Publications by authors named "Arunas Emeljanovas"

Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted to assess physical fitness trends among Lithuanian adolescents from 1992 to 2022, including data from nearly 18,000 individuals aged 11-17.
  • Significant declines were observed in various fitness tests like the 20-m shuttle run and bent arm hang, while some improvements were noted in balance and short shuttle run performance.
  • The results highlight a worrying trend of decreased health-related fitness, especially among low performers, indicating a need for national health promotion policies to address these issues.
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Introduction: Teaching is a profession that involves challenges to emotional health. Teachers experience high levels of work-related stress, which causes symptoms such as anxiety, depression and burnout. Teachers' mental health affects not only their own well-being, but also the quality of education and student achievement.

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Despite the recognized benefits of physical activity (PA) for children and adolescents with disabilities (CAWD), collective information on this is lacking in Lithuania. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current "state of the nation" PA levels of CAWD, based on the 10 indicators from the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance Global Matrix 4.0 methodology.

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Background/objective: The holistic concept of physical literacy (PL) embraces different person-centered qualities (physical, cognitive, affective/psychological) necessary to lead physically active lifestyles. PL has recently gained increasing attention globally and Europe is no exception. However, scientific endeavors summarizing the current state of PL in Europe are lacking.

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Objectives: (1) To develop reference values for health-related fitness in European children and adolescents aged 6-18 years that are the foundation for the web-based, open-access and multilanguage fitness platform (FitBack); (2) to provide comparisons across European countries.

Methods: This study builds on a previous large fitness reference study in European youth by (1) widening the age demographic, (2) identifying the most recent and representative country-level data and (3) including national data from existing fitness surveillance and monitoring systems. We used the Assessing Levels of PHysical Activity and fitness at population level (ALPHA) test battery as it comprises tests with the highest test-retest reliability, criterion/construct validity and health-related predictive validity: the 20 m shuttle run (cardiorespiratory fitness); handgrip strength and standing long jump (muscular strength); and body height, body mass, body mass index and waist circumference (anthropometry).

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Studies have revealed the links between social capital and diet. However, the mediating role of psychological distress in this relationship has been understudied. This study aims to identify direct and indirect relationships between social capital and adherence to the Mediterranean diet among Lithuanian young adults and identify the mediating role of psychological distress in this relationship.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Global Matrix 4.0 provides an extensive overview of physical activity levels among children and adolescents aged 5-17 worldwide, highlighting the disparities and influences affecting their activity
  • The study involved 57 teams grading 10 physical activity indicators, revealing that overall physical activity received a low average grade of D, while school and community environments scored higher at C+
  • The report emphasizes the urgent need for international strategies and policies to address the concerning levels of physical inactivity, especially in light of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues.
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Maintaining healthy behavior, especially in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, is particularly important for staying healthy. Nutrition is an everyday behavior and along with other health-related behaviors is associated with many health outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess and compare adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) and particular food choices among the Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean populations of university students and identify its lifestyle correlates at the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Recent research highlights the impact of prolonged pandemics and lockdown on the mental health of youngsters. The second wave of COVID-19 brought an increase in mental health problems among young people. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the main factors arising from intra-individual, inter-individual, and environmental contexts that predict good psychological well-being in a group of adolescents after a second prolonged period of social restrictions and distance education.

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Given the low levels of physical activity (PA) in adolescence, there are challenges to increasing students' PA outside of the school setting. Thus, researchers emphasize the supportive role that physical education (PE) teachers can play in PA motivation both in and out of school. The aim of the present study was to examine an expanded trans-contextual model (TCM) model for the transit of teachers' perceived support of students' autonomy in terms of contextual and situational motivation in PE to objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in PE across different PE contents as well as to the motivational sequence for, and participation in, subjective MVPA during leisure time.

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Background: Across countries, young people are not sufficiently physically active. The evidence confirms that beyond demographic and individual agents, individuals participate within their social and physical environment. The ecological model enables a search for the modifiable factors in specific populations, as it allows consideration of factors affecting individuals' lives on different levels, as well as considering the interplay of those factors.

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A poor diet leads to serious health risks and accounts for a significant proportion of deaths. Young adults are the population whose health behaviors particularly need to be studied in terms of nutrition because they are in a period of life when the effects of nutrition accumulate to health outcomes that usually appear later in life in forms of disease or infirmity. The aim of this study is to examine the dietary pattern and its relationships with physical activity and covariates, such as body mass index, gender, age and education among Lithuanian young adults of 18-36 years old.

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Background: The enjoyment represents children as crucial factor to maintain positive engagement in physical activity. Unfortunately, enjoyment decreases with age and undergoes the physical perceived competence that, in turn, is affected by the anthropometric characteristics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the enjoyment during physical education lessons, even though the anthropometric characteristics affects the performance and in consequence the self-perceived physical competence.

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Classroom-based physical activity (PA) interventions have received considerable attention due to improvements seen in academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and attitude toward PA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing children's attitudes toward PA. Students ( = 3036) aged 8-11 years from schools in Croatia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Turkey were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group.

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The decline in healthy behavior in young people is a concern for public health in general and for country's defense. The aim of this study is to identify and compare health behaviors and psychological distress between male conscripts enlisted and rejected for military service. This cross-sectional study included 1243 men aged 19-26 years (mean age 22.

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The Global Matrix 3.0 "Report Card" assessment of physical activity was developed to achieve a better understanding of the global variability in child and youth physical activity. Lithuania joined the Global Matrix 3.

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Emeljanovas, A, Mieziene, B, Cesnaitiene, VJ, Fjortoft, I, and Kjønniksen, L. Physical fitness and anthropometric values among Lithuanian primary school children: population-based cross-sectional study. J Strength Cond Res 34(2): 414-421, 2020-The purpose of the current study was to derive representative reference scores on anthropometric measures and test scores for the musculoskeletal, motor, and cardiorespiratory fitness of Lithuanian primary school children according to age and sex.

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This study aimed to investigate the relationship between health education and motives and barriers for university students' engagement in leisure-time physical activity (PA). The research sample included 709 students (312 females and 397 males) in different years of study, ranging in age between 18-25 years. A questionnaire survey method revealed a significant positive relationship between fitness and health motives and students' leisure-time PA.

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Unlabelled: The general aim of the present study was to examine how physical activity, participation in sports, and beliefs about personal physical activity and physical fitness are associated with adolescents' psychosomatic health complaints (PHC) in relation to their lifestyles.

Methods: A total of 3284 11-19-year-old adolescents (average age 14.9 ± 2.

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The eating habits of adolescents are a serious current public health problem. Scientists call attention to the availability of social resources for enhancing healthy eating behavior. Social capital defines those resources as trust, reciprocity, social participation, integrity, and coherence, and they are supposed to help people achieve their life goals, in general, and health goals, in particular.

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This study evaluated how aerobic capacity is related to performance in other aspects of health-related physical fitness among schoolchildren. The study involved >15,200 schoolchildren of both genders aged 11-18 years, who were tested with a reliable tests from Eurofit battery for most important aspects of exercise capacity and anthropometrics from 1992 to 2012. The analysis showed that aerobic capacity was weakly but significantly positively related to all other aspects of exercise abilities tested in all age groups for both genders.

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Background: To better understand the childhood physical inactivity crisis, Report Cards on physical activity of children and youth were prepared concurrently in 30 very high Human Development Index countries. The aim of this article was to present, describe, and compare the findings from these Report Cards.

Methods: The Report Cards were developed using a harmonized process for data gathering, assessing, and assigning grades to 10 common physical activity indicators.

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Background: Accumulating sufficient moderate to vigorous physical activity is recognized as a key determinant of physical, physiological, developmental, mental, cognitive, and social health among children and youth (aged 5-17 y). The Global Matrix 3.0 of Report Card grades on physical activity was developed to achieve a better understanding of the global variation in child and youth physical activity and associated supports.

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Background And Objective: Population levels of physical activity are an international concern. The purpose of the present study was to describe and analyse physical activity levels in Lithuanian adolescents.

Materials And Methods: With this aim in mind, the Physician-based Assessment and Counselling for Exercise (PACE) questionnaire was administered to 5141 adolescents residing in Lithuania, 2502 boys (48.

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