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Background
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is frequently employed to improve the endurance of various types of athletes. To determine whether youth soccer players may benefit from the intermittent load and time efficiency of HIIT, we performed a meta-analysis of the relevant scientific literature.
Objectives
Our primary objective was to compare changes in various physiological parameters related to the performance of youth soccer players in response to running-based HIIT to the effects of other common training protocols (i.e., small-sided games, technical training and soccer-specific training, or high-volume endurance training). A secondary objective was to compare specifically running-based HIIT to a soccer-specific form of HIIT known as small-sided games (SSG) in this same respect, since this latter type of training is being discussed extensively by coaches.
Method
A systematic search of the PubMed, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science databases was performed in August of 2017 and updated during the review process in December of 2018. The criteria for inclusion of articles for analysis were as follows: (1) comparison of HIIT to SSG or some other training protocol employing a pre-post design, (2) involvement of healthy young athletes (≤ 18 years old), and (3) assessment of variables related to endurance or soccer performance. Hedges’ g effect size (dppc2) and associated 95% confidence intervals for the comparison of the responses to HIIT and other interventions were calculated.
Results
Nine studies, involving 232 young soccer players (mean age 16.2 ± 1.6 years), were examined. Endurance training in the form of HIIT or SSG produced similar positive effects on most parameters assessed, including peak oxygen uptake and maximal running performance during incremental running (expressed as Vmax or maximal aerobic speed (MAS)), shuttle runs (expressed as the distance covered or time to exhaustion), and time-trials, as well as submaximal variables such as running economy and running velocity at the lactate threshold. HIIT induced a moderate improvement in soccer-related tests involving technical exercises with the soccer ball and other game-specific parameters (i.e., total distance covered, number of sprints, and number of involvements with the ball). Neuromuscular parameters were largely unaffected by HIIT or SSG.
Conclusion
The present meta-analysis indicates that HIIT and SSG have equally beneficial impacts on variables related to the endurance and soccer-specific performance of youth soccer players, but little influence on neuromuscular performance.
Although sleep problems are common in children with ADHD, their extent, preceding risk factors, and the association between neurocognitive performance and neurobiological processes in sleep and ADHD, are still largely unknown. We examined sleep variables in school-aged children with ADHD, addressing their intra-individual variability (IIV) and considering potential precursor symptoms as well as the chronotype. Additionally, in a subgroup of our sample, we investigated associations with neurobehavioral functioning (n = 44). A total of 57 children (6–12 years) with (n = 24) and without ADHD (n = 33) were recruited in one center of the large ESCAlife study to wear actigraphs for two weeks. Actigraphy-derived dependent variables, including IIV, were analyzed using linear mixed models in order to find differences between the groups. A stepwise regression model was used to investigate neuropsychological function. Overall, children with ADHD showed longer sleep onset latency (SOL), higher IIV in SOL, more movements during sleep, lower sleep efficiency, and a slightly larger sleep deficit on school days compared with free days. No group differences were observed for chronotype or sleep onset time. Sleep problems in infancy predicted later SOL and the total number of movements during sleep in children with and without ADHD. No additional effect of sleep problems, beyond ADHD symptom severity, on neuropsychological functioning was found. This study highlights the importance of screening children with ADHD for current and early childhood sleep disturbances in order to prevent long-term sleep problems and offer individualized treatments. Future studies with larger sample sizes should examine possible biological markers to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
Aim:
The aim of the present study was to analyze the response of vascular circulating microRNAs (miRNAs; miR-16, miR-21, miR-126) and the VEGF mRNA following an acute bout of HIIT and HVT in children.
Methods:
Twelve healthy competitive young male cyclists (14.4 ± 0.8 years; 57.9 ± 9.4 ml•min−1•kg−1 peak oxygen uptake) performed one session of high intensity 4 × 4 min intervals (HIIT) at 90–95% peak power output (PPO), each interval separated by 3 min of active recovery, and one high volume session (HVT) consisting of a constant load exercise for 90 min at 60% PPO. Capillary blood from the earlobe was collected under resting conditions, during exercise (d1 = 20 min, d2 = 30 min, d3 = 60 min), and 0, 30, 60, 180 min after the exercise to determine miR-16, -21, -126, and VEGF mRNA.
Results:
HVT significantly increased miR-16 and miR-126 during and after the exercise compared to pre-values, whereas HIIT showed no significant influence on the miRNAs compared to pre-values. VEGF mRNA significantly increased during and after HIIT (d1, 30′, 60′, 180′) and HVT (d3, 0′, 60′).
Conclusion:
Results of the present investigation suggest a volume dependent exercise regulation of vascular regulating miRNAs (miR-16, miR-21, miR-126) in children. In line with previous data, our data show that acute exercise can alter circulating miRNAs profiles that might be used as novel biomarkers to monitor acute and chronic changes due to exercise in various tissues.
Background: A solid diagnosis of sleep disorders in children should include both self-ratings and parent ratings. However, there are few standardized self-assessment instruments to meet this need. The Children’s Sleep Comic is an adapted version of the unpublished German questionnaire “Freiburger Kinderschlafcomic” and provides pictures for items and responses. Because the drawings were outdated and allowed only for qualitative analysis, we revised the comic, tested its applicability in a target sample, and suggest a procedure for quantitative analysis. Methods: All items were updated and pictures were newly drawn. We used a sample of 201 children aged 5–10 years to test the applicability of the Children’s Sleep Comic in young children and to run a preliminary analysis. Results: The Children’s Sleep Comic comprises 37 items covering relevant aspects of sleep disorders in children. Application took on average 30 minutes. The procedure was well accepted by the children, as reflected by the absence of any dropouts. First comparisons with established questionnaires indicated moderate correlations. Conclusion: The Children’s Sleep Comic is appropriate for screening sleep behavior and sleep problems in children. The interactive procedure can foster a good relationship between the investigator and the child, and thus establish the basis for successful intervention if necessary.
According to the tripartite model of text representation (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983), readers form representations of the text surface and textbase, and construct a situation model. In this study, an experiment was conducted to investigate whether these levels of representation would be affected by adding illustrations to narrative text and whether the order of text and illustrations would make a difference. Students aged between 7 and 13 years (N = 146) read 12 narrative texts, 4 of them with illustrations presented before their corresponding sentences, 4 with illustrations presented after, and 4 without any illustration. A sentence recognition task was used to assess the accuracy for text surface, textbase, and situation model. For the text surface and situation model, neither the presence of illustrations nor the order of text and illustrations influenced accuracy. However, the textbase was negatively affected by illustrations when they followed their corresponding sentences. We suggest that illustrations can initiate model inspection after situation model construction (Schnotz, 2014), a process that can make substantial changes to the textbase representation.
We aimed to compare the clinical data at first presentation to inpatient treatment of children (<14 years) vs. adolescents (≥14 years) with anorexia nervosa (AN), focusing on duration of illness before hospital admission and body mass index (BMI) at admission and discharge, proven predictors of the outcomes of adolescent AN. Clinical data at first admission and at discharge in 289 inpatients with AN (children: n = 72; adolescents: n = 217) from a German multicenter, web-based registry for consecutively enrolled patients with childhood and adolescent AN were analyzed. Inclusion criteria were a maximum age of 18 years, first inpatient treatment due to AN, and a BMI <10th BMI percentile at admission. Compared to adolescents, children with AN had a shorter duration of illness before admission (median: 6.0 months vs. 8.0 months, p = 0.004) and higher BMI percentiles at admission (median: 0.7 vs. 0.2, p = 0.004) as well as at discharge (median: 19.3 vs. 15.1, p = 0.011). Thus, in our study, children with AN exhibited clinical characteristics that have been associated with better outcomes, including higher admission and discharge BMI percentile. Future studies should examine whether these factors are actually associated with positive long-term outcomes in children.
The risk of developing thyroid cancer increases considerably after exposure to external or internal radiation, especially in children below the age of 10. After the Chernobyl reactor accident, the yearly incidence of childhood thyroid cancer in Belarus increased to approximately 40 per 1.000.000 in girls and to roughly 20 per 1.000.000 in boys compared to approximately 0.5 cases per 1.000.000 prior to the accident. Typically, young children with thyroid cancer after radiation exposure present in ≈95% of the cases as papillary cancers, in ≈50% as invasive tumors growing outside the thyroid capsule, in ≈65% with lymph node metastases and in ≈15% with distant metastases. A joint Belarusian-German project starting in April 1993 that combined treatment with surgery and radioiodine was organized in 237 selected children from Belarus who were exposed to the Chernobyl fallout and had advanced stages of thyroid cancer. The study group included 141 girls and 96 boys. Their median age at the time of the accident was 1.7 years; whereas the median age at the time of diagnosis was 12.4 years. With the exception of two cases with follicular histology, the majority of the patients had been diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancers. In 63%, the tumor had grown outside the thyroid capsule and invaded the tissue of the neck (pT4). Nearly all of the selected cases (96%) showed-up with lymph node metastases (pN1) and 43% of the patients with distant metastases mainly to the lungs (pM1). In 58% of the children, complete remissions of thyroid cancer could be achieved until December 31st 2010 and in 34% of the children, stable partial remissions; in the remaining 8% of the patients, partial remissions were observed. The risk of radiation-induced thyroid cancer increased considerably in children and adolescents who were affected by the Chernobyl reactor accident. In spite of the fact, that thyroid cancers in young children seem to behave more aggressively than in older patients, the results of combined treatment with thyroidectomy, radioiodine therapy and thyroid hormone replacement are excellent.
In three studies, we investigated, if and how different modes of presentation - written, auditory, audiovisual (auditory combined with pictures) - affect comprehension of semantically identical materials. Children, beginning from the age of 7, and adults were included into the studies. A vast amount of studies have shown that pictures can facilitate text comprehension (e.g. Carney & Levin, 2002).
Other than the majority of these previous studies, we assessed text comprehension with methods that we assume to allow more differentiated insights into the cognitive processes that - according to current theories - underlie text comprehension. Text comprehension involves at least three levels of mental representations (see Kintsch, 1998). Moreover, text comprehension means constructing a locally and globally coherent mental representation of the text content.
Using a sentence recognition task (see Schmalhofer & Glavanov, 1986), we examined whether the memory of the text surface, the text base, and the situation model differs between written, auditory, and audiovisual text presentation in a sample of 103 8- and 10-year-olds and adults (Study I), and between auditory and audiovisual text presentation in a sample of 106 7-, 9-, and 11-year-olds (Study II). Furthermore, we examined with 155 9- and 11-year-olds, whether the ability to draw inferences to establish local and global coherence differs between written, auditory, and audiovisual text presentation. These inferences were indicated by reaction times to words associated with a protagonist's super- (global) or subordinate (local) goal.
Overall, the results of these three studies taken together, indicate that children up to age 11 do not only have better memory of not only the text surface, but also of the situation model when pictures are added to an auditory text. This effect became apparent in comparison with both auditory and written texts. For the adults, in contrast, we did not find an effect of the presentation mode. Furthermore, both 9- and 11-year-olds were better at establishing global coherence at audiovisual compared to auditory text presentation. Written presentation turned out to be superior to auditory presentation in terms of both local and global coherence.
In an experiment with 114 children aged 9–12 years, we compared the ability to establish local and global coherence of narrative texts between auditory and audiovisual (auditory text and pictures) presentation. The participants listened to a series of short narrative texts, in each of which a protagonist pursued a goal. Following each text, we collected the response time to a query word that was either associated with a near or a distant causal antecedent of the final sentence. Analysis of these response times indicated that audiovisual presentation has advantages over auditory presentation for accessing information relevant for establishing both local and global coherence, but there are indications that this effect may be slightly more pronounced for global coherence.
Regular physical activity during childhood and adolescence is associated with health benefits. Consequently, numerous health promotion programs for children and adolescents emphasize the enhancement of physical activity. However, the ActivityStat hypothesis states that increases in physical activity in one domain are compensated for by decreasing physical activity in another domain. Currently, little is known about how physical activity varies in children and adolescents within intervals of one day or multiple days. This systematic review provides an overview of studies that analyzed changes in (overall) physical activity, which were assessed with objective measurements, or compensatory mechanisms caused by increases or decreases in physical activity in a specific domain in children and adolescents. A systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, SportDiscus) was performed with a priori defined inclusion criteria. Two independent researchers screened the literature and identified and rated the methodological quality of the studies. A total of 77 peer-reviewed articles were included that analyzed changes in overall physical activity with multiple methodological approaches resulting in compensation or displacement. Of 40,829 participants, 16,265 indicated compensation associated with physical activity. Subgroup analyses separated by study design, participants, measurement instrument, physical activity context, and intervention duration also showed mixed results toward an indication of compensation. Quality assessment of the included studies revealed that they were of high quality (mean = 0.866). This review provides inconclusive results about compensation in relation to physical activity. A trend toward increased compensation in interventional studies and in interventions of longer duration have been observed.