Children's enjoyment of play during school lunchtime breaks : An examination of intraday and interday reliability
- Authors: Hyndman, Brendon , Telford, Amanda , Ullah, Shahid , Benson, Amanda , Finch, Caroline
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Physical Activity & Health Vol. 11, no. 1 (January 2014 2014), p. 109-117
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Enjoyment and play during school lunchtime are correlated with children's physical activity. Despite this, there is an absence of studies reporting children's enjoyment of play during school lunchtime breaks. The purpose of this study was to examine the intraday and interday reliability of children's enjoyment of school lunchtime play. Methods: Surveys used to assess children's enjoyment of lunchtime play were distributed to and completed by 197 children (112 males, 85 females), aged 8-12 years attending an elementary school in Victoria, Australia. Children completed the surveys during class before lunch (expected enjoyment) and after lunch (actual enjoyment) for 5 days. The intra- and interday enjoyment of school lunchtime play reliability were determined using a weighted kappa. Results: Intraday kappa values ranged from fair (0.31) to substantial (0.75) within each of the 5 days (median kappa = 0.41). In comparison, "expected" (0.09-0.40; median 0.30) and "actual" (0.05-0.46; median 0.28) interday enjoyment of lunchtime play displayed low reliability. Conclusions: Children's enjoyment of lunchtime play appears to be more consistent within days than across days. The findings suggest that assessment of children's enjoyment of lunchtime play once on a single day would be representative of a particular day but not necessarily that particular school week.
The Development of the Lunchtime Enjoyment of Activity and Play Questionnaire
- Authors: Hyndman, Brendon , Telford, Amanda , Finch, Caroline , Ullah, Shahid , Benson, Amanda
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of School Health Vol. 83, no. 4 (2013), p. 256-264
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Background: Enjoyment of physical activity is as an important determinant of children's participation in physical activity. Despite this, there is an absence of reliable measures for assessing children's enjoyment of play activities during school lunchtime. The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the reliability of the Lunchtime Enjoyment of Activity and Play (LEAP) Questionnaire. Methods: Questionnaire items were categorized employing a social-ecological framework including intrapersonal (20 items), interpersonal (2 items), and physical environment/policy (17 items) components to identify the broader influences on children's enjoyment. An identical questionnaire was administered on 2 occasions, 10days apart, to 176 children aged 8-12years, attending a government elementary school in regional Victoria, Australia. RESULTS: Test-retest reliability confirmed that 35 of 39 LEAP Questionnaire items had at least moderate kappa agreement ranging from .44 to .78. Although 4 individual kappa values were low, median kappa scores for each aggregated social-ecological component reached at least moderate agreement (.44-.60). Conclusions: This study confirms the LEAP Questionnaire to be a reliable, context-specific instrument with sound content, and face validity that employs a social-ecological framework to assess children's enjoyment of school play and lunchtime activities. © 2013, American School Health Association.
- Description: 2003010857
Combining epidemiology and biomechanics in sports injury prevention research : A new approach for selecting suitable controls
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Ullah, Shahid , McIntosh, Andrew
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sports Medicine Vol. 41, no. 1 (2011), p. 59-72
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Several important methodological issues need to be considered when designing sports injury case-control studies. Major design goals for case-control studies include the accounting for prior injury risk exposure, and optimal definitions of both cases and suitable controls are needed to ensure this. This article reviews methodological aspects of published sports injury case-control studies, particularly with regard to the selection of controls. It argues for a new approach towards selecting controls for case-control studies that draws on an interface between epidemiological and biomechanical concepts. A review was conducted to identify sport injury case-control studies published in the peer-review literature during 1985-2008. Overall, 32 articles were identified, of which the majority related to upper or lower extremity injuries. Matching considerations were used for control selection in 16 studies. Specific mention of application of biomechanical principles in the selection of appropriate controls was absent from all studies, including those purporting to evaluate the benefits of personal protective equipment to protect against impact injury. This is a problem because it could lead to biased conclusions, as cases and controls are not fully comparable in terms of similar biomechanical impact profiles relating to the injury incident, such as site of the impact on the body. The strength of the conclusions drawn from case-control studies, and the extent to which results can be generalized, is directly influenced by the definition and recruitment of cases and appropriate controls. Future studies should consider the interface between epidemiological and biomechanical concepts when choosing appropriate controls to ensure that proper adjustment of prior exposure to injury risk is made. To provide necessary guidance for the optimal selection of controls in case-control studies of interventions to prevent sports-related impact injury, this review outlines a new case-control selection strategy that reflects the importance of biomechanical considerations, which ensures that controls are selected based on the presence of the same global injury mechanism as the cases. To summarize, the general biomechanical principles that should apply to the selection of controls in future case-control studies are as follows: (i) each control must have been exposed to the same global injury mechanism as the case, (e.g. head impact, fall onto outstretched arm); and (ii) intrinsic (individual) factors (e.g. age, sex, skill level) that might modify the person's response to the relevant biomechanical loads are adjusted when either selecting the controls or are in the analysis phase. The same considerations for control selection apply to other study designs such as matched cohort studies or case-crossover studies. © 2011 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved.