scholarly journals Maternal Executive Function and the Family Food Environment: A Cross-Sectional Study

Author(s):  
Katherine Bauer ◽  
Heidi M. Weeks ◽  
Julie C. Lumeng ◽  
Alison Miller ◽  
Ashley N. Gearhardt

Background: Individuals with lower executive function (EF) have poorer quality dietary intake and are more likely to experience obesity, in part because of their limited ability to resist impulses and implement routines that promote healthy eating. It is unknown whether these negative impacts of lower EF among parents extend to the parenting practices and routines that support children’s healthy eating and weight. The purpose of the current study is to examine associations between mothers’ EF and characteristics of the family food environment that support children’s healthy eating.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in August 2017 via Amazon Mechanical Turk of US-based mothers of 2 to 9-year-old children (N=492). EF was measured using the Behavior Rating of Executive Function-Adult Version. Family food environment characteristics were measured via self-report surveys. Standardized, linear regression models were used to examine covariate-adjusted associations and the potential for different associations between mothers’ EF and family food environment characteristics by family socio-demographics. Results: Low EF among mothers was associated with less engagement in positive food-related parenting practices and less presence of healthy family food environment characteristics including providing family meals, implementing consistent mealtime schedules and structure, and avoiding using food to regulate children’s emotions. Few differences in these associations were observed by mothers’ educational attainment, household income-to-needs ratio, or child age.Conclusions and Implications: Maternal EF is associated with several features of the family food environment. Lower EF among mothers may interfere with their ability to implement recommending parenting practices that support children’s healthy eating and weight.

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e041755
Author(s):  
Srinivas Marmamula ◽  
Satya Brahmanandam Modepalli ◽  
Thirupathi Reddy Kumbham ◽  
Rajesh Challa ◽  
Jill E Keeffe

ObjectivesTo assess the prevalence of disabilities (vision, hearing, mobility, cognitive, self-care and communication) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among the elderly population in two districts in Telangana, India.DesignPopulation-based cross-sectional study using a cluster random sampling method to select the study clusters.SettingElderly population in Khammam and Warangal districts were recruited. Detailed interviews were conducted by trained community health workers. Personal and demographic information such as age, gender, level of education and a self-report of NCDs was collected. The Washington Disability Questionnaire was administered to assess the presence of disabilities.Participants1821 participants aged ≥60 years, 54.5% were women, and 73.3% had no education.Primary outcome measurePrevalence of disabilities and NCDs.ResultsOverall, the prevalence of at least disability was 20.3% (95% CI 16.3 to 24.9). The prevalence of self- reported disabilities were: seeing (5.9%; 95% CI 4.4 to 7.8), mobility (12.8%; 95% CI 9.7 to 16.8), hearing (3.6%; 95% CI 2.7 to 4.8), cognition (4.8%; 95% CI 3.5 to 6.7), self-care (3.3%; 95% CI 2.3 to 4.7) and communication (1.8%; 95% CI 1.2 to 2.6). Overall, the prevalence of at least one NCD was 34.2% (95% CI 30.9 to 37.7). Hypertension was the most common systemic condition (25.4%; 95% CI 22.4 to 28.7), followed by diabetes (9.0%; 95% CI 7.3 to 11.0), and body pains (muscle-skeletal) (9.9%; 95% CI 8.1 to 12.2).ConclusionEvery fifth elderly person in the districts of Khammam and Warangal in Telangana had at least one self-reported disability. Besides, a third of the elderly had at least one NCD. There is a definite need to develop comprehensive public health strategies to address disabilities and NCDs in Telangana.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad N. AlHadi ◽  
Mohammed A. Alarabi ◽  
Khulood M. AlMansoor

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on people’s lives globally. The outbreak in Saudi Arabia worsened when the number of cases and deaths rose in March and April of 2020, leading to a national lockdown. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with mental health symptoms in a sample of people residing in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We conducted an observational cross-sectional study using an online survey distributed via social media, completed by 3032 respondents from all Saudi regions. We collected demographic data, illness history, and scores of validated self-report scales to assess mental health symptoms, intolerance of uncertainty, and coping strategies. Results In total, respondents indicated moderate to very severe symptoms during the pandemic as follows: 20.9% for depression, 17.5% for anxiety, and 12.6% for stress. Younger age, female gender, and history of mental illness were associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and insomnia. Intolerance of uncertainty and certain coping strategies (such as denial or self-blame) were associated with more severe symptoms. Conclusions Mental health is a key concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for the identified vulnerable groups. Agencies concerned with mental health during crises may use the studied associated factors of mental health symptoms to generate targeted policies or interventions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Fakhoury ◽  
Claudine Burton-Jeangros ◽  
Liala Consoli ◽  
Aline Duvoisin ◽  
Delphine Courvoisier ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Undocumented migrants live and work in precarious conditions. Few studies have explored the mental health consequences of such environment. The objective of this study is to describe the mental health of migrants at different stages of a regularization program. Methods This cross-sectional study included migrants undocumented or in the process of regularization. We screened for symptoms of anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance using validated tools. We created a composite outcome of altered mental health including these components plus self-report of a recent diagnosis of mental health condition by a health professional. Results We enrolled 456 participants of whom 246 (53.9%) were undocumented. They were predominantly women (71.9%) with a median age of 43.3 (interquartile range: 15.5) years, from Latin America (63.6%) or Asia (20.2%) who had lived in Switzerland for 12 (IQR: 7) years. Overall, 57.2% presented symptoms of altered mental health. Prevalence of symptoms of anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance were 36% (95% confidence interval: 31.6–40.6%), 45.4% (95% CI: 40.8–50.1%) and 23% (95% CI: 19.2–27.2), respectively. Younger age (adjusted odd ratio: 0.7; 95% CI: 0.5–0.9 for each additional decade), social isolation (aOR: 2.4; 95% CI: 1.4–4.2), exposure to abuse (aOR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.1–3.5), financial instability (aOR: 2.2; 95% CI: 1.4–3.7) and multi-morbidity (aOR: 3.2; 95% CI: 1.7–6.5) were associated with increased risk of having altered mental health while being in the early stages of the process of regularization had no effect (aOR: 1.3: 95% CI: 0.8–2.2). Conclusions This study highlights the need for multi-pronged social and health interventions addressing the various domains of undocumented migrants living difficulties as complement to legal status regularization policies. Protection against unfair working conditions and abuse, access to adequate housing, promoting social integration and preventive interventions to tackle the early occurrence of chronic diseases may all contribute to reduce the burden of altered mental health in this group. More research is needed to assess the long-term impact of legal status regularization on mental health.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. e039470
Author(s):  
HyunChul Youn ◽  
Suk-young Lee ◽  
Han-yong Jung ◽  
Shin-Gyeom Kim ◽  
Seung‑Hyun Kim ◽  
...  

ObjectivesLife-sustaining treatment is any treatment that serves to prolong life without reversing the underlying medical conditions, and includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, haemodialysis and left ventricular assist devices. This study aimed to investigate the thoughts on life-sustaining treatment of Koreans and to assess the factors associated with deciding to not receive life-sustaining treatment if they develop a terminal disease.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingGuro-gu centre for dementia from 1 May 2018 to 31 December 2019.ParticipantsIn total, 150 individuals participated in this study.Outcome measuresThe questionnaire consisted of self-report items with some instructions, demographic characteristics, thoughts on life-sustaining treatment and psychosocial scales. The preferences of the participants were investigated on the assumption that they develop terminal cancer. The psychosocial scales included the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS).ResultsWe classified our participants into two groups: individuals who wanted to receive life-sustaining treatment (IRLT) and individuals who wanted to not receive life-sustaining treatment (INLT). There were twice as many participants in the INLT group than there were in the IRLT. In making this decision, the INLT group focused more on physical and mental distress. Additionally, 32.7% of participants responded that terminal status was an optimal time for this decision, but more participants want to decide it earlier. The GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores were significantly higher in the INLT group than in the IRLT group. However, the INLT group had significantly lower MSPSS family scores.ConclusionOur findings can help assess issues regarding advance directives and life-sustaining treatment, and will be a reference for designing future studies on this issue.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Gianella ◽  
Rowan Saloner ◽  
Genevieve Curtin ◽  
Susan J. Little ◽  
Anne Heaton ◽  
...  

AbstractThis observational cross-sectional study of 152 people with HIV (PWH) examined the effects of age and estimated duration of HIV infection (EDI) on depressive and anxiety symptoms. All participants were cisgender men and completed the Profile of Moods State (POMS), a self-report inventory of current (i.e., past week) mood states. Overall, study results confirmed higher levels of anxiety and depression in PWH compared to individuals without HIV. Age group (< 50 or ≥ 50 years) moderated the effect of EDI (< 3 or ≥ 3 years) on mood disturbance. Specifically, younger PWH with early diagnosed infection exhibited the highest levels of depression and anxiety, whereas depression and anxiety were attenuated in older PWH with early infection such that their POMS scores did not significantly differ from the HIV-negative and chronically HIV-infected groups. Despite the small sample size and other important limitations in our study design, our preliminary findings confirm previous observations that older people may have some adaptive ability to better handle the acute psychological stressors associated with recent HIV infection.


Author(s):  
Rosália Páscoa ◽  
Andreia Teixeira ◽  
Micaela Gregório ◽  
Rosa Carvalho ◽  
Carlos Martins

Lifestyle interventions are recognized as essential in the prevention and treatment of non-communicable diseases. Previous studies have shown that Portuguese patients tend to give more importance to diagnostic and laboratory tests than to lifestyle measures, and seem unaware that behavioral risks are the main modifiable risk factors. The study aimed to analyze patients’ perspectives about lifestyle behaviors and health in the context of family medicine in Portugal. A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in Portugal (the mainland). A total of 900 Portuguese patients aged ≥20 years, representative of the population, were surveyed using face-to-face questionnaires. Participants were selected by the random route method. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were performed to evaluate differences between the personal beliefs and the personal behavior self-assessment, as well as between the level of importance given to the family doctor to address health behaviors and the reported approach implemented by the family doctor, and its association with bio-demographic variables. The results indicate that the vast majority of this Portuguese cohort has informed beliefs regarding lifestyle behaviors, tends to overestimate their own behavior self-assessment, and strongly agrees that it is important that their family doctor asks/advises on these lifestyle behaviors, although the proportion of those who totally agree that their family doctor usually does this is significantly lower. Differences concerning bio-demographic variables were found. Future research directions should focus on the politics, economics, and policy aspects that may have an impact in this area. It will also be important to understand more broadly the relationships between lifestyle behaviors and clinical, physical, and sociodemographic variables.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. e27561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Goldzier Thomas ◽  
Bonnie Robin Tran ◽  
Marcus Cranston ◽  
Malerato Cecilia Brown ◽  
Rajiv Kumar ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 24934
Author(s):  
Cristiane Olinda Coradi ◽  
Jussara Dos Santos Cardoso ◽  
Ronara Camila de Souza Groia ◽  
Karina Cristina Lima Silva ◽  
Maria das Graças Braga Ceccato ◽  
...  

Aims: To evaluate the understanding of drug prescriptions by patients, comparing the user self-report with the researcher assessment.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2013 to February 2014 at a Basic Health Unit in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Users 18 years of age or older who sought medicines in the unit's pharmacy, for themselves or for minors under their care, were interviewed. The selection of the sample was non-probabilistic, for convenience. During the interview, the users informed if they had understood the following data of the prescriptions: drug name, dose and frequency of administration. Participants then repeated the data for researchers, being allowed to check the prescriptions at the same time. After the interviews, the answers to the questions were interpreted by the researchers, who evaluated the agreement between the information provided by the users and the actual instructions of the recipes, using the Kappa test.Results: Data were collected from 69 users of the unit's pharmacy (corresponding to 69 delivered prescriptions). Fifty-nine (85.5%) users reported having understood all the prescriptions data (self-report), while according to the measurement of the researchers, 23 (33.3%) were the respondents who simultaneously understood all data, relating to the name of the drug, number of daily doses and schedule. Kappa test indicated a degree of agreement between self-report and measurement of researchers of 0.138 (slight) considering all items of the prescription, and specifically on the number of doses the agreement was -0.055 (poor).Conclusions: Self-reported rate of patient's understanding of drug prescriptions was higher than the assessed by the researchers. This result suggests that self-report of patients with respect to the understanding of prescriptions has limitations and should be interpreted with caution both in research and in clinical practice. It is recommended to enhance the means of providing information to patients, in order to contribute to the proper understanding of drug prescriptions.


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