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W Tuxworth

Publications and source records attributed to W Tuxworth.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Health, fitness, physical activity, and morbidity of middle aged male factory workers. I.

A description of the fitness, physical activity of lifestyle, and some aspects of health status and attitudes in a population of male factory workers aged 35-60 is presented as the first part of a report on a study of morbidity in this population. A total of 1394 subjects were included, undergoing medical examination, fitness testing by bicycle ergometry, assessment of body fat, and interview questionnaire. The inter-relation of fitness, body composition, habitual exertion, health risk factors, and attitudes to exercise are discussed. Fitness levels are compared with those reported in other studies and discussed in terms of capacity for walking and running and in relation to criteria for health benefit. In these two latter respects fitness appears to be inadequate among the great majority of those tested, although it is comparable with that reported by several other recent studies. Fitness is associated with physical activity of leisure but not that of work. Only relatively strenuous physical activity in leisure time appears to be related to fitness, and is only participated in by some 28% of the sample. Cycling has the strongest association with fitness of all the physical activity variables. Blood pressure and percentage body fat are also associated, inversely, with fitness, the latter not unexpectedly because of the weight related measure of fitness.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Modelling the associations of BMI physical activity and diet with arterial blood pressure: some results from the Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey.

In order to identify risk factors (e.g. physical inactivity, dietary composition) associated with blood pressure within a given population, it is necessary to adjust for differences in known associations (e.g. age, body weight) using a method such as the analysis of covariance. However, the blood pressure results from the Allied Dunbar National Fitness Survey (ADNFS) were found to be non-linear with age, positively skewed (with heteroscedastic errors) and therefore non-normally distributed. Hence, before valid inferences can be drawn from such data, there is a clear need to formulate an appropriate model for blood pressure that will overcome these undesirable characteristics. A multiplicative model (with allometric body size components) was proposed and fitted to the ADNFS blood pressure results. After a logarithmic transformation the parsimonious solution was able to confirm the association with BMI, the non-linear changes with age, and overcome the heteroscedastic and positively skewed errors, i.e. the residuals from the fitted log-linear models for both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were symmetric and normally distributed. Other factors were found to make a significant additional contribution to the prediction of blood pressure. Cyclists, participants in vigorous physical activity and those subjects who consumed more fresh fruit, rice or pasta, and wine were found to have significantly lower mean levels of blood pressure. Indeed, the gap in blood pressure between participants and non-participants in vigorous physical activity increased further with age. However, subjects who drank more beer tended to have significantly higher mean levels of blood pressure. Thus by developing an appropriate model for arterial blood pressure, some well known, and some less well known, associations with arterial blood pressure have been identified. The results suggest that physical activity and other lifestyle factors may protect against hypertension.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Local research ethics committees. Widely differing responses to a national survey protocol.

The diversity in responses of local research ethics committees (LRECs) is illustrated with reference to consideration of the protocols for a national survey of physical activity, fitness and health in healthy volunteers. The survey included a questionnaire administered in the home, followed by a physical appraisal carried out in a mobile laboratory. The study was eventually approved by the 30 local committees to which it was submitted, but there was marked variation in the type of enquiries received and the special arrangements requested. At one extreme, some committees approved the study before seeing the detailed ethical submission; at the other extreme, suggested expensive and time-consuming alterations to the standard procedures. Our experience reveals a lack of uniformity in the operation of LRECs, serious enough to delay and even inhibit useful research, and a failure of some committees to adhere to guidelines suggested by the Royal College of Physicians and the Department of Health.

Clinical Protocols↗