Agreement and consistency of five different clinical gait analysis systems in the assessment of spatiotemporal gait parameters.

Background: Measuring gait function has become an essential tool in the assessment of mobility in aging populations for both, clinicians and researchers. A variety of systems exist that assess gait parameters such as gait cycle time, gait speed or duration of relative gait phases. Due to different measurement principles such as inertial or pressure sensors, accurate detection of spatiotemporal events may vary between systems.

Investigating Users' and Other Stakeholders' Needs in the Development of a Personalized Integrated Care Platform (PROCare4Life) for Older People with Dementia or Parkinson Disease: Protocol for a Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Dementias-including Alzheimer disease-and Parkinson disease profoundly impact the quality of life of older population members and their families. PROCare4Life (Personalized Integrated Care Promoting Quality of Life for Older Adults) is a European project that recognizes the benefit of technology-based integrated care models in improving the care coordination and the quality of life of these target groups. This project proposes an integrated, scalable, and interactive care platform targeting older people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases, their caregivers, and socio-health professionals.

A Narrative Review of Motor Competence in Children and Adolescents: What We Know and What We Need to Find Out.

Lack of physical activity is a global public health problem causing not only morbidity and premature mortality, but it is also a major economic burden worldwide. One of the cornerstones of a physically active lifestyle is Motor Competence (MC). MC is a complex biocultural attribute and therefore, its study requires a multi-sectoral, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary approach.

Oxynet: A collective intelligence that detects ventilatory thresholds in cardiopulmonary exercise tests.

The problem of the automatic determination of the first and second ventilatory thresholds (VT1 and VT2) from cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) still leads to controversy. The reliability of the gold standard methodology (i.e.

The Effect of Exercise During Pregnancy on Maternal and Offspring Vascular Outcomes: a Pilot Study.

The aim of this pilot study is to obtain estimates for the change in maternal cerebrovascular (primary) and offspring vascular structure (secondary) during healthy pregnancy that includes structured exercise. Eighteen pregnant women self-assigned to a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention or a control group. Maternal cerebral blood flow (CBF) at the middle cerebral artery, cerebro- and peripheral-vascular function was assessed at the end of each trimester.

The Implication of Wearables and the Factors Affecting Their Usage among Recreationally Active People.

Regular physical activity (PA) is associated with health and well-being. Recent findings show that PA tracking using technological devices can enhance PA behavior. Consumer devices can track many different parameters affecting PA (e.

Neurophysiological correlates of age differences in driving behavior during concurrent subtask performance.

Driving is a complex cognitive-motor task that requires the continuous integration of multisensory information, cognitive processes, and motor actions. With higher age, driving becomes increasingly challenging as a result of naturally declining neurophysiological resources. Performing additional subtasks, such as conversations with passengers or interactions with in-vehicle devices (e.

Shedding Light on the Effects of Moderate Acute Exercise on Working Memory Performance in Healthy Older Adults: An fNIRS Study.

Numerous studies have reported the beneficial effects of acute exercise on executive functions. Less is known, however, about the effects of exercise on working memory as one subcomponent of executive functions and about its effects on older adults. We investigated the effects of acute moderate-intensity exercise on working memory performance, the respective cortical hemodynamic activation patterns, and the development and persistence of such effects in healthy older adults.

Psychological consequences of COVID-19 home confinement: The ECLB-COVID19 multicenter study.

Background: Public health recommendations and government measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have enforced restrictions on daily-living. While these measures are imperative to abate the spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey (ECLB-COVID19) was launched on April 6, 2020 in seven languages to elucidate the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Examining the equivalence between imagery and execution within the spatial domain - Does motor imagery account for signal-dependent noise?

Motor imagery is suggested to be functionally equivalent to physical execution as they each utilise a common neural representation. The present study examined whether motor imagery correspondingly reflects the spatial characteristics of physically executed movements, including the signal-dependent noise that typically manifests in more variable end locations (as indicated by effective target width; W). Participants executed or imagined a single, upper-limb target-directed aim in the horizontal medio-lateral direction.

The Effect of Fixture Congestion on Performance During Professional Male Soccer Match-Play: A Systematic Critical Review with Meta-Analysis.

Background: Fixture congestion (defined as a minimum of two successive bouts of match-play, with an inter-match recovery period of < 96 h) is a frequent and contemporary issue in professional soccer due to increased commercialisation of the sport and a rise in the number of domestic and international cup competitions. To date, there is no published systematic review or meta-analysis on the impact of fixture congestion on performance during soccer match play.

Objective: We sought to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature related to the effects of fixture congestion on physical, technical, and tactical performance in professional soccer match-play.

Physical activity and health promotion for nursing staff in elderly care: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Nursing staff is burdened by high workload and stress. Furthermore, heavy lifting, as well as transferring nursing home residents, cause lumbar tissue damage and back pain. Exercise intervention studies to reduce work-related problems are rare and the evidence for efficacy of studies among nurses is limited.

Staying Physically Active During the Quarantine and Self-Isolation Period for Controlling and Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Overview of the Literature.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented worldwide public health concern. Characterized by rapid and high frequency human-to-human transmission, the World Health Organization has recommended implementation of public health measures, including isolation of all suspected infectious individuals for a 14-day quarantine period, while governments have introduced "social distancing" and "lock-downs" of varying severity to curtail COVID-19 spread. Recent COVID-19 research further suggests there are major sleep problems and psychological disorders (e.

A little damping goes a long way: a simulation study of how damping influences task-level stability in running.

It is currently unclear if damping plays a functional role in legged locomotion, and simple models often do not include damping terms. We present a new model with a damping term that is isolated from other parameters: that is, the damping term can be adjusted without retuning other model parameters for nominal motion. We systematically compare how increased damping affects stability in the face of unexpected ground-height perturbations.

Practical Recommendations for Maintaining Active Lifestyle during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review.

Diminished volumes of habitual physical activity and increased sedentary levels have been observed as a result of COVID-19 home-confinement. Consequences of inactivity, including a higher mortality rate and poorer general health and fitness, have been reported. This systematic review aimed to provide practical recommendations for maintaining active lifestyles during pandemics.

COVID-19 Home Confinement Negatively Impacts Social Participation and Life Satisfaction: A Worldwide Multicenter Study.

Unlabelled: Public health recommendations and governmental measures during the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living including social distancing, isolation, and home confinement. While these measures are imperative to mitigate spreading of COVID-19, the impact of these restrictions on psychosocial health is undefined. Therefore, an international online survey was launched in April 2020 to elucidate the behavioral and lifestyle consequences of COVID-19 restrictions.

Ischemic preconditioning prevents impact of prolonged sitting on glucose tolerance and markers of cardiovascular health but not cerebrovascular responses.

Prolonged, uninterrupted sitting is demonstrated to acutely impair glucose homeostasis, but it also leads to detrimental cardiovascular health effects. We examined whether ischemic preconditioning (IPC) prevents the impact of prolonged sitting-induced glucose intolerance and measured related influencing factors such as (para)sympathetic nerve activity [assessed by heart rate variability (HRV)] and blood pressure during 2 h of prolonged sitting. In this randomized, controlled crossover study, 15 healthy participants (80% men) with a mean age of 21 ± 1 yr (means ± SD) and body mass index of 25.

Equity impacts of interventions to increase physical activity among older adults: a quantitative health impact assessment.

Background: Behavioural interventions may increase social inequalities in health. This study aimed to project the equity impact of physical activity interventions that have differential effectiveness across education groups on the long-term health inequalities by education and gender among older adults in Germany.

Methods: We created six intervention scenarios targeting the elderly population: Scenarios #1-#4 applied realistic intervention effects that varied by education (low, medium high).

Neither Cathodal nor Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex alone or Applied During Moderate Aerobic Exercise Modulates Executive Function.

There is converging evidence that both aerobic exercise (AE) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can acutely modulate executive functions (EF). In addition, recent studies have proposed the beneficial effects of applying tDCS during AE on physical performance. This study aimed to investigate whether tDCS applied during an AE session additionally or differently effects EF.

Regular participation in leisure time activities and high cardiovascular fitness improve motor sequence learning in older adults.

Introduction: Older adults show higher interindividual performance variability during the learning of new motor sequences than younger adults. It is largely unknown what factors contribute to this variability. This study aimed to, first, characterize age differences in motor sequence learning and, second, examine influencing factors for interindividual performance differences.

Can cognitive-motor training improve physical functioning and psychosocial wellbeing in nursing home residents? A randomized controlled feasibility study as part of the PROCARE project.

Background: A multi-component training program holds promises for the elderly, but still has to be tested on its feasibility and effect in nursing homes.

Aims: The aim of this study was (1) to design a multi-component training program which improves physical functioning and psychosocial wellbeing and (2) to evaluate the feasibility of this intervention in nursing home residents.

Methods: This study is a two-arm, stratified-randomized controlled feasibility trail.