Promotion of Physical Activity by Québec Primary Care Physicians: What Has Changed in the Last Decade?

Objective: This study aimed to assess the changes in the frequency of physical activity (PA) counseling and in the predictors of primary care PA promotion in Québec primary care physicians (PCPs) between 2010 and 2020.

Methods: In 2010, we conducted a survey among Québec PCPs. Questions included: frequency of promoting PA to patients, perceived barriers, needs to improve PA promotion practice, frequency of PCPs' PA practice, and sociodemographic information.

An evaluation of the 'bottom-up' implementation of the Active at school! programme in Quebec, Canada.

The lack of physical activity (PA) amongst children is a public health concern in many industrialized countries. School-based daily physical activity (DPA) policies are a promising intervention for increasing PA levels amongst children. Informed by a logic model framework, this study examines the factors associated with meeting a 'top-down' DPA objective in the context of a 'bottom-up' implementation of a school-based DPA initiative in Quebec, Canada.

Activate Your Health: impact of a real-life programme promoting healthy lifestyle habits in Canadian workers.

The workplace has been suggested as a good setting for the promotion of healthy lifestyles. This article examines the impact of Activate Your Health programme, provided over an average of 1.35 years, on employee health and lifestyle habits (actual and intention to improve).

Do the implementation processes of a school-based daily physical activity (DPA) program vary according to the socioeconomic context of the schools? a realist evaluation of the Active at school program.

Background: Less than half of Canadian children meet the Canadian Physical Activity (PA) Guidelines, and the proportion is even lower among children living in underprivileged neighbourhoods. Regular PA supports physical, cognitive, and psychological/social health among school-aged children. Successful implementation of school-based daily physical activity (DPA) programs is therefore important for all children and crucial for children who attend schools in lower socioeconomic settings.

Improvement Predictors in a Workplace Program Promoting Healthy Lifestyle Habits.

Background: The baseline characteristics of employees to predict improvements in healthy lifestyle habits (LHs) following workplace health promotion programs are underexplored. This study sought to identify predictors of improvements in physical activity (PA), eating habits, sleep habits, and stress management, and health risk factors resulting from healthy LHs.

Methods: The Activate Your Health program included 3 packages of an increasing number of interventions: light, moderate, and high.

Barriers to cross-disciplinary knowledge flow: The case of medical education research.

Introduction: The medical education research field operates at the crossroads of two distinct academic worlds: higher education and medicine. As such, this field provides a unique opportunity to explore new forms of cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange.

Methods: Cross-disciplinary knowledge flow in medical education research was examined by looking at citation patterns in the five journals with the highest impact factor in 2017.

Health-Related and Lifestyle Factors as Predictors of Intentions to Improve Lifestyle Habits in Employees Participating in a Workplace Health Promotion Program.

Objectives: To explore employees' intentions to improve lifestyle habits, investigate the health and lifestyle-related predictors of these intentions, and how it translated into behavioral improvement.

Methods: Employees participating in the Activate Your Health WHPP completed a questionnaire of their demographics, health-related variables, as well as six lifestyle habits and intention to improve them.

Results: At baseline (n = 2729), most employees wanted to focus on physical activity and eating habits.

Socioeconomic and gender-based disparities in the motor competence of school-age children.

This study examined socioeconomic and gender-based disparities in motor competence (MC) amongst 6-12-year-old children (N = 2654). Validated product-oriented tests assessing agility, balance and coordination were used to measure MC. School-level socioeconomic status (low, middle, high) was used to assess socioeconomic disparities.

Can school-based physical activity foster social mobility?

Social mobility refers to the intergenerational transmission of socio-economic status, and therefore of health status. Hence, it is important to consider social mobility to tackle the social gradient in health in the long term. Fostering social mobility requires developing public policies that ensure equal opportunities for all children.

Interdisciplinarity in medical education research: myth and reality.

The medical education (Med Ed) research community characterises itself as drawing on the insights, methods, and knowledge from multiple disciplines and research domains (e.g. Sociology, Anthropology, Education, Humanities, Psychology).

Social return on investment (SROI) method to evaluate physical activity and sport interventions: a systematic review.

Background: Physical Activity and Sport (PAS) interventions can reduce the social and economic burden of non-communicable diseases and improve the wellbeing of the population. Social return on investment (SROI) has the capacity to measure broader socio-economic outcomes in a singular monetary ratio to help identify the most impactful and cost-beneficial intervention. This review aimed to systematically identify and review studies using the SROI method within the field of PAS and assess their quality.

Problematizing assumptions about interdisciplinary research: implications for health professions education research.

This article critically examines three assumptions underlying recent efforts to advance interdisciplinary research-defined in this article as communication and collaboration between researchers across academic disciplines (e.g. Sociology, Psychology, Biology)-and examines these assumptions' implications for health professions education research (HPER).

Activate Your Health, a 3-year, multi-site, workplace healthy lifestyle promotion program: study design.

Background: Workplace Health Promotion Programs (WHPP) have been shown to be an efficient way of improving workers' health. These programs can be incorporated in the worker's daily schedule and improve their productivity at work. Improving employees' health also benefits the employers by increasing their return on investment and lowering healthcare costs.

Examining grounded theory through the lens of rationalist epistemology.

The objective of scientific, or more broadly, academic knowledge is to provide an understanding of the social and natural world that lies beyond common sense and everyday thinking. Academics use an array of techniques, methods and conceptual apparatuses to achieve this goal. The question we explore in this essay is the following: Does the grounded theory approach, in the constructivist version developed by Kathy Charmaz, provide the necessary methodological tools for the creation of knowledge and theories beyond everyday thinking? To conduct our analysis, we have drawn on the rationalist epistemology originally developed by Gaston Bachelard and taken up a few decades later by Pierre Bourdieu and colleagues to look at the epistemological foundation of the CGT methods as defined by Charmaz.

Confined to a tokenistic status: Social scientists in leadership roles in a national health research funding agency.

The idea of interdisciplinarity has been taken up by academic and governmental organisations around the world and enacted through science policies, funding programs and higher education institutions. In Canada, interdisciplinarity led to a major transformation in health research funding. In 2000, the federal government closed the Medical Research Council (MRC) and created the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Effects of a culturally tailored physical activity promotion program on selected self-regulation skills and attitudes in adolescents of an underserved, multiethnic milieu.

Purpose: To implement a culturally tailored physical activity (PA) promotion program (FunAction) and to assess its impact on five self-regulation skills and attitudes in adolescents. Design . The design and implementation of the FunAction program were informed by social marketing principles.

How divergent conceptions among health and education stakeholders influence the dissemination of healthy schools in Quebec.

This paper focuses on dissemination of the healthy schools (HS) approach in the province of Quebec, Canada. Dissemination aims at raising awareness about HS and promoting its adhesion among actors concerned with youth health in school. As HS is a joint initiative based on agreement and collaboration between health and educational sectors, the positions of stakeholders that foster cooperation between these sectors were considered to be critical to optimize its dissemination.

Perspectives of clinician and biomedical scientists on interdisciplinary health research.

Background: Interdisciplinary health research is a priority of many funding agencies. We surveyed clinician and biomedical scientists about their views on the value and funding of interdisciplinary health research.

Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews with 31 biomedical and 30 clinician scientists.

Physical activity promotion among underserved adolescents: "make it fun, easy, and popular".

There is a paucity of studies regarding noncurricular physical activity promotion interventions among adolescents, and even less such research pertaining to underserved youth. This article describes the development and implementation of a noncurricular, school-based physical activity promotion program designed for a multiethnic, underserved population of adolescents. The program's impact on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and on physical activity enjoyment (PAE) is also presented.

Biomedical scientists' perception of the social sciences in health research.

The growing interest in interdisciplinary research within the Canadian health sciences sector has been manifested by initiatives aimed at increasing the involvement of the social sciences in this sector. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of field and Knorr-Cetina's concept of epistemic culture, this study explores the extent to which it is possible for the social sciences to integrate into, and thrive in, a field in which the experimental paradigm occupies a hegemonic position. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore biomedical scientists' receptiveness toward the social sciences in general and to qualitative research in particular.

Association between neighborhood active living potential and walking.

This paper examines the association between neighborhood active living potential and walking among middle-aged and older adults. A sample of 2,614 (61.1% women) persons aged 45 years or older and living in one of 112 census tracts in Montreal, Canada, were recruited between February and May of 2005 to participate in a 20-minute telephone survey.

Elderly women show neither a shortage of strategies nor an overreliance on drugs in handling aging and in dealing with minor health problems.

Women 65 years old and over make up the fastest growing population segment in North America. They are, particularly among the underprivileged, known to be heavy consumers of prescribed and over-the-counter drugs. The objective of this study was to identify the role of medication in underprivileged elderly women's strategies for aging well and dealing with minor health problems.

From walkability to active living potential: an "ecometric" validation study.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to establish the reliability and validity of a neighborhood-level measure of active living potential by applying principles of ecometrics.

Methods: Following a 3-day training session, observers (n =8) were provided with a map of a predetermined walking route constructed through the joining of ten randomly selected street blocks. Then, using an 18-item observation grid, pairs of observers performed ratings of 112 neighborhoods.