BACKGROUND Physical activity levels in most affluent countries are low and many people do not meet the current recommendations. Particularly for people with a low income, economic strategies seem promising to stimulate taking part in sports activities. This study investigated the importance of economic restraints for taking part in sports activities as well as perceptions of low-income people t...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the association of physical activity facilities and extracurricular sports activities in schools with physical activity among adolescents. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We used data collected for the National Survey of School Health in 2012. The national representative sample comprised 109,104 Brazilian students from 2,842 schools. We calculated the prevalence of partici...

OBJECTIVE To examine associations among outdoor pool environments, social norms, pool policies, and participation in a sun safety program with lifeguards' sun protection habits and sunburn. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Outdoor swimming pools across the United States. PARTICIPANTS Lifeguards and aquatic instructors at pools participating in the Pool Cool skin cancer prevention pr...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the risk of drowning by different bodies of water in and near the home for children aged 1 to 4 years. SETTING The Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Mexico. METHODS A population case-control study. Cases (n=33) were children 1 to 4 years old who drowned at their home; controls (n=200) were a random sample of the general population. RESULTS The risk of drowning for c...

Several epidemiologic studies have suggested an association between childhood asthma and exposure to disinfection by-products (DBPs) in the swimming pool environment. In August 2007 a group of clinicians, epidemiologists, exposure scientists, pool operations experts, and analytical chemists met to discuss the literature on childhood asthma and swimming pools, and to develop recommendations for ...

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the energy cost of swimming, body composition, and technical parameters on swimming performance in young swimmers. Twenty-nine swimmers, 15 prepubertal (11.9 +/- 0.3 years; Tanner Stages 1-2) and 14 pubertal (14.3 +/- 1.4 years; Tanner Stages 3-4) boys participated in the study. The energy cost of swimming (Cs) and stroking parameters we...

MALCOLM X, the Kerner Commission Report, and a variety of other persons, events, and materials have made the concept of racism familiar. Social class discrimination also needs no introduction. However, we may soon have to consider very seriously a form of bigotry we now tend to overlook: age discrimination or age-ism, prejudice by one age group toward other age groups. If such bias exists, migh...

BACKGROUND No task-based fitness standard currently exists for beach lifeguards (BLGs). AIM To formulate an easily administered fitness test for BLGs based on the physical demands identified in Phase 1 of the project (previous paper). METHODS A range of anthropometric and land- and water-based (swimming pool and flume) fitness assessments were administered to 25 male and female volunteer su...

The conference this year is held at Haeundae Beach, Busan, South Korea. Haeundae Beach is a tourist resort in the south east of the Korean peninsular, and even in winter (as it is now), it is a very busy place. The conference venue is the Grand Haeundae Hotel, which has a swimming pool, bowling alley, and golf driving range inside the complex. It also had a discounted rate of about $200 a night...

About 90% of the radioactive Cs in the sediment mud of a school's swimming pool in Fukushima, Japan was removed by treatment for 3 d using the alginate immobilized photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobcater sphaeroides SSI. Even though batch treatment was carried out 3 times repeatedly, the activity of immobilized cells in removing Cs was maintained at levels of about 84% (second batch) and 78% (thir...