated significant improvements in physical fitness, learning skills and language studies performance. Our results outline multiple benefits of implementing an organized daily physical period as part of the educational curriculum. A follow up to this preliminary study is currently underway to evaluate the effectiveness of school exercise programs on ADHD symptoms.

10.2196/14435 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e14435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Kim ◽  
Jinserk Seo ◽  
So-Yeon An ◽  
Dong Hyun Sinn ◽  
Ji Hye Hwang

Background Exercise is predicted to have a positive effect among hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, these patients are hesitant to start and build up an exercise program for one major reason: the vague fear of developing hepatic decompensation, a potentially fatal condition that can lead to death. Integrating mobile health (mHealth) with individualized exercise programs could be a possible option for promoting physical capacity among HCC patients. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of rehabilitation exercises, which have been individually prescribed via an mHealth app, on physical fitness, body composition, biochemical profile, and quality of life among HCC patients. Methods A total of 37 HCC patients were enrolled in a 12-week course with an mHealth app program targeted to HCC patients. The wearable wristband device Neofit (Partron Co) was provided to participants, and recorded daily physical data, such as the number of steps, calorie expenditure, exercise time, and heart rate. Each participant was given an individualized rehabilitation exercise program that was prescribed and adjusted at the 6-week midintervention period based on the assessment results. At baseline, 6-week, and 12-week sessions, participants’ physical fitness levels (ie, 6-minute walk test, grip strength test, and 30-second chair stand test) were measured. Physical activity levels, as measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF); body composition (ie, body mass index, body fat percentage, and muscle mass); biochemical profiles; and quality of life, as measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire C30, were assessed at baseline and at the end point. At the 6-week midpoint, exercise intensity was individually adjusted. Results Of the 37 patients, 31 (84%) completed the 12-week intervention. Grip strength improved significantly after 12 weeks of the intervention. The 30-second chair stand test and the 6-minute walk test showed significant improvement from 0 to 6 weeks, from 0 to 12 weeks, and from 6 to 12 weeks. Muscle mass and the IPAQ-SF score increased significantly after 12 weeks of the intervention without biochemical deterioration. Conclusions Following 12 weeks of mHealth care, including an individually prescribed rehabilitation exercise program, we saw significant improvements in physical fitness, body composition, and physical activity without any complication or biochemical deterioration among compensated HCC patients who had completed therapy.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Kim ◽  
Jinserk Seo ◽  
So-Yeon An ◽  
Dong Hyun Sinn ◽  
Ji Hye Hwang

BACKGROUND Exercise is predicted to have a positive effect among hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, these patients are hesitant to start and build up an exercise program for one major reason: the vague fear of developing hepatic decompensation, a potentially fatal condition that can lead to death. Integrating mobile health (mHealth) with individualized exercise programs could be a possible option for promoting physical capacity among HCC patients. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of rehabilitation exercises, which have been individually prescribed via an mHealth app, on physical fitness, body composition, biochemical profile, and quality of life among HCC patients. METHODS A total of 37 HCC patients were enrolled in a 12-week course with an mHealth app program targeted to HCC patients. The wearable wristband device Neofit (Partron Co) was provided to participants, and recorded daily physical data, such as the number of steps, calorie expenditure, exercise time, and heart rate. Each participant was given an individualized rehabilitation exercise program that was prescribed and adjusted at the 6-week midintervention period based on the assessment results. At baseline, 6-week, and 12-week sessions, participants’ physical fitness levels (ie, 6-minute walk test, grip strength test, and 30-second chair stand test) were measured. Physical activity levels, as measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF); body composition (ie, body mass index, body fat percentage, and muscle mass); biochemical profiles; and quality of life, as measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire C30, were assessed at baseline and at the end point. At the 6-week midpoint, exercise intensity was individually adjusted. RESULTS Of the 37 patients, 31 (84%) completed the 12-week intervention. Grip strength improved significantly after 12 weeks of the intervention. The 30-second chair stand test and the 6-minute walk test showed significant improvement from 0 to 6 weeks, from 0 to 12 weeks, and from 6 to 12 weeks. Muscle mass and the IPAQ-SF score increased significantly after 12 weeks of the intervention without biochemical deterioration. CONCLUSIONS Following 12 weeks of mHealth care, including an individually prescribed rehabilitation exercise program, we saw significant improvements in physical fitness, body composition, and physical activity without any complication or biochemical deterioration among compensated HCC patients who had completed therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura García-Garcés ◽  
María Inmaculada Sánchez-López ◽  
Sergio Lacamara Cano ◽  
Yago Cebolla Meliá ◽  
David Marqués-Azcona ◽  
...  

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to compare the effects of three different physical exercise programs on the symptomatology, body composition, physical activity, physical fitness, and quality of life of individuals with schizophrenia. A total of 432 patients were assessed for eligibility and 86 were randomized into the aerobic (n = 28), strength (n = 29) or mixed (n = 29) groups. Positive, negative, and general symptoms of psychosis, body mass index (BMI), physical activity (IPAQ-SF), physical fitness (6-min walk test [6MWT] and hand-grip strength [HGS]), and quality of life (WHOQUOL-BREF) were assessed at baseline, post-intervention (16 weeks), and at 10-months. Our results at 16 weeks showed significant improvements in all three groups in the negative, general, and total symptoms with moderate to large effect sizes (P < 0.01, ηp2 > 0.11), no change in the BMI, 6MWT or IPAQ-SF, and a significant improvement in the HGS test in the strength and mixed groups (P ≤ 0.05, ηp2 > 0.08). Nonetheless, all the improvements had disappeared at 10 months. We concluded that 3 weekly sessions of a moderate to vigorous progressive exercise program for 16 weeks improved the symptomatology of individuals with schizophrenia in all three groups, with no differences between them. However, the effects had declined to baseline levels by the 10-month follow-up, suggesting that exercise interventions should be maintained over time.


Retos ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 602-605
Author(s):  
Samuel Honório ◽  
Marco Batista ◽  
João Serrano ◽  
João Petrica ◽  
Helena Mesquita ◽  
...  

Abstract. Introduction: Ataxia affects the nervous system by decreasing balance and coordination most mostly in the trunk, arms and legs. Physical activity is used to help lowering the symptoms of this disease. Objective: The study objective aims to determine the effects of an exercise program intervention focused on quality of life of this person in terms of body composition, hemodynamic parameters and functional capacity. Methods: A Longitudinal study-case with the exercise sessions performed in a gymnasium with a specialized Personal Trainer. A 43 years old male individual with motor ataxia as participated with a pre and post-test assessments with an exercise program comprised sessions twice a week of 30 minutes each, for 6 months, focused on cardio-fitness, strength and body stabilization. The Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia was applied to evaluate Gait, Stance, Sitting, Finger Chase, Nose-finger Test, Fast alternating hand movements and Heel-chin slide, and the program SPSS (v20) to present descriptive statistics to express the participant’s improvements. Results: This study indicates that rehabilitation can improve health, well-being and life quality improvements in individuals with ataxia, however, a larger study is required to have analyse if these variables would suffer significant changes in all participants. Besides the improvements in body composition and blood pressure, benefits in all variables of SARA scale were observed, except in “Sitting” were the value remained unchanged. Conclusions: This type of exercise programme intervention can promote capacity and health-related quality of life. This study provides evidence for maintaining physical activity programs in patients with ataxia. Resumen. Introducción: La ataxia afecta al sistema nervioso al disminuir el equilibrio y la coordinación, sobre todo en el tronco, los brazos y las piernas. La actividad física se utiliza para ayudar a disminuir los síntomas de esta enfermedad. Objetivo: El objetivo del estudio es determinar los efectos de una intervención de un programa de ejercicio enfocado a la calidad de vida de esta persona en términos de composición corporal, parámetros hemodinámicos y capacidad funcional. Métodos: Un estudio-caso longitudinal con las sesiones de ejercicio realizadas en un gimnasio con un Personal Trainer especializado. Un varón de 43 años con ataxia motora que participó en una evaluación pre y post prueba con un programa de ejercicios compuesto por sesiones dos veces por semana de 30 minutos cada una, durante 6 meses, centradas en el cardio-fitness, la fuerza y la estabilización corporal. Se aplicó la Escala para la Valoración y Clasificación de la Ataxia para evaluar la Marcha, la Postura, la Sentada, la Persecución con los Dedos, la Prueba de los Dedos de la Nariz, los Movimientos Alternados Rápidos de la Mano y el Deslizamiento del Talón-Mentón, y el programa SPSS (v20) para presentar estadísticas descriptivas para expresar las mejoras del participante. Resultados: Esto estudio es indicativo que la rehabilitación puede mejorar la salud, el bienestar y la calidad de vida de los individuos con ataxia, sin embargo, se requiere un estudio más amplio para analizar si estas variables sufrirían cambios significativos en todos los participantes. Además de las mejoras en la composición corporal y la presión sanguínea, se observaron beneficios en todas las variables de la escala de SARA, excepto en "Sentado", donde el valor permaneció sin cambios. Conclusiones: Esta intervención realizada con estos ejercicios puede promover la capacidad y la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud. Este estudio proporciona evidencia para mantener programas de actividad física en pacientes con ataxia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Paakkonen ◽  
Joachim Ring ◽  
Jyrki Kettunen

<p align="left">Introduction: Paramedics’ work includes periods of physically light activity, but also involves short periods of relatively intense physical activity.  Even during their studies paramedic students’ days involve a lot of sitting, i.e. physically sedentary behaviour. We initiated a programme to motivate paramedic students to be physically active during their studies. In this study we report physical fitness among paramedic students who for one year participated in brief physical activity counselling consisting of both verbal and a written individually tailored exercise program</p><p align="left">Methods: A total of 40 paramedic students (26 female, 14 male) had participated voluntarily in a physical activity programme alongside their studies. Subjects’ maximal oxygen consumption and muscle strength were measured at baseline and at one-year follow-up. According to the results of the baseline tests all students were given an individual exercise programme, which included aerobic and muscle strength training.</p><p align="left">Results: Sixty-five percent (26/40) of the students participated in the follow-up examinations. At baseline male students had higher mean maximal oxygen consumption (VO<sub>2Max</sub>) and, as expected, greater absolute muscle strength than their female counterparts (all p-values &lt;0.05). During the follow-up females had improved their VO<sub>2Max</sub> on average by 2.4 ml/kg/min. Furthermore, females on average improved the number of squats  by 4.2 [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.01 to 8.33] repetitions, and males improved the number of push-ups (mean improvement 4.8, 95% CI 1.93 to 7.57), and left arm grip strength (mean improvement 4.0 kg, 95% CI 1.39 to 6.53).</p><p align="left">Conclusions: It seems to be possible to maintain, and even slightly improve paramedic students’ physical fitness with a self-directed, guided, home exercise programme. This approach could enhance prospective paramedics’ willingness to develop the necessary physical qualities long-term throughout their clinical careers. </p>


Cancer ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 123 (7) ◽  
pp. 1249-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda L. Irwin ◽  
Brenda Cartmel ◽  
Maura Harrigan ◽  
Fangyong Li ◽  
Tara Sanft ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Hauth ◽  
Barbara Gehler ◽  
Andreas Michael Nieß ◽  
Katharina Fischer ◽  
Andreas Toepell ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The positive impact that physical activity has on patients with cancer has been shown in several studies over recent years. However, supervised physical activity programs have several limitations, including costs and availability. Therefore, our study proposes a novel approach for the implementation of a patient-executed, activity tracker–guided exercise program to bridge this gap. OBJECTIVE Our trial aims to investigate the impact that an activity tracker–guided, patient-executed exercise program for patients undergoing radiotherapy has on cancer-related fatigue, health-related quality of life, and preoperative health status. METHODS Patients receiving postoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer (OnkoFit I trial) or neoadjuvant, definitive, or postoperative treatment for other types of solid tumors (OnkoFit II trial) will be randomized (1:1:1) into 3-arm studies. Target accrual is 201 patients in each trial (50 patients per year). After providing informed consent, patients will be randomized into a standard care arm (arm A) or 1 of 2 interventional arms (arms B and C). Patients in arms B and C will wear an activity tracker and record their daily step count in a diary. Patients in arm C will receive personalized weekly targets for their physical activity. No further instructions will be given to patients in arm B. The target daily step goals for patients in arm C will be adjusted weekly and will be increased by 10% of the average daily step count of the past week until they reach a maximum of 6000 steps per day. Patients in arm A will not be provided with an activity tracker. The primary end point of the OnkoFit I trial is cancer-related fatigue at 3 months after the completion of radiotherapy. This will be measured by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue questionnaire. For the OnkoFit II trial, the primary end point is the overall quality of life, which will be assessed with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General sum score at 6 months after treatment to allow for recovery after possible surgery. In parallel, blood samples from before, during, and after treatment will be collected in order to assess inflammatory markers. RESULTS Recruitment for both trials started on August 1, 2020, and to date, 49 and 12 patients have been included in the OnkoFit I and OnkoFit II trials, respectively. Both trials were approved by the institutional review board prior to their initiation. CONCLUSIONS The OnkoFit trials test an innovative, personalized approach for the implementation of an activity tracker–guided training program for patients with cancer during radiotherapy. The program requires only a limited amount of resources. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04506476; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04506476. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04517019; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04517019. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/28524


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 3826
Author(s):  
Juan Rodríguez-Mansilla ◽  
Abel Mejías-Gil ◽  
Elisa María Garrido-Ardila ◽  
María Jiménez-Palomares ◽  
Jesús Montanero-Fernández ◽  
...  

Background: The functional deficits in people with fibromyalgia can be related to the level of physical activity performed. This study investigated the effectiveness of an active exercise programme versus exercise for well-being improving pain, flexibility, static balance, perceived exertion and quality of life of women with fibromyalgia; Methods: A randomised, single-blind, controlled trial was conducted. A total of 141 of women diagnosed with fibromyalgia were enrolled and randomised to an active exercise program group (n = 47), where they performed physical active exercises, an exercise for well-being group (n = 47), which performed the Qi Gong exercises named ‘the twenty Wang Ziping figures for health and longevity’, and a control group (n = 47), which did not receive any intervention, for a period of 4 weeks. Measures were taken at baseline and after the treatment. The primary outcome measures were static balance and centre of gravity (Wii-Fit Nintendo ©), flexibility (test de Wells and Dillon), pain (Visual Analogue Scale) and quality of life (Spanish-Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire). The secondary outcome measure was the perceived exertion during activity (BORG Scale). Results: In total, 93 participants completed the study. The mean value of the age was 52.24 ± 6.19. The post intervention results showed statistically significant improvements in the exercise for well-being and the active exercise programme groups vs. the control group in relation to pain (p = 0.006 active exercise programme group, p = 0.001 exercise for well-being group), static balance (p < 0.001 active exercise programme group) and quality of life (p < 0.001 active exercise programme group, p = 0.002 exercise for well-being group). In addition, the mean scores related to perceived fatigue during the sessions were 6.30 ± 1.88 for the active exercise programme group and 5.52 ± 1.55 for the exercise for well-being group. These differences were not significant. Conclusions: The active exercise program and exercise for well-being improved flexibility, static balance, pain and quality of life of women with fibromyalgia. The participants of the active exercise programme achieved better results that those of the exercise for well-being.


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