Convergent Validation of a Self-Reported Commuting to and from School Diary in Spanish Adolescents

A network analysis of positive psychosocial factors and indication of suboptimal HIV care outcomes among Black women living with HIV

Black women living with HIV (BWLWH) face barriers that impact health outcomes. However, positive psychosocial indicators may influence HIV care outcomes. Among this cross-sectional study of 119 BWLWH, a network analysis was utilized to examine relationships between positive psychosocial factors and HIV-related health outcomes. A preliminary polychoric analysis was conducted to examine correlations between the variables, and the network analyzed connections between resilience, self-efficacy, self-esteem, perceived social support, religious coping, post-traumatic growth, and an indicator variable for suboptimal HIV care outcomes (low medication adherence, detectable viral load, and missed HIV-related health visits) and determined the centrality measures within the network. Seven significant associations were found among the factors: self-efficacy and self-esteem, post-traumatic growth and resilience, post-traumatic growth and self-efficacy, post-traumatic growth and religious coping, perceived social support and resilience, self-esteem and resilience, self-esteem and perceived social support (bootstrapped 95% CI did not contain zero). Self-efficacy was the strongest indicator associated with the other factors. Although not statistically significant, the indicator for suboptimal HIV care outcomes was negatively associated with perceived social support and religious coping. Future interventions incorporating self-efficacy may be beneficial to the overall well-being of Black women.

Systematic review of best practices for GPS data usage, processing, and linkage in health, exposure science and environmental context research

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is increasingly used in health research to capture individual mobility and contextual and environmental exposures. However, the tools, techniques and decisions for using GPS data vary from study to study, making comparisons and reproducibility challenging.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this systematic review were to (1) identify best practices for GPS data collection and processing; (2) quantify reporting of best practices in published studies; and (3) discuss examples found in reviewed manuscripts that future researchers may employ for reporting GPS data usage, processing and linkage of GPS data in health studies.

DESIGN

A systematic review.

DATA SOURCES

Electronic databases searched (24 October 2023) were PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022322166).

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Included peer-reviewed studies published in English met at least one of the criteria: (1) protocols involving GPS for exposure/context and human health research purposes and containing empirical data; (2) linkage of GPS data to other data intended for research on contextual influences on health; (3) associations between GPS-measured mobility or exposures and health; (4) derived variable methods using GPS data in health research; or (5) comparison of GPS tracking with other methods (eg, travel diary).

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

We examined 157 manuscripts for reporting of best practices including wear time, sampling frequency, data validity, noise/signal loss and data linkage to assess risk of bias.

RESULTS

We found that 6% of the studies did not disclose the GPS device model used, only 12.1% reported the per cent of GPS data lost by signal loss, only 15.7% reported the per cent of GPS data considered to be noise and only 68.2% reported the inclusion criteria for their data.

CONCLUSIONS

Our recommendations for reporting on GPS usage, processing and linkage may be transferrable to other geospatial devices, with the hope of promoting transparency and reproducibility in this research.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42022322166.

Contribution of active commuting to and from school to device-measured physical activity levels in young people: A systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the contribution of active commuting to and from school (ACS) to device-measured light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels in young people aged 6 to 18 years old, as well as, in both trip directions (i.e., home-school, school-home).

METHODS

This systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA statement, and five different databases were used for the systematic search (PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTdiscuss, Cochrane Library, and National Transportation Library) using PECO strategy.

RESULTS

A total of 14 studies met all the eligibility criteria, which compile 7127 participants. The overall ACS weighted LPA was 19.55 min (95% CI: 3.84-35.26; I2  = 99.9%, p < 0.001) and 68.74 min (95% CI: 6.09-131.39; z = 2.15, p = 0.030) during the home-school and school-home trips, respectively. For MVPA, the overall ACS weighted MVPA was 8.98 min (95% CI: 5.33-12.62; I2  = 99.95%, p < 0.001) during the home-school trip and 20.07 min (95% CI: 13.62-26.53; I2  = 99.62%, p < 0.001) during the school-home trip.

CONCLUSION

ACS may contribute about 48% of the PA recommendations in young people on school days if both trip directions are actively performed. Therefore, future studies aimed at increasing daily PA levels in young population should focus on promoting students' ACS. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020162004A.