Associations Between Parents’ Health and Social Control Behaviors and Their Adolescent’s Self-Efficacy and Health Behaviors: Insights From the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating (FLASHE) survey

Background Parents can influence their children to live healthier lifestyles by modeling healthy behaviors and/or trying to persuade their children to engage in healthier activities. Adolescents and their parents tend to have similar eating and exercise patterns, but less is known about the simultaneous influence of parent’s health behavior and social control on adolescents’ self-efficacy and health behaviors, including whether their effect is moderated by parenting style. Purpose We examine the degree to which parents’ social control and health behaviors are associated with their adolescent’s self-efficacy and health behaviors, including whether parenting styles moderate these associations. Method We analyzed data from the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating project. Results We found that parents’ own health behaviors are positively and strongly associated with their adolescent’s health behaviors across four domains: fruit/vegetable consumption, junk food consumption, physical activity, and nonacademic screen time. We found positive, moderate-to-strong associations between parents’ use of social control and their adolescents’ fruit/vegetable and junk food consumption, small negative associations with screen time, and no associations with physical activity. The effects of social control for junk food consumption and screen time, however, depended on parents’ own behavior in those domains. Parent responsiveness moderated the relation between parents’ social control and their adolescent children’s self-efficacy and health behaviors. Conclusions The health behaviors parents model and their social control efforts are associated with their adolescents’ beliefs and behavior. Efforts to leverage parents as sources of influence must consider the context in which influence is enacted.

Lifestyles and school performance of health sciences students

Introduction: Lifestyles at the college stage involve fundamental changes in human development, which may have an impact on the school performance. The present work consists of a documentary review on the lifestyles of university students Objective: To identify the information that allows the evaluation of the lifestyles that are associated with the school performance of students of health sciences. Methodology: The research was carried out by using the keywords: lifestyles, school performance and students of health sciences, through PubMed and Crossref, in addition to the websites of public institutions, governments or organizations. The results of 20 studies were analyzed, which included a student population that was intervened through questionnaires about their lifestyles in school systems Results: It was found that students have unhealthy habits, 40% of students do not exercise, 90% of students consume junk food and 1 out of 5 students have mental health disorders. All of the above is striking, since being students of health sciences, it would be assumed that they practice healthy lifestyles, however, their knowledge has been little applied. Conclusion: Lifestyles and school performance are a problem that worries students, parents, teachers and authorities, not only in our country but also in other countries of the world.

Robo from melon seeds and groundnut

Robo is a widely consumed Nigeria snack made from local food ingredients. Snacks are often subjectively classified as junk food, possibly because they naturally have little or no nutritional value, and unhealthy snacks consumption are associated with the risk of developing non-communicable diseases. The effects of producing Robo from melon and groundnut seeds at different ratios from 20 to 50% wereevaluated for proximate composition, physicochemical/functional and sensory attributes. The results showed an increase in crude protein (38.56a - 42.8d), crude fiber(15.01±0.014d), fat content (35.20e) and ash content (18.02e), but decreased in moisture content (2.43a - 3.30e). Hardness properties decrease from (240a- 720e). Robo from blends of melon and groundnut seeds have improved sensory attributes in terms of flavour, crispness, taste and overall acceptability, particularly at supplementation of 60% melon and 40% groundnut seeds. Thus, improved Robo will increase consumer’s nutrients intake and prevent health problems associated with snack intake. Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res.56(4), 263-270, 2021

Crosstalk between circadian rhythms, sleep and eating habits to improve public health

Lifestyle changes in the past few decades have resulted in irregularity in sleep and meal timings. People are taking less sleep and resorting more to unhealthy food and eating habits. These factors are the most important health determinants. Sleep, food choices and eating habits are closely associated with each other. Thus, the crosstalk between circadian rhythms, sleep, and food needs urgent attention and discussion for better health management. Various research studies indicate that a healthy trend in sleep augments the regularity in meal timings and good eating habits. Healthy food and eating habits, in turn, boost sleep quality. Deterioration in the quality of anyone adversely affects the other. Several health disorders like obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular problems, and low immunity can be linked to these disturbances. The present review considers several previous studies to point out the inter-relationship between sleep and eating habits and the various health disorders arising from poor attention. Poor sleep promotes the tendency to eat junk food or eat at odd times, such as snacking late at night, leading to weight gain and other health problems. Junk food and unhealthy eating habits cause sleep disturbances. This inter-relationship of sleep and food preferences is important as it can have important treatment implications for health disorders arising due to these modifiable behavioural factors. Circadian alignment, improvements in sleep timings, and healthy eating habits have positive effects on other health behaviours as well.

Factors Associated With Dietary Quality During Initial and Later Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mexico

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy and modified lifestyles. The aim of our study was to identify factors associated with dietary quality, and their frequency, in Mexican adults at the initial and later stages of the pandemic.Methods: Two online surveys were conducted between June and July 2020 (n = 3,131) and between November and December 2020 (n = 1,703 including non-participants from 1st round). A diet quality score was estimated using a short instrument to measure the consumption of several healthy/unhealthy food items. Linear regression models were used to identify the association between pandemic related factors and the diet quality score, adjusted by sociodemographic characteristics. The 2nd round was weighted to represent the 1st round.Results: During the 1st and 2nd rounds only ~12% of the sample perceived that their intake of healthy food decreased, relative to before the pandemic; ~20% perceived that their intake of unhealthy foods increased. Diet quality remained similar between the 1st and 2nd round. The following factors were negatively associated with diet quality: Eating food prepared away-from-home; going out to work ≥4 times/week; decreased time for food preparation; decreased interest in eating healthy; eating more due to anxiety, depression, or boredom; food insecurity; and stockpiling junk food. Purchasing food using a mixed modality of both in-store and home delivery was positively associated with diet quality. With the exception of eating more due to anxiety (reported by 47% of participants), all these factors were reported by a minority of participants during the first round (≤15%). During the 2nd round, there was an increase in the frequency of participants who reported eating food prepared away-from-home, going out to work ≥4 times/week, having less time to prepare food, being more interested in eating healthfully, and a decrease in participants eating more due to anxiety, depression or boredom, or stockpiling junk food.Conclusions: Most participants perceived that their dietary intake improved during both initial and later stages of the pandemic. This might be related to factors associated with higher dietary quality, such as not going out to work, eating homemade food, and online grocery shopping.

How beliefs about weight malleability and risk perceptions for obesity influence parents’ information seeking and feeding

This study surveyed 185 parents to determine whether their perceived risk of their child developing obesity and their implicit theories about the malleability of weight independently and/or interactively predict their child-feeding and pursuit of child-related obesity risk information. Higher risk perceptions were associated with healthier feeding intentions and more information seeking. More incremental (malleable) beliefs predicted healthier feeding intentions and greater pursuit of environmental, but not genetic, information. Contrary to hypotheses, the influence of implicit theories and risk perceptions were primarily independent; however, more incremental beliefs predicted less “junk food” feeding among only parents with lower perceived risk.

Multinomial Logistic Regression Model for Assessing Factors Associated with Junk Food Consumption of Secondary Level Students

Background: Globalization, economic progress, urbanization, and industrialization have ushered in considerable changes in lifestyles and diet regimes. Consumption of junk food has surged at a rapid pace nowadays. In Nepal, there is a lack of sufficient research regarding junk food practices and persuading factors for its consumption, among teenage students. It is a global concern and has threatened the health of many people. Objective: This research aims to explore the factors associated with junk food consumption among students of secondary level in Ratnanagar Municipality of Chitwan. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional research design consisting of 371 secondary level students, and selection based on primary data collection method by the researchers was used in this study. The data was analyzed using descriptive as well as an inferential statistical method. To find the association of different factors with junk food consumption levels (Low, Moderate, and High) multinomial logistic regression model (MLRM) was used, and the goodness of fit of the model was assessed. Results: The fitted MLRM satisfied the criteria of the diagnostic test including a test of goodness of fit, multi-collinearity test, and minimum criteria of the model utilization with the classification accuracy of 55%. The variables like family monthly income (OR=1.000011, C.I=1.000001 - 1.000020), students’ daily pocket money (OR=1.02, C.I=1.007 - 1.033), gender (OR=0.354, C.I= 0.179 - 0.7), knowledge regarding junk food consumption (OR=2.744, C.I=1.366 - 5.511), attitude towards food choice (OR=2.487, C.I=1.288 – 4.803), friend’s encouragement for junk food consumption (OR=0.178, C.I=0.045 – 0.701), and occupation of father (business) (OR=2.867, C.I=1.084 – 7.581) are seen to be significant to the model High versus Low consumption. Students’ daily pocket money (OR=1.012, C.I=1.002 – 1.023), knowledge regarding junk food consumption (OR=2.427, C.I=1.293 – 4.553), restrictive food parenting practice (OR=2.228, C.I=0.945 – 5.253), friend’s encouragement for junk food consumption (OR=0.252, C.I=0.067 – 0.944), recognition of marketing promotion strategy (OR=0.523, C.I=0.295 – 0.928), educational level of mother (lower secondary level) (OR=5.465, C.I=1.069 – 27.952), occupation of father (business) (OR=2.47, C.I=1.056 – 5.777) are seen to be significant to the model Moderate versus Low consumption. Conclusion: Study revealed that more than one-fourth of the sampled students were high consumers of junk foods. Many factors are associated with the consumption of junk foods. Thus, addressing the issue of increasing consumption, developing strategies & conducting different research in this field is the must. Concerned authorities should also pay special attention to this subject matter.