Distinguishing factors that influence attendance and behaviour change in family-based treatment of childhood obesity: A qualitative study.

Objectives: For the effective treatment of childhood obesity, intervention attendance and behaviour change at home are both important. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore influences on attendance and behaviour change during a family-based intervention to treat childhood obesity in the North West of England (Getting Our Active Lifestyles Started (GOALS)).

Design: Focus groups with children and parents/carers as part of a broader mixed-methods evaluation.

Service evaluation of the GOALS family-based childhood obesity treatment intervention during the first 3 years of implementation.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of the GOALS (Getting Our Active Lifestyles Started) family-based childhood obesity treatment intervention during the first 3 years of implementation.

Design: Single-group repeated measures with qualitative questionnaires.

Setting: Community venues in a socioeconomically deprived, urban location in the North-West of England.

Challenges in designing, conducting, and reporting oral health behavioral intervention studies in primary school age children: methodological issues.

Often within oral health, clinical outcome measures dominate trial design rather than behavioral outcome measures, and often there is a reliance on proxy self-reporting of children's behavior with no corroboration through triangulation of measures. The complexity of the interventions involved in oral health intervention is often overlooked in trial design, and more flexible pragmatic designs that take account of the research context may be more appropriate. Some of the limitations in oral health behavioral intervention studies (trials) in primary school age children were reported in a recently published Cochrane review.

Maternally perceived barriers to and facilitators of establishing and maintaining tooth-brushing routines with infants and preschoolers.

Establishing effective toothbrushing routines using fluoridated toothpaste in infancy has been suggested as important to dental health throughout childhood and into adulthood. However, previous studies have revealed a number of potential barriers to, and facilitators of caregivers ability to establish early dyadic toothbrushing routines with pre-schoolers. However, as yet no qualitative research has been conducted to ascertain potential barriers and facilitators of the earliest dyadic toothbrushing in infancy, and nor has any previous research specifically focused on how novice mothers of first-born infants and preschoolers manage this task.

Primary school-based behavioural interventions for preventing caries.

Background: Dental caries is one of the most common global childhood diseases and is, for the most part, entirely preventable. Good oral health is dependent on the establishment of the key behaviours of toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste and controlling sugar snacking. Primary schools provide a potential setting in which these behavioural interventions can support children to develop independent and habitual healthy behaviours.

Evaluation of international case studies within 'Live.Learn.Laugh.': a unique global public-private partnership to promote oral health.

Unlabelled: The partnership between the Féderation Dentaire International (FDI), and Unilever Oral Care, aims to raise awareness of oral health globally; to enable FDI member associations to promote oral health; and to increase the visibility of the FDI and authority of Unilever oral care brands worldwide. Country Projects between National Dental Associations (NDAs), the member associations of FDI, and Unilever Oral Care local companies have been established as a key strand of the partnership.

Aim: This paper reports on the evaluation of an in-depth sample of Country Projects (n=5) to determine their potential to impact on oral health.

Analysis of a unique global public-private partnership to promote oral health.

Unlabelled: Partnerships for health promotion are between two or more partners to work co-operatively towards a set of shared health outcomes; few public-private partnerships in oral health promotion have been established.

Aim: To undertake a detailed analysis of a unique global public-private partnership to promote oral health between a global company, Unilever and the Féderation Dentaire International (FDI), a membership organisation representing more than one million dentists worldwide.

Methods: Qualitative and quantitative, including: collating and analysing a wide range of partnership documents (n =164); reviewing film and pictorial records; undertaking structured interviews (n=34) with people who had a critical role in establishing and delivering the aims of the partnership, and external experts; and site visits to selected global projects active at the time of the evaluation.

A whole family approach to childhood obesity management (GOALS): relationship between adult and child BMI change.

Background: A growing body of evidence advocates a multidisciplinary, family-focused approach to childhood obesity management, but there is a need to explore familial factors associated with intervention success.

Aim: This study explored the relationship between adult BMI change and child BMI SDS change following completion of a community-based, lifestyle change intervention for obese children and families (Getting Our Active Lifestyles Started (GOALS)).

Method: Sixty of 121 families with overweight children completed the GOALS intervention between September 2006 and March 2009.

Fitness test profiles as determined by the Eurofit Test Battery in elite female Gaelic football players.

Gaelic Football is the main sport in Ireland and has potential for use as a means of fitness in health promotion contexts. The present study entailed a cross-sectional comparison of performances in a motor test battery between elite female players and an age-matched reference group. The aim was to identify the fitness items that characterize top performers in the game.

Exercise referral: the public health panacea for physical activity promotion? A critical perspective of exercise referral schemes; their development and evaluation.

This review critically explores the development, impact and evaluation of exercise referral schemes (ERS) in the UK. A rapid expansion in the use of such ERSs has been recorded throughout leisure and primary care settings, but the evidence underpinning their implementation has been sparse and predominantly limited to randomized control trial (RCT) research design. Consequently, understanding of exercise referral as a 'real world' intervention has been limited.

Mitral annular myocardial velocity assessment of segmental left ventricular diastolic function after prolonged exercise in humans.

We assessed segmental and global left ventricular (LV) diastolic function via tissue-Doppler imaging (TDI) as well as Doppler flow variables before and after a marathon race to extend our knowledge of exercise-induced changes in cardiac function. Twenty-nine subjects (age 18-62 year) volunteered to participate and were assessed pre- and post-race. Measurements of longitudinal plane TDI myocardial diastolic velocities at five sites on the mitral annulus included peak early myocardial tissue velocity (E'), peak late (or atrial) myocardial tissue velocity (A') and the ratio E'/A'.

'Stop it, it's bad for you and me': experiences of and views on passive smoking among primary-school children in Liverpool.

This article looks at how children between the ages of 4 and 8 years report they feel when they are exposed to passive smoking and how they react in these situations. Data were collected annually from a cohort of 250 primary school children, which was tracked from their Reception Classes to Year 3 across six Liverpool schools. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed--including a survey, the Draw and Write investigative technique and semi-structured interviews.