Background This scoping review summarized research on (a) seasonal differences in physical activity and sedentary behavior, and (b) specific weather indices associated with those behaviors. Methods PubMed, CINAHL, and SPORTDiscus were searched to identify relevant studies. After identifying and screening 1459 articles, data were extracted from 110 articles with 118,189 participants from 30 countries (almost exclusively high-income countries) on five continents. Results Both physical activity volume and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were greater in summer than winter. Sedentary behavior was greater in winter than either spring or summer, and insufficient evidence existed to draw conclusions about seasonal differences in light physical activity. Physical activity volume and MVPA duration were positively associated with both the photoperiod and temperature, and negatively associated with precipitation. Sedentary behavior was negatively associated with photoperiod and positively associated with precipitation. Insufficient evidence existed to draw conclusions about light physical activity and specific weather indices. Many weather indices have been neglected in this literature (e.g., air quality, barometric pressure, cloud coverage, humidity, snow, visibility, windchill). Conclusions The natural environment can influence health by facilitating or inhibiting physical activity. Behavioral interventions should be sensitive to potential weather impacts. Extreme weather conditions brought about by climate change may compromise health-enhancing physical activity in the short term and, over longer periods of time, stimulate human migration in search of more suitable environmental niches.

Objective: To evaluate differences in how mothers and fathers perceive and respond to their adolescents' chronic pain before and after The Comfort Ability Program (CAP), a 1-day cognitive-behavioral intervention, and to compare outcomes between mother-father dyads and mothers who attended the intervention alone. Methods: Parents completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) and Helping for Health Inventory (HHI) at baseline (preintervention) and at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after intervention. Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated construct validity and invariances of the scales. Paired t tests compared scores between mothers and fathers. Unpaired t tests compared mother-father dyads (n = 33) and mothers who attended the intervention alone (n = 73). Results: PCS baseline showed significant construct instability between maternal and paternal interpretations. However, 1 week after intervention, construct stability improved between parents. On the PCS and HHI, in which lower scores represent more adaptive parenting behaviors, fathers scored significantly lower than mothers at baseline (PCS: 22.6 [7.7] vs 28.0 [11.4], p value = 0.033; HHI: 16.0 [8.1] vs 20.6 [9.6], p value = 0.029). At 3 months after intervention, PCS scores for both mothers and fathers significantly decreased from baseline (mothers: p value = 0.009; fathers: p value = 0.052) and converged (mothers: 18.6 [11.2] vs fathers: 18.3 [13.2]; p value = 0.786). Mother and father HHI scores were significantly lower at 3 months than baseline (mothers: 13.2 [9.5], p value = 0.005; fathers: 15.0 [12.7], p value = 0.017), although improvement of construct stability between parents was less evident. Conclusion: Findings suggest that mothers and fathers may differentially perceive and respond to their adolescents' pain and that CAP parent-training intervention may help align their thinking. The results further demonstrate that both parents make adaptive changes after intervention, reinforcing the value of including both parents in pediatric treatment for chronic pain.

Objective: Designed to measure a diversity of executive functioning (EF) through classical neuropsychological tests, the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function Scale (D-KEFS) allows for the investigation of the neural architecture of EF. We examined how the D-KEFS Tower, Verbal Fluency, Design Fluency, Color–Word Interference, and Trail Making Test tasks related to frontal lobe volumes, quantifying the regional specificity of EF components. Method: Adults from the Nathan Kline Institute–Rockland Sample (NKI-RS), an open-access community study of brain development, with complete MRI (3T scanner) and D-KEFS data were selected for analysis (N = 478; ages 20–85). In a mixed-effects model predicting volume, D-KEFS task, D-KEFS score, region of interest (ROI; 13 frontal, 1 occipital control), were entered as fixed effects with intercepts for participants as random effects. Results: “Unitary” EF (aggregate of D-KEFS scores) was positively associated with superior frontal, rostral middle frontal, and lateral orbitofrontal volumes; a negative association was observed with frontal pole volume (| z-score slope | range = 0.040 to 0.051). “Diverse” EF skills (individual D-KEFS task scores) were differentially associated with two or three ROIs, respectively, but to a stronger extent (| z-score slope | range = 0.053 to 0.103). Conclusions: The neural correlates found for the D-KEFS support the prefrontal modularity of both unitary (aspects of EF ability common to all tasks) and diverse EF. Our findings contribute to emerging evidence that aggregate measurements of EF may serve broader but less robust frontal neural correlates than distinct EF skills.

Introduction: Text-message interventions with universal decision rules (treatment algorithms) demonstrate modest and inconsistent effects on physical activity. Efforts to increase effect sizes by targeting, tailoring or generically customizing content have largely been unsuccessful. In this study, system identification methods from control systems engineering were applied to develop person-specific dynamical models of individual responses to motivational text messages. Methods: Emerging adults not meeting aerobic physical activity guidelines (verified by accelerometer during a 1-week run-in period) received 0-6 messages/day while wearing a Fitbit Versa watch for 3 months. Experimental messages targeted cognitive or affective determinants of physical activity (move more) or sedentary behavior (sit less); comparator messages were inspirational quotes. For each participant, two dynamical models were estimated using difference equations: one to model the effects of move more and sit less messages and the other to model the effects of affectively- and cognitively-targeted messages. Both models included comparator messages. Effects represent the expected change in behavior immediately after message receipt (vs expected behavior without a message). Model order was determined individually to balance uncertainty and overfitting (range = 2-9). Results: The sample (n = 20) was mostly female (60%), White (65%), and not Hispanic or Latino (95%) with a mean age of 24.4 years (SD = 3.3; range = 19-29). Idiographic patterns of behavior change were readily observed from the personalized dynamical models. Most participants’ step counts increased after messages to move more (60% of participants’ responses exceeded the 95% error interval [responders], M = 94.3 steps; 83% of responders increased steps) and sit less (50% responders, M = 114.6 steps; 90% of responders increased steps), as well as control messages (75% responders, M = 59.5 steps; 60% of responders increased steps). Step counts also increased after messages targeting cognitive determinants (80% responders, M = 97.1 steps; 75% of responders increased steps) and affective determinants (75% responders, M = 52.9 steps, 67% of responders increased steps), as well as control messages (75% responders, M = 57.8 steps; 60% of responders increased steps). Conclusions: Motivational text messages can alter physical activity dynamics, and responses to different message types are highly personalized. Among responders, most message types increased expected step counts but some messages were iatrogenic and decreased expected step counts. Computational models of those dynamics provide a foundation for personalizing decision rules to select the type and time the delivery of messages to promote physical activity and improve cardiovascular health.