OBJECTIVES: To determine the health status of athletes before the start of an international athletics championship and to determine whether preparticipation risk factors predicted in-championship injuries.

METHODS: At the beginning of the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships, all registered athletes (n=1784) were invited to complete a preparticipation health questionnaire (PHQ) on health status during the month preceding the championships. New injuries that occurred at the championships were prospectively recorded.

RESULTS: The PHQ was completed by 698 (39%) athletes; 204 (29.2%) reported an injury complaint during the month before the championships. The most common mode of onset of preparticipation injury complaints was gradual (43.6%). Forty-nine athletes in the study reported at least one injury during the championships. Athletes who reported a preparticipation injury complaint were at twofold increased risk for an in-championship injury (OR=2.09; 95% CI 1.16 to 3.77); p=0.014). Those who reported a preparticipation gradual-onset injury complaint were at an almost fourfold increased risk for an in-championship time-loss injury (OR=3.92; 95% CI 1.69 to 9.08); p=0.001). Importantly, the preparticipation injury complaint severity score was associated with the risk of sustaining an in-championship injury (OR=1.14; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.22); p=0.001).

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS: About one-third of the athletes participating in the study reported an injury complaint during the month before the championships, which represented a risk factor for sustaining an injury during the championship. This study emphasises the importance of the PHQ as a screening tool to identify athletes at risk of injuries before international championships.

Sjukdomstillstånd och skador i organ och vävnader orsakar diverse funktionella avvikelser, som i sin tur ger upphov till symptom, som personen ifråga kan iaktta och lida av. Dessa orsakar funktionsnedsättningar, som påverkar individens möjligheter att fungera och klara sig i sin dagliga miljö hemma, i olika arbetssituationer och i olika sociala sammanhang.

Rapport vid IPP:S årliga forskningssymposium

The first aim of this study was to investigate the links between literacy, working memory and theory of mind in children with intellectual disability. Earlier studies have demonstrated these relationships in typically developing children.

This was investigated in 48 children with intellectual disability (mental age = 6:7 years, chronological age = 12:4 years). Mental age was assessed with the block design test of the WISC-III, i.e. the Swedish version of the WISC-R. Working memory was tested with six tests (digit span forward and backward, listening span with and without dual task, clown span [visuospatial test where participants had to recall placement of dots put on a drawing of a clown. The test was an adaption of the “Mr Peanut”-test.] with and without dual task). Theory of mind was tested with 6 tests (Sally Anne test of 1st and 2nd order theory of mind, own developed tests to minimize working memory load on the theory of mind task for 1st and 2nd order theory of mind, irony, and social blunders). Literacy was tested with 3 tests (comprehension of written words, comprehension of written sentences, and comprehension of written stories).

Factor analyses was made for the three concepts (working memory, theory of mind, and literacy) and the following factors were found: visuospatial working memory (loading on clown span with and without dual task), phonological working memory (loading on digit span and listening span both with and without dual task), Sally Anne theory of mind (loading on Sally Anne tests of 1st and 2nd order theory of mind), working memory free theory of mind (loading on own developed for 1st and 2nd order theory of mind), Advanced theory of mind (loading on own developed tests of irony, and social blunders), Literacy (loading on comprehension of written words and comprehension of written sentences. Comprehension of written stories did not load on the factor). There are intercorrelations between working memory, theory of mind, and Literacy, but not for all factors of all variables. All intercorrelations between the factors are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Intercorrelations between six variables of working memory (WM), theory of mind (ToM) and literacy: Visuospatial working memory, phonological working memory, Sally Anne theory of mind, working memory free theory of mind, advanced theory of mind and literacy. The six variables were created through factor analysis.

* Correlation significant at the 0.05 level (onetailed). ** Correlation significant at the 0.01 level (onetailed).

The second aim of this study was to examine if training of theory of mind also would improve literacy. A computerized theory of mind training program was developed. The program showed social situations (with pictures and speech) and the trainee had to chose from three given alternatives of what happened in the situation. Feedback (speech and instructions to choose another alternative) was given if the answer was wrong. The program adapted the level of difficulty according to performance.

One group (n = 21, mental age = 6:6 years, chronological age = 12:5 years) got computerized theory of mind training 15 minutes a day for 5 weeks at school. They improved their theory of mind ability compared to a group (n = 27, mental age = 6:8 years, chronological age = 12:3 years) that got similar computerized mathematical training (Interaction effect in an analysis of variance, F(1, 44) = 4.97, p < .05, partial η2 = .10). Literacy improved equally in both groups, which means that there was no transfer effect to literacy. The same was true for working memory. It was investigated if the training effect was dependent on any initial skills, but no significant correlations could be found between training gain and initial working memory, theory of mind and literacy abilities in the theory of mind training group.

The conclusion is that working memory, theory of mind and literacy correlates in children with intellectual disability, but improving theory of mind through training does not necessarily improve literacy or working memory.

This book presents an authoritative overview of memory in everyday contexts. Written by an expert team of international authors, it gathers together research on some of the more neglected but revealing areas of memory, to provide a comprehensive overview of remembering in real life situations.

Contributions from leading experts deal with a variety of important questions concerning everyday memory, from under-researched areas such as memory for odours, to more well known areas, like collective memory. Topics covered also include:

• Beliefs about memory and the metaphors used to discuss memory
• The relation between self-referent beliefs and actual memory performance
• The development of autobiographical memory.

Everyday Memory summarises current knowledge and presents new interpretations and hypotheses to be explored by future research. It discusses aspects of human memory which are frequently ignored or dealt with only very briefly by ordinary textbooks and as a result will have a broad appeal for researchers and students.

Evidence suggests that cognitive capacity predicts the ability to benefit from specific compression release settings in non-linear digital hearing instruments. Previous studies have investigated the predictive value of various cognitive tests in relation to aided speech recognition in noise using compression release settings that have been experienced for a certain period. However, the predictive value of cognitive tests with new settings, to which the user has not had the opportunity to become accustomed, has not been studied. In the present study, we compare the predictive values of two cognitive tests, reading span and letter monitoring, in relation to aided speech recognition in noise for 32 habitual hearing instrument users using new compression release settings. We found that reading span was a strong predictor of speech recognition in noise with new compression release settings. This result generalizes previous findings for experienced test settings to new test settings, for both speech recognition in noise tests used in the present study, Hagerman sentences and HINT. Letter monitoring, on the other hand, was not found to be a strong predictor of speech recognition in noise with new compression release settings.

Förmågan att höra behövs för flera olika ändamål hos människan. Hörselförmågan betyder att människan kan uppleva ljud och deras olika egenskaper både medvetet och omedvetet. Ljudperception innebär inte enbart att det uppfattas utan också att man diskriminerar, identifierar, igenkänner och kan minnas samt uppfattar ljud av olika mönster. Dessa kan ha också meningsbärande (semiotiskt) och lingvististiskt innehåll.