Garden Tabacchi

University of Palermo

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i-10 index

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Antonino Bianco

University of Palermo

Antonio Palma

Universidade Federal da Bahia

Ewan Thomas

University of Palermo

Monèm Jemni

University of Cambridge

Marianna Bellafiore

University of Palermo

Antonio Paoli

University of Padua

Marianna Alesi

University of Palermo

S Giammanco

University of Palermo

Marco Giammanco

University of Palermo

Francesco Vitale

University of Palermo

Cooperative Institutions

University of Palermo

Neuroscience Institute

Italian Society of Physiotherapy

Sapienza University of Rome

Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Policlinico "Paolo Giaccone" di Palermo

Instituto de Salud Carlos III

Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition

Lithuanian Sports University

University of Milan

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Validation and reproducibility of dietary assessment methods in adolescents: a systematic literature review

Public Health Nutrition (2013)

Garden Tabacchi Emanuele Amodio Maria Di Pasquale Antonino Bianco Monèm Jemni

Abstract Objective The aim of the present work was to determine what dietary assessment method can provide a valid and accurate estimate of nutrient intake by comparison with the gold standard. Design A MEDLINE, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane and related references literature review was conducted on dietary assessment methods for adolescents reporting the validity and/or reproducibility values. A study quality assessment on the retrieved FFQ was carried out according to two different scoring systems, judging respectively the quality of FFQ nutrition information and of FFQ validation and calibration. Setting The present review considered adolescents attending high schools and recruited in hospitals or at home. Subjects The target of the review was the healthy adolescent population in the age range 13–17 years. Results Thirty-two eligible papers were included and analysed separately as ‘original articles’ ( n 20) and ‘reviews’ ( n 12). The majority ( n 17) assessed the validation and reproducibility of FFQ. Almost all studies found the questionnaires to be valid and reproducible ( r > 0·4), except for some food groups and nutrients. Different design and validation issues were highlighted, such as portion-size estimation, number of food items and statistics used. Conclusions The present review offers new insights in relation to the characteristics of assessment methods for dietary intake in adolescents. Further meta-analysis is required although the current review provides important indications on the development of a new FFQ, addressing the need for a valid, reproducible, user-friendly, cost-effective method of accurately assessing nutrient intakes in adolescents.

Food frequency questionnaire

Gold standard (test)

10.1017/s1368980013003157

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Relationship between Lifestyle Determinants and Perceived Mental and Physical Health in Italian Nursery and Primary School Teachers after the COVID-19 Lockdown

Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology (2024)

Antonino Scardina Garden Tabacchi Ewan Thomas Giovanni Angelo Navarra Luca Petrigna

The COVID-19 lockdown and the consequent distance school learning made epochal changes in children’s lifestyles; however, little is known about the lockdown effects on school teacher habits. The aim of this observational study is to examine differences in the lifestyle of nursery (NS) and primary (PS) school teachers after one of the COVID-19 lockdowns and investigate the relationship between perceived physical/mental health and demographics, weight status and lifestyle determinants, such as adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) and physical activity level (PAL). A total sample of 265 participants (49.22 ± 6.95 years) filled out an online information questionnaire and standardized questionnaires to collect data on the Physical Component Summary (PCS), Mental Component Summary (MCS), PAL and MD-adherence. A t-test or ANOVA analysis was used to assess differences between quantitative variables: Mann–Whitney U or Kruskal–Wallis tests for qualitative variables. Spearman’s correlations and multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to identify categorical factors associated with classes of PCS and MCS. Teachers showed sufficient/high PAL, with a significantly higher level in the PS group (p < 0.05). This last showed a higher PCS score (p < 0.05). No differences between groups were found for MD-adherence, which was moderate/fair in both groups, and MCS, which was sufficient/good. Logistic regression showed that the only positive predictor of a high PCS was being physically active (OR 2.10, 95%CI 1.05–4.2, p < 0.05), while MCS was positively associated with normal weight status (OR 0.48, 95%CI 0.33–0.78, p = 0.020). This study highlights that PS teachers are more active than the NS group and perceive a higher physical health level. Mere predictors of physical and mental well-being are PA practice and being normal weight, respectively. This suggests that interventions to improve perceived health in this work category should be focused on the promotion of physical activity practice and on the maintenance of an optimal weight status.

Mediterranean Diet

Demographics

10.3390/jfmk9010033

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Combined effect of different factors on weight status and cardiometabolic risk in Italian adolescents

The Italian Journal of Pediatrics/Italian journal of pediatrics (2019)

Antonino Bianco Anna Rita Filippi João Breda Vincenza Leonardi Antonio Paoli

The observed increase in body weight and cardiometabolic risk (CR) in youth from developed countries contributes to the global burden of chronic diseases in adult age. The aim of this work is to provide a patterning of the associations between different factors and the weight status and CR of the subjects involved in the Italian ministerial ASSO project.This study involved 919 students from high schools in Palermo. Weight, height and waist circumference were collected by trained teachers; weight status was estimated by the BMI cut-offs for adolescents and CR through the waist-to-height ratio. Questionnaires were administered through the web-based ASSO-NutFit software. Chi-square test investigated the variables significantly associated with the outcomes, which were then included in a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), to explore their dimensional relationship to weight status and CR. Poisson regressions were conducted separately for the two outcomes, reporting raw and adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) and Bootstrap Method was used to determine confidence intervals (CIs), to assessing the degree of effect of the explanatory variables over the outcomes.Two main dimensions were evidenced, with the overweight/obese group and the group at CR characterized by the following strongly associated factors: male gender, overweight/obese parents, following a slimming regime, caesarean birth, sedentariness, being under/overweight at birth, presence of metabolic risk, going to school by car/scooter, not using supplements.This study contributed to identifying those adolescents that should be prioritized in interventions aiming at reducing overweight/obesity and CR in this age group.

10.1186/s13052-019-0619-9

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An Interaction Path of Mothers’ and Preschoolers’ Food- and Physical Activity-Related Aspects in Disadvantaged Sicilian Urban Areas

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2021)

Garden Tabacchi Luca Petrigna Giuseppe Battaglia Giovanni Angelo Navarra Antonio Palma

Background: The relationship between mothers and their children’s lifestyle is still unclear, especially in disadvantaged areas. Consequently, the study aims to identify a path explaining the extent to which maternal eating habits and physical activity (PA) level predict food-related aspects, PA practice and Quotient of Gross Motor Development (QGMD) in preschoolers from disadvantaged urban areas. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 79 dyads of mothers and children were recruited from kindergartens. Information related to family socio-demographic aspects, mothers’ and children’s dietary intake frequencies and PA/sedentariness, mothers’ weight and height, mothers’ perception on children’s food intake, and children’s food literacy (FL) was collected with a questionnaire and the Food Literacy Assessment Tool (preschool-FLAT), while gross-motor skills were measured with the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD); weight and height of children were directly collected. Results: Associations were found between mothers’ and children’s food habits; mothers’ and children’s fruit/vegetables consumption, and intake of the other items; mothers’ education or PA level and children’s FL; mothers’ PA or sedentariness and children’s QGMD; mothers’ BMI and food habits and children’s BMI; education and food habits. Conclusions: These findings can be useful to plan effective interventions targeted both to preschoolers and their mothers of disadvantaged urban areas for promoting healthy lifestyles, which have become increasingly difficult to achieve during COVID-19 pandemic.

Disadvantaged

Gross motor skill

10.3390/ijerph18062875

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A Fitness Index model for Italian adolescents living in Southern Italy: the ASSO project.

PubMed (2016)

Antonino Bianco Caterina Mammina Monèm Jemni Anna Rita Filippi Antonino Patti

Strong relations between physical fitness and health in adolescents have been established in the last decades. The main objectives of the present investigation were to assess major physical fitness components in a sample of Italian school adolescents, comparing them with international data, and providing a Fitness Index model derived from percentile cut-off values of five considered physical fitness components.A total of 644 school pupils (15.9±1.1 years; M: N.=399; F: N.=245) were tested using the ASSO-Fitness Test Battery (FTB), a tool developed within the Adolescents and Surveillance System for the Obesity prevention project, which included the handgrip, standing broad-jump, sit-up to exhaustion, 4×10-m shuttle run and 20-m shuttle run tests. Stratified percentile values and related smoothed curves were obtained. The method of principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to the considered five fitness components to derive a continuous fitness level score (the Fit-Score). A Likert-type scale on the Fit-Score values was applied to obtain an intuitive classification of the individual level of fitness: very poor (X0.5) between the Fit-Score and all the fitness components. The median Fit-Score was equal to 33 for females and 53 for males (in a scale from 0 to 100).The ASSO-FTB allowed the assessment of health-related fitness components in a convenient sample of Italian adolescents and provided a Fitness Index model incorporating all these components for an intuitive classification of fitness levels. If this model is confirmed, the monitoring of these variables will allow early detection of health-related issues in a mass population, thus giving the opportunity to plan appropriate interventions.

Multi-stage fitness test

Fitness test

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METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN THE DEVELOPMENTOF THE LIFESTYLE SURVEILLANCE TOOLKIT IN THE ASSOPROJECT

Antonino Bianco Garden Tabacchi

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A METHODOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FOR A WEB-BASED SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM OF ADOLESCENT FOOD HABITS AND LIFESTYLES – THE ASSO PROJECT

Caterina Mammina Emanuele Amodio Antonino Bianco Garden Tabacchi Mariagrazia Morici

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Adolescence Surveillance System for Obesity Prevention (ASSO) in Europe

Advances in business information systems and analytics book series (2017)

Garden Tabacchi Monèm Jemni João L. Viana Antonino Bianco

Adolescents' obesity is a major concern in our modern life that could lead to significant increase in the rate of obese future generations and consequently in the health budget. The ASSO (Adolescence Surveillance System for Obesity prevention) project in Italy is tackling this new pandemic using the new e-technology through a multi facets monitoring system on life style including food consumptions, meal patterns and habits, alcohol, smoking, physical activity, fitness and sedentariness, and biological/genetic, and socio-cultural/environmental characteristics of adolescents. The project has been recently piloted in the South of the country. This chapter summarizes the design and structure of the ASSO system, its implementation and the results of an evaluation process for its possible extension to the whole Italian territory and to other European realities as a national surveillance system.

Pandemic

10.4018/978-1-5225-2492-2.ch005

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Percentile values of the standing broad jump in children and adolescence aged 6-18 years old

European Journal of Translational Myology (2020)

Ewan Thomas Luca Petrigna Garden Tabacchi Eduardo Teixeira Simona Pajaujienė

The standing broad jump (SBJ) is a valid, reliable and feasible field-based test, which can evaluate explosive strength of the lower limbs and physical fitness. This study aimed to provide normative data for the SBJ for male and female children and adolescents and describe differences in performance between age groups and genders. A total number of 2140 children and adolescents, sampled in seven European nations have been included for analysis. The SBJ was performed to derive percentile values for gender and each age group. In general, males have greater jumping performance compared to females. Data demonstrate a linear increase in the jumping distance for both males and females until adolescence. However, such increase is evident in males up to 16-17 years old, whereas in females a plateau value is met at 12-13 years old, with a subsequent decrease in the jumping performance. No differences were present in jumping performance between male and female children, however differences between male and female adolescents were evinced. The study has provided percentile values useful to monitor the physical fitness status of children and adolescents.

10.4081/ejtm.2020.9050

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Dietary calcium intake and evaluation of some influencing factors, in preadolescent schoolchildren from Palermo, for the prevention of osteoporosis

Maurizio La Guardia Alessandra Casuccio Marco Giammanco S Giammanco Biagia Vaccaro

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