Schools are ideal settings for the promotion of physical activity and exercise among children and adolescents, and physical education (PE) is the primary vehicle to achieve these objectives.¹ Numerous studies^2,3 on moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in school PE lessons have found that the proportion of PE lesson time during which children and adolescents are engaged in MVPA is typically less than 50% of the target set by international recommendations.

Background: Sarcopenia in older adults is strongly associated with an increase in dependency in activities of daily living (ADL) and with a decline in gait speed. Interestingly, gait speed has been shown to independently predict mortality. In this context, our study aimed to explore the mediator role of gait speed on the relationship between sarcopenia and dependency in ADL.Methods: A cross‐sectional study was conducted in Colombia, 19 705 older adults with a mean age of 70 years, 55.6% women, 16.1% with sarcopenia, and 14.7% mild, moderate, or severe dependency in ADL, according to ‘SABE Survey 2015’. Sarcopenia was assessed by calf circumference and ADL dependence through the Barthel Index. Gait speed was measured over a distance of 3 m. The association between sarcopenia condition and gait speed and dependency level was analysed by linear regression adjusted by covariates. To examine whether gait speed mediated the association between sarcopenia and dependence components of physical function, simple mediation models were generated using ordinary least squares with the macro PROCESS version 3.2, adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI).Results: Significant differences (P < 0.05) were found in gait speed and dependency in ADL between the sarcopenia and non‐sarcopenia groups after adjusting for age, sex, and BMI. BMI was significantly higher in the non‐sarcopenia group whereas dependency was significantly higher in the sarcopenia group (19.6% vs. 13.8%). Results from mediation model regression analysis indicated a significant and direct detrimental effect of sarcopenia on dependency in ADL (β = −0.05; P < 0.001), and a significant indirect effect of gait speed on the direct effect (−0.009 to −0.004).Conclusions: The negative effect of sarcopenia on functional dependence was mediated by the gait speed. Therefore, gait speed may positively influence the detrimental effect of sarcopenia for dependency, after adjusting for age, gender, and BMI. Consequently, physical exercise should be promoted and focused to circumvent the gait speed decline associated with age in older people with sarcopenia.

Purpose EQ-5D-Y is a generic measure of health status for children and adolescents aged 8–15 years. Originally, it has three levels of severity in each dimension (3L). This study aimed to develop a descriptive system of EQ-5D-Y with an increased number of severity levels and to test comprehensibility and feasibility. Methods The study was conducted in Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK. In Phase 1, a review of existing instruments and focus group interviews were carried out to create a pool of possible labels for a modified severity classification. Participants aged 8–15 rated the severity of the identified labels in individual sorting and response scaling interviews. In Phase 2, preliminary 4L and 5L versions were constructed for further testing in cognitive interviews with healthy participants aged 8–15 years and children receiving treatment for a health condition. Results In Phase 1, a total of 233 labels was generated, ranging from 37 (UK) to 79 labels (Germany). Out of these, 7 to 16 possible labels for each dimension in the different languages were rated in 255 sorting and response scaling interviews. Labels covered an appropriate range of severity on the health continuum in all countries. In Phase 2, the 5L version was generally preferred (by 68–88% of the participants per country) over the 4L version. Conclusions This multinational study has provided a version of the EQ-5D-Y with 5 severity levels in each dimension. This extended version (EQ-5D-Y-5L) requires testing its psychometric properties and its performance compared to that of the original EQ-5D-Y-3L.

This study evaluated the predictive ability of 11 obesity- and lipid-related parameters, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WtHR), body roundness index (BRI), “A” body-shape index (ABSI), conicity index (C), visceral adiposity index (VAI), triglyceride-to-glucose fasting index (TyG), triglyceride-to-glucose fasting related to BMI (TyG-BMI), triglyceride-to-glucose fasting related to WC (TyG-WC), and triglyceride-to-glucose fasting related to WtHR (TyG-WtHR), to identify patients from an elderly Colombian population with a high risk of prediabetes according to the 2016 American Diabetes Association criteria. The data were obtained from the 2015 Colombian Health and Wellbeing and Aging Survey. A total of 3307 elderly Colombian individuals (aged over 60 years) were included. Anthropometric data, fasting plasma glucose, blood lipid profiles, family history, and health-related behaviors were assessed, and prediabetes was defined as a fasting plasma glucose of 100 to 125 mg/dL. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUCs) were calculated for each anthropometric indicator, using the prediabetes classification to identify their sensitivity and specificity, and these indicated that the prevalence of prediabetes was 25.3% in this population. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the TyG index was strongly associated with the odds of having prediabetes in both sexes, and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the ORs for prediabetes increased across quartiles (p < 0.001). The TyG index was best able to identify prediabetes in either sex (AUC and optimal cut-off = 0.700 and 8.72, and 0.695 and 8.92 for men and women, respectively), suggesting that compared to the other parameters, the TyG index has the best discriminative power to predict prediabetes in the whole population. Thus, we propose the TyG index be used as a complementary marker for assessing prediabetes in older adults.

Background: The short physical performance battery (SPPB) is a physical performance test of lower extremity function designed for non-disabled older adults. We aimed to establish reference values for community-dwelling Colombian adults aged 60 years or older in terms of (1) the total score; (2) the three subtest scores (walking speed, standing balance performance, and five times sit-to-stand test); and (3) the time to complete the five times sit-to-stand test, s and the walking speed test. Additionally, we sought to explore how much of the variance in the SPPB subtest scores could be explained by anthropometric variables (age, body mass, height, body mass index, and calf circumference). Methods: Participants were men and women aged 60 years or older who participated in the Health and Well-being and Aging Survey in Colombia, 2015. A sample of 4,211 participants (57.3% women) completed the SPPB test, and their anthropometric variables were evaluated. Age-specific percentiles were calculated using the LMS method (3rd, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 97th percentiles). Results: The mean SPPB total score for the entire sample was 8.73 (2.0) points. On average, the total SPPB score was 0.85 points greater in men than in women (p < 0.001). Significant sex differences were observed in all three age groups tested (60–69, 70–79, and 80+ years). In the full sample, our findings suggested that age, body mass, height, body mass index, and calf circumference are significant contributors to walking speed (p < 0.001) after controlling for confounding factors, including ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity. Conclusions: Percentile values are of interest to identify target populations for primary prevention and to estimate the proportion of high or low values for SPPB measures in community-dwelling Colombians aged at least 60 years.