Gains and Losses
Christine Logel & Geoffrey Cohen
Psychological Science, January 2012, Pages 53-55
"In the study reported here, women who completed a values affirmation weighed less, had lower BMIs, and had smaller waistlines than women who had not completed a values affirmation when the two groups were examined after a 2.5-month interval. The magnitude of the effects averaged 0.90 standard deviations, and this weight-loss effect held among overweight participants. These results provide the first evidence that affirming the value a person finds most important can reduce health risks as measured by molar physical markers. Moreover, working memory, which is important for self-regulation (Hofmann et al., 2010), was higher among participants in the affirmation condition than among participants in the no-affirmation condition after the 2.5-month interval; this finding suggests that affirming values freed up attentional resources. Working memory did not mediate effects of condition on BMI. Instead, affirmation appeared to harness working memory to health-related goals."
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The "Fair Trade" Effect: Health Halos From Social Ethics Claims
Jonathon Schuldt, Dominique Muller & Norbert Schwarz
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The authors provide evidence that social ethics claims on food packaging (e.g., fair trade) can promote the misperception that foods are lower-calorie and therefore appropriate for greater consumption. In Study 1, participants evaluating chocolate provided lower calorie judgments when it was described as fair trade - a claim silent on calorie content but signifying that trading partners received just compensation for their work. Further establishing this effect, Study 2 revealed that chocolate was perceived as lower-calorie when a company was simply described as treating its workers ethically (e.g., providing excellent wages and health care) as opposed to unethically (e.g., providing poor wages and no health care) among perceivers with strong ethical food values, consistent with halo logic. Moreover, calorie judgments mediated the same interaction pattern on recommendations of consumption frequency, suggesting that amid the ongoing obesity crisis, social ethics claims might nudge some perceivers to overindulge. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.
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A Penny-Per-Ounce Tax On Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Would Cut Health And Cost Burdens Of Diabetes
Claire Wang et al.
Health Affairs, January 2012, Pages 199-207
Abstract:
Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major contributor to the US obesity and diabetes epidemics. Using the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, we examined the potential impact on health and health spending of a nationwide penny-per-ounce excise tax on these beverages. We found that the tax would reduce consumption of these beverages by 15 percent among adults ages 25-64. Over the period 2010-20, the tax was estimated to prevent 2.4 million diabetes person-years, 95,000 coronary heart events, 8,000 strokes, and 26,000 premature deaths, while avoiding more than $17 billion in medical costs. In addition to generating approximately $13 billion in annual tax revenue, a modest tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could reduce the adverse health and cost burdens of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
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G.M. Khandaker, C.R.M. Dibben & P.B. Jones
Obesity Reviews, forthcoming
Abstract:
Maternal obesity in pregnancy has been linked with several adverse outcomes in offspring including schizophrenia. The rising prevalence of obesity may contribute to an increase in the number of schizophrenia cases in the near future; therefore, it warrants further exploration. We reviewed current evidence regarding maternal body mass index (BMI) in pregnancy and risk of schizophrenia in adult offspring. We searched PubMed and Embase databases and included studies that were based on large and representative population-based datasets. A qualitative review was undertaken due to heterogeneity between studies. Four studies with 305 cases of schizophrenia and 24,442 controls were included. Maternal obesity (pre-pregnant BMI over 29 or 30 compared with mothers with low or average BMI) was associated with two- to threefold increased risk of schizophrenia in the adult offspring in two birth cohorts. High maternal BMI at both early and late pregnancy also increased risk of schizophrenia in the offspring. Discrepant findings from one study could be attributable to sample characteristics and other factors.
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Competitive Food Sales in Schools and Childhood Obesity: A Longitudinal Study
Jennifer Van Hook & Claire Altman
Sociology of Education, January 2012, Pages 23-39
Abstract:
The vast majority of American middle schools and high schools sell what are known as "competitive foods," such as soft drinks, candy bars, and chips, to children. The relationship between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and snacks and childhood obesity is well established, but it remains unknown whether competitive food sales in schools are related to unhealthy weight gain among children. The authors examined this association using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class. Employing fixed effects models and a natural experimental approach, they found that children's weight gain between fifth and eighth grades was not associated with the introduction or the duration of exposure to competitive food sales in middle school. Also, the relationship between competitive foods and weight gain did not vary significantly by gender, race/ethnicity, or family socioeconomic status, and it remained weak and insignificant across several alternative model specifications. One possible explanation is that children's food preferences and dietary patterns are firmly established before adolescence. Also, middle school environments may dampen the effects of competitive food sales because they so highly structure children's time and eating opportunities.
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Scott Imberman & Adriana Kugler
NBER Working Paper, January 2012
Abstract:
In response to low take-up, many public schools have experimented with moving breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom. We examine whether such a program increases performance as measured by standardized test scores, grades and attendance rates. We exploit quasi-random timing of program implementation that allows for a difference-in-differences identification strategy. Our main identification assumption is that schools where the program was introduced earlier would have evolved similarly to those where the program was introduced later. We find that in-class breakfast increases both math and reading achievement by about one-tenth of a standard deviation relative to providing breakfast in the cafeteria. Moreover, we find that these effects are most pronounced for low performing, free-lunch eligible, Hispanic, and low BMI students. We also find some improvements in attendance for high achieving students but no impact on grades.
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Buffering against weight gain following dieting setbacks: An implicit theory intervention
Jeni Burnette & Eli Finkel
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on implicit theories suggests that incremental beliefs - that attributes are malleable - can help buffer people against the adverse effects of setbacks on goal achievement. We conducted a longitudinal experiment to examine whether an incremental beliefs intervention could help dieters manage their body weight in the face of severe dieting setbacks. To explore the efficacy of our incremental beliefs intervention, we randomly assigned individuals to a control, a knowledge, or an incremental beliefs condition. In addition to examining the main effect of intervention condition on weight-loss across a 12-week period, we also tested the hypothesis that although participants assigned to the control or knowledge intervention condition would gain more weight as dieting setbacks became more severe, participants assigned to the incremental beliefs condition would not. Results supported this hypothesis: Incremental beliefs protected against setback-related weight-gain. Implications for integrating implicit beliefs interventions with obesity relapse prevention programs are discussed.
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Race, SES, and Obesity Among Men
Derek Griffith et al.
Race and Social Problems, December 2011, Pages 298-306
Abstract:
Over the last decade, obesity has increased significantly among men but few national studies have empirically examined racial and socioeconomic differences in obesity among men. In this paper, we utilized logistic regression to evaluate the potential associations that race and socioeconomic status may have with obesity among men in the National Survey of American Life: an in-person household survey of non-institutionalized U.S. blacks and whites who lived in communities where at least 10% of the community residents were black Americans. A greater proportion of black men were likely to be obese than white men, but no interaction among race, SES, and obesity was detected when potential confounding variables were included. There was not a relationship between SES and obesity for white men, but there was an apparent positive relationship between SES and obesity for black men that did not remain significant in adjusted models. No relationship was found between age and obesity among black men, though white men who were 55 and older were more likely than those 18-34 to be obese in confounder adjusted models. Among white men, no relationships were found between obesity and education, household income, or marital status. Black men in the lowest income category were less likely to be obese than those in the highest income category, in bivariate but not adjusted models. These findings suggest that the way racial, economic, stress and behavioral factors combine to affect obesity in black and white men may be different.
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Roberto De Vogli, Anne Kouvonen & David Gimeno
Critical Public Health, Winter 2011, Pages 395-402
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the density of fast food restaurants and the prevalence of obesity by gender across affluent nations. Data on Subway's restaurants per 100,000 people and proportions of men and women aged 15 years or older with a body mass index higher or equal than 30 kg/m2 were obtained for 26 of 34 advanced economies. Countries with the highest density of Subway restaurants such as the USA (7.52 per 100,000) and Canada (7.43 per 100,000) also tend to have a higher prevalence of obesity in both men (31.3% and 23.2%, respectively) and women (33.2% and 22.9%, respectively). On the other hand, countries with a relatively low density of Subway restaurants such as Japan (0.13 per 100,000) and Norway (0.19 per 100,000) had a lower prevalence of obesity in both men (2.9% and 6.4%, respectively) and women (3.3% and 5.9%, respectively). Unadjusted linear regression models showed a significant correlation between the density of Subway's outlets and the prevalence of adult obesity (β = 0.46; p = 0.02 in men and β = 0.48; p = 0.013 in women). When the data were weighted by population size, the associations became substantially stronger in both men and women (β = 0.85; p = 0.0001 and β = 0.84; p = 0.0001, respectively). Covariate adjustment did not reduce the size of the associations. Our study raises serious concerns about the diffusion of fast food outlets worldwide and calls for coordinated political actions to address what we term ‘globesization', the ongoing globalization of the obesity epidemic.
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Altered implicit category learning in anorexia nervosa
Megan Shott et al.
Neuropsychology, forthcoming
Objective: Recent research has identified specific cognitive deficits in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), including impairment in executive functioning and attention. Another such cognitive process, implicit category learning has been less studied in AN. This study examined whether implicit category learning is impaired in AN.
Method: Twenty-one women diagnosed with AN and 19 control women (CW) were administered an implicit category learning task in which they were asked to categorize simple perceptual stimuli (Gabor patches) into one of two categories. Category membership was based on a linear integration (i.e., an implicit task) of two stimulus dimensions (orientation and spatial frequency of the stimulus).
Results: AN individuals were less accurate on implicit category learning relative to age-matched CW. Model-based analyses indicated that, even when AN individuals used the appropriate (i.e., implicit) strategy they were still impaired relative to CW who also used the same strategy. In addition, task performance in AN patients was worse the higher they were in self-reported novelty seeking and the lower they were in sensitivity to punishment.
Conclusions: These results indicate that AN patients have implicit category learning deficits, and given this type of learning is thought to be mediated by striatal dopamine pathways, AN patients may have deficits in these neural systems. The finding of significant correlations with novelty seeking and sensitivity to punishment suggests that feedback sensitivity is related to implicit learning in AN.
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Mary Hearst et al.
Health Education & Behavior, forthcoming
Objective: This study aimed to determine the relationship between parent time demands and presence and enforcement of family rules and parent/child dyad weight status.
Method: In dyads of one child/parent per family (N = 681 dyads) in Twin Cities, Minnesota, 2007-2008, height and weight were measured, and a survey of demographics, time demands, and family rules-related questions was taken. Parent/child dyads were classified into four healthy weight/overweight categories. Multivariate linear associations were analyzed with SAS, testing for interaction by work status and family composition (p < .10).
Results: In adjusted models, lack of family rules and difficulty with rule enforcement were statistically lower in dyads in which the parent or child was healthy weight compared with dyads in which the parent and child were both overweight (difference in family rules scores = 0.49, p = .03; difference in rule enforcement scores = 1.09, p ≤ .01). Of parents who worked full-time, healthy weight dyads reported lower time demands than other dyads (difference in time demands scores = 1.44, p = .01).
Conclusions: Family experiences of time demands and use of family rules are related to the weight status of parents and children within families.
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Daniel Hruschka & Alexandra Brewis
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper proposes a benchmark for comparing SES gradients across countries, based on gross domestic product apportioned to members of differing wealth categories within countries. Using this approach, we estimate absolute wealth in 360 populations in 36 developing countries and model its relationship with overweight (BMI ≥25) among non-pregnant women ages 18-49. A simple model based on absolute wealth alone strongly predicts odds of overweight (R2 = 0.59), a relationship that holds both between countries and between different groups in the same country (10 populations for each of 36 countries). Moreover, world region modifies this relationship, accounting for an additional 22% of variance (R2 = 0.81). This allows us to extract a basic pattern: rising rates of overweight in lower and middle income countries closely track increasing economic resources, and the shape of that gradient differs by region in systematic ways.
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Genetic Variance of Body Mass Index from Childhood to Early Adulthood
Jocilyn Dellava, Paul Lichtenstein & Kenneth Kendler
Behavior Genetics, January 2012, Pages 86-95
Abstract:
Research has been conducted to determine genetic and environmental components of body mass index (BMI). The portion of phenotypic correlation attributed to genetic, and environmental effects, the effects of puberty stage on BMI means and variances, and consistency of parent/twin report remain largely unknown. The current study seeks to address these questions using four waves of data from 1480 twin pairs in the Swedish Twin Registry: Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development. Two Cholesky decomposition models were fit (parental and twin report). For wave 2, a univariate model was fit allowing puberty stage moderation. Parent/twin concordance of reported BMI is high. Genetic factors are largely responsible for phenotypic correlation: puberty stage has a significant effect on BMI variance, with higher genetic variance at more advanced puberty stages. Results provide additional information about this phenotype and suggest early adolescent and parental reports for BMI are roughly equivalent.
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M.D. Maldonado et al.
Physiology & Behavior, 20 March 2012, Pages 1099-1103
Abstract:
Acute sport exercise leads to a strong stimulation of muscle tissue and a change in the organism energy demands. This study was designed to investigate the effect of oral melatonin supplementation on human physiological functions associated with acute exercise. Immune, endocrine and metabolic parameters were measured in 16 young male football players, who were divided into two groups, an experimental group (supplementation with 6 mg of melatonin administered 30 minutes prior to exercise) and a control group (placebo without melatonin). They performed a continuous exercise of high intensity (135 beats/min). Samples were collected 30 minutes before the exercise and 3, 15 and 60 minutes during the exercise. The results indicated that the acute sport training presented: a) increased lipid peroxidation products (MDA) in both groups, control and experimental, with levels significantly decreased in the group treated with melatonin after 15 and 60 minutes of high-intensity exercise, b) the total antioxidant activity (TAS) was lower in the control group than in the experimental, the latter showing significant differences at 60 minutes of high-intensity exercise c) the lipid profile of subjects in the experimental group showed lower triglyceride levels than the control group after 15 and 60 minutes of high-intensity exercise, d) immunological studies only showed, in the experimental group, an increase in IgA levels at 60 minutes after the exercise, and finally there were no significant differences between the groups for any of the other variables. In conclusion these results indicated that treatment with melatonin in acute sports exercise reversed oxidative stress, improved defenses and lipid metabolism, which would result in an improvement in fitness.
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Shellae Versey & George Kaplan
Health Education & Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Hostility may be related to risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as blood pressure. However, the process by which hostility affects blood pressure is not fully understood. The current study sought to evaluate abdominal obesity (waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]) as a potential mediator and modifier of the relationship between cynical hostility and systolic blood pressure (SBP) in a group of disadvantaged women. Path analysis and multiple regression models were used to identify mediating and moderating pathways in the relationship between cynical hostility and SBP. Results indicate a significant interaction between WHR and cynical hostility. WHR was a partial mediator and significant moderator of the association between hostility and blood pressure. These findings highlight the potential importance of examining abdominal obesity and psychosocial factors as conjunctive determinants of CVD and risk factors for related metabolic conditions.
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Gina Masullo Chen et al.
Mass Communication and Society, January/February 2012, Pages 115-135
Abstract:
In-depth interviews with 36 Black women, ages 18 to 59, reveal that exaggeratedly overweight depictions of Black women portrayed by men dressed up as women had a strong effect on their identities. The women reported that portrayals, such as Madea in Tyler Perry's films, Rasputia in Eddie Murphy's Norbit, and Martin Lawrence's Big Momma, were "mammy-like" and the fact that men dressed as women to depict these roles heightened the stereotypes these images evoke. The male mammy portrayals increase the mockery of Black women in the media and contribute to the effeminization of African American men, according to women in our sample. Social comparison, social identity, and self-categorization theories are used for interpretation.