| 1. |
- Christiansen, Filip, et al.
(författare)
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Physical activity through a classroom-based intervention : A pragmatic non-randomized trial among swedish adolescents in an upper secondary school
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 18:21
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Schools are an important arena to curb the decline in physical activity (PA) in youth. School-based interventions with accelerometer-measured PA are warranted. This study aimed to increase accelerometer-measured PA in adolescents following a 12-month school-based intervention. Two school-classes of 16–18-year-old Swedish students were allocated to intervention group and control group. Accelerometer-measured PA was gathered at baseline, 6-and 12-month follow-up. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to investigate between-group and within-group differences in mean minutes per day (min/day) of moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), light PA (LPA) and sedentary time (ST). Fifty-seven students participated (intervention group = 31, control group = 26). At 12-month follow-up, the intervention group performed 5.9 (95% CI: −4.3, 16.2) min/day more in MVPA, 1.8 (95% CI: −17.9, 14.2) min/day less in LPA, and 4.1 (95% CI: −27.3, 19.2) min/day less in ST compared to the control group. Within the intervention group, there was no significant change in PA. Within the control group, LPA decreased (95% CI: −19.6, −0.2; p = 0.044) and ST increased (95% CI: 1.8, 30.8; p = 0.028). Although no between-group differences in PA were statistically significant, the within-group changes may suggest a preventive impact on the decline in PA during adolescence.
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| 2. |
- Löfgren, Hans O., Lektor, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Does cal .22 Improve Marksmanship for Police Students in Sweden?
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Studies in Policing. - : Universitetsforlaget. - 2703-7045. ; 9:1, s. 1-13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Firearm training could focus on more practical shooting and tactical training if students pass the examination at an earlier stage during their basic training. The aim of this study is to investigate whether minimizing the recoil, andtherefore the startle reaction, and/or psychological factors could increase the shooting scores. This study employs a quasi-experimental design involving two groups of police students: 28 in the control group and 27 in the interventiongroup. The intervention group received an adjusted version of the Sig Sauer handgun that was changed to fire .22long rifle caliber ammunition. Although the study group had the best results (86%) over the past fifteen semesters,there was no difference in the shooting performance between the control and the intervention groups, i.e., minimizing recoil in the beginning of the training did not increase the shooting scores. The results of this study indicate that female students with high cognitive anxiety have lower shooting scores than male students with less cognitive anxiety.These findings are discussed with special regard to equalizing any gender differences in firearm training.
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| 3. |
- Löfgren, Hans O., 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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First-level trial of two school-based prevention programmes for depression, anxiety and social problems in adolescents
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Recognizing the positive mental health benefits of school-based interventions, the present study examined the effect of the preventive programmes. A small feasibility try-out turned out to have conclusive results worth reporting. Choosing Healthy Actions and Thoughts (CHAT) was examined and compared to Life-Skills, commonly used primary preventive method in Swedish schools that has been evaluated in research studies and showing effects on social skills. The aim was to determine if CHAT can be included in the school curriculum and result in positive mental health gains. A community sample of 59 pupils in grade 7 completed a test battery including the Sense of Coherence, the Children’s Depression Inventory, and the Youth Self Report instruments. Post intervention measures were performed at two time points, i.e., right after the intervention sessions and after 12 months follow-up. The two programmes aimed at improving mental health in schoolchildren and both are administered by teachers. The main result was improvement in self-reported depression symptoms for the CHAT programme and less social problems for the Life-Skill programme. There is however a dimension, attention problems, where the programmes had no effect. The feasibility was considered satisfactory. Educational and healthcare implications are discussed.
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| 4. |
- Löfgren, Hans O., 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Kaliber .22 : en systematisk studie kring faktorer som kan påverka polisstudentens skjutresultat
- 2021
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Enheten för polisutbildning vid Umeå universitet har under 2019 genomfört en studie i samband med vapenutbildning på grundnivå. Bakgrunden till denna studie var att vapenlärarna vid enheten uppmärksammade att många studenter hade problem med avfyrningstekniken. Problemet kan bero på att när avfyrningen med tjänstevapnet (kaliber 9 x 19 mm) sker kan både rekylen och ljudet upplevas som olustig. Detta kan leda till att skytten försöker kontrollera sin reaktion av ljudet från avfyrningsexplosionen genom att själv bestämma när avfyrningen ska ske, dvs rycker av skottet, och påverkar vapnets rörelse i samband med avfyrning. Resultatet blir att skytten inte uppnår önskade träffresultat även om förhållandena mellan korn-sikte-mål är idealiska ögonblicket innan avfyringen. En hypotes är att studenten/skytten kan koncentrera sig bättre på ett korrekt utförande i samband med avfyrning av vapnet om de börjar sin träning med en mindre kaliber (kaliber .22 LR), som ger mindre rekyl och ljud än det ordinarie tjänstevapnet. Fokus kan då i högre utsträckning läggas på avfyrningstekniken istället för att fånga upp rekylen och uthärda ljudet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om träning med en mindre kaliber, och därmed hantering av startle reaction-reflexen, förbättrar resultatet på kompetensprovet samt att undersöka vilka andra bakomliggande faktorer som kan påverka skjutresultatet. Studien använder en kvasiexperimentell design som involverar två grupper polisstudenter: 28 i kontroll- och 27 i interventionsgruppen och undersöker faktorer som kan påverka skyttet. Interventionsgruppen fick en justerad version av Sig Sauer-pistolen som konverterats med en växelsats till att skjuta ammunition med kaliber .22 LR, medan kontroll-gruppen genomförde skjututbildningen utan justeringar i ammunition. Intervjuer genomfördes för att undersöka vilka tankar studenterna har kring kompetensprovet i relation till de kvantitativa faktorerna. I den totala gruppen (dvs alla deltagare i studien) var 86 % godkända i kompetensprovet vid första tillfället. Det bästa resultatet för skjutprovet under de senaste 15 terminerna. Resultaten av denna studie indikerar dock att kvinnliga studenter med hög kognitiv oro har lägre skyttepoäng än manliga studenter med mindre kognitiv oro. Denna pilotstudie är ett första steg att undersöka området och kommer att ligga till grund för ytterligare studier i området.
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| 5. |
- Löfgren, Hans O., 1961-
(författare)
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Preventive psychosocial parental and school programmes in a general population
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction Numerous preventive programmes have emerged, and need to be investigated to determine their effects on the normal population. Earlier studies have shown a decrease in depressive symptoms, positive effects on children’s disruptive behaviour problems, and an improvement in parental competence. About a fifth of the parents in previous studies had problem-oriented (targeted) reasons for enrolment, whereas the rest of the parents had general (universal) reasons. The results of those studies suggest that the programmes are cost effective in terms of Quality-Adjusted Life Years.Aim Four sub-studies were performed, and their aims were to investigate the effect of parental training programmes (PTPs) in a naturalistic setting on parents’ mental health in the general population, to investigate how PTPs affect parents’ sense of parental competence, to investigate how PTPs affect parental stress and analyse the parents open questions about the PTPs, and to investigate the feasibility and to measure the effect on depression, anxiety, and social problems of two preventive school programmes for pupils in grade 7.Method In a longitudinal quantitative study in a real-world setting, 279 parents from the general population in northern Sweden participated in five PTPs. A comparison group of 702 parents without intervention was included. Simultaneously, a community sample of 59 pupils in grade 7 participated in two preventive school programmes. Both studies were conducted from 2010 to 2013. Parents were assigned to professionally supported interventions that included 5-10 two-hour sessions. Respondents filled in a web-based questionnaire with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Parents Sense of Competence (PSOC) for parents who had children aged 0-17 years, and the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) for parents who had children aged 0-10 years. The intervention groups’ results were compared to comparison group of 702 parents from northern Sweden that had not participated in any parental training programme. In the school study, one of the preventive programmes was an ongoing programme called “Life-Skills”, and the other was an implemented Canadian programme called “Choosing Healthy Actions and Thoughts” (CHAT). The pupils completed a test battery including the Sense of Coherence (SOC), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Youth Self-Report (YSR) instruments. Follow up of the parental programme study was done six months after the post-intervention measure, and follow up of the school study was at one year.Results The improvements in GHQ were statistically significant for the mean of the 279 parents in the intervention group compared to the mean of a comparison group of the 702 parents who did not receive any intervention. This suggests that evidence-based PTPs enhance parental well-being even for parents without problems. The intervention group showed a statistically significant improvement in parental competence compared to the comparison group over time. The intervention itself had a significant effect on parental satisfaction, but the efficacy effect was not sustained when taking into account potential confounders. In the SPSQ, the intervention group was smaller due to the fact that the instrument was not validated for children over the age of 10 and one of the parental training groups was only for parents of teenagers. A reduction of stress in the sub-scale of health problems was detected, but no other subscale showed the intervention to have a significant effect when controlling for confounding variables. In the school study, both programmes had good feasibility according to the stake- holders and had several positive mental health outcomes over time. Compared to Life-Skills, CHAT had more significant positive effects on reducing anxious/depressive symptoms and girls experienced significant positive effects on reduced anxious/depressive behaviour, while boys reduced their aggressive behaviours.Conclusions Earlier studies indicate that PTPs enhance perceived parental competence among referred parents. The present study shows that PTPs applied in the general population might also enhance perceived parental benefits such as improved health and satisfaction, suggesting that PTPs can be an important preventive strategy to enhance parenthood. The results suggest that parents who feel a need to increase their parenting competence might participate in PTPs based on lower scores than the comparison control group both before and after the intervention. The school-based programme shows that schools may be a suitable arena for preventive programmes because there was a significant short-term improvement in depression symptoms. Further studies need to explore how parents’ participation in PTPs affects children’s mental health in the general population in quantitative longitudinal studies in real-word settings. There is also a need for bigger studies and RCTs on school preventions and on how children’s health develops naturally in the population.
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| 6. |
- Silva, Teresa C., 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on police officers' mental health : preliminary results of a Portuguese sample
- 2021
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Ingår i: European Law Enforcement Research Bulletin. - : European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL). ; , s. 111-119
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study had a twofold objective. First, we aimed to measure the levels of stress symptoms and burnout on the police officers who volunteered for the study. Second, we proposed to examine the effect of COVID-19 exposure and exposure to traumatic experiences in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic on the officers’ mental health.The National Directorate of the Policia de Segurança Pública (Portuguese Public Security Police) approved this study and was responsible for distributing information about the study and the link to an online questionnaire among their officers. As expected, the levels of burnout, psychological distress, and posttraumatic stress (PTS) were higher than similar professional populations in non-pandemic conditions. Officers with fewer than 11 years of work experience showed fewer symptoms of PTS compared to those with longer work experience, but at the same time, they reported higher levels of burnout. Women revealed higher scores of burnout-disengagement, but no other differences compared to their male colleagues. Officers who were married or living in a partner relationship obtained lower levels of posttraumatic stress than officers who reported being single, divorced, or widowed. The responsibility of caring for an elderly relative increased psychological distress and PTS levels. In general, exposure to COVID-19 or being at risk of infection had less impact on the officers’ mental health than exposure to traumatic experiences.In conclusion, as expected, the pandemic is having a stressful effect on police officers, but it is not homogeneous among different groups. Implications for intervention policies are discussed.
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