Hockey Fans in Training (Hockey FIT): Rationale, design, and baseline characteristics from a cluster randomized controlled trial in men with overweight or obesity.

BACKGROUND: Previous research highlights the need for effective lifestyle interventions for men. Hockey Fans in Training (Hockey FIT) was developed as a pragmatic healthy lifestyle program tailored to men with overweight or obesity. This paper overviews the rationale, program details, and design of a recently completed cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Hockey FIT. Participant engagement and baseline characteristics are also described. METHODS: The RCT evaluated the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and implementation of Hockey FIT. Forty-two sites in Canada and the United States were randomized to either the Hockey FIT intervention group or wait-list control group. Participants were men, aged 35-65 years, with a body mass index (BMI) ≥27 kg/m2. Hockey FIT is a group-based, off-ice, in-person healthy lifestyle program, including both a 3-month active phase and a 9-month minimally-supported phase. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, 3, and 12 months. The primary outcome was weight loss at 12 months. RESULTS: The design of the cluster RCT incorporates evaluations of participant health outcomes, program implementation, and broader healthcare system impact. In the RCT, 1397 participants were assessed for eligibility and 997 were enrolled. Most participants heard about the program through social media or hockey team emails. Participants averaged 49 years of age, had BMI values of 35.3 kg/m2, were predominately white, and had varying levels of education. CONCLUSION: The intended audience for Hockey FIT was recruited successfully, however, targeted recruitment to better engage diverse populations is warranted. This paper affords a useful outline for evaluating future lifestyle interventions tailored to men. This trial was registered on August 17, 2018 with ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT03636282).

The independent associations of physical activity and sleep with neural activity during an inhibitory task: cross-sectional results from the MONITOR-OA study.

Sleep and physical activity (PA) are important for the maintenance of executive functions. Whether these lifestyle factors independently contribute to associated neural correlates of executive functions is unknown. We therefore investigated the independent associations of PA and sleep with neural activity during executive performance using task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Baseline data from a subset of participants (n = 29) enrolled in a randomised trial were used for this cross-sectional analysis. We measured PA, sleep duration and efficiency for 7 days using the SenseWear Mini and examined neural activity underlying response inhibition using the Go/NoGo executive performance task. Brain activation patterns during the NoGo condition were contrasted to activation patterns during the Go condition (i.e., NoGo-Go). We constructed two separate models (controlling for age, sex, and education) to examine the independent associations of (i) PA and sleep duration; and (ii) PA and sleep efficiency with brain activation. Significant clusters were corrected for multiple comparisons (p < 0.05) to determine region-specific activation patterns. The mean (SD) participant age was 61 (9) years, and 79% were female. PA was independently associated with greater task-related blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal activity in the left cingulate gyrus; longer sleep duration was independently associated with greater BOLD signal activity in the left putamen. Higher sleep efficiency was independently associated with increased BOLD signal activity in the left hippocampus. PA, sleep duration, and efficiency are each independently associated with greater neural activity underlying response inhibition, which further illustrates that PA and sleep are each uniquely important for brain health.