Objective. Nutritional status is important for health and competitive achievement. This area remains understudied among elite-level female athletes and is appropriate for research. We examined nutritional status and cardiovascular health markers of two groups of female athletes of the same age and competition period, involved in weight-bearing and a non-weight-bearing sport: gymnasts (n = 17) and swimmers (n = 14); mean age 17.4 and 16.6 years. Methods. Body composition and dietary intake were assessed by bioelectrical impedance and Food Frequency Questionnaire. The concentrations of serum micronutrients (B12, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25 (OH) D), calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and iron), blood lipids, and blood pressure (BP) were measured. Setting and Participants. A cross-sectional study of 31 athletes from Slovenia. Results. Gymnasts had higher body mass index (21.5 vs. 20.1 kg/m2, p = 0.043 ) and lower fat free mass (42.4 vs. 46.6 kg, p = 0.024 ) than swimmers and comparable body fat percentage (22.5 vs. 22.8%). Both groups had low intake of carbohydrates, fibre, polyunsaturated fats, protein (only gymnasts), and micronutrients (11/13 micronutrients gymnasts and 4/13 swimmers) and high intake of free sugars and saturated fats. Both groups also had significantly lower-than-recommended serum levels of 25 (OH) D. All cardiovascular risk factors were within recommended ranges. Gymnasts had higher LDL cholesterol (2.7 vs. 2.2 mmol/L, p < 0.011 ), and swimmers had higher systolic BP (126 vs. 107 mmHg, p < 0.001 ). Conclusions. Dietary intake especially in gymnasts was suboptimal, which may reflect in anthropometric and cardiovascular marker differences between gymnasts and swimmers.
SUMMARY: 3D body scanning technology is nowadays widely available and used in various research on body morphology and anatomical structure. The present study investigated the reliability and validity of NX-16 (TC2) 3D body scanner with a method of classical anthropometry. Research was carried out on 31 participants (17 males and 14 females) with their age 22.1±4.63 years, their height 177.17±8.96 cm and their weight 72.36±13.6 kg. Left (L) -Right (R) upper arm girth, L -R elbow girth, L -R forearm girth, L -R wrist girth, L -R thigh girth, L -R knee girth and L -R calf girth were measured with a flexible and inextensible tape with a 1 mm accuracy, and with the 3D measurement technique. The results show a good agreement between both methods used with paired variables showing significant and very strong correlations with more than 90 % of shared variance; Bland-Altman plot also shows a high agreement; paired sample T-test significance was observed in most cases; no significant differences were observed in measurements of right wrist girth, left thigh girth, left knee girth and in left calf girth. NX-16 3D body scanner thus represents a valid and highly accurate tool for assessing human body dimensions. However, the 3D body scanning and classical anthropometry method cannot be regarded as interchangeable due to the different initial positions of the body in the implementation of measurement protocols. For the direct comparison of 3D scanning and the classical anthropometry method in the future, the same body starting position should be used as is held during the 3D scanning process.
The aim of our research was to analyse the reliability and validity of judging on all women's apparatuses and all sessions (qualification, all round finals and apparatus finals) at the World University Games-Universiade 2009 in Belgrade. For validity assessment, mean absolute and rank deviations of judges' execution scores were calculated. For consistency and reliability assessment, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, intra-class correlations, Armor's theta and Kendall's W coefficient were calculated. Vault and floor exercise finals were the sessions with the highest scores and the lowest score dispersion. The overall highest individual judge average absolute deviation was 0.34 point and the largest mean rank deviation was 0.88 with most values well below this. A correlation matrix for between-judge correlations identified three judges (out of 20) in the apparatus finals sessions with remarkably inferior correlations with others. Except for vault and floor finals, the results in terms of consistency (Cronbach's alpha mostly above 0.95) and reliability (Armor's theta mostly above 0.94, intra-class correlation for single and average measures above 0.87 and 0.94, respectively) were satisfactory. In conclusion, overall high values of reliability and consistency indices were found. Sessions where the variability between competitors is low (such as vault and floor finals in this competition) should be inspected with special care in future judging analyses.
ObjectivesSix-minute walk test in dialysis population hasn’t been consistently evaluated for the isolated impact of renal failure and other predictive factors. We measured six-minute walk distance in patients representative for low level of comorbidity and searched for potentially modifiable predictive factors of performance and dyspnea.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study with hemodialysis patients (N = 90) and control subjects (N = 140). Main outcome measures: six-minute walk test distance and dyspnea severity using the 10-item Borg scale.ResultsMedian distance decreased from 600m below the 6th decade to 420m in the 8th decade of age. Dialysis dependence predicted 101.5m shorter distance in the adjusted model that explained 70% of variability in results. Adjusted for significant covariates of age, height and spontaneous gait speed, fat mass (but not lean body mass) and serum total iron binding capacity were significantly associated with distance (95% CI for B coefficients -4.6 to –1.4 m/kg and 0.1 to 5 m/μmol/l, respectively). Serum total iron binding capacity as an explanatory variable was superior to C-reactive protein and albumin. Dialysis dependence, odds ratio (OR) 2.97 (1.11–7.94), spontaneous gait speed, OR 0.08 (0.02–0.41), rate-pressure product, OR 1.15 (1.08–1.23) and hemoglobin, OR 0.95 (0.92–0.98) predicted dyspnea in the adjusted model.ConclusionsRenal failure without the confounding effect of comorbidity is a significant negative predictor of performance at six-minute walk test and perceived level of dyspnea. Body fat mass and serum total iron binding capacity are the main potentially modifiable predictors of performance, total iron binding capacity being superior to C-reactive protein and albumin. Although hemoglobin is not associated with test performance, it negatively predicts perceived shortness of breath.
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