Obesity and exposure to artificial light

Artificial light nowadays allows and enables us to work and be active 24 hours per day. However, such lifestyles and exposure to artificial light may disrupt our natural light-dark rythm and wake-sleep as well as meal rythms and other aspects of irregular lifestyle, and this may lead to higher risk for overweight and obesity.  At least a paper from Dr. Wyse from the University of Aberdeen  in BioEssays argues that metabolic disfunction and obesity may result from "desynchronization of circadian and environmental rhythms".
Please click here for a lay person friendly summary of the research provided by Cordis news.

Are people in more affluent countries in Europe more likely to be physically active during leisure time?

Socioeconomic inequalities in physical activity at the individual level are well reported; in the more affluent countries, people who are relatively less well off are less likely to engage in leisure time physical activities. Whether inequalities in economic development and other macro-environmental variables between countries are also related to physical activity at the country-level is less well documenten.

In a study that was recently published in e-pub -with Dr. Adrian Cameron from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, as first author- in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, we examined the relationship between country-level data on macro-economic environmental factors (Gross Domestic Product (GPD) per capita, public sector expenditure on health, percent living in urban areas and cars per 1000 population) with country-level physical activity prevalence obtained from previous pan-European studies. Studies that assessed leisure-time physical activity (n=3 studies including 27 countries in adults, n=2 studies including 28 countries in children) and total physical activity (n=3 studies in adults including 16 countries) were analysed separately.

We found strong and consistent positive correlations between leisure-time physical activity and country GDP per capita in adults. No such associations were found for children, nor for total physical activity.
Differences in national leisure-time physical activity levels in adults throughout Europe may this be a consequence of economic development. relative lack of economic development of some countries in Europe may make increasing leisure-time physical activity there more difficult, while these countries may be most in need of physical activity promotion.

Population density in terms of human biomass in stead of numbers of people...

Last June Walpole and colleagues published a paper in BMC Public Health in which they looked at population density in a bit different way. They provided an overview of 'human biomass'  per region, i.e. the product of population size and average body mass. Their calculations and analyses show that in 2005, global adult human biomass was approximately 287 million tonnes, of which 15 million tonnes were due to overweight. Furthermore, and not surprising, the population size based on biomass is different from the number of people. One tonne of human biomass corresponds to approximately 12 adults in North America and 17 adults in Asia, and North America has 6% of the world population but 34% of biomass due to obesity while Asia has 61% of the world population but 13% of biomass due to obesity (please see the Figure that was copied from their open access paper). Their conclusion is that increasing population fatness could have the same implications for world food energy demands as an extra half a billion people living on the earth.

Paper on validity of ENERGY parent questionnaire now also published

I have reported on the ENERGY (EuropeaN Energy balance Research to prevent excessive weight Gain among Youth) study here before. This cross-European study looked at overweight and obesity, risk behaviors for overweight and obesity, determinants of these risk behaviors, and interventions to contribute to prevention among 10-12 year old school children in seven countries in Europe. The general purpose and framework of the study, and the methods have been published before, as well as a range of original research and review studies; the latter are mostly available via the project website. Please click here for the paper describing the main results regarding differences in overweight and risk behaviors between the different countries. The study also included research among parents of these children, and this week the study testing the reliability and validity of the parent questionnaire was published in BMC Research Notes. The paper describing these psychometrics of the child questionnaire were already published some time ago.

Neighbourhood social capital and sports participation

In a paper just published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity -with Dr. Rick Prins as first author - we aimed to explore whether adolescents are more likley to participate in sports when they live in neighbourhoods where there are more sport facilities and parks, and with more so-called 'neighbourhood social capital'. The study was conducted among adolsecents in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Crucial to social capital at the community level is having common norms, behavioural

reciprocity and mutual trust. Neighbourhood social capital may influence health behaviors such as sports participation, via various pathways. For instance, neighbours that trust each other are more likely to help and support each other and do things together. In addition, in neighbourhoods with more social capital people may talk more with each other and this may enable faster and better transfer of information on healthy behaviours and better social support.  So basically, beter social capital may help to improve social norms, social support and positive role models for health behaviours such as sports participation.

We used data of the YouRAction study from 852 adolescents in the city of Rotterdam. Neighbourhood social capital was assessed with questionnaires; availability of sports facilities and parks was objectively obtained from geographic information systems.

Our analyses showed that neighbourhood social capital was significantly associated with sports participation; in neighbourhoods with higher social capital the liklehood that adolescents engaged in sports was more than three time that of their peers in lower social capital neighbourhoods. We did not find a significant association of availability of sports facilities or parks with sports participation, but a combination of high social capital and availability of parks did appear to make a difference.

The results thus indicate that leisure time sports participation is more likely in neighbourhoods that have positive social and physical environmental features.

Parental education and parents' physical activity is associated with physical activity of their children

Today a new paper from the ENERGY study was published in a preliminary version in the journal Preventive Medicine. The Spanish partner in the ENERGY study, i.e. the group of Prof. Luis Moreno from Zaragoza University, took the lead in this paper and David Jimenez Pavon is first author. In the analyses for this paper we sought to examine the independent associations of the level of education of the parents and the levels of physical activity (PA) of parents with PA levels of the children in the ENERGY study across Europe.

As we reported before, a total of 7214 children (10-12years) were recruited from a school-based cross sectional survey during 2010 in seven European countries. Weight and height were measured. Parental educational level and parents' and children´s PA were assessed using questionnaires. We found that parents education level and parents PA levels are both indeed associated with the children´s PA: children of lower educated and less active parents have lower levels of PA. However, the relationships were gender and country-specific; in some countries the association was more apparent than in others and in some countries associations ere stronger for boys than girls or vice versa. In promoting PA among school-aged children, level of education of the parents and their PA levels should be taken into account.

What do adolescents think about active gaming?

Lack of physical activity and too much sedentary time are important risk factors for obesity and metabolic disease as well as a range of other health issues. Young people spend a lot of time in sedentary activities such as watching TV, computer and electronic gaming activities. Our recent cross-European study showed that in some countries 10-12 year olds spend up to more than three hours per day on 'screen activities', and in that study and a second paper we reported that children from lower educated parents and of foreign ethnicity have higher screen times. 'Active gaming' may be a good alternative to passive screen activities. Active video and electronic games require whole-body movement and may be an innovative tool to substitute sedentary pastime with more active time and may therefore contribute to adolescents' health. We are conducting a series of studies to test the potential mertits of active gaming for adolsecent health promotion. As a first step to inform strategies aimed at reducing sedentary behavior by replacing non-active with active gaming, perceptions and context of active and non-active gaming were explored in qualitative research using focus group interviews. The results were recently published in a scientific paper with Monique Simons as first author in the journal Games for Health.

The focus groups showed that adolescents had positive attitudes toward active gaming, especially the social interactive aspect, which was greatly appreciated. However, it appeared that many adolescents enjoyed non-active games more than active ones, mainly because of better game controls and more diversity in non-active games. Active games were primarily played when there was a social gathering. Few game-related rules and restrictions at home were reported.

Given the positive attitudes of adolescents and the limited restrictions for gaming at home, active videogames may potentially be used in a home setting as a tool to reduce sedentary behavior. However, to make active games as appealing as non-active games, attention should be paid to the quality, diversity, and sustainability of active games, as these aspects are currently inferior to those of traditional non-active games.