How do children from lower educated parents differ in health behaviors from their peers?

It is well known that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is considerably higher among schoolchildren from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We recently reported such disparities among school-age children across 7 countries in Europe, and in another recent additional analysis we showed the same for an eight' country, namely Switzerland, that was reported in a recent scientific paper. In the first paper, published in Plos ONE, we also provided further evidence that children from lower educated parents are more likely to engage in behaviors that contribute to their higher risk for overweight and obesity. Now in a further study just published with Juan Fernández-Alvira as first author, we examined whether these behaviors, i.e. sugared drinks intake, physical activity, screen time and usual sleep duration cluster in reliable and meaningful ways among European children, and whether the identified clusters could be characterized by parental education.

We used the data from our ENERGY study, i.e. data from 5284 children (46% male), from the seven European countries. Cluster analysis was performed separately for girls and boys. Associations with parental education were identified using chi-square tests and odds ratios.

Five meaningful and stable clusters were found for both genders. More healthy behavior clusters were more likely among children from higher educated parents, while clusters with high sugared drinks consumption, high screen time and low sleep duration were more prevalent in the group with lower educated parents. 

Children with lower educated parents thus are more likely to engage in different joint behaviors that contribute to higher risk for overweight and obesity.

who stops sports participation in adolescence?

Many youngsters stop engaging in sports during adolescence. In a study just published in e-pub in the European Journal of Public Health, with Dr. Rick Prins as first author, we explored who is more likely to stop doing sports in this age group. Data were obtained from the Environmental Determinants of Obesity in Rotterdam Schoolchildren (ENDORSE) study, and 357 adolescents were eligible for analysis. We looked at who were more likely to stop engaging in sports altogether, and who were more likely to reduce their sports activities so that they no longer comply to the recommendations to engage in vigorous physical activity to improve fitness for at least 3 time 20 minutes per week. 

Girls, lower-educated adolescents and those with a non-Western background showed more pronounced reductions in sports participation and compliance with the recommendation than boys, youngsters in forms of higher education, and native Dutch adolescents, respectively. Perceived neighborhood safety could partly explain the difference between girls and boys, indicating that one reason girls are more likely to reduce sports is related to feelings of (lack of) safety.

The cohort profile of the READI study published

The Resilience for Eating and Activity Despite Inequality (READI) cohort was established by the Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition research (C-PAN) at Deakin University, led by Prof. Kylie Ball, to address the following two key aims: to investigate the pathways (personal, social and structural) by which socio-economic disadvantage influences lifestyle choices associated with obesity risk (physical inactivity, poor dietary choices) and to explore mechanisms underlying 'resilience' to obesity risk in socio-economically disadvantaged women and children. A paper describing this innovative cohort study was just published as a cohort profile in the International Journal of Epidemiology. A total of 4349 women aged 18-46 years and 685 children aged 5-12 years were recruited from 80 socio-economically disadvantaged urban and rural neighbourhoods of Victoria, Australia, and provided baseline (T1: 2007-08) measures of adiposity, physical activity, sedentary and dietary behaviours; socio-economic and demographic factors; and psychological, social and perceived environmental factors that might impact on obesity risk. Audits of the 80 neighbourhoods were undertaken at baseline to provide objective neighbourhood environmental data. Three-year follow-up data (2010-11) have recently been collected from 1912 women and 382 children. 

No effects of tailored feedback and face to face counseling on health behaviors in hypercholesterolemia patients

In a paper just published in the journal PLOS ONE, with Karen Broekhuizen, who will defend her thesis this Friday and become Dr. Karen Broekhuizen- as first author, we describe the evaluation of an individualised tailored lifestyle intervention on physical activity, dietary intake, smoking and compliance to statin therapy in people with Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH).
Adults with FH (n = 340) were randomly assigned to a usual care control group or an intervention group. The intervention consisted of web-based tailored lifestyle advice and face-to-face counselling. Physical activity, fat, fruit and vegetable intake, smoking and compliance to statin therapy were self-reported at baseline and after 12 months.
Individually tailored feedback did not prove to be superior to no intervention regarding changes in multiple lifestyle behaviours in people with FH. Earlier studies on computer-tailoring did show very promising effects. In the present study actual exposure to the intervention was also suboptimal, and a higher received dose of computer-tailored interventions should be achieved counsellor training should be more extensive.

Television in the bedroom and increased body weight

Kids who spent more time watching TV are more likely to be overweight. This may be because if kids watch a lot of TV they sit too much, they may snack while watching TV, and/or they more exposed to marketing of unhealthy foods. It has been suggested that in order to reduce TV time, the opportunities for watching TV should be diminished: TV should become less accessible and available. In another study just published in the journal Pediatric Obesity, with Dr. Adrian Cameron as first author, we studied if 10-12 year old schoolchildren across Europe who have a TV in their bedroom are more likely to watch more TV, be overweight, and drink more soft drinks. This study was part of the ENERGY project. We found that almost 40% of schoolchildren had a bedroom television, with the highest percentage among Hungarian children (65%) and lowest for Belgian, Slovenian and Spanish children (all ≈28%). A television in the bedroom was positively associated with time spent watching television, soft drink consumption and overweight and obesity. The relationship between a television in the bedroom and measures of body size was partly mediated by total television viewing time but not by sleep duration, physical activity time or soft drink consumption.

Sedentary time, physical activity, and overweight in European schoolchildren

As we published recently in the journal PLOS ONE, more than 20% of 10-12 year old schoolchildren across Europe is overweight or obese. In some countries these rates are much higher, with more than 40% of Greek children being overweight of obese. When kids eat more calories than they use, the gain weight. Preventing overweight and obesity thus means maintaining a good energy balance. At least one hour of medium to high intensity physical activity is recommended for children for fitness and energy-balance. Next to diet and physical activity, too much sedentary behavior, i.e. activities that children do while sitting -watching TV, playing computer games, reading, doing homework et cetera- may be a separate risk behavior for metabolic health; even when children are physically active enough, if they sit most of the rest of the day, they may still be more likely to be overweight and obese. The evidence to support this is mixed at best, however. In our PLOS ONE study we showed that children spend more than two hours per day in front of the TV or computer screen. In separate studies we also showed that such screen time was only a minor part of total sedentary time, and that children who sat most had higher body mass index and waist circumference, but we found no evidence for other negative metabolic health indicators. In a new study just published in Pediatric Obesity, with prof Ilse de Bourdeaudhuij from Ghent University as first author, we now find that girls who show low physical activity and high sedentary time are most likely to be overweight, while for boys physical activity seems more than sedentary time.

Overweight and health behaviors in school children: Switzerland is doing good...

Overweight in children and adolescents is a major public health issue. To allow international comparisons, Switzerland joined the ENERGY study's cross sectional survey consortium that investigated the prevalence of overweight and obesity as well as selected dietary, physical and sedentary behaviors of 10--12 years old pupils across seven other countries in Europe. The aim of the study just published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity was to compare body composition and energy-balance related behaviors of Swiss schoolchildren to those of the seven European ENERGY-countries (i,e, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain) and to analyze overweight and energy-balance related behaviors of Swiss children according to socio-demographic factors. The results regarding these ENERGY countries were published in the journal Plos ONE earlier this year.
In Switzerland significantly less children were overweight (13.9%) or obese (2.3%) compared to the average across the ENERGY-countries (23.7% and 4.7%, respectively), and were even somewhat lower than the ENERGY countries with the lowest prevalence, i.e. Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Sugar sweetened beverage intakes and breakfast habits of Swiss children did not differ significantly from those of ENERGY. However, the mean time devoted by Swiss children to walking or cycling to school and attending sports activities was significantly higher and screen time significantly lower compared to the other ENERGY-countries. Within the Swiss, sample relatively large and consistent differences were observed between children from native and non-native ethnicity.