Update: Exertional hyponatremia, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2006-2021.

From 2006 through 2021, there were 1,669 incident diagnoses of exertional hyponatremia among active component service members, for a crude overall incidence rate of 7.8 cases per 100,000 person-years (p-yrs). Compared to their respective counterparts, female service members, those less than 20 years old, and recruit trainees had higher overall incidence rates of exertional hyponatremia diagnoses. The overall incidence rate during the 16-year period was highest in the Marine Corps, intermediate in the Army and Air Force, and lowest in the Navy. Overall rates during the surveillance period were highest among non-Hispanic White service members and lowest among non-Hispanic Black service members. Between 2006 and 2021, crude annual incidence rates of exertional hyponatremia peaked in 2010 (12.7 per 100,000 p-yrs) and then decreased to a low of 5.3 cases per 100,000 p-yrs in 2013. Crude annual rates fluctuated between 2016 and 2021, reaching the highest rate in 2020 (8.3 per 100,000 p-yrs) and then decreased to 6.8 per 100,000 p-yrs in 2021. Service members and their supervisors must be knowledgeable of the dangers of excessive water consumption and the prescribed limits for water intake during prolonged physical activity (e.g., field training exercises, personal fitness training, and recreational activities) in hot, humid weather.

The role of perceived benefits and barriers in colorectal cancer screening in intervention trials among African Americans.

The Health Belief Model (HBM) is widely used in health behavior interventions. The lack of diverse samples in the development of this theory warrants additional study on how it performs among minorities. While studies have utilized HBM to address colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, limited information exists confirming how these constructs influence screening. Data from three CRC screening trials were used to examine how perceived benefits/barriers perform among African Americans (AA) and whether they serve as mechanisms of the intervention effects on screening. The data were collected in AA churches (Study 1: N = 103; Study 2: N = 285; Study 3: N = 374) where lay members conducted CRC education to increase screening. Participants perceived benefits from colonoscopy (M = 2.4/3, SD = 0.87) and perceived few barriers (M = 0.63/8, SD = 1.1). Benefits were perceived for the fecal occult blood test (M = 11.4/15, SD = 2.1), and few barriers were reported (M = 11.7/30, SD = 3.4). Benefits more consistently predicted pre-intervention screening relative to barriers. For Study 3, individuals with fewer barriers reported a greater increase in colonoscopy screening at 12-months versus those with higher barriers (OR = 0.595, 95% CI = 0.368-0.964), P = 0.035). Benefits/barriers did not mediate the relationship. Potential measurement limitations, particularly for barriers, were uncovered and further research on how to assess factors preventing AA from screening is needed.

Near-realistic mobile exergames with wireless wearable sensors.

Exergaming is expanding as an option for sedentary behavior in childhood/adult obesity and for extra exercise for gamers. This paper presents the development process for a mobile active sports exergame with near-realistic motions through the usage of body-wearable sensors. The process begins by collecting a dataset specifically targeted to mapping real-world activities directly to the games, then, developing the recognition system in a fashion to produce an enjoyable game. The classification algorithm in this paper has precision and recall of 77% and 77% respectively, compared with 40% and 19% precision and recall on current activity monitoring algorithms intended for general daily living activities. Aside from classification, the user experience must be strong enough to be a successful system for adoption. Indeed, fast and intense activities as well as competitive, multiplayer environments make for a successful, enjoyable exergame. This enjoyment is evaluated through a 30 person user study. Multiple aspects of the exergaming user experience trials have been merged into a comprehensive survey, called ExerSurvey. All but one user thought the motions in the game were realistic and difficult to cheat. Ultimately, a game with near-realistic motions was shown to be an enjoyable, active video exergame for any environment.