A quantidade e o tipo recomendados de exercícios para o desenvolvimento e a manutenção da aptidão cardiorrespiratória e muscular em adultos saudáveis

Validity and precision of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire for climacteric women using computational intelligence techniques

This study aimed to evaluate the validity and precision of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) for climacteric women using computational intelligence techniques. The instrument was applied to 873 women aged between 40 and 65 years. Considering the proposal to regroup the set of data related to the level of physical activity of climacteric women using the IPAQ, we used 2 algorithms: Kohonen and k-means, and, to evaluate the validity of these clusters, 3 indexes were used: Silhouette, PBM and Dunn. The questionnaire was tested for validity (factor analysis) and precision (Cronbach's alpha). The Random Forests technique was used to assess the importance of the variables that make up the IPAQ. To classify these variables, we used 3 algorithms: Suport Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network and Decision Tree. The results of the tests to evaluate the clusters suggested that what is recommended for IPAQ, when applied to climacteric women, is to categorize the results into two groups. The factor analysis resulted in three factors, with factor 1 being composed of variables 3 to 6; factor 2 for variables 7 and 8; and factor 3 for variables 1 and 2. Regarding the reliability estimate, the results of the standardized Cronbach's alpha test showed values between 0.63 to 0.85, being considered acceptable for the construction of the construct. In the test of importance of the variables that make up the instrument, the results showed that variables 1 and 8 presented a lesser degree of importance and by the analysis of Accuracy, Recall, Precision and area under the ROC curve, there was no variation when the results were analyzed with all IPAQ variables but variables 1 and 8. Through this analysis, we concluded that the IPAQ, short version, has adequate measurement properties for the investigated population.

Multicomponent physical activity program to prevent body changes and metabolic disturbances associated with antiretroviral therapy and improve quality of life of people living with HIV: a pragmatic trial

OBJECTIVES

Comprehensive care for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (PLH) includes the promotion of healthier habits, including physical activity (PA). This study aimed to describe a multicomponent pragmatic trial protocol to assess the effect of PA in preventing body changes and metabolic disturbances, improving the quality of life of PLH starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) and present cohort characteristics.

METHODS

PLH undergoing ART for ≤4 months were recruited for a randomized trial. The intervention comprised three cardiorespiratory and/or strength training sessions per week at the clinic or in public spaces for 6 months under on-site or remote supervision, and educational sessions. Participants' PA levels, cardiorespiratory fitness, anthropometric measures, strength, flexibility, quality of life, and laboratory monitoring (blood glucose and lipids, CD4 counts) at baseline and post-intervention will be compared. The pragmatic design aims to enable the assessment of intervention effectiveness in real-life conditions.

RESULTS

At baseline, our cohort of 38 recently diagnosed patients (mean time since HIV diagnosis and duration of ART were 3 and 2.58 months, respectively) were predominantly male, young, with high schooling and good immune status (median CD4 count=498 cells/mm3). Twenty-two (57.9%) patients reported a PA below the World Health Organization recommendations. We found baseline normal anthropometric measures and metabolic parameters: below-average trunk flexion and elbow extension strength, poor handgrip strength and flexibility, and high quality of life scores in all except the physical domain.

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding how effective PA is in preventing body changes and metabolic disturbances, and in improving the quality of PLH starting ART may help establish guidelines to better incorporate PA in HIV care.