Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Self Reported Aggravating Activities Of Chronic Non Specific Low Back Pain Patients Do Not Demonstrate A Consistent Directional Pattern: An Observational Study, Benedict M. Wand, Rebecca Hunter, Neil E. O'Connell, Louise Marston, James Mcauley

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Question: Do the self-reported aggravating activities of chronic non-specific low back pain patients demonstrate a consistent directional pattern?

Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Participants: 240 chronic non specific low back pain patients.

Outcome measure: We invited experienced clinicians to classify each of the three self-nominated aggravating activities from the Patient Specific Functional Scale by the direction of lumbar spine movement. Patients were described as demonstrating a directional pattern if all nominated activities moved the spine into the same direction. Analyses were undertaken to determine if the proportion of patients demonstrating a directional pattern was greater than would be expected by chance. …

Adolescent Dietary Patterns Are Associated With Lifestyle Family Psycho-Social Factors, Gina L. Ambrosini, Wendy H. Oddy, Monique Robinson, Therese A. O'Sullivan, Beth P. Hands, Nick H. De Klerk, Sven Silburn, Stephen R. Zubrick, Garth E. Kendall, Fiona Stanley, Lawrence Beilin

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Background/ Objectives: Dietary intake during adolescence contributes to lifelong eating habits and the development of early risk factors for disease in adulthood. Few studies have examined the dietary patterns of adolescents and the social and environmental factors that may affect them during this life stage. The present study describes dietary patterns in a cohort of adolescents and examines their associations with socioeconomic factors, as well as parental and adolescent risk factor behaviours.

Design: A semi quantitative FFQ was used to assess study adolescents’ usual dietary intake over the previous year. Information was collected on family functioning and various socio economic …

Intra-Individual Variation In Children's Physical Activity Patterns: Implications For Measurement, Kate Ridley, Tim Olds, Beth P. Hands, Dawne Larkin, Helen Parker

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Children's physical activity (PA) patterns change form day to day. This intra-individual variability affects precision when measuring key physical activity and sedentary behavior variables. This paper discusses strategies to reduce the random error associated with intra-individual variability and demonstrates the implications for assessing PA when varying number of days are sampled. Self-reported data collected on two hundred and ninety eight 13- to 14-year-olds were used to compare estimates of PA and sedentary behaviour derived from between 1 and 7 days of recall data. Large intra-individual coefficients of variation were calculated for physical activity level (14.5%), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (83.4%), screen …

Predicting Outcome In Acute Low Back Pain Using Different Models Of Patient Profiling, Benedict M. Wand, James H. Mcauley, Louise Marston, Lorraine H. De Souza

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Study Design: Prospective observational study of prognostic indicators, utilising data from a randomised, controlled trial of physiotherapy care of acute low back pain (ALBP) with follow up at 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months.

Objective: To evaluate which patient profile offers the most useful guide to long-term outcome in ALBP.

Summary of Background Data: The evidence used to inform prognostic decision-making is derived largely from studies where baseline data is used to predict future status. Clinicians often see patients on multiple occasions so may profile patients in a variety of ways. It is worth considering if better prognostic decisions …

Fitness, Motor Competence And Body Composition Are Weakly Associated With Adolescent Back Pain, Mark Perry, Leon Straker, Peter O'Sullivan, Anne Smith, Beth P. Hands

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Study Design: Cross sectional

Objectives: To assess the associations between adolescent back pain and fitness, motor competence and body composition.

Background: Although deficits in physical fitness and motor control have been shown to relate to adult back pain, the evidence in adolescents is less clear.

Methods and measures: In this cross-sectional study, 1608 "Raine" cohort adolescents (mean age, 14 years) answered questions on lifetime, month and chronic prevalence of back pain, and participated in a range of physical tests assessing aerobic capacity, muscle performance, flexibility, motor competence, and body composition. A history of diagnosed back pain in the adolescent was …

Perinatal Risk Factors For Developmental Coordination Disorder, Beth P. Hands, Garth Kendall, Dawne Larkin, Elizabeth Rose, Helen Parker

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

The aetiology of mild motor disability (MMD) is a complex issue and as yet is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of perinatal risk factors in a cohort of 10-year-old boys and girls with (n = 362) and without (n = 1193) MMD. Among the males with MMD there was a higher prevalence of postpartum haemorrhage, caesarean section, low birth weight and stressful first year of life. Among the females with MMD, there was a higher prevalence of essential hypertension, anaemia, and threatened pre-term. Multivariable logistic regression revealed gender (male), anaemia, threatened pre-term birth …

Self-Renewal Of The Long-Term Reconstituting Subset Of Hematopoietic Stem Cells Is Regulated By Ikaros, Peter Papathanasiou, Joanne L. Attema, Holger Karsunky, Naoki Hosen, Yovina Sontani, Gerard F. Hoyne, Robert Tunningly, Stephen T. Smale, Irving L. Weissman

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are rare, ancestral cells that underlie the development, homeostasis, aging, and regeneration of the blood. Here we show that the chromatin-associated protein Ikaros is a crucial self-renewal regulator of the long-term (LT) reconstituting subset of HSCs. Ikaros, and associated family member proteins, are highly expressed in self-renewing populations of stem cells. Ikaros point mutant mice initially develop LT-HSCs with the surface phenotype cKit+Thy1.1(lo)Lin(-/lo)Sca1+Flk2-CD150+ during fetal ontogeny but are unable to maintain this pool, rapidly losing it within two days of embryonic development. A synchronous loss of megakaryocyte/erythrocyte progenitors results, along with a fatal, fetal anemia. At …

Evidence For The Validity Of The Children’S Attraction To Physical Activity Questionnaire (Capa) With Young Children, Elizabeth Rose, Dawne Larkin, Beth P. Hands, Barbara Howard, Helen Parker

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

Attraction to physical activity is important to an individual’s intrinsic motivation to engage in play, games and sports. While there are instruments designed to measure attraction to physical activity in middle childhood years, the lack of authentic measures in young children has impeded research in this area.

In this study we sought to address the validity of a scale to tap young children’s attraction to physical activity. Evidence for validity was based on internal consistency, content analysis, and factor structure.

Australian school children (180 boys and 154 girls) from school year two, aged six to eight years, were individually administered …

C-Rel Is Required For The Development Of Thymic Foxp3 Cd4 Regulatory T Cells, Iwao Isomura, Stephanie Palmer, Raelene J. Grumont, Karen Bunting, Gerard F. Hoyne, Nancy Wilkinson, Ashish Banerjee, Anna Proietto, Raffi Gugasyan, Li Wu, Alice Mcnally, Raymond J. Steptoe, Ranjeny Thomas, M Frances Shannon, Steve Gerondakis

Health Sciences Papers and Journal Articles

During thymopoiesis, a unique program of gene expression promotes the development of CD4 regulatory T (T reg) cells. Although Foxp³ maintains a pattern of gene expression necessary for T reg cell function, other transcription factors are emerging as important determinants of T reg cell development. We show that the NF-κB transcription factor c-Rel is highly expressed in thymic T reg cells and that in c-rel^−/− mice, thymic T reg cell numbers are markedly reduced as a result of a T cell–intrinsic defect that is manifest during thymocyte development. Although c-Rel is not essential for TGF-β conversion of peripheral …