The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted sport and events greatly with a shutdown of leagues and the postponement of events like the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. However, new media technologies, such as social media platforms, have provided an avenue for sport organisations and athletes to continue to engage with their consumers and promote physical activity during the absence of live sport. New media technologies allow organisations and individuals to share user-generated content and facilitate interactivity. This commentary intends to stimulate discussion, interest and research on whether social media could be used as a platform to inspire physical activity and sport participation and what strategies may be successful in engaging with consumers. Olympic sport and the campaigns National Olympic Committees have engaged in during lockdown are the focus of this piece. It is hoped that this piece provides a starting point for future research focusing on the adoption of new media technologies, like social media, to engage with and inspire people to become more active and involved in sport.

Numerous studies have focused on athletes’ use of social media by examining the content posted on social media sites, revealing an opportunity to gather firsthand experiences from athletes. Using uses-and-gratifications theory as a theoretical framework to inform an open-ended questionnaire, the authors examined athlete attitudes toward their social media use during a major sport event, as well as the gratifications they received and the challenges they experienced from this use. The study assessed a sample of 57 athletes and their social media use across 20 international major sport events. Findings revealed that social media enabled athletes to communicate with family and friends. Having a connection to home through social media can make athletes feel relaxed in a high-pressure environment. The results reveal uses and gratifications not previously found in research on athlete social media, while also underscoring opportunities for sport organizations to enhance social-media-education programs they provide to athletes.

IMPORTANCE Guidelines recommend that women 75 years and older be informed of the benefits and harms of mammography before screening.OBJECTIVE To test the effects of receipt of a paper-based mammography screening decision aid (DA) for women 75 years and older on their screening decisions. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSA cluster randomized clinical trial with clinician as the unit of randomization. All analyses were completed on an intent-to-treat basis. The setting was 11 primary care practices in Massachusetts or North Carolina. Of 1247 eligible women reached, 546 aged 75 to 89 years without breast cancer or dementia who had a mammogram within 24 months but not within 6 months and saw 1 of 137 clinicians (herein referred to as PCPs) from November 3, 2014, to January 26, 2017, participated. A research assistant (RA) administered a previsit questionnaire on each participant's health, breast cancer risk factors, sociodemographic characteristics, and screening intentions. After the visit, the RA administered a postvisit questionnaire on screening intentions and knowledge.INTERVENTIONS Receipt of the DA (DA arm) or a home safety (HS) pamphlet (control arm) before a PCP visit.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Participants were followed up for 18 months for receipt of mammography screening (primary outcome). To examine the effects of the DA, marginal logistic regression models were fit using generalized estimating equations to allow for clustering by PCP. Adjusted probabilities and risk differences were estimated to account for clustering by PCP. RESULTSOf 546 women in the study, 283 (51.8%) received the DA. Patients in each arm were well matched; their mean (SD) age was 79.8 (3.7) years, 428 (78.4%) were non-Hispanic white, 321 (of 543 [59.1%]) had completed college, and 192 (35.2%) had less than a 10-year life expectancy. After 18 months, 9.1% (95% CI, 1.2%-16.9%) fewer women in the DA arm than in the control arm had undergone mammography screening (51.3% vs 60.4%; adjusted risk ratio, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.75-0.95; P = .006). Women in the DA arm were more likely than those in the control arm to rate their screening intentions lower from previsit to postvisit (69 of 283 [adjusted %, 24.5%] vs 47 of 263 [adjusted %, 15.3%]), to be more knowledgeable about the benefits and harms of screening (86 [adjusted %, 25.5%] vs 32 [adjusted %, 11.7%]), and to have a documented discussion about mammography with their PCP (146 [adjusted %, 47.4%] vs 111 [adjusted %, 38.9%]). Almost all women in the DA arm (94.9%) would recommend the DA. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCEProviding women 75 years and older with a mammography screening DA before a PCP visit helps them make more informed screening decisions and leads to fewer women choosing to be screened, suggesting that the DA may help reduce overscreening.

For African Americans facing advanced cancer, churches are trusted sources of support and ideal settings to improve access to supportive care. The Support Team model enhances community support for practical, emotional, and spiritual caregiving. We report on focus groups with pastors of 23 Black Churches and explore their perspective on the Support Team model for church members with cancer. Pastors describe the needs of church members facing cancer from a holistic perspective and recognize opportunities for synergistic faith-health collaboration. The results of this study indicate potential benefits of the Support Team model in Black Churches to reduce silent suffering among individuals facing cancer.

Social media present athletes with a number of benefits and challenges. As a result, various sport stakeholders have debated appropriate social media use among athletes at major sport events, with some suggesting that using these platforms can have negative consequences. The purpose of this research was to examine the elements of social media that athletes perceive to be distracting during major sport events and the practices they undertake to address such distractions. Interviews with Australian elite athletes (N = 15) were conducted and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal several elements associated with distraction, including positive and unwanted messages, branding pressures, and competitor content. Athletes reported two key practices that assisted in overcoming distractions, including switching off and handing over the control of their social media accounts. The findings extend distraction-conflict theory to athlete social media research, while presenting a preliminary conceptual model to assist researchers in further understanding the potential impact of social media distractions on athletes. Opportunities for sport practitioners to develop or implement social media education programs are described.

Peer support interventions extend care and health information to underserved populations yet rarely address serious illness. Investigators from a well-defined academic–community partnership developed and evaluated a peer support intervention for African Americans facing advanced cancer. Evaluation methods used the Reach, Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Investigators initially recruited and trained 24 lay health advisors who shared information or support with 210 individuals. However, lay advisors reported barriers of medical privacy and lack of confidence working alone with people with cancer. Training was modified to match the support team model for peer support; training reached 193 volunteers, 104 of whom formed support teams for 47 persons with serious illness. Support teams were adopted by 23 community organizations, including 11 African American churches. Volunteers in teams felt prepared to implement many aspects of supportive care such as practical support (32%) or help with cancer or palliative care resources (43%). People with serious illness requested help with practical, emotional, spiritual, and quality of life needs; however, they rarely wanted advocacy (3%) or cancer or palliative care resources (5%) from support teams. Volunteers had difficulty limiting outreach to people with advanced cancer due to medical privacy concerns and awareness that others could benefit. Support teams are a promising model of peer support for African Americans facing advanced cancer and serious illness, with reach, adoption, and implementation superior to the lay advisor model. This formative initial evaluation provides evidence for feasibility and acceptance. Further research should examine the efficacy and potential for maintenance of this intervention.

BACKGROUND: We previously developed a pamphlet decision aid (DA) on mammography screening for women ≥ 75 years. However, implementing DAs in primary care may be challenging and may require support from nonphysician healthcare team members. OBJECTIVE: To learn from primary care administrators, nurses, and staff their thoughts on how best to implement a mammography DA for women ≥ 75 years in practice. DESIGN: Qualitative study entailing in-person individual interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two non-physician healthcare team members (69.6% of those approached) participated from 8 different primary care practices (community and academic) in the Boston area or in Chapel Hill, NC. APPROACH: Participants were asked to provide feedback on the DA, their thoughts on ways to make the DA available to older women, and factors that would make it easier and/or harder to implement. KEY RESULTS: Participants felt the DA was clear, balanced, and understandable, but felt that it needed to be shorter for women with low health literacy. Most participants felt that as long as use of the DA was approved and supported by clinicians that women ≥ 75 years should receive the DA before a visit from staff (usually medical assistants) so that patients could ask their clinicians questions during the visit. Facilitators of DA use included its perceived helpfulness with decision-making, its format, and that existing systems (panel management, electronic medical record alerts) could be accessed to get the DA to patients especially at Medicare Annual Wellness visits. Participants perceived a need for training, albeit minimal, to provide the DA to patients. Barriers of DA use included competing demands on clinician and staff time. CONCLUSIONS: Participants felt that as long as use of the mammography DA for women ≥ 75 years was supported by clinicians, it would be feasible to implement with minimal refinements to existing healthcare system processes.

Background Community-based peer support may help meet practical, emotional and spiritual needs of African Americans with advanced cancer. Support teams are a unique model of peer support for persons facing serious illness, but research is rare. This study sought to 1) implement new volunteer support teams for African Americans with advanced cancer in two distinct regions, and 2) evaluate support teams’ ability to improve support, awareness of services, and quality of life for these patients. Methods The study used a pre-post design. Community and academic partners collaborated to implement volunteer support teams, and evaluate the intervention using pre-post surveys of volunteers and patients. Patients who declined support teams were also interviewed as a comparison group. Results Investigators enrolled and trained 130 volunteers who formed 25 support teams in two geographic regions. Volunteers supported 25 African American patients with advanced cancer (72%) or other diseases. After 2 months, patients with support teams reported fewer needs for practical, emotional and spiritual support on a structured checklist. They more often communicated with someone about their cancer care needs (48% vs. 75%, p=0.04), and were more aware of Hospice (4% vs 25%, p=0.04), but quality of life scores were unchanged. Comparison patients who refused a support team had fewer support needs at baseline and follow-up, suggesting refusals were based on lack of need. Conclusion Coordinated volunteer support teams are a promising new model to provide peer support for African Americans facing cancer and other serious illnesses. Further testing in a pragmatic clinical trial is warranted.