Instituto Superior da Maia

Background Physical functioning refers to the ability to perform daily living activities, namely basic activities, instrumental, and advanced activities. Poorer performance in these areas may indicate the potential presence of sarcopenia. Objectives To analyze the differences in physical function between older people with and without sarcopenia and to investigate the associations between physical function tests and sarcopenia. Methods A cross-sectional study based on data from older people from the Northern region of Brazil in the year 2018 was conducted. Study participants included 312 older people aged ≥ 60 years (64.1% female). Sarcopenia was defined using the updated criteria of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP2). Physical functioning was measured using functional physical fitness tests (30-second chair stand test, chair sit-and-reach test, 8-foot Up-and-Go Test, 6-minute walk test, 4-meter gait speed, and the Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale). Results Confirmed sarcopenia was detected in 29.2% of participants, but no participant had severe sarcopenia. Most physical function parameters in the crude analysis were associated with confirmed sarcopenia (all p < 0.05), except for the back scratch test. In a model adjusted for sex, age and body mass index, slower 4-meter gait speed (OR = 1.29, 95%CI = 1.08 to 1.54), slower 8-foot up-and-go test time (OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.16 to 1.49), greater chair sit-and-reach test (OR = 0.97, 95%CI = 0.94 to 0.99) and higher self-reported Composite Physical Function scores (OR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.89 to 0.99) were significantly associated with confirmed sarcopenia status. Conclusions EWGSOP2 confirmed sarcopenia is prevalent in older people residing in Brazil’s Northern region and is independently associated with slower walking speed and chair rising ability, reduced trunk and lower-limb flexibility, as well as poorer self-reported physical function.

Physical activity (PA) and exercise are fundamental to optimising and maintaining health. The evidence on the benefits of PA and exercise in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is well-established. Yet patients remain inactive, partly driven by a lack of knowledge and confidence from the healthcare providers (HCPs) involved in their management. A potential key element in improving PA in CKD includes better provisions around education, tools, and training resources amongst nephrology healthcare providers on PA recommendations, counselling, prescription, and referral to appropriate professionals for assessment, implementation, and monitoring. Much like other pharmacological therapies, an effective prescription should be prescribed at the correct dose, strength, and frequency to the individual, titrated (and progressed) to optimize adherence and safety, and reviewed regularly to ensure maximum effectiveness. Aside from a formal prescription of exercise, many people would benefit from modest improvements in daily PA, and an emphasis on reducing sedentary behaviour is likely to confer beneficial effects on outcomes. The purpose of this article is to outline the key components of successful PA and exercise prescriptions, including understanding the barriers and facilitators individuals may have, taking a PA history, and how to tailor exercise ‘dose’ to each patient with the ultimate goal of increasing accessibility of PA for all people living with CKD. To do this, we will use worked examples to demonstrate what an exercise prescription may consist of across each of the major CKD stages.

Background The Rating-of-Fatigue (ROF) scale is a validated tool to measure changes in perceived fatigue in sports and everyday contexts; thus, this study aimed to translate and validate the Portuguese version of the ROF scale. For this, the study was composed of three phases. Phase 1 involved a comprehensive translation of the ROF scale into Portuguese, followed by a back-translation and a consolidation process to obtain the final version of the ROF scale in Portuguese. In phase 2, the face validity of the scale was assessed. Seventy-three native Portuguese speakers responded to a series of Likert scale items designed to evaluate the purpose of the scale and assess whether it accurately measured the intended construct. In the final phase, the convergent and divergent validity of the scale was assessed during an incremental cycling test to exhaustion, followed by 10 min of passive recovery and a subsequent repetition of the initial 5 min of the test. The study was conducted between October 2023 and June 2024 in Portugal. Results The results from phase 1 indicated a high level of comparability and interpretability between the original and back-translated versions, with only minor adjustments made to finalize the Portuguese version of the ROF scale. In phase 2, a high level of face validity was observed. The median score for the item “measures fatigue” was (median [IQR]) was 3.0 [3.0, 4.0] out of 4. After participants were provided with the scale instructions, the face validity score improved significantly (4.0 [3.0, 4.0]; p = 0.001). In phase 3, during the incremental test, very large correlations were observed between ROF, and key physiological and performance indicators, including rating of perceived exertion (RPE), heart rate, oxygen consumption, and power output. Discriminant validity between ROF and RPE was found during the recovery. Conclusions The present study indicates that the Portuguese version of the ROF maintains the properties of the original version and can be used effectively in the Portuguese language.

According to Arnett’s theory, emerging adulthood is a distinct developmental period. As Havighurst’s developmental theory suggests, specific tasks are assigned to different human life stages. The purpose of this study is to discover the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood. A sample of 129 students from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Spain, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Poland, and the USA, submitted reflective essays detailing their personal perceptions and the meaning of adulthood. Employing both directed and inductive analytical approaches, the study uncovered new developmental tasks such as social solidarity and openness to diversity, lifelong learning, development of thinking and knowledge, and building mental resilience. According to Havighurst, tasks were as follows: socially responsible behavior, emotional independence, getting started in an occupation, and managing a home. Comparative analysis revealed a predominance of tasks characteristic of adolescence compared to those indicative of adulthood and emerging adulthood.

This investigation observed the repeated effect of using social media on smartphones immediately before training sessions on attack efficiency (AE) and repeat‐vertical jumping ability (RVJA) in young volleyball athletes. A crossover study involved 14 volleyball athletes (17.57 ± 0.65 years of age). For three weeks, the athletes participated in their training routines under two experimental conditions: using social media (SMA) and watching documentaries (DOC), both for 30 min before the training sessions. Before and after the three weeks, the athletes had their AE and RVJA evaluated. The AE test consisted of performing 6 attacks, with the total score obtained by adding the product of the score and the speed of each attempt. RVJA was assessed using the intermittent vertical jump test of four sets of 15 s (IJT60), with the average heights of the best series of 15 s (Hpeak) and the total time (Hmean) used for analysis. The visual analog scale revealed an increase in subjective mental fatigue for both conditions (p < 0.05), with SMA having higher levels compared to DOC (p = 0.02). There were improvements in AE for DOC compared to SMA (p = 0.03). No differences were found between the experimental conditions for Hpeak and Hmean. The results demonstrated that using social media on smartphones immediately before training sessions caused mental fatigue and impaired AE in young volleyball athletes.

Different long-term exposure to match-play might have implications for maintaining the collective fitness levels within a football team. However, there is a lack of clarity regarding the accumulation of training and match load in football between players regularly exposed to match-play (e.g., starters) and less exposed (e.g., nonstarters, substitutes, non-selected). This study systematically reviewed the subsequent training/match load according to the different playing times of football players. Following the PRISMA guidelines on three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science), observational studies performing a formal comparison in training and/or match load between players exposed to different playing times were screened (Prospero registration: CRD42023473037). Twenty-two studies including 484 adult males, 79 adult females and 95 youth males, reported from a minimum of 18 training sessions to a full season. The average methodological quality of the studies was moderate (74.9%). Players were mostly classified by the exposure time to the latest match among other criteria. Still, different cut-off values were adopted within the same criteria. Football players accumulated greater overall (match + training) volume and high-intensity running activities and physiological responses when exposed to greater playing time. However, a similar practice training volume, high-intensity activities, and physiological responses observed between players potentially suggests the reliance on top-up running conditioning strategies for substituted/unselected players adopted to compensate for the lower match load, albeit insufficient to compensate for the match load.

Obstetric violence (OV) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that arises from the medicalisation of childbirth and the systematic devaluation of women’s bodies during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. Recognised as a violation of sexual and reproductive rights, OV reflects historically constructed power relations and highlights the need for public authorities to provide guarantees. In Portugal, OV has historical roots and continues to be an obstacle to the realisation of constitutional principles such as human dignity. Based in an intersectional feminist epistemology and the social constructionist approach, this study was conducted using an exploratory qualitative approach. Ten r7495/2006 acialised Brazilian women were interviewed to examine their experiences of OV during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period in the Portuguese NHS, through the lens of reproductive and sexual rights. The interviews revealed dehumanising and discriminatory treatment, highlighting the lack of respect for these women’s autonomy, dignity, and rights. These experiences of OV during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period affected the participants, leading to trauma and significant negative impacts on their mental, sexual, and reproductive health. This research on OV is crucial to advancing global reproductive justice, as it challenges structural inequalities and places racialised Brazilian women at the heart of the struggle for universal human rights and equality in sexual and reproductive healthcare.

This study analyzed associations between physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviors (SB), sleep, and mental health indicators in young adults during the COVID-19 lockdown (15 January–19 April 2021). The participants were 549 Portuguese university students (18–30 years, 57.7% male). Mental health was assessed using the DASS-21 for depression, anxiety, stress, and DASS-21 total score (DASSt). Physical activity (vigorous, moderate, walking) was measured with the IPAQ, while SB (e.g., sitting, screen time) and sleep were evaluated using self-reported measures and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Multiple linear regressions showed that sleep quality (β = 2.116), sitting time (ST; β = 0.451), vigorous PA (VPA; β = −0.005), and computer use for work/study (β = 0.444) were significantly associated with overall mental health, DASSt (R² = 0.358). Sleep quality, sitting, and VPA were also linked to depression (R² = 0.308), anxiety (R² = 0.275), and stress (R² = 0.338). Computer use for work/study was additionally associated with anxiety and stress. Overall, poor sleep quality, increased sitting, and computer use for work/study, alongside lower VPA, showed significant associations with poorer mental health outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of sleep, PA, and limiting sedentary behaviors, particularly during lockdowns, in mitigating mental health issues among Portuguese young adults.

Although the importance of integrating digital technologies in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is growing rapidly, empirical research related to knowledge spillovers (KS), organizational resilience, innovation orientation, and digital capabilities still remains scarce. This research proposes a framework in which we verify the moderating effect of digital capabilities on the relationship between KS, organizational resilience, and innovation orientation. Another aim of this research is to study the effect of KS and organizational resilience on innovation orientation by conducting a quantitative study utilizing data from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey, collected at three separate times. Drawing from a sample of 2291 MSMEs in the service sector across 15 EU countries, the partial least squares structural equation modeling was the method used to evaluate our proposed conceptual model and examine the hypothesized relationships. The findings reveal that KSs have a positive effect on innovation orientation by leveraging digital capabilities. In addition, the empirical evidence demonstrates that both KS and organizational resilience have a positive impact on innovation orientation. This research also makes several theoretical and practical contributions.

In the context of training load monitoring, the most demanding periods of play (MDPs) have increasingly caught the interest of researchers. However, the MDPs analysis is currently embryonic, raising some conceptual and methodological questions. This current opinion synthesizes the methods used for the MDPs analysis while highlighting conceptual and methodological gaps and proposing a broader perspective on the topic. It is underlined that (a) the information available on the MDPs is mostly limited to external load (particularly running-based metrics), with scarce research focused on internal load; (b) the metrics have been analyzed in a univariate way, neglecting the multivariate scenarios from which the MDPs emerge; (c) the MDPs are highly variable over time due to the complex interaction between individual, tactical–technical, and contextual factors; and (d) scarce evidence is available regarding the contextualization of the MDPs from a tactical–technical perspective. Thus, the MDPs would benefit from cross-referencing external load with game moments and tactical actions while avoiding the idea of fixed benchmarks given the inherent match-to-match variability. Practitioners may consider replicating the MDPs (and their contexts) in (some?) training sessions as a complementary prescription strategy (metaphorically, the cherry on top, not the cake). However, the feasibility and effectiveness of such practices warrant investigation.

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the mediating effects of coping styles on the relationship between satisfaction with social support (SSS) and quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer patients. Methods: A cross-sectional structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to examine the mediating effects. The participants were 311 women who were breast cancer patients, aged between 27 and 86 years (M = 46.61, SD = 9.53). Results: SEM analyses showed that SSS was positively associated with fighting spirit (β = 0.31, p < 0.05), cognitive avoidance (β = 0.19, p > 0.05), and QoL (β = 0.21, p < 0.05), and negatively associated with helplessness–hopelessness (β = −0.28, p < 0.05). Furthermore, fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness showed significant relationships with QoL. Anxious preoccupation was negatively related to QoL. Furthermore, fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness showed significant relationships with quality of life (β = 0.18, p < 0.05; β = −0.15, p < 0.05, respectively). In addition, the mediation analysis revealed that coping styles (i.e., fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness) mediated the relationship between SSS and QoL. Conclusions: The findings suggest that perceptions of SSS from family and friends may promote perceived QoL via adaptive coping, such as fighting spirit and helplessness–hopelessness strategies to deal with the cancer experience.

Background/Objectives: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic condition marked by hyperglycemia, which can affect metabolic, vascular, and hematological parameters. A low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet has been shown to improve glycemic control and blood pressure regulation. Exercise in hypoxia (EH) enhances insulin sensitivity, erythropoiesis, and angiogenesis. The combination of LCHF and EH may offer a promising strategy for managing T2DM and hypertension (HTN), although evidence remains limited. This study aimed to assess the effects of an eight-week normobaric EH intervention at 3000 m simulated altitude combined with an LCHF diet on hematological and lipid profiles, inflammation, and blood pressure in older patients with T2DM and HTN. Methods: Forty-two diabetic patients with HTN were randomly assigned to three groups: (1) control group (control diet + exercise in normoxia), (2) EH group (control diet + EH), and (3) intervention group (EH+LCHF) Baseline and eight-week measurements included systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure (SBP, DBP, MAP), hematological and lipid profiles, and inflammation biomarkers. Results: Blood pressure decreased after the intervention (p < 0.001), with no significant differences between groups (SBP: p = 0.151; DBP: p = 0.124; MAP: p = 0.18). No differences were observed in lipid profile or C-reactive protein levels (p > 0.05). Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) increased in the EH group (p = 0.027), while it decreased in the EH+LCHF group (p = 0.046). Conclusions: Adding hypoxia or restricting carbohydrates did not provide additional benefits on blood pressure in T2DM patients with HTN. Further elucidation of the mechanisms underlying hematological adaptations is imperative. Trial registration number: NCT05094505.

Purpose To compare the external loads of a professional women’s soccer team and its reserve team during a 5-week pre-season period. Methods Thirty-two players from two different categories within the same professional female soccer club: professional team (PRO; n = 19; age: 22.7 ± 3.9 yrs.; height: 169.4 ± 5.8 cm; weight: 64.2 ± 6.0 kg) and reserve team (RES; n = 13; age: 18.4 ± 1.6 yrs.; height: 164.3 ± 6.2 cm; weight: 58.6 ± 4.6 kg) participated. External loads were monitored using global positioning system devices. Results Throughout the pre-season weeks, PRO team’s external loads were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those observed in RES team, with moderate to very large differences between both teams, except for distances and actions at very high intensities (> 28 km.h), which were similar. This resulted in higher accumulated distances (p < 0.05) covered at different intensities by the PRO, compared to the RES team, at the end of the pre-season period. Conclusions Despite both teams following a similar load management strategy, with an increase up until the fourth week followed by a tapering week, absolute values were substantially different between the teams. Current results indicate that RES team players were most likely underexposed and, thus, transitions to a higher team would need to be managed carefully.

Objectives: Violence in intimate relationships (IPV) is understood as one of the most common forms of violence, being maintained by cultural habits and customs, and legitimized from generation to generation. This study aims at a comprehensive review of the literature on IPV, the relationship between the stages of change, maintenance factors, and the decision to keep or leave the violent partner. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify journal articles focused on IPV, following online databases as well as a manual review from relevant peer-reviewed journals. Results: Seeking help is one of the main steps in the process of change, and the stages of change are directly related to the success of interventions, so identifying stages early provides a more appropriate and effective choice of intervention. Conclusions: Thus, evaluating the stage of preparation for the change in which the victims are found is important for the individual understanding of the experience and supporting the intervention. In this sense, the Domestic Violence Survivor Assessment (DVSA) will also be presented, an instrument for evaluating the process of intentional change in victims of IPV, using the TTM.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations globally shifted into an emergency mode, leading to significant changes in the labour market. In light of these developments, this study sought to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic context influenced employees' evaluations of the different states of work motivation, as outlined in the framework of the Self-Determination Theory. A sample of 243 Portuguese employees completed the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS) at two-time points (before and during the pandemic). Repeated‐measures univariate and multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were used to examine differences in work motivation scores between Time 1 and Time 2, as well to analyse the interaction between time and sociodemographic and work-related variables in the same dimensions. The results showed a positive and significant effect of the COVID-19 pandemic context on the more autonomous states of work motivation, i.e., Identified Regulation and Intrinsic Motivation, and those related to the controlled states of motivation, mainly Extrinsic Material Regulation and Introjected Regulation. In addition, workers without higher education have benefited more in terms of identified regulation throughout the pandemic, suggesting that the pandemic context may have facilitated the internalisation of new values and meaning at work for this group.This two-wave study suggests that the pandemic context acts as a psychological determinant affecting how job resources contribute to fulfilling autonomous motivation. The internal factors driving employees' autonomous motivation are shaped by their perception of the job resources within the wider context. In times of crisis, it is vital to focus on work resources and psychological needs to maintain employee motivation. Organisations must adjust their strategies to offer adequate support and balance demands and resources, especially during crises such as the pandemic.

Purpose Resistance training aids in the improvement of key aspects of athletic performance. Elastic bands are among the various instruments used to apply resistance load. Despite their popularity, scientific evidence supporting their efficacy in sports remains limited. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the existing literature regarding the acute and chronic effects of elastic band resistance training (EBT) on performance parameters in male and female athletes, across different age groups. Methods A systematic search was conducted in January 2024, following the PRISMA guidelines and the PICOS approach. The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus via EBSCOhost, and Web of Science were searched using the terms: (elastic band training) AND ((athlete*) OR (performance) OR (sports)). Once extracted, studies were included if they incorporated the assessment of the relationship between elastic band resistance training and performance in competitive athletes (male or female), ages between 14 and 35, from individual or team sports. Results Male athletes were predominantly studied, with 15 out of the 22 included studies. Furthermore, performance parameters such as jumping, sprinting, upper and lower limbs strength variables received the most attention, showing an overall positive chronic effect. However, due to scarce literature regarding acute effects of EBT, further research is warranted to provide conclusive evidence on its effects. Conclusion While recognizing the limited amount of high-quality evidence reviewed, EBT appears to address positive chronic effect on various performance parameters (i.e., sprinting and jumping) in athletes of both genders and various competitive levels.