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- Arnadottir, Solveig A, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Application of rasch analysis to examine psychometric aspects of the activities-specific balance confidence scale when used in a new cultural context
- 2010
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In: Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. - : Elsevier BV. - 0003-9993 .- 1532-821X. ; 91:1, s. 156-163
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Arnadottir SA, Lundin-Olsson L, Gunnarsdottir ED, Fisher AG. Application of Rasch analysis to examine psychometric aspects of the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale when used in a new cultural context. OBJECTIVE: To investigate by using Rasch analysis the psychometric properties of the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale when applied in a new Icelandic context. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, population-based, random selection from the Icelandic National Registry. SETTING: Community-based. PARTICIPANTS: Icelanders (N=183), 65 to 88 years old, and 48% women. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: ABC, an instrument used to evaluate how confident older people are in maintaining balance and remaining steady when moving through the environment. An Icelandic translation of the ABC (ABC-ICE) scale was evaluated by implementing Rasch rating scale analysis to transform ordinal ABC-ICE scores into interval measures and evaluating aspects of validity and reliability of the scale. RESULTS: Participants were not able to differentiate reliably between the 11 rating scale categories of the ABC-ICE. Additionally, 3 items failed to show acceptable goodness of fit to the ABC-ICE rating scale model. By collapsing categories and creating a new 5-category scale, only 1 item misfit. Removing that item resulted in a modified version of ABC-ICE with 5 categories and 15 items. Both item goodness-of-fit statistics and principal components analysis supported unidimensionality of the modified ABC-ICE. The ABC-ICE measures reliably separated the sample into at least 4 statistically distinct strata of balance confidence. Finally, the hierarchical order of item difficulties was consistent with theoretic expectations, and the items were reasonably well targeted to the balance confidence of the persons tested. CONCLUSIONS: Rasch analysis indicated a need to modify the ABC-ICE to improve its psychometric properties. Further studies are needed to determine if similar analyses of other versions of the ABC, including the original one, will yield similar results.
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| 2. |
- Arnadottir, Solveig A, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Are rural older Icelanders less physically active than those living in urban areas? : a population-based study
- 2009
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. - : SAGE Publications. - 1403-4948 .- 1651-1905. ; 37:4, s. 409-417
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Older people in rural areas have been labelled as physically inactive on the basis of leisure-time physical activity research. However, more research is needed to understand the total physical activity pattern in older adults, considering all domains of physical activity, including leisure, work, and domestic life. AIMS: We hypothesised that: (a) total physical activity would be the same for older people in urban and rural areas; and (b) urban and rural residency, along with gender and age, would be associated with differences in domain-specific physical activities. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were collected in Icelandic rural and urban communities from June through to September 2004. Participants were randomly selected, community-dwelling, 65-88 years old, and comprised 68 rural (40% females) and 118 urban (53% females) adults. The Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) was used to obtain a total physical activity score and subscores in leisure, during domestic life, and at work. RESULTS: The total PASE score was not associated with rural vs. urban residency, but males were, in total, more physically active than females, and the 65-74-year-olds were more active than the 75-88-year-olds. In the leisure domain, rural people had lower physical activity scores than urban people. Rural males were, however, most likely of all to be physically active in the work domain. In both urban and rural areas, the majority of the physical activity behaviour occurred in relation to housework, with the rural females receiving the highest scores. CONCLUSIONS: Older Icelanders in rural areas should not be labelled as less physically active than those who live in urban areas. Urban vs. rural living may, however, influence the physical activity patterns among older people, even within a fairly socioeconomically and culturally homogeneous country such as Iceland. This reinforces the need to pay closer attention to the living environment when studying and developing strategies to promote physical activity.
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| 3. |
- Arnadottir, Solveig A, et al.
(author)
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Determinants of self-rated health in old age : a population-based, cross-sectional study using the international classification of functioning
- 2011
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In: BMC Public Health. - London : BioMed Central. - 1471-2458. ; 11, s. 670-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Self-rated health (SRH) is a widely used indicator of general health and multiple studies have supported the predictive validity of SRH in older populations concerning future health, functional decline, disability, and mortality. The aim of this study was to use the theoretical framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to create a better understanding of factors associated with SRH among community-dwelling older people in urban and rural areas.Methods: The study design was population-based and cross-sectional. Participants were 185 Icelanders, randomly selected from a national registry, community-dwelling, 65-88 years old, 63% urban residents, and 52% men. Participants were asked: "In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?" Associations with SRH were analyzed with ordinal logistic regression. Explanatory variables represented aspects of body functions, activities, participation, environmental factors and personal factors components of the ICF.Results: Univariate analysis revealed that SRH was significantly associated with all analyzed ICF components through 16 out of 18 explanatory variables. Multivariate analysis, however, demonstrated that SRH had an independent association with five variables representing ICF body functions, activities, and personal factors components: The likelihood of a better SRH increased with advanced lower extremity capacity (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR] = 1.05, p < 0.001), upper extremity capacity (adjOR = 1.13, p = 0.040), household physical activity (adjOR = 1.01, p = 0.016), and older age (adjOR = 1.09, p = 0.006); but decreased with more depressive symptoms (adjOR = 0.79, p < 0.001).Conclusions: The results highlight a collection of ICF body functions, activities and personal factors associated with higher SRH among community-dwelling older people. Some of these, such as physical capacity, depressive symptoms, and habitual physical activity are of particular interest due to their potential for change through public health interventions. The use of ICF conceptual framework and widely accepted standardized assessments should make these results comparable and relevant in an international context.
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| 4. |
- Arnadottir, Solveig A, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Participation frequency and perceived participation restrictions at older age : applying the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework
- 2011
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In: Disability and Rehabilitation. - : Informa Healthcare. - 0963-8288 .- 1464-5165. ; 33:23-24, s. 2208-2216
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: To identify variables from different components of International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) associated with older people's participation frequency and perceived participation restrictions. Method: Participants (N = 186) were community-living, 65-88 years old and 52% men. The dependent variables, participation frequency (linear regression) and perceived participation restrictions (logistic regression), were measured using The Late-Life Function and Disability Instrument. Independent variables were selected from various ICF components. Results: Higher participation frequency was associated with living in urban rather than rural community (beta = 2.8, p < 0.001), physically active lifestyle (beta = 4.6, p < 0.001) and higher cognitive function (beta = 0.3, p = 0.009). Lower participation frequency was associated with being older (beta = -0.2, p = 0.002) and depressive symptoms (beta = -0.2, p = 0.029). Older adults living in urban areas, having more advanced lower extremities capacity, or that were employed had higher odds of less perceived participation restrictions (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 5.5, p = 0.001; OR = 1.09, p < 0.001; OR = 3.7, p = 0.011; respectively). In contrast, the odds of less perceived participation restriction decreased as depressive symptoms increased (OR = 0.8, p = 0.011). Conclusions: Our results highlight the importance of capturing and understanding both frequency and restriction aspects of older persons' participation. ICF may be a helpful reference to map factors associated with participation and to study further potentially modifiable influencing factors such as depressive symptoms and advanced lower extremity capacity.
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| 5. |
- Sigurdsson, Bjarni D., et al.
(author)
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Geothermal ecosystems as natural climate change experiments : The ForHot research site in Iceland as a case study
- 2016
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In: Icelandic Agricultural Sciences. - 1670-567X. ; 29:1, s. 53-71
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article describes how natural geothermal soil temperature gradients in Iceland have been used to study terrestrial ecosystem responses to soil warming. The experimental approach was evaluated at three study sites in southern Iceland one grassland site that has been warm for at least 50 years (GO), and another comparable grassland site (GN) and a Sitka spruce plantation (FN) site that have both been warmed since an earthquake took place in 2008. Within each site type, five ca. 50 m long transects, with six permanent study plots each, were established across the soil warming gradients, spanning from unwarmed control conditions to gradually warmer soils. It was attempted to select the plots so the annual warming levels would be ca. +1, +3, +5, +10 and +20 °C within each transect. Results of continuous measurements of soil temperature (Ts) from 2013-2015 revealed that the soil warming was relatively constant and followed the seasonal Ts cycle of the unwarmed control plots. Volumetric water content in the top 5 cm of soil was repeatedly surveyed during 2013-2016. The grassland soils were wetter than the FN soils, but they had sometimes some significant warming-induced drying in the surface layer of the warmest plots, in contrast to FN. Soil chemistry did not show any indications that geothermal water had reached the root zone, but soil pH did increase somewhat with warming, which was probably linked to vegetation changes. As expected, the potential decomposition rate of organic matter increased significantly with warming. It was concluded that the natural geothermal gradients at the ForHot sites in Iceland offered realistic conditions for studying terrestrial ecosystem responses to warming with minimal artefacts.
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