Background:Taking a representative snapshot of physical activity intervention trial findings published between 1996 and 2006, we empirically evaluated participant characteristics, response and retention rates, and their associations with intervention settings.Methods:A structured database search identified 5 representative health behavior journals, from which 32 research reports of physical activity intervention trials were reviewed. Interventions settings were categorized as workplace, healthcare, home- or community-based. Information on participant and intervention characteristics was extracted and reviewed.Results:The majority of participants were Caucasian (86%), women (66%), healthy but sedentary (63%), and middle-aged (mean age = 51 years). Intervention response rates ranged from 20% to 89%, with the greatest response rate for healthcare and home-based interventions. Compared with nonparticipants, study participants tended to be women, Caucasian, tertiary-educated, and middle-class. Participants in workplace interventions were younger, more educated, and healthier; in community-based interventions, participants were older and more ethnically diverse. Reporting on education and income was inconsistent. The mean retention rate was 78%, with minimal differences between intervention settings.Conclusions:These results emphasize the need for physical activity interventions to target men, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and ethnic minority populations. Consistent reporting of response rate and retention may enhance the understanding of which intervention settings best recruit and retain large, representative samples.

This study highlighted a number of strengths and weaknesses in the clinical teaching that took place during these rotations. In particular, it highlighted congruency between student and teacher perceptions of good teaching and learning. At the same time, it flagged a potential disjunct between student and teacher expectations (or understandings) of various learning opportunities, and revealed a much broader disconnection between what is most valued and what is easiest to deliver in the clinical context. The results emphasise the need for quality rather than quantity, contextual blended learning, protected teaching time, the valuing of close student-teacher interaction and faculty development.

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Since December 2005 the GAVI Alliance (GAVI) Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) window has offered predictable funding to developing countries, based on a combined population and economic formula. This is intended to assist them to address system constraints to improved immunization coverage and health care delivery, needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The application process invites countries to prioritize specific system constraints not adequately addressed by other donors, and allows them to allocate their eligible funds accordingly. This article presents an analysis of the first four rounds of countries' funding applications. These requested funding for a variety of health system initiatives that reflected country-specific requirements, and were not limited to improving immunization coverage. Analyses identified a dominance of operational-level health service provision activities, and an absence of interventions related to demand and financing. While the proposed activities are only now being implemented, the results of this study provide evidence that the open application process employed by the HSS window has led to a shift in analysis and planning-from the programmatic to the systemic-in the countries whose applications have been approved. However, the proposed responses to identified constraints are dominated by short-term operational responses, rather than more complex, longer term approaches to health system strengthening.