Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have mental health implications for both people with neurocognitive disorder and their caregivers. Objective: The study aimed to shed light on relations between caregiver mental reaction to the pandemic and caregiver distress related to neuropsychiatric symptoms, memory impairment progression, and functional impairment of people with neurocognitive disorder during the period of confinement in Greece. Methods: The study included caregivers of patients with mild (N = 13) and major (N = 54) neurocognitive disorder. The caregiver-based telephone interview was based on items of the neuropsychiatric inventory questionnaire, the AD8 Dementia Screening Instrument, and the Bristol Activities of Daily Living Scale. Regarding the mental impact of the COVID-19 crisis on caregivers, four single questions referring to their worries in the last seven days were posed, in addition to the scales Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item (GAD-7) and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R). A stepwise linear regression model was employed for studying the relationship between caregiver distress and demographic and clinical data and caregiver mental reaction to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Results: Caregiver distress severity during the confinement period was influenced not only by memory deficits (p = 0.009) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (p <  0.001) of patients, but also by caregiver hyperarousal (p = 0.003) and avoidance symptoms (p = 0.033) and worries directly linked to the COVID-19 crisis (p = 0.022). Conclusion: These observations provide further evidence for the urgent need for support of caregivers of patients with neurocognitive disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Active living offers a substantial contribution to the mental and physical health of individuals, as well as to community wellbeing and social cohesion. Outdoor and green environments offer additional benefits and determine people’s involvement in physical exercise. Environmental policies put in place by local governments affect citizens’ adoption of active living and physical exercise. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between citizens’ levels of exercise participation in urban open spaces and the provision of exercise-friendly policies by the local authorities. Three hundred and seventy citizens participated in the present study who took part in walking, bicycling, or jogging/ running during their leisure time in urban open spaces and outdoors. Research participants completed the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ; Shephard, 1997) and Environmentally Friendly Exercise Policy Questionnaire (Kontogianni, 2015), which consisted of three scales: “policy to enhance exercise,” “environmentally friendly exercise facilities,” and “intention to change personal habits.” Participants were divided into three different subgroups according to their time exercise scores: high, middle, and low. The results showed the statistically significant differences between time exercise scores and environmentally friendly exercise policy scales. Citizens with higher exercise time participation expressed significantly higher levels on the environmentally friendly exercise policy scales. Citizens’ physical exercise time in urban open spaces and outdoors seemed to affect the creation of corresponding preferences, beliefs, and intentions towards environmentally friendly policies. City leaders, essential decision-makers, and stakeholders are expected to provide an enabling environment, legitimacy, and leadership that fosters the development and implementation of policies that support physical activity and green active living within urban spaces.

Present study tested the validity of involvement scale (Kyle et al., 2004)

The present study examined the accuracy of self-reported weight, height and the consequent BMI, among people who exercised in Greekˆtness centers. One hundred and ten individuals (88 males and 22 females) aged 19 to 61 years old voluntarily participated in the study. Weight and height were self-reported without knowledge that these variables would be subsequently measured. Comparison between self-reported and measured data showed that participants tended to under-report their weight, over-report their height resulting in signiˆcant BMI bias. Despite however the signiˆcant results, calculation of the eŠect sizes showed that these diŠerences (0.58 kg for weight, 0.86 cm for height and 0.44 points of BMI) were in fact trivial (Cohen's d ranged from .04 to .13). It was concluded that self-reported weight and height from individuals involving in physical exercise can be trusted to reliably estimate BMI.