Determinants of parental responsibility to promote healthy eating behaviors in children: a scoping review protocol

Introduction: The parental responsibility of parents regarding the feeding of children implies having a responsible job when selecting, preparing and offering food to their children; in addition, qualities of exemplary behavior such as healthy eating behavior that influences the habits that their children acquire; however, there are multiple determining factors that negatively affect it. Objective: To identify the determining factors in the parental responsibility of caregivers to promote an eating behavior in children from 6 months to 12 years old. Methods: The review will be carried out according to the methodology proposed by Hilary Arksey and Lisa O`Malley updated by The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) for scoping review. A comprehensive search strategy will be applied with the support of the research librarian to refine the search and locate the studies. Inclusion criteria of quantitative, qualitative and mixed studies will be applied, in titles, abstract and full text; Two reviewers will independently extract the information using a screening tool; finally, the results will be presented narratively and tables or figures will be used. Ethics and disclosure: This scoping review will involve a secondary analysis of the data already collected and therefore does not require ethical approval. The results of this research will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals for publication and will also be disseminated at conferences and seminars.

Association of body image with physical activity, sleep, meal and smoking in obese male

Background and Study Aim. Body image is a multidimensional construct that involves mental representations of the body, feelings, cognitions, and behaviors. The objective was to compare body image among different categories of obesity, investigate the relationship between obesity and body image, and examine the association of physical activity, meal habits, sleep, and smoking with body image. Material and Methods. Fifty-five undergraduate students Mean age 19.7±0.90 were divide into three obese categories: Obese Class I (30 < 35 kg/m2), Obese Class II (35 < 40 kg/m2) and Obese Class III (≥40.00 kg/m2). Body Image measured through (MBSRQ-AS). Results. ANOVA revealed no significant difference among BMI categories on body image global score F (2,52) = 0.074, p = 0.928. Pearson product-moment correlation could not establish significant relationship between body image and BMI (r= -0.00, n=55, p= 0.998). We found a strong association of smoking with body image X(1) = 6.909, p=0.009. However, the statistical analysis of data could not establish any significant association of PA X(1) = 0.044, p=0.978; sleep X(1) = 2.403, p=0.121; and number of meals X(1) = 0.654, p=0.721; with body image among obese individuals. Conclusions. The university students exhibited low body image. Higher scores on Self-Classified Weight describe how individuals perceive their weight and how they believe others perceive it. The low scores on Appearance Evaluation determine unhappiness with their physical appearance. Interestingly, most students are getting sufficient sleep, and a high percentage of the students’ population is not smoking. The university needs to encourage physical activity and healthy eating behavior.

Nutrition Literacy Mediates the Relationships between Multi-Level Factors and College Students’ Healthy Eating Behavior: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Study

College students experience new pressures and choices as they transition to independent living and can easily develop unhealthy eating habits, resulting in obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases in later life. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that nutrition literacy (NL) mediated the relationship between multi-level factors influencing healthy eating behavior identified from the social-ecological model and healthy eating behavior of college students. A four-part questionnaire was completed by 412 participants recruited from six different four-year universities in Taiwan (effective response rate = 85.8%). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an independent samples t-test, hierarchical multiple regression, and mediation analysis. The results indicated that the students’ mean nutrition literacy score was 4.32 (SD = 0.78, range = 1–6). In the social-ecological framework, nutrition literacy significantly predicted healthy eating behavior (β = 0.28, p < 0.001; ΔF = 32.54, p < 0.001; ΔR2 = 0.05) with control variables of background, intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, and macrosystem factors. Nutrition literacy mediated the effects of seven factors on healthy eating behavior across four levels. These findings suggested that strengthening influential multi-level factors associated with healthy eating behavior not only enhanced NL, but also improved individuals’ healthy eating behavior.

Single and Combinative Impacts of Healthy Eating Behavior and Physical Activity on COVID-19-like Symptoms among Outpatients: A Multi-Hospital and Health Center Survey

Background: Healthy eating and physical activity are effective non-pharmacological approaches to boost immune function and contain the pandemic. We aimed to explore the associations and interactions between physical activity and healthy eating behavior with COVID-19-like symptoms (Slike-CV19S). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 3947 outpatients, from 14 February to 2 March 2020, at nine health facilities in Vietnam. Data collection included sociodemographic characteristics, healthy eating behavior (using the healthy eating score (HES) questionnaire), physical activity (using the short form international physical activity questionnaire), and Slike-CV19S. The associations and interactions were tested using logistic regression models. Results: Frequent intake of fruits (OR = 0.84; p = 0.016), vegetables (OR = 0.72; p = 0.036), and fish (OR = 0.43; p < 0.001) were associated with a lower Slike-CV19S likelihood, as compared with infrequent intake. Patients with higher HES levels (OR = 0.84; p = 0.033 for medium HES; OR = 0.77; p = 0.006 for high HES) or being physically active (OR = 0.69; p < 0.001) had a lower Slike-CV19S likelihood, as compared to those with low HES or physical inactivity, respectively. Patients with medium HES who were physically active (OR = 0.69; p = 0.005), or with high HES and physically active (OR = 0.58; p < 0.001), had a lower Slike-CV19S likelihood, as compared to those with low HES and physical inactivity. Conclusions: Healthy eating behavior and physical activity showed single and combinative impacts on protecting people from Slike-CV19S. Strategic approaches are encouraged to improve healthy behaviors, which may further contribute to containing the pandemic.

Health Promotion Intervention through Smartphone LINE Application for Increasing Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Behavior among Overweight Women in Urban Community in Bangkok, Thailand

Background: Lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating behavior are considered to be global issues and lead the risk of non-communicable diseases. The previous studies indicated that mobile applications have the potential for delivering health information to promote health behaviors. Objective: To evaluate the effect of health promotion intervention through smartphone LINE application to increase knowledge, perception, and practice of physical activity and healthy eating behavior among overweight women in urban community. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted among 100 overweight women with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 kg/m², and aged between 35 and 65 years living in urban community in Bangkok between October 2017 and April 2018. Participants were selected to the intervention group and control group. The intervention program consisted of group education, self-monitoring, individual counseling, and smartphone LINE application group chatting about physical activity and healthy eating behavior. Data were collected at baseline and after the intervention ended at 24 weeks. Chi-square, paired samples t-test, and independent t-test were used to find the effect of the program. Results: At the end of 6-month, the results indicated that the intervention group had significantly increased in mean of knowledge (p<0.001) and perception (p<0.001) of physical activity and healthy eating behavior, food frequency scores (p<0.001), MET-physical activity (p=0.007) and decreased in mean of time spent sitting (p<0.001), body weight (p=0.043), and BMI (p<0.001) when compared to the control group. Conclusion: The use of LINE application was found effective to deliver health information, share and exchange their experienced, motivate, and monitor their physical activity and healthy eating behavior. This app can help the participants to increase the physical activity and healthy eating behavior, and to decrease their sedentary behavior resulting in weight loss. It is useful for healthcare providers to promote the health behaviors. Keywords: Smartphone; LINE application; Physical activity; Healthy eating behavior; Urban community

Eating behavior among persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus in North Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Background Diet is central to the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Depending on the stage of the disease at which the recommended diet is initiated, optimal adherence can reduce HbA1c by about 1 to 2%. However, evidence on eating behavior is generally scarce including in Ethiopia. The present study aimed to assess the eating behavior of adults with T2DM in North Ethiopia. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 421 adults with T2DM from September to November 2019. Socio-demographic variables were collected using structured questionnaires; an asset-based wealth index was used to determine socioeconomic status. Three dimensions of eating behavior were assessed using Likert-type items: food selection, meal planning and calorie recognition. Raw Likert scores in each dimension were transformed to percent scales to maximum (%SM). Participants’ behavior in each dimension was categorized into healthy and unhealthy taking 66.7% SM score as a cutoff. Overall eating behavior was determined by aggregating ranks scored in the three dimensions. Correlates of overall eating behavior were identified using Chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression with statistical significance set at P-value < 0.05. Result Only 1% of the participants had overall healthy eating behavior. Yet, overall unhealthy eating was apparent in 54.4%. By dimensions, healthy eating behaviors in food selection, meal planning and calorie recognition were seen in 43.5, 7.4 and 2.9% participants, respectively. Factors that were positively associated with having healthy eating behavior in one dimension relative to unhealthy in all were: receiving nutrition education [AOR 1.73; CI 1.09, 2.74], female gender [AOR 1.78; CI 1.03, 3.08] & being in 26–44 age category [AOR 3.7; CI 1.56, 8.85]. But, being in the poor [AOR 0.42; CI 0.16, 1.32] or average [AOR 0.54; CI 0.19, 1.55] socioeconomic strata were negatively associated. However, only receiving nutrition education [AOR 3.65; CI 1.31, 10.18] was significantly associated with having healthy behavior in two eating dimensions over unhealthy in all. Conclusion In North Ethiopia, the overall eating behavior of adults with T2DM is extremely poor. Diverse and integrated approaches including nutrition education during consultation should be implemented to address the gap.

The Role of Caregiver’s Feeding Pattern in the Association between Parents’ and Children’s Healthy Eating Behavior: Study in Taichung, Taiwan

While parenting style has been linked with parent feeding behavior (FB), little is known about the role FB plays in the relationship between parents’ eating behavior (PEB) and children’s eating behavior (CEB). Based on social learning theory, we hypothesized that children learn to develop healthy CEB by obeying and imitating parents’ healthy eating and feeding behaviors, and that FB is the mediator between PEB and CEB. In total, 257 survey responses from parents of children up to 5 years old were included in the study. Results indicated that CEB did not differ by children’s age, gender, or birth order; for parents, older age and lower educational levels were associated with less healthy unhealthier FB and PEB. Healthy PEB and FB explained 46.8% and 21.7% of the variance in healthy CEB, respectively. The model confirmed that FB reduced the coefficient of healthy PEB from 0.563 to 0.468 and increased the variance explained from 35.0% to 38.5%. FB was a mediator for PEB and CEB. Discussion covers the complexity of ideal parenting styles and child feeding and their associated effects on CEB in varied environments, including different cultures. We concluded that PEB was the main predictor of CEB, and healthy feeding acted as a mediator.

Physical Activity, Eating Behaviour and Well-Being During a COVID-19 Period Among Greek Adolescents

Adolescents&rsquo; daily life has dramatically changed during the COVID-19 era due to the social restrictions that have been imposed, including closures of schools, leisure centers and sport facilities. The purpose of this study was to examine levels of well-being and mood and their relations with physical (in)-activity and eating behaviors in adolescents during a lockdown period in Greece. A total of 950 adolescents (Mean Age = 14.41years &plusmn; 1.63) participated in a web-based survey while education was online and organized sport activities were interrupted. Participants showed poor well-being, insufficient physical activity levels and moderate scores of healthy eating behavior. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that, after controlling for the effect of gender and body mass index, increased physical activity and healthier eating behavior predicted better well-being, whereas sedentariness predicted worse well-being. Furthermore, it was revealed that days of physical activity per week was a stronger predictor of well-being than minutes of physical activity per week, and that both in-house and out-of-house physical activity were beneficial. Considering that well-being was below the threshold recommended by the WHO as indicative of possible depressive symptoms, measures to increase physical activity and improve eating behavior should become a priority for communities and policy makers.

Effects of mobility restrictions on mental health among young adults in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study

Purpose: To explore the effects of mobility restriction on the mental health of Ecuadorian young adults. Methods: The current is a cross-sectional study that included 8426 young adults. Socio-demographic and mental health data were collected through an online survey during May-June 2020 in Ecuador. Data on mobility was extracted from Google Mobility Reports. Four aspects of the participants’ mental health were evaluated: eating behavior (emotional eating), depression, sleep quality and sense of coherence using previously validated instruments. Data were analyzed using linear regression using R. Results: Mean age of the participants was 22.85 (SD = 4.43), most of whom were women (n = 5943, 70.53%). During mandatory confinement, mobility due to retail and recreation, to groceries and pharmacies, to parks, to transit stations, to workplaces were reduced by nearly 50%. In contrast, mobility to places of residence increased by nearly 20%. Less healthy eating behavior was associated with lower mobility to retail/recreation, residential or workplaces. Depression was associated with lower mobility to residential and workplaces. Worse quality of sleep was associated with lower mobility to retail/recreation, residential and workplaces. Higher sense of coherence was associated with higher mobility to residential and to workplaces. Women and youngsters more often showed depression, less healthy eating behavior, worse quality of sleep and lower sense of coherence. Conclusion: Mobility restrictions during COVID-19 pandemic has negative effects on people's mental health. Prevention and health promotion measures directed to ameliorate the effects of confinement on mental health should target risk populations including women and youngsters.