Active children ‘get better grades’

Source: Active children ‘get better grades’ – Health News – NHS Choices.

NHS Choices examines the science behind the newspaper headlines.

Conclusion

This systematic review of prospective studies has found evidence of an association between physical activity and academic performance through examining the results of 14 previous studies. The strength of this association was not quantified. The researchers acknowledge that the 14 studies they included were largely not of high methodological quality and had various limitations:

• The studies did not include an objective measure of how much physical activity the students did. Rather, they relied on the students to self-report activity or assessments by parents or teachers, which may not fully reflect the amount of exercise the children did.
• The included studies were very different in their design and it was not possible to perform a meta-analysiscombining their results. Instead, the researchers used an approach where they reported the number of studies that had found a positive effect of exercise and the number that had shown no effect. This approach can make the studies seem more similar than they actually are.
• It is not clear how the final conclusion – that overall there was an association between exercise and academic performance – was reached. No statistical tests to determine the strength of the association were performed and it is unclear whether the findings were down to chance. Counting the number of studies with positive findings can be problematic as ‘publication bias’ may have occurred. This means that studies with positive results are more likely to be published than studies with negative results.
• The studies did not assess several possible confounding factors. For example, both the amount of exercise a child takes and their academic performance may be affected by their socioeconomic status and upbringing.

The main conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that there has, so far, been a limited number of high quality studies that have assessed how the amount of exercise a child or adolescent takes is associated with their academic performance

Links to the headlines

Academic performance at school linked to exercise. BBC News, January 3 2012

Links to the science

Singh A, Uijtdewilligen L, Twisk JWR et al. Physical Activity and Performance at School. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2012;166(1):49-55.

Experts to consider case for new drug driving offence

Ministers are asking a panel of experts to consider the scientific case for a new criminal offence of driving a car shortly after taking an illegal drug.

via BBC News – Experts to consider case for new drug driving offence.

WCRF warns of high calories in ‘healthy snacks’

WCRF warns of high calories in ‘healthy snacks’ – Health News – NHS Choices.

NHS Choices examines the science behind the newspaper headlines.

Links to the headlines

Dieters warned to steer clear of ‘healthy’ dips and spreads that are high in calories. Daily Mail, January 3 2011

Further reading

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end heading –>World Cancer Research Fund: what is energy density?

Public ‘still facing significant social care costs’

Individuals will still face significant social care costs even if politicians reach agreement on reform, experts say.

via BBC News – Public ‘still facing significant social care costs’.

A systematic review of economic evaluations of interventions to tackle cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries

BMC Public Health | Abstract | A systematic review of economic evaluations of interventions to tackle cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries.

This article is available freely via Open Access. Please click on the above link to view it fully.

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Low- and middle-income countries are facing both a mounting burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as severe resource constraints that keep them from emulating some of the extensive strategies pursued in high-income countries. There is thus an urgency to identify and implement those interventions that help reap the biggest reductions of the CVD burden, given low resource levels. What are the interventions to combat CVDs that represent good “value for money” in low- and middle-income countries? This study reviews the evidence-base on economic evaluations of interventions located in those countries.

Methods

We conducted a systematic literature review of journal articles published until 2009, based on a comprehensive key-word based search in generic and specialized electronic databases, accompanied by manual searches of expert databases. The search strategy consisted of freetext and MeSH terms related to economic evaluation and cardiovascular disease. Two independent reviewers verified fulfillment of inclusion criteria and extracted study characteristics.

Results

Thirty-three studies met the selection criteria. We find a growing research interest, in particular in most recent years, if from a very low baseline. Most interventions fall under the category primary prevention, as opposed to case management or secondary prevention. Across the spectrum of interventions, pharmaceutical strategies have been the predominant focus, and, taken at face value, these show significant positive economic evidence, specifically when compared to the counterfactual of no interventions. Only a few studies consider nonclinical interventions, at population level. Almost half of the studies have modelled the intervention effectiveness based on existing risk-factor information and effectiveness evidence from high-income countries.

Conclusion

The cost-effectiveness evidence on CVD interventions in developing countries is growing, but remains scarce, and is biased towards pharmaceutical interventions. While the burden of cardiovascular disease is growing in these countries, future research should put greater emphasis on non-clinical interventions than has hitherto been the case. Significant differences in outcome measures and methodologies prohibit a direct ranking of the interventions by their degree of cost-effectiveness. Considerable caution should be exercised when transferring effectiveness estimates from developed countries for the purpose of modelling cost-effectiveness in developing countries. New local CVD risk factor and intervention follow-up studies are needed. Some pharmaceutical strategies appear cost-effective while clarifications are needed on the diagnostic approach in single high-risk factor vs. absolute risk targeting, the role of patient compliance, and the potential public health consequences of large-scale medicalization.