Zeljko Pedisic

Victoria University | VU · Institute for Health and Sport

Nearly 70 years of sleep, sedentary behaviour, physical activity, and time-use research has led to the recent development of time-use epidemiology. To conceptualise the emerging research field and provide a framework for its further development, this paper defines its position among the established branches of science, explains its main concepts an...

This paper critically appraised 54 recent studies linking sedentary behaviour (SB) and health, specifically regarding their assessment of SB and adjustments for physical activity (PA) and sleep. Almost 90% of the studies collected SB data using self-reports and 59% of these measures had not been previously validated. The majority of studies did not...

How people use their time has been linked with their health. For example, spending more time being physically active is known to be beneficial for health, whereas long durations of sitting have been associated with unfavourable health outcomes. Accordingly, public health messages have advocated swapping strategies to promote the reallocation of tim...

The health effects of daily activity behaviours (physical activity, sedentary time and sleep) are widely studied. While previous research has largely examined activity behaviours in isolation, recent studies have adjusted for multiple behaviours. However, the inclusion of all activity behaviours in traditional multivariate analyses has not been pos...

Objective Self-reports of physical activity (PA) have been the mainstay of measurement in most noncommunicable disease (NCD) surveillance systems. To these, other measures are added to summate to a comprehensive PA surveillance system. Recently, some national NCD surveillance systems have started using accelerometers as a measure of PA. The purpose...

Background ‘Lack of time’ is consistently the most commonly reported barrier to regular exercise participation. However, this term insufficiently captures the complex and multidimensional nature of time. Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive analysis of ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to exercise, in this presentation the authors introduce the...

A perceived ‘lack of time’ is consistently the most commonly reported barrier to exercise. However, the term fails to capture the multifaceted nature of time-related factors. Recognising the need for a more comprehensive analysis of ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to exercise, the aim of this study was to develop the exercise participation explained in...

Background Several reviews have examined the health benefits of participation in specific sports, such as baseball, cricket, cross-country skiing, cycling, downhill skiing, football, golf, judo, rugby, running and swimming. However, new primary studies on the topic have recently been published, and the respective meta-analytic evidence needs to be...

Introduction The instruments for evaluation of educational courses are often highly complex and specifically designed for a given type of training. Therefore, the aims of this study were to develop a simple and generic EDUcational Course Assessment TOOLkit (EDUCATOOL) and determine its measurement properties. Methods The development of EDUCATOOL e...

Background According to recently published 24-hour movement guidelines, adults should spend: ≥150 minutes/week in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA); <8 hours/day in sedentary behaviour (SB); and 7–9 hours/day sleeping. Objective We explored the association between meeting these recommendations and low back pain (LBP)—the most common mu...

Objectives The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the associations of reallocating time between moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA), light-intensity physical activity (LPA), sedentary behaviour (SB) and sleep with occurrence, frequency and intensity of low back pain (LBP) among adults using compositional isotempor...

Background How time is allocated influences health. However, any increase in time allocated to one behaviour must be offset by a decrease in others. Recently, studies have used compositional data analysis (CoDA) to estimate the associations with health when reallocating time between different behaviours. The aim of this scoping review was to provid...

The distribution of time that people spend in physical activity of various intensities has important health implications. Physical activity (commonly categorised by the intensity into light, moderate and vigorous physical activity), sedentary behaviour and sleep, should not be analysed separately, because they are parts of a time-use composition wi...

Background: While there is evidence that physical activity, sedentary behaviour (SB) and sleep may all be associated with modified levels of inflammatory markers in adolescents and children, associations with one movement behaviour have not always been adjusted for other movement behaviours, and few studies have considered all movement behaviours...

Purpose The aims of this study were to advance knowledge on physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) policies in China and to highlight related gaps and opportunities in the Chinese policy landscape. Methods Literature and web-based searches were performed to identify national PA and SB policies in China. We assessed which of the 17 ele...

Background: It is a common belief that most sports clubs and organisations are primarily focused on elite sports while placing less emphasis on the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA). However, there is a lack of evidence on this topic in the scientific literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the level and...

Background: The previous review of physical activity (PA) among Croatian children and adolescents was conducted a decade ago. Therefore, the aim of this study was to summarize recent evidence on PA of Croatian children and adolescents and associated personal, social, environmental, and policy factors. Methods: Eighteen experts reviewed the avail...

Purpose To determine the amounts of time spent in physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and sleep in the Thai population, as well as their sociodemographic correlates and changes over time. Methods We analysed cross-sectional data collected in a population-representative, stratified random sample of 135,824 Thais aged 10 years and over...

Background The growing burden of hypertension is emerging as one of the major healthcare challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as Nepal. Given that they are struggling to deliver adequate health services, some LMICs have significant gaps in the cascade of hypertension care (including screening, awareness, treatment, and contr...

Background: Physical activity (PA) surveillance, policy, and research efforts need to be periodically appraised to gain insight into national and global capacities for PA promotion. The aim of this paper was to assess the status and trends in PA surveillance, policy, and research in 164 countries. Methods: We used data from the Global Observator...

The wide recognition of the importance of Sports Club for Health (SCforH) movement in Europe is a result of more than 15 years of continuous work of the SCforH consortium. This book was written to inform and facilitate the further development of SCforH movement. Herein, we present main conclusions from 10 chapters of this book and suggest future di...

Ovo izvješće o tjelesnoj aktivnosti djece i adolescenata u Hrvatskoj pripremljeno je u sklopu inicijative Global Matrix 4.0 koju provodi Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. U okviru ove međunarodne inicijative, stručnjaci iz 57 zemalja su prikupili relevantne i recentne dokaze o deset indikatora koji se odnose na promociju tjelesne aktivnosti među...

Background: The current guidelines for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of hypertension recommend six types of non-pharmacological interventions: alcohol reduction, salt intake reduction, increased potassium intake, physical activity, weight loss, and heart-healthy diets. However, the non-pharmacological interventions are stil...

Reallocations of time between daily activities such as sleep, sedentary behavior and physical activity are differentially associated with markers of physical, mental and social health. An individual’s most desirable allocation of time may differ depending on which outcomes they value most, with these outcomes potentially competing with each other f...

Background Our previous systematic review on the health benefits of different sport disciplines included 69 studies published before 2013. We found moderately strong evidence of health benefits for running and football while the evidence for other sport disciplines was either inconclusive or tenuous. The purpose of this report is to update the evid...

Background Insufficient physical activity (PA) is considered to be one of the main risk factors for premature mortality. Its high prevalence and associated costs for the health care system present a strong incentive for national governments to develop PA policies. There is a lack of recent and mutually comparable data on national PA policies, parti...

Goals Describe the progress of developing and monitoring global physical activity policy from the 1990s through the release and implementation of Global Action Plan for Physical Activity-GAPPA; Present findings of a systematic review of instruments for physical activity policy analysis; Describe the methods and progress after 1-year implementation...

Background Back pain is the most common musculoskeletal symptom. Several risk/protective factors, including sedentary behaviour, physical activity and sleep, have been proposed. Research has typically examined these time-use behaviours in isolation, ignoring the compositional nature of time-use data. The aim of this study was to determine the relat...

Background In 2019, the European Commission provided funding of nearly 400 thousand Euro for the third round of the Sports Club for Health (SCforH) project. The objective of this project is to increase participation in sport and HEPA in the European Union by encouraging sports clubs and associations to implement SCforH principles in their activitie...

Background Sports associations may play an important role in the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) in Europe. However, no recent findings on their commitment to HEPA promotion are available. Therefore, we aimed to determine the level and correlates of the commitment of European sports associations to HEPA promotion. Methods Re...

There are more than 60 million sports club members in the EU, which makes sports clubs an organizational settings with a huge potential for health promotion. The Sports Club for Health (SCforH) initiative started in 2008, to assist sports clubs in promoting health-enhancing physical activity. In support of this endeavour, SCforH guidelines were iss...

Background Researchers and policy makers have developed and used a variety of instruments to assess physical activity policies. Data on the available instruments and their properties have never been summarised in a systematic way. In this review we, therefore, aimed to identify and critically assess available instruments for the analysis of nationa...

Objective To investigate the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and sprint interval training (SIT) on fat oxidation during exercise (FatOx) and how they compare with the effects of moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT). Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Academic Search Ultimate, CINAHL, Networked Dig...

Sleep, sedentary behaviour (SB), and physical activity are among key behavioural determinants of health. There is a need to evaluate questionnaires that capture movement behaviours across the full 24-h day. The aim of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Daily Activity Behaviours Questionnaire (DABQ), a novel questionnaire (w...

Sports clubs have been deeply embedded in culture and social life of the European Union. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey, more than 53 million European Union citizens are members of sports clubs (1). Despite a large number of sports clubs and the important role of sport in the society, the population prevalence of insufficient physical...

From its very beginning, members of the Sports Club for Health (SCforH) consortium have recognised the importance of disseminating the SCforH ideas through published media. SC-forH guidelines and other publications written by the members of SCforH consortium have significantly contributed to the development and wide recognition of the SCforH moveme...

The European Federation for Company Sport (EFCS), European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO), International Sport and Culture Association (ISCA), and The Association For International Sport for All (TAFISA) are international sports associations that play an important role in the European sports sector, particularly in the promotion of "s...

In the past 15 years, a wide range of activities have been undertaken to disseminate the Sports Club for Health (SCforH) guidelines. To evaluate the outcomes of the dissemination efforts that had been made until 2016, a Europe-wide survey was conducted as part of the SC-forH 2015-17 project. Given that the evaluation was done more than five years a...

The Sports Club for Health (SCforH) movement is the largest and one of the most comprehensive initiatives for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity in European sports clubs. In this book chapter we systematically reviewed and catalogued the key activities, published outputs, and recognitions of the SCforH movement in the past 15 years...

The recommended ways to implement Sports Club for Health (SCforH) initiatives have been described in the SCforH guidelines. However, sport practitioners who plan to develop such initiatives in their sports clubs and associations may also benefit from having information on SCforH or other similar initiatives that have already been successfully imple...

Sports clubs and associations are suitable settings for health promotion. Sports Club for Health approach is a way to promote health in sports organisations1 by offering high-quality, health-enhancing sports activities. The approach is defined by seven core principles that you will learn about later in this textbook. By adopting these principles, a...

The Sports Club for Health (SCforH) movement has been growing and advancing since its establishment in 2008. In parallel with the constantly growing team and scope of SCforH activities , there has also been an increase in the number of specialised terms used in our verbal communication, written correspondence, and publications. To help standardise...

Although health benefits of physical activity are well established in the literature, nearly 30% of the global population is insufficiently active. Sports Club for Health (SCforH) initiatives that are aimed to promote health-enhancing physical activity require a deep understanding of the prevalence, time trends, and socio-demographic correlates of...

Since 2013, the national implementation of SCforH guidelines has been one of the 23 indicators for evaluation of physical activity levels and policies in the EU, as proposed by the Council of the European Union. To facilitate the assessment of national performance against this indicator, enable comparisons between countries, and inform future actio...

The Sports Club for Health (SCforH) movement has a long and rich history in Europe. Through its numerous activities that have been recognised and supported by the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, the SCforH movement has become an integral part of the sports and health promotion system in the Europe. In the past 15 years, t...

This report was prepared as part of the Global Matrix 4.0 on Physical Activity of Children and Adolescents initiative conducted by the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance. Within this international initiative, experts from 57 countries gathered relevant, recent evidence on ten indicators related to physical activity promotion among children and ado...

Background We aimed to perform an umbrella review of meta-analyses examining the effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on exercise performance. Methods We systematically searched for meta-analyses that examined the effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on exercise performance. The methodological quality of the included reviews was...

24 strategies to move more and sit less at work, in transport, at home, and in leisure time. Information booklet designed for “Move More for Mental Health and Wellbeing” (clinical trial registration reference: ISRCTN43608761) intervention.

Background Understanding country-specific factors influencing hypertension care is critical to address the gaps in the management of hypertension. However, no systematic investigation of factors influencing hypertension treatment and control in Nepal is available. This study aimed to systematically review the published literature and synthesise the...

We investigated the effects of increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behaviour (SB) of mental health professionals on their attitudes towards and practices in recommending more PA and less SB to their clients. A 4-week pre-post intervention trial was conducted involving 17 mental health professionals. The participants who increas...

Based on a comprehensive review and critical analysis of the literature regarding the effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on exercise performance, conducted by experts in the field and selected members of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), the following conclusions represent the official Position of the Society: 1. Sup...

The World Health Organization recommends adults to engage in muscle-strengthening activity (MSA) at least two times per week. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and correlates of MSA in Croatian adults. We analysed self-reported data collected among 4561 Croatians aged ≥ 18 years within the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS...

Background International guidelines for hypertension treatment recommend the use of yoga, particularly among low-risk patients. However, evidence is lacking on the implementation potential of health-worker-led yoga interventions in low-resource, primary care settings. Objective To assess barriers to and facilitators of the implementation of a yoga...

Background Despite recent interest in the mental health benefits of increasing physical activity (PA) and reducing sedentary behaviour (SB), little is known about PA and SB counselling provided by mental health professionals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the attitudes and practices of mental health professionals in recommending m...

Background: The objective of this review was to synthesize previous findings on the test-retest reliability of the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (IFT). Methods: The literature searches were performed in eight databases. Studies that examined the test-retest reliability of the 30-15 IFT and presented intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and/o...

How we allocate time to activities impacts our health. Daily times spent in activities are interrelated because they compete for time-shares within a finite 24 h window. If more time is spent in one activity, time must be taken from one or more of the remaining activities to maintain the fixed total of 24 h. Thus, time-use data have a relative natu...

Abstract Background Several countries have recently issued 24-h movement guidelines that include quantitative recommendations for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and sleep. This study explored the associations of meeting the 24-h movement guidelines with stress and self-rated health among adults, and whether...

Objective Understanding country-specific factors influencing cascade of care for hypertension is critical to address the high unmet need for hypertension treatment and control. This study aimed to systematically synthesise the evidence on barriers and facilitators of hypertension treatment and control in Nepal. Design and method We systematically...

Introduction It is unclear whether adiposity leads to changes in movement behaviors, and there is a lack of compositional analyses of longitudinal data which focus on these associations. Using a compositional approach, this study aimed to examine the associations between baseline adiposity and 7-year changes in physical activity (PA) and sedentary...

The aim of this systematic review was to explore the test-retest reliability of isometric mid-thigh pull maximum strength assessment. We searched through five databases to find studies that examined the test-retest reliability of peak force in the isometric mid-thigh pull exercise. From each included study, we extracted intra-class correlation coef...

Background Hypertension control remains a major challenge globally. A recent systematic review suggested that yoga has beneficial effects on reducing blood pressure. However, the role of yoga in hypertension management in primary health care has received little attention, and no studies have evaluated the impact of a yoga program fully delivered by...

Background: Several countries have recently issued 24-hour movement guidelines for adults. From a public health perspective, it is important to explore the health benefits of meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines. This study, therefore, aimed to explore the associations of meeting the 24-hour movement guidelines with stress and self-rated health...

Background: Effects of resistance training on muscle strength and hypertrophy are well-established in adults and younger elderly. However, less is currently known about these effects in the very elderly (i.e., 75 years of age and older). Objective: To examine the effects of resistance training on muscle size and strength in very elderly individuals...

Background: Evidence on current, national physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) policies is limited. We, therefore, analysed availability, comprehensiveness, implementation, and effectiveness of PA and SB policies internationally. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA!) Country Conta...

We explored the test-retest reliability of velocity and power assessed by the GymAware PowerTool system (GYM) in the deadlift and squat by simulating a context with and without a familiarization session. Sixteen resistance-trained individuals completed three testing sessions. In all sessions, velocity and power were assessed by the GYM system in th...

Background: Time spent in physical activity (PA), sedentary behaviour (SB), and sleep always takes up the whole day. New public health guidelines combining recommendations for PA, SB, and sleep have been issued in several countries. Thailand was the first country to release the 24-h guidelines for adults. Currently, there is no evidence on the pop...

Background: To examine compositional associations between short sleep duration and sedentary behavior (SB), light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among children and adolescents. Methods: Multi-day 24-h data on sleep, SB, LPA and MVPA were collected using accelerometers among 343 children (8-13 years old)...

Background: The test-retest reliability of the one-repetition maximum (1RM) test varied across different studies. Given the inconsistent findings, it is unclear what the true reliability of the 1RM test is, and to what extent it is affected by measurement-related factors, such as exercise selection for the test, the number of familiarization trials...

Background: The effects of sodium bicarbonate on muscular strength and muscular endurance are commonly acknowledged as unclear due to the contrasting evidence on the topic. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies exploring the acute effects of sodium bicarbonate supplementation on muscular strength and endurance. Meth...

Background: It has been suggested that polymorphisms within CYP1A2 impact inter-individual variation in the response to caffeine. The purpose of this study was to explore the acute effects of caffeine on resistance exercise, jumping, and sprinting performance in a sample of resistance-trained men, and to examine the influence of genetic variation o...