Development and Initial Validation of the Oral Health Activities Questionnaire.

Background: The purpose of this study was to introduce a new Oral Health Activities Questionnaire (OHAQ, hereinafter) that examines different activities and behaviours related to the oral hygiene regimen of each analysed subject. Methods: A sample of 658 students was analysed to determine the OHAQ scale's basic metric characteristics. To determine the construct validity of the OHAQ, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, as well as differences testing, were applied to groups of subjects on the basis of self-reported oral status measures. Results: The dimensions of oral health activities were determined, and the scales for their measurement were constructed. Females and males differed in the OHAQ questionnaire measures. Significant but low intercorrelations were found among the measures. In the female and male subsample, four different oral health (OH, hereinafter) types of subjects were identified, exhibiting different characteristic behaviours regarding oral health. OHAQ scales showed good discriminant validity, revealing the differences related to specific self-reported oral status measures (e.g., frequency of toothache and the number of filled teeth). Conclusions: The OHAQ represents a satisfactory measurement instrument for determining the level of OH activities and for doing quick and reliable classifications of the participating subjects according to their OH activities and behaviours. The process of further validation and advancements of the OHAQ scales and measures should be continued through a clinical examination of subjects.

Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Booster Vaccine: Associations between Green-Pass, Social Media Information, Anti-Vax Beliefs, and Emotional Balance.

The aims of the present investigation were (i) to determine psychological relapses of COVID-19 booster vaccine; (ii) to identify the determining factors affecting willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine; and (iii) to study the relationship among emotional characteristics (anxiety, stress, depression, optimism), social media information, and the mandatory political choices (i.e., green-pass) in Croatian people. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted for 1003 participants (median age: 40 years) from Croatia during December 2021. Results showed a significant association between vaccinated and unvaccinated participants in all sociodemographic variables, except for gender (p = 0.905). For psychological variables, significant differences were found only for levels of optimism (p < 0.001). People with a postgraduate degree (OR: 2.25, [1.14−4.46], p = 0.020) and PhD (OR: 1.97, [95% CI: 1.01−3.52], p = 0.021) had higher odds of being vaccinated than participants with high school diplomas. Additionally, participants seeking information on TV and radio (OR: 2.35, [1.71−3.23], p < 0.001) or from general practitioner (OR: 2.53, [1.78−3.61], p < 0.001) had higher odds of being vaccinated. Conversely, participants seeking information on social networks (OR: 0.36, [0.27−0.49], p < 0.001), general internet/blogs forums (OR: 0.34, [0.22−0.52], p < 0.001), and from friends or acquaintances (OR: 0.66, [0.48−0.91], p = 0.011) had lower odds of being vaccinated. Additionally, results showed that information policies have failed to fully convince the population to vaccinate and that depression (p = 0.491), anxiety (p = 0.220), and stress (p = 0.521) were not determining factors leading to the decision to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Most of the vaccinated participants perceived the green-pass as potentially useful. In contrast, most unvaccinated participants believed that the green-pass is a form of discrimination and not useful (88%). Further and broader research into possible reasons for continuing or undertaking vaccination is needed. It is recommended to introduce a measure of conformism that represents a change of attitude, belief, or behavior in a narrower sense.

A cross-sectional study on adaptation and initial validation of a test to evaluate health claims among high school students: Croatian version.

OBJECTIVES: We validated the Croatian version of the test using multiple-choice questions (MCQs) from the Claim Evaluation Tools item bank of the Informed Health Choices project, and measured the ability of high school students to appraise health claims. SETTING: 16 high schools from the urban agglomeration of the city of Split, Croatia. PARTICIPANTS: Final year high school students of at least 18 years of age. INTERVENTIONS: 18 MCQs from the item bank considered relevant for high school students were translated. After face-validity testing, the questionnaire was piloted and sent to a convenient sample of 302 high school students. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Difficulty and discrimination indices were calculated for each MCQ to determine the validity of translation and the weight of MCQs. We assessed basic metric characteristics and performed initial validation of the test. Two tests were created, the full (18 MCQs) and the short version (12 MCQs). We analysed differences in test score according to gender and school. RESULTS: The response rate was 96% (75% female respondents). Metric characteristics of both tests were satisfactory (Cronbach's α=0.71 for the full and α=0.73 for the short version). The mean score (±SD) for the full version was 11.15±3.43 and 8.13±2.76 for the short version. There were 6 easy and 12 moderately difficult questions. Questions concerning effectiveness and dissimilar comparison groups were answered correctly by fewer than 40% of students. Female students and those from grammar and health schools scored higher on both tests. CONCLUSIONS: Both tests showed good metric characteristics and may be used for quick and reliable assessments of adolescents' ability to appraise health claims. They may be used to identify needs and inform development of educational activities to foster critical thinking about health among adolescents.

Development and factorial validity of the Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports, Youth Version - Short Form: Assessment of the psychometric properties.

Researchers in sport often try to investigate relations between athletes' psychological skills and their sports results to predict top athletic achievements or unexpectedly poor performances. The Psychology Skills Inventory for Sports (Youth version), PSIS-Y, was developed to measure psychological characteristics of young athletes-differentiating well more talented and less talented young athletes. Nevertheless, previous studies revealed its inadequate, factorial validity. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop and investigate the psychometric proprieties of a brief version of the PSIS-Y (PSIS-Y-SF) in a sample of young Croatian athletes. Participants (n = 304; 188 females and 116 male) were recruited in clubs/teams all over Croatia and all of them competed in the Croatian Championship in youth (n = 157) and junior category (n = 147). The PSIS-Y-SF was derived by ten expert psychologists with five of them who had past experiences of agonistic sport practice. Psychometric analysis included Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), internal consistency analysis (Raykov's Maximal Reliability), and correlation between subscales. Moreover, Multivariate Analyses of Variance (MANOVA) was run to test statistical differences between the players' categories (male youth vs. male junior vs. female youth vs. female junior) in all of the subscales. Results of the CFA suggested the adequateness of the supposed six first-order factor solution for the PSIS-Y-SF. The Maximal Reliability statistics suggest a good internal consistency for all of the subscales and the MANOVA suggested differences between the player's categories. The PSIS-Y-SF resulted to be a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of sports psychological skills. Findings from the psychometric evaluation of PSIS-Y-SF suggest that this is a useful tool, which may further assist in the measurement and conceptualization of sport psychological skills.

Age-related progressive increase of lower back pain among male dance sport competitors.

BACKGROUND: Occurrence of musculoskeletal pain in dance sport dancers is often a cause for longer discontinuation of training, which affects the competition results. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the research project was to determine the age-specific pain experience among male dance sport competitors by defining the proportions of pain status of fourteen body regions. METHODS: The subject sample of 200 male dancers from 44 different countries and with international competitive experience was divided into three subsamples according to age. Three online questionnaires translated into eight world languages were used for data collection: (1) basic data questionnaire, (2) self-estimated functional inability because of pain questionnaire designed for dancers, and (3) health care-related questionnaire. RESULTS: After examining the 14 topological regions, it was established that dancers most often report pain in the lower back region (53.5%), followed by knee (43%) and toe regions (40.5%). Significant differences were found using the Chi-square test between the groups of dancers of different ages in the prevalence of pain in the lower back (χ 2 = 12.6), shoulders (χ 2 = 9.7), and hip region (χ 2 = 7), with the highest, age-related progressive differences in the lower back region (36.2-54.9-63.4%) so older dancers had more pain. Often reported reasons for discontinuation of training increased with age are overuse syndrome/tendinitis (6.4-15.9-22.5%) and strain (14.9-29.3-31%). Most common causes for longer discontinuation of training are absence of partner (37%), injuries (24%), and overuse syndrome (10%). CONCLUSION: Lower back pain is propounding health problem in male dancers and increases with age that cannot be resolved by decreasing training intensity. This research reveals that only 28% of male dancers will seek medical help because of occurrence of musculoskeletal pain. Multidisciplinary approach with the aim of long-term health protection and prolongation of dancing careers is required in future studies.

Relations of competitive state anxiety and efficacy of young volleyball players.

With the aim of validating the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory on a population of young Croatian volleyball players, 286 examinees, 106 male and 180 female volleyball players (average age of 16.09+/-1.83), filled out the CSAI-2, constructed by Martens, Vealey, Burton, Bump and Smith (1990)1. Given the fact that all scales of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory have good homogeneity, reliability and sensitivity, it can be concluded that they represent high-quality measuring instruments for measuring psychological characteristics of young volleyball players. Young male and female volleyball players generally have a moderate level of self-confidence, and their cognitive anxiety is more prominent that somatic anxiety. In order to determine the age and gender differences in somatic and cognitive anxiety and self-confidence, parametric analysis of differences was performed and coefficients of the independent samples t-test were calculated. By analysis of differences according to age, it has been established that female junior players, in relation to female youth players, express a significantly lower level of somatic and cognitive anxiety and a significantly higher level of self-confidence. As opposed to female players, male youth and junior players do not differ in any of the analysed variables. By analysis of differences according to gender, it has been established that male youth players have a significantly higher level of self-confidence in comparison to female youth players. No significant differences were found in the level of competitive anxiety and self-confidence by analysis of variance between different player roles. No significant differences were found by discriminant analysis in somatic and cognitive anxiety, and self-confidence of female volleyball players of different situational efficacy. The group of least efficient male volleyball players is characterized by a very low level of self-confidence, while the most efficient group of volleyball players is characterized by a somewhat lower level of cognitive and somatic anxiety.

Impact of body mass index on body image dimensions: results from a body-image questionnaire designed for dancers.

This investigation was conducted to test the reliability and validity of the Multidimensional Body Image Questionnaire (MBIQD) designed for dancers. The newly constructed MBIQD was administered to 393 female and male participants (average age 21.8 yrs) from three European countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia). The scale consisted of 43 items in a 5-point response scale. Factorial analysis yielded eight factors (attractiveness, strength, joy, bad health/weakness, flexibility, body efficacy, nervousness, and masculinity) and explained 56.6% of the total variance. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) of the items assigned to each of the eight MBIQD subscales was high and satisfactory (from 0.71 to 0.89). The second aim was to identify gender differences within the MBIQD subscales. According to independent-sample t-tests, female dancers showed significantly higher results on the MBIQD scales of joy and flexibility, while male dancers scored significantly higher on the masculinity scale. The third aim was to identify differences between the group of dancers defined by body mass index (BMI) and the eight MBIQD subscales separately by gender. According to the Wilks test, there was a significant multivariate effect for female subjects (F = 2.06, p<0.01) and for male subjects (F = 3.05, p<0.00). According to post-hoc Fisher LSD test, significant differences in BMI groups among female dancers were found in attractiveness, strength, and masculinity MBIQD scales, while the male dancers, divided by BMI, showed significant differences in bad health/weakness, body efficacy, and flexibility MBIQD scales. This is the first research that has reported specific gender differences in body image self-perception among dancers.