Attended Events Research Articles

Psychological characteristics, sport engagement, and performance in alpine skiers

Previously, investigators have sought to clarify the role of psychological factors in the development of expertise across numerous sport domains; however, almost no empirical work exists on winter sport athletes. Using a retrospective design, we examined associations between psychological traits, engagement in practice-related activities, and performance among sub-elite level, youth alpine skiers. A total of 169 skiers (88 women) enrolled at professional development academies in the United States completed a battery of questionnaires assessing practice history profiles and performance milestones, as well as various psychological factors (e.g., mental toughness, grit, perfectionism). Performance was assessed using national ranking across both speed and technical disciplines. In addition to linear models and MANOVA/MANCOVA tests, linear mixed-effect regressions were utilized to assess relationships between psychological factors, practice hours, and ranking over time. Higher scores on perfectionistic strivings (personal standards) were associated with improved performance. Also, grit was associated with increased engagement in individual practice hours. Coach-led one-on-one practice hours were associated with increased perfectionistic concerns (e.g., parental pressure), while indirect exposure (e.g., attending events without competing) was associated with decreased mental toughness. Findings highlight potentially important associations between athletes’ dispositional characteristics, prolonged ski engagement, and performance trajectory.

Work-directed rehabilitation or physical activity to support work ability and mental health in common mental disorders: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Objective: To evaluate feasibility and potential effectiveness of work-directed rehabilitation in people with common mental disorders. Design: Pilot randomized controlled trial. Setting: Primary healthcare, Sweden. Subjects: Working adults (n = 42) of mean age 46.2 ± 11.1 years with depression or anxiety disorder. Interventions: Eight weeks of work-directed rehabilitation (n = 21) or physical activity (n = 21). Work-directed rehabilitation included sessions with a physiotherapist and/or an occupational therapist, to develop strategies to cope better at work. Physical activity included a planning session and access to a local gym. Main measures: Feasibility: attendance, discontinuation and adverse events. Measurements were the Work Ability Index, the Global Assessment of Functioning, the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the World Health Organization—Five Well-Being Index. Results: Attendance to rehabilitation sessions was 88% (n = 147/167) and discontinuation rate was 14% (n = 3/21). No serious adverse events were reported. Within both groups, there was a significant improvement in Work Ability Index score (mean change: 3.6 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.45, 6.7) in work-directed rehabilitation and 3.9 (95% CI: 0.9, 7.0) in physical activity) with no significant difference between groups. For the other outcomes, significant improvements were found within but not between groups. Per-protocol analysis showed a trend toward the antidepressant effect of work-directed rehabilitation compared to physical activity (mean difference in depression score −3.1 (95% CI: −6.8, 0.4), P = 0.075). Conclusion: Work-directed rehabilitation was feasible to persons with common mental disorders and improved their work ability and mental health. Comparable improvements were seen in the physical activity group. Suggested modifications for a larger trial include adding a treatment-as-usual control.

The Perceived Influence of Sport Event Spectatorship on Subjective Wellbeing

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceived influence of major sports events on the subjective wellbeing of spectators. The research covered three sporting events featuring racket sports held in the UK between 2017 and 2018 and was concerned with spectators (aged 16 and over) who attended one of these events. Four aspects of subjective wellbeing were considered: life satisfaction, happiness, feeling worthwhile, and anxiety. A composite subjective wellbeing measure encompassing these aspects was also developed. Primary data were collected from spectators at each event and an overall spectator sample of 362 was achieved. Respondents perceived that their subjective wellbeing was enhanced significantly as a consequence of attending major sports events across all measures. We also found that frequency of event attendance and being inspired by events to be more physically active were positively and significantly associated with perceived improvements in subjective wellbeing attributed to attending events. Our study indicates that there are two potential mechanisms through which improvements in subjective wellbeing from attending major sports events are manifested. First, a direct effect of being at an event on subjective wellbeing. Second, an indirect effect of event attendance on subjective wellbeing that stems from a feeling of inspiration.

How well are students engaging with the careers services at university?

ABSTRACT Employability is a key concern for students and it is of increasing importance to universities with the inclusion of employability outcomes affecting performance in league tables and in the Teaching Excellence Framework. Universities typically teach employability either by embedding it within a course curriculum (embedded approach) or via the career services (parallel approach). This article explores the ratio of United Kingdom (UK) psychology departments adopting an embedded approach vs a parallel approach to employability and investigates how psychology students within a parallel department engage with their careers service. A survey of 258 undergraduate psychology students finds low levels of engagement with career service events, typically less than 50% attendance, despite increases in attendance over the course of student’s degree. These findings highlight how many students, in a parallel department are simply not attending events designed to help them explore their career options or assist them navigating the application process.

Electrophysiological evidence of sustained spatial attention effects over anterior cortex: Possible contribution of the anterior insula.

Spatial attention can improve performance in terms of speed and accuracy; this advantage may be mediated by brain processes at both poststimulus (reactive) and prestimulus (proactive) stages. Here, we studied how visuospatial attention affects both proactive and reactive brain functions using event-related potentials (ERPs). At reactive stage, effects of attention on parietal-occipital components are well documented; little data are available on anterior components. Seventeen participants performed simple and discriminative response tasks, while voluntarily and steadily attending either the left or right visual hemifield throughout one block. Response speed was faster for the attended side. At ERP level, attending to one hemifield did not produce lateralization of proactive components-that is, the BP and the pN. As for poststimulus components, we confirmed the well-known amplitude effects on the P1, N1, and P3. More interesting are results for the prefrontal components previously neglected in tasks modulating spatial attention. Previous studies suggest that these components reflect perceptual and sensory-motor awareness (pN1 and pP1 components), and stimulus-response mapping (pP2 component) associated to anterior insular activity. Spatial attention enhanced the pN1 and the pP1 amplitude but had no effect on the pP2. Overall, results extend knowledge on spatial attention, showing that sustained spatial attention affects the activity of anterior areas, such as the anterior insula, in addition to the known influence on occipital-parietal areas. Top-down spatial attention is likely mediated by increased sensory and sensory-motor awareness for attended events; this effect is evident in reactive, not proactive, brain activity.

Disseminating clinical and fiscal practices across the New York State behavioral healthcare system

ABSTRACT In order to facilitate the adoption of innovative practices in the mental health service system, providers require access to both new information and methodologies, and ongoing training, supervision and consultation. Technical Assistance centers have been proposed as a way to disseminate effective interventions through the provision of resources including information, ongoing training and consultation. The purpose of this study is to describe the New York State Technical Assistance Center’s reach across the child public mental health service system and variations in characteristics of training activities, including dosage, content and method of format. Between 2011 and 2015, 460 (92.6%) of all New York State mental health clinics attended a training. The most highly attended events focused on business practices, followed by evidence-based treatments and clinic practices, and trauma-informed care. All were delivered via a webinar format, and were less than one day in duration. The behavioral health service system must be equipped to adapt to changing clinical and business practices in order to provide quality care and remain fiscally viable. New York State’s TA center reached the majority of child mental health service providers across the state. Next steps are to closely examine the impact of TA supports upon adoption and sustained use of practices. Implications of these findings and additional future directions are presented.

The Times they Are A-Changin’: Incorporating Blockchain Networks into the Event Ticket Industry

The secondary market for event tickets is beleaguered with in-efficiencies and fraud. The advent of blockchain technology signals an opportunity to optimize the transfer of electronic goods. Applied to the ticket market, blockchain technology can eliminate fraud, bolster consumer sentiment towards attending events, and cut costs for exchanges, brokers, and con-cert-goers. Cooperation issues present looming roadblocks on the pathway to implementation. This Essay aims to address these issues and argue that blockchain technology is a surefire solution that can be implemented without sweeping legislative reform.

Establishment of a National Homelessness Prevention Programme dataset to enable an anonymised longitudinal dynamic cohort based study

IntroductionWelsh Government invests over £120m annually in housing related support to help prevent and tackle homelessness under the ‘Supporting People Programme’.
 A 2016 data-linkage Feasibility Study indicated health-service utilisation reductions post-intervention, and led to a four year project to create a national, all-Wales dataset to provide robust statistical results.
 Objectives and ApproachEstablish data sharing agreements, acquire and import anonymised individual-level data into the SAIL Databank. Create a research ready dataset, designed to permit annual administrative data updates to form dynamic cohort and control groups.
 Create several control group methods: 1) Internal Programme Data; 2) Matched controls; 3) Healthcare-Utilisation Patterns; 4) External Data Sources.
 Link to routine health data, obtain and link to other public service data to gain a deeper understanding of the Programme; how it affects use of other public services, and whether it helps people live independently.
 Complete statistical analysis using a Generalised Linear Mixed Modelling approach.
 ResultsData sharing agreements, data acquisition and standardisation complete for nineteen of twenty-two Unitary Authorities in Wales. Temporal coverage varies by Unitary Authority (2003-2017). 2016 data measures: match rates >85%; 57% female; lead reason for support (top 5) : ‘General’ 20%, ‘Mental Health’ 15%, ‘Older People’ 14%, ‘Domestic Abuse’ 9%, ‘Young People’ 7%.
 Various control group methods employed: 1) Internal ‘Programme’ Data – no support taken up; 2) Matched controls; 3) Healthcare-Utilisation Patterns – rejected due to sparse outcome data; 4) External Data Sources being further explored.
 Health data-linkage (emergency admissions, emergency department attendance and primary care events) complete. Ongoing discussions to obtain sample social care, and police call data during 2018.
 Statistical analysis underway with results planned to be published during the summer of 2018.
 Conclusion/ImplicationsDespite many challenges, creation of a national linked dataset for people at risk of homelessness is possible with collaborative working between central government, academic and local government bodies. This ‘Administrative Data Research Centre Wales’ project has created a rich research resource enabling statistical analysis to answer research questions around homelessness.

Tele-delivered mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A mixed-methods feasibility study

Introduction Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has been shown to reduce psychological distress in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but uptake and attendance rates of hospital-based, face-to-face mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are low. The present mixed-methods study evaluates the clinical feasibility of home-based, tele-delivered mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods Eight patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (mean age: 72.6 years; 50% female) received a standardised eight-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy programme delivered via home-based video-conferences in groups of four. Feasibility in relation to (a) clinical change, (b) attendance and (c) instructor-patient working alliance were evaluated with questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Results Statistically non-significant reductions in psychological distress (Cohen’s d = 0.504; p = 0.399) and physical health status impairment (d = 0.743; p = 0.156) were observed from pre- to post-intervention. Participant narratives about clinical outcomes focused on changes in how to relate to unpleasant sensations, i.e. through attentional flexibility, taking a pause and acceptance. The average attendance rate was 7.5 (standard deviation = 0.8) out of eight sessions and no participants dropped out. The tele-based format appeared to accommodate participants’ planning difficulties and promoted their ability and wish to participate. Although participant narratives suggested the tele-based format to be a barrier to developing a trusting and safe therapeutic environment, working alliance questionnaire scores were comparable to those found for face-to-face mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Discussion The preliminary results indicate that tele-delivered mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a clinically feasible intervention in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Future large-scale, randomised controlled trials testing its efficacy on the outcomes of psychological distress and physical health status should include analyses of potential mediators and moderators of the effect as well as and careful monitoring of attendance and adverse events.

The Applicability of a High-Intensity Functional Exercise Program Among Older People With Dementia Living in Nursing Homes.

Background and Purpose:Exercise programs for people with dementia need to be optimized. We therefore evaluated the applicability of a high-intensity functional exercise program among people with dementia in nursing homes with regard to attendance, achieved exercise intensity, adverse events, a focus on dementia type, and whether symptoms of dementia or other medical conditions common in this population were associated with program applicability.Methods:The Umeå Dementia and Exercise study, a cluster-randomized controlled trial set in 16 nursing homes in Umeå, Sweden. Ninety-three people with dementia (mean [SD] Mini-Mental State Examination score of 15.4 [3.4]) were randomized to the exercise intervention. Thirty-four participants had Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 59 non-Alzheimer's dementia (non-AD). High-Intensity Functional Exercise (HIFE) program was conducted in groups of 3 to 8 participants. Two physiotherapists led 5 sessions (45 minutes each) per fortnight for 4 months (total 40 sessions).Results:Median attendance rate was 82.5%. Lower limb strength exercises were performed at high or medium intensity at a median interquartile range of 94.7% (77.8%-100%) of attended sessions. Participants with non-AD performed more sessions with high intensity in strength exercises than participants with AD (median interquartile range, 53.8% [25.7%-80%] vs 34.9% [2.02%-62.9%]; P = .035). Balance exercises were performed at high intensity at a median interquartile range of 75% (33.3%-88.6%). Adverse events (all minor and temporary, mostly musculoskeletal) occurred during the exercise sessions in 16% of attended sessions. Low motivation was the most common barrier for attendance. Buildup period, low motivation, and pain were common barriers for achieving high intensity in balance and strength exercises, and fear was a barrier in balance exercises. Of medical conditions, only behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, including apathy, were negatively associated with applicability.Conclusion:A group-based, supervised, and individualized high-intensity functional exercise program seems to be applicable with regard to attendance, achieved intensity, and adverse events during the exercise sessions, in people with mild to moderate dementia in nursing homes. Effective strategies to enhance motivation to participate in exercise, as well as prevention and treatment of pain and behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, are important when promoting exercise participation in this population.

Special Issue on Leadership, Preparation and Development

This Special Issue of Management in Education originated from the new research interest group (RIG) launched in May 2015. The RIG was a response to a BELMAS EdD symposium, held at the University of Nottingham, back in October 2014, where it was thought that the leadership preparation and development of school teachers required more in-depth research. The Leadership Preparation and Development (LPD) RIG has held two or three very well attended events each year since. These have examined the fast-moving changes in this area. England is the only country in the world that has introduced a mandatory qualification for headship, and then removed it again, and it was following this decision that this RIG was established to shed light on what preparation and development is taking place for school leaders within current systems. Early on, the RIG convenors decided that a way forward for the group was to look at LPD from the angles of global, macro, meso and micro levels. We have used this at all RIG sessions since, sometimes having presentations on the micro level – an in-depth look at what individual schools are doing to help prepare and develop their future leaders, through to our last RIG meeting where a panel event was held in order to ascertain what strategies are currently being deployed to effectively prepare and develop our future school leaders both nationally and internationally. Information on all these events and our forthcoming RIG meeting are available on our RIG page: https://www.belmas.org.uk/Rig-LD/Overview.

Characterizing the Landscape: Collegiate Organizations’ Chemistry Outreach Practices

Little scholarly investigation of chemistry outreach carried out by undergraduate students in schools and communities has occurred despite widespread practice and monetary investment by large national and international organizations. This study provides the first investigation of these fairly uncharted waters by characterizing expected outcomes of outreach events, the types of activities and chemistry content widely practiced, and how outreach practitioners evaluate the success of events. Results from an open-ended survey deployed nationally to college students and faculty/staff members involved with collegiate chapters of the American Chemical Society and Alpha Chi Sigma are presented. Students and faculty/staff members reported that the most prevalent purposes of chemistry outreach are learning and having fun as a result of attending events, and that events typically involve demonstrations using liquid nitrogen, making slime, and the elephant toothpaste reaction. Differences between students and faculty/staff members are also presented as well as potential future investigations of chemistry outreach practices, which are needed to fully understand this unique chemistry teaching and learning environment.

Repairing the Disjointed Narrative of Ballarat's Theatre Royal

Repairing the Disjointed Narrative of Ballarat's Theatre Royal

Long-term outcomes of EUS-guided choledochoduodenostomy using a lumen-apposing metal stent for malignant distal biliary obstruction: a prospective multicenter study

EUS-guided choledochoduodenostomy (EUS-CDS) using conventional tubular stents has been successfully performed. However, EUS-CDS carries a high risk of bile leakage with attendant adverse events. This study aimed to prospectively evaluate the long-term outcome of EUS-CDS using a dedicated lumen-apposing metal stent (LAMS). Nineteen patients (mean age, 70.6 years; 12 men) with unresectable malignant diseases were treated in 5 tertiary referral centers. EUS-CDS was performed using a fully covered LAMS with a cautery-enhanced delivery system for EUS-CDS. All stents were successfully deployed without any adverse events. Jaundice improved in 79% of the patients within 7 days and finally in 95%. In 95% of patients the stents remained in good anastomotic position without migration or dislocation during the follow-up period (median, 184 days; range, 12-819). One patient had a fever the day after stent placement. During the follow-up period 5 patients had secondary stent obstruction because of food residue (n= 2), kinking (n= 1), suspected tumor ingrowth (n= 1), and spontaneous dislodgement (n= 1). Five patients developed obstruction in the second portion of the duodenum. The overall adverse event rate was 36.8% (7/19), mostly with mild severity. This study revealed that the novel dedicated LAMS used has high technical and clinical success rates for EUS-CDS. The adverse events and patency rates are inferior to the historically reported data of a conventional transpapillary metal stent. Development of a more suitable dedicated LAMS is anticipated.

Uncovering the pathways to e-learning success: A qualitative approach

This paper reports a qualitative study on the effectiveness of an e-learning framework (IPTEACES) for Insurance Broker Training Program Certifications, using a sample of 3,726 trainees from 16 different corporations from insurance and banking industries in Portugal. We’ve applied fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) technique, which offers improved results when compared to the use of quantitative traditional statistical methods (e.g. regressions, structural equations modeling) that only provide an estimated solution to the dependent variable at stake. Findings suggest higher training success levels are achieved by: older, more educated women trainees attending banking training events covering a large breadth (double course). Concerning lower training success results, evidence shows that those are achieved by: less educated male trainees, attending insurance training events covering a single course. These study results are consistent with previous reported work that followed a quantitative approach.

Exploiting organizer influence and geographical preference for new event recommendation

AbstractThe rapid growth of event‐based social networks (EBSNs) has generated great demand for personalized event recommendation. Indeed, new events are published every day in EBSNs. In this paper, we focus on the problem of recommending new events (i.e., the newly published events that have not yet received any user response) to registered users in EBSNs. Notice that collaborative filtering is ineffective for recommending new events due to the short lifetime of events and the lack of historical information, that is, the cold‐start problem. A straightforward approach to address this problem is to adopt content‐based recommendation techniques, for example, deriving user interests through the content information of the events they attended. Nevertheless, we observe that organizer influence and geographical preference also play important roles in a user's decision to participate in an event. Motivated by this observation, we combine user interest, organizer influence, and geographical preference to present a unified model for new event recommendation. In particular, we utilize a topic model to derive user interests while adopting matrix factorization to infer organizer influences on users from the interactions between users and organizers. Moreover, we model users' geographical preferences via their location histories of attended events. We conduct a performance evaluation using real‐world data collected from DoubanEvent. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed recommendation model.

Safety of Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis Vaccination During Pregnancy: A Systematic Review.

To assess antenatal, birth, and infant outcomes for pregnant women, fetuses, and infants after antenatal vaccination with any antigen present in combination pertussis vaccines. PubMed, EMBASE, Literature in the Health Sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean, ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane Library, and World Health Organization (inception to May 5, 2016). Studies reporting outcomes for pregnant women, their fetus, or infant after antenatal exposure to either monovalent or combined tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) or inactivated polio vaccines were considered for inclusion. A total of 21 studies were included in this review. Point estimates ranged from 0.47 to 1.50 for preterm birth (less than 37 weeks of gestation), 0.65-1.00 for small for gestational age (birth weight less than the 10th percentile), 0.36-0.85 for stillbirth, 0.16-1.00 for neonatal death, 0.76-1.20 for low birth weight (less than 2,500 g), and 0.20-0.91 for congenital anomalies. All lower 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were less than 1.0. Of three retrospective studies assessing chorioamnionitis after vaccination, one showed a small but statistically significant increase. Point estimates for all anomalies after antenatal tetanus toxoid vaccination ranged from 1.20 to 1.60 and had 95% CIs that crossed 1.0. There was substantial clinical and methodologic heterogeneity from mainly retrospective observational studies with an overall high risk of bias. Objective rates of fever were low, 3% or below, and more common systemic events observed included headache, malaise, and myalgia. Evidence suggests that antenatal combined Tdap administered during the second or third trimester of pregnancy is not associated with clinically significant harms for the fetus or neonate. Medically attended events in pregnant women are similar between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.

Safety of quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine in subjects aged 2–49 years

BackgroundQuadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (Q/LAIV) was licensed in 2012 and replaced trivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine in the United States during the 2013–2014 influenza season. This study assessed the safety of Q/LAIV in children and adults aged 2–49years. MethodsThis was a prospective observational cohort study using data collected from Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Post-vaccination events of interest were any hospitalization, hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infection, and the following medically attended events: hypersensitivity, seizures/convulsions, lower respiratory tract infection, wheezing, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, encephalitis, neuritis, vasculitis, and narcolepsy/cataplexy. The rates of these events during the risk interval post-vaccination were compared with rates observed during reference periods later in the follow-up (within-cohort analysis) and with rates observed in frequency-matched unvaccinated controls and inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) recipients. ResultsA total of 62,040 eligible Q/LAIV recipients were identified during the 2013–2014 influenza season. Within-cohort comparisons of all Q/LAIV recipients as well as comparisons between Q/LAIV recipients and unvaccinated controls or IIV recipients did not show any significantly higher risk of hospitalizations or medically attended events following administration of Q/LAIV. Additional analyses by setting (clinic visits, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions) and age group (2–4, 5–8, 9–17, and 18–49years) also did not reveal clinically consistent findings that suggested any increased risk after administration of Q/LAIV. ConclusionIn this large population study of individuals aged 2–49years, no safety signals associated with the administration of Q/LAIV were observed. A much larger study population would be needed to confidently reject any association between Q/LAIV and very rare events, specifically those with an incidence of <1 event/10,000 person-years.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01985997

Abstract A04: Social activities and events and their role in determining health behavior adoption among minority college students

Abstract Cancer risk behaviors, including tobacco use, alcohol binge drinking, and physical inactivity, co-occur at high rates among racially and ethnically diverse college students. The overall goal of this paper is to develop a robust framework, founded on mathematical and computational models, to enhance our understanding of the social and environmental mechanisms that determine changes in health risk behavior, including alcohol binge drinking, tobacco use, and physical activity, among students enrolled in a commuter, federally designated Minority-Serving Institution in Chicago (Northeastern Illinois University, NEIU). Our underlying conceptual premise is that mutually affecting health risk behaviors spread interpersonally through social interactions and influences but can also occur spontaneously, through non-social contextual influences and increased time spent in high-risk settings. Our work acknowledges the existence of an adaptive dynamic culture of college students and incorporates a new metric, the distribution of time spent in distinct venues of students, to study its impact on population's health behaviors patterns. Our work characterizes, for the first time, social contexts of the NEIU students' diverse population and examines the effect of residence times in environments and contextual social networks on dynamics of multiple health behaviors. Our fall 2015 survey parses out social and environmental contextual pathways that are particularly relevant for college students and includes information on close friendships, peer health behavior, student allocations of time, engagement in activities on, near and off-campus and duration. Preliminary findings regarding environments in which students spend their time show that student smokers most often frequent on-campus fine arts events. All varieties of on-campus and near campus events reveal high participation rates of physically inactive students. Binge drinkers (defined as at least one episode of drinking 5 or more drinks in a row over the last 2 weeks) favored attending intercollegiate sports events over all other activity on or near campus. Intercollegiate sport events were most often frequented by students declaring multiple unhealthy behaviors. Our findings suggest to what extent (and where) interventions aimed at altering observed patterns of socialization (e.g. through tailored residence assignments or fraternity and sorority recruiting policies) and/or distribution of the times spent in students' potential environments (e.g., through sports or religious events) hold promise in controlling unhealthy behaviors among college students, especially, students of color. Citation Format: Christina Ciecierski, Brian Hitsman, Daniel Romero, Anuj Mubayi. Social activities and events and their role in determining health behavior adoption among minority college students. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A04.

Gene therapy for diabetic retinopathy: Are we ready to make the leap from bench to bedside?

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a chronic and progressive complication of diabetes mellitus, is a sight-threatening disease characterized in the early stages by neuronal and vascular dysfunction in the retina, and later by neovascularization that further damages vision. A major contributor to the pathology is excess production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a growth factor that induces formation of new blood vessels and increases permeability of existing vessels. Despite the recent availability of effective treatments for the disease, including laser photocoagulation and therapeutic VEGF antibodies, DR remains a significant cause of vision loss worldwide. Existing anti-VEGF agents, though generally effective, are limited by their short therapeutic half-lives, necessitating frequent intravitreal injections and the risk of attendant adverse events. Management of DR with gene therapies has been proposed for several years, and pre-clinical studies have yielded enticing findings. Gene therapy holds several advantages over conventional treatments for DR, such as a longer duration of therapeutic effect, simpler administration, the ability to intervene at an earlier stage of the disease, and potentially fewer side-effects. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the pathophysiology of DR and provide an overview of research into DR gene therapies. We also examine current barriers to the clinical application of gene therapy for DR and evaluate future prospects for this approach.