A Lot to Digest
Needs, norms, and food policy in the U.S. House of Representatives
Elizabeth Oldmixon & David Schecter
Social Science Journal, December 2011, Pages 597-603
Abstract:
This article investigates the influence of partisanship, religion, and district need on legislative behavior pertaining to food policy. Historically, policymaking is this area has been decidedly bipartisan, because it provided opportunities for logrolling among legislators. As the parties became more ideologically polarized and as budget pressures mounted, some suggested the food coalition would break down. To test this argument, this article analyzes legislative behavior on food and agriculture measures in the U.S. House of Representatives in 106th Congress. The findings indicate that while party, ideology, religion, and district need all affect legislative behavior, there is still a bipartisan majority coalition of legislators that supports food assistance.
----------------------
Alice Chen
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past empirical work establishes a wage penalty from being overweight. In this paper, I exploit variation in an individual's weight over time to determine the age when weight has the largest impact on labor market outcomes. For white men, controlling for weight at younger ages does not eliminate the effect of older adult weight on wage: being overweight as a young adult only adds an additional penalty to adult wages. However, for white women, what they weigh in their early twenties solely determines the existence of an adult wage penalty. The female early-twenties weight penalty has a persistent effect on wages, and differences in marital characteristics, occupation status, or education cannot explain it. It also is not a proxy for intergenerational unobservables.
----------------------
Molly Martin et al.
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study examines how poverty and education in both the family and school contexts influence adolescent weight. Prior research has produced an incomplete and often counterintuitive picture. We develop a framework to better understand how income and education operate alone and in conjunction with each other across families and schools. We test it by analyzing data from Wave 1 of the U.S.-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N= 16,133 in 132 schools) collected in 1994-1995. Using hierarchical logistic regression models and parallel indicators of family- and school-level poverty and educational resources, we find that at the family-level, parent's education, but not poverty status, is associated with adolescent overweight. At the school-level, the concentration of poverty within a school, but not the average level of parent's education, is associated with adolescent overweight. Further, increases in school poverty diminish the effectiveness of adolescents' own parents' education for protecting against the risks of overweight. The findings make a significant contribution by moving beyond the investigation of a single socioeconomic resource or social context. The findings push us to more fully consider when, where, and why money and education matter independently and jointly across health-related contexts.
----------------------
Sara Bleich et al.
American Journal of Public Health, forthcoming
Objectives: We examined the effect of an intervention to provide caloric information about sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the number of SSB purchases.
Methods: We used a case-crossover design with 4 corner stores located in low-income, predominately Black neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. The intervention randomly posted 1 of 3 signs with the following caloric information: (1) absolute caloric count, (2) percentage of total recommended daily intake, and (3) physical activity equivalent. We collected data for 1600 beverage sales by Black adolescents, aged 12-18 years, including 400 during a baseline period and 400 for each of the 3 caloric condition interventions.
Results: Providing Black adolescents with any caloric information significantly reduced the odds of SSB purchases relative to the baseline (odds ratio [OR] = 0.56; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.36, 0.89). When examining the 3 caloric conditions separately, the significant effect was observed when caloric information was provided as a physical activity equivalent (OR = 0.51; 95% CI = 0.31, 0.85).
Conclusions: Providing easily understandable caloric information - particularly a physical activity equivalent - may reduce calorie intake from SSBs among low-income, Black adolescents.
----------------------
Viewing heavy bodies enhances preferences for facial adiposity
D.E. Re et al.
Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, December 2011, Pages 295-308
Abstract:
Experience-dependent changes in mate choice preferences may confer an evolutionary benefit by shifting preferences towards traits that are advantageous for specific environments. Previous studies have demonstrated that prolonged exposure to one type of face biases perceptions of subsequently viewed faces and exposure to one type of body biases perceptions of subsequently viewed bodies. We tested whether preferences in facial adiposity were affected by viewing heavy or light bodies. We first assessed facial adiposity preferences by asking Caucasian participants (n = 59) to transform three-dimensional female Caucasian faces along a body mass index (BMI) continuum until they reached optimal attractiveness. Participants then viewed heavy- or light-bodied two-dimensional images with the faces cropped out before repeating the face preference task. Male and female participants who viewed heavy bodies shifted preferences toward significantly higher facial adiposity, while those who viewed the light bodies showed no significant overall shift. These results provide evidence that adaptation to certain body types affects subsequent preferences for facial adiposity, and suggest that adaptation to one body domain may affect preferences in other body domains.
----------------------
Adolescents' expectations for the future predict health behaviors in early adulthood
Thomas McDade et al.
Social Science & Medicine, August 2011, Pages 391-398
Abstract:
Health-related behaviors in adolescence establish trajectories of risk for obesity and chronic degenerative diseases, and they represent an important pathway through which socio-economic environments shape patterns of morbidity and mortality. Most behaviors that promote health involve making choices that may not pay off until the future, but the factors that predict an individual's investment in future health are not known. In this paper we consider whether expectations for the future in two domains relevant to adolescents in the U.S. - perceived chances of living to middle age and perceived chances of attending college - are associated with an individual's engagement in behaviors that protect health in the long run. We focus on adolescence as an important life stage during which habits formed may shape trajectories of disease risk later in life. We use data from a large, nationally representative sample of American youth (the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health) to predict levels of physical activity, fast food consumption, and cigarette smoking in young adulthood in relation to perceived life chances in adolescence, controlling for baseline health behaviors and a wide range of potentially confounding factors. We found that adolescents who rated their chances of attending college more highly exercised more frequently and smoked fewer cigarettes in young adulthood. Adolescents with higher expectations of living to age 35 smoked fewer cigarettes as young adults. Parental education was a significant predictor of perceived life chances, as well as health behaviors, but for each outcome the effects of perceived life chances were independent of, and often stronger than, parental education. Perceived life chances in adolescence may therefore play an important role in establishing individual trajectories of health, and in contributing to social gradients in population health.
----------------------
Children's familiarity with snack foods changes expectations about fullness
Charlotte Hardman, Keri McCrickerd & Jeffrey Brunstrom
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2011, Pages 1196-1201
Background: Palatability is regarded as a major determinant of children's energy intake. However, few studies have considered nonhedonic beliefs about foods. In adults, there is emerging evidence that expectations about the satiating properties of foods are an important determinant of meal size, and these beliefs are learned.
Objective: We measured and quantified children's expected satiation across energy-dense snack foods by using a method of adjustment. Participants changed a comparison-food portion (pasta and tomato sauce) to match the satiation that they expected from a snack food. We predicted that children who were especially familiar with snack foods would expect the foods to generate greater satiation and that children who were unfamiliar with snack foods would match expected satiation on the basis of the physical characteristics (perceived volume) of the foods.
Design: Seventy 11- to 12-y-old children completed measures of expected satiation, perceived volume, familiarity, and liking across 6 snack foods.
Results: As anticipated, familiarity and expected satiation were positively related (r = 0.37, P = 0.002), and this association remained after liking was controlled for. Furthermore, expected-satiation and perceived-volume judgments were more dissimilar as familiarity with the foods increased.
Conclusions: Our findings highlight the role of learning in shaping children's beliefs about the postingestive effects of the consumption of foods; children who ate the foods more often expected them to deliver greater satiation. Furthermore, our findings suggest that, in the absence of prior experience, children rely on a food's physical characteristics (a less-complex strategy) when they judge expected satiation.
----------------------
Genetic variation at CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 interacts with smoking status to influence body mass index
Rachel Freathy et al.
International Journal of Epidemiology, December 2011, Pages 1617-1628
Background: Cigarette smoking is associated with lower body mass index (BMI), and a commonly cited reason for unwillingness to quit smoking is a concern about weight gain. Common variation in the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 gene region (chromosome 15q25) is robustly associated with smoking quantity in smokers, but its association with BMI is unknown. We hypothesized that genotype would accurately reflect smoking exposure and that, if smoking were causally related to weight, it would be associated with BMI in smokers, but not in never smokers.
Methods: We stratified nine European study samples by smoking status and, in each stratum, analysed the association between genotype of the 15q25 SNP, rs1051730, and BMI. We meta-analysed the results (n = 24 198) and then tested for a genotype × smoking status interaction.
Results: There was no evidence of association between BMI and genotype in the never smokers {difference per T-allele: 0.05 kg/m2 [95% confidence interval (95% CI): -0.05 to 0.18]; P = 0.25}. However, in ever smokers, each additional smoking-related T-allele was associated with a 0.23 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.13-0.31) lower BMI (P = 8 × 10-6). The effect size was larger in current [0.33 kg/m2 lower BMI per T-allele (95% CI: 0.18-0.48); P = 6 × 10-5], than in former smokers [0.16 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.03-0.29); P = 0.01]. There was strong evidence of genotype × smoking interaction (P = 0.0001).
Conclusions: Smoking status modifies the association between the 15q25 variant and BMI, which strengthens evidence that smoking exposure is causally associated with reduced BMI. Smoking cessation initiatives might be more successful if they include support to maintain a healthy BMI.
----------------------
Terry Conley & Megan Garza
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, November 2011, Pages 2551-2572
Abstract:
This research investigated gender differences in and behavioral sequelae of adult vs. childhood sexual victimization among a group of undergraduates in a midwestern city. We administered a survey about sexual experiences, eating habits, and weight to individuals who were first victimized in childhood (< age 15); were first victimized in adulthood (> age 18); or had not been sexually victimized. We predicted that those victimized as children would have higher body weight and display more sexual activity than would those victimized as adults. We demonstrated that participants victimized in childhood had significantly higher body mass and weight than did nonvictims or those victimized in adulthood. Men sexually abused as children displayed more promiscuity than did men victimized in adulthood.
----------------------
Free bus passes, use of public transport and obesity among older people in England
Elizabeth Webb, Gopalakrishnan Netuveli & Christopher Millett
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, February 2012, Pages 176-180
Background: All residents of England aged 60 years and older became entitled to free travel on local buses on 1 April 2006. This study examines the impact of this policy on public transport use, a mode of active transport and levels of obesity.
Methods: Logistic regression analyses using three waves of data (2004, 2006 and 2008) from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Our main outcome measures were changes in self-reported public transport use, body mass index, waist circumference and obesity.
Results: Eligibility for free bus travel was associated with increased use (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.51, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.00) of public transport among older people. Older people who used public transport had reduced odds of being obese in 2008 compared with those who did not (AOR 0.75, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.86), as did those who were eligible for free local bus travel (AOR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.97). Older people who used public transport had reduced odds of becoming obese between 2004 and 2008 (AOR 0.79, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.98).
Conclusion: The introduction of free bus travel for older residents of England appears to have increased public transport use and may have conferred a protective effect against obesity.