As the prevalence of health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle increases, there is a worldwide promotion of sporting activities to stimulate physical activity. Hence the number of children and adolescents participating in recreational and competitive sports is growing. As a consequence, more children will seek a pre-participation physical examination. During this evaluation, scolios...

Participation in organised activities (OAs) such as sports and special groups can shape adolescent risk taking behaviours. Sensation seeking and inhibitory control play an important role in the emergence of adolescent risk taking behaviours and may explain variations in OA participation as well as inform the development of more effective interventions that use OAs. Data from the Avon Longitudin...

OBJECTIVE To examine the associations of perceived physical environmental factors (availability of physical activity (PA) attributes at home, PA facilities in the neighbourhood, neighbourhood pleasantness and safety) and social environmental factors (parental sports behaviour and parental rule regarding sports participation) with adolescent leisure-time sports participation, and to explore whet...

INTRODUCTION Successful approaches are needed to decrease the burden of obesity on America's youth. Researchers often look to the high school interscholastic sports experience as a promising area for intervention. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in participation over the course of a 4-year educational period. METHODS Two research questions are posed in this study: (1) how does ...

PURPOSE A twin design was used to assess the relative contribution of genetic and environmental influences on the variation in sports participation of Dutch male and female twins between the ages of 13 and 20 yr. METHODS Survey data from 2628 complete twin pairs were available (443 male and 652 female monozygotic twin pairs, 377 male and 434 female dizygotic twin pairs, and 722 opposite-sex t...

BACKGROUND The Surgeon General has called for an expansion of school-based extracurricular sports programs to address the obesity epidemic. However, little is known about the availability of and participation in high school extracurricular sports and how participation in these sports is related to high-risk behaviors. METHODS We surveyed Los Angeles County public high schools in 2002 to deter...

INTRODUCTION Patellar straps or sports tapes are commonly used by athletes with patellar tendinopathy in order to reduce pain and to continue sports participation. Currently, there is no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of a patellar strap or sports tape in the management of this common injury. AIM To investigate the effect of the use of a patellar strap and sports tape on pain and s...

This study finds that participation in extracurricular activities significantly reduces engagement in risky behaviours among Australian adolescents. However, the effects differ by activity type, gender and to some extent by socio-economic status (SES). Participation in activities other than sports and arts reduces both weekly drinking and marijuana use for both genders. Participation in arts re...