Big deal
Lay Theories of Obesity Predict Actual Body Mass
Brent McFerran & Anirban Mukhopadhyay
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Obesity is a major public health problem, but despite much research into its causes, scientists have largely neglected to examine laypeople's personal beliefs about it. Such naive beliefs are important because they guide actual goal-directed behaviors. In a series of studies across five countries on three continents, we found that people mainly believed either that obesity is caused by a lack of exercise or that it is caused by a poor diet. Moreover, laypeople who indicted a lack of exercise were more likely to actually be overweight than were those who implicated a poor diet. This effect held even after controlling for several known correlates of body mass index (BMI), thereby explaining previously unexplained variance. We also experimentally demonstrated the mechanism underlying this effect: People who implicated insufficient exercise tended to consume more food than did those who indicted a poor diet. These results suggest that obesity has an important, pervasive, and hitherto overlooked psychological antecedent.
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Michael Bader et al.
Health & Place, forthcoming
Abstract:
Policies target fast food outlets to curb adolescent obesity. We argue that researchers should examine the entire retail ecology of neighborhoods, not just fast food outlets. We examine the association between the neighborhood retail environment and obesity using Fitnessgram data collected from 94,348 New York City public high school students. In generalized hierarchical linear models, the number of fast food restaurants predicted lower odds of obesity for adolescents (OR:0.972 per establishment; CI:0.957--0.988). In a "placebo test" we found that banks - a measure of neighborhood retail ecology - also predicted lower obesity (OR:0.979 per bank; CI:0.962-0.994). Retail disinvestment might be associated with greater obesity; accordingly, public health research should study the influence of general retail disinvestment not just food-specific investment.
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Socioeconomic status, infant feeding practices and early childhood obesity
B.G. Gibbs & R. Forste
Pediatric Obesity, forthcoming
Background: Children from low socioeconomic households are at greater risk of obesity. As breastfeeding can protect against child obesity, disadvantaged infants are less likely to breastfeed relative to more advantaged children. Whether infant feeding patterns, as well as other maternal characteristics mediate the association between social class and obesity has not been established in available research.
Objectives: Examine the impact of infant feeding practices on child obesity and identify the mechanisms that link socioeconomic status (SES) with child obesity.
Methods: Based on a nationally representative longitudinal survey (ECLS-B) of early childhood (n = 8030), we examine how breastfeeding practices, the early introduction of solid foods and putting an infant to bed with a bottle mediate the relationship between social class and early childhood obesity relative to the mediating influence of other maternal characteristics (BMI, age at birth, smoking, depression and daycare use).
Results: Infants predominantly fed formula for the first 6 months were about 2.5 times more likely to be obese at 24 months of age relative to infants predominantly fed breast milk. The early introduction of solid foods (< 4 months) and putting the child to bed with a bottle also increased the likelihood of obesity. Unhealthy infant feeding practices were the primary mechanism mediating the relationship between SES and early childhood obesity. Results are consistent across measures of child obesity although the effect size of infant feeding practices varies.
Conclusions: The encouragement and support of breastfeeding and other healthy feeding practices are especially important for low socioeconomic children who are at increased risk of early childhood obesity. Targeting socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers for breastfeeding support and for infant-led feeding strategies may reduce the negative association between SES and child obesity. The implications are discussed in terms of policy and practice.
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One Man's Tall Is Another Man's Small: How the Framing of Portion Size Influences Food Choice
David Just & Brian Wansink
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Labels such as ‘Large' or ‘Super-size' are often used to describe portion sizes. How do these normative labels influence consumer choice and how much they ultimately either consume or waste? Although one might believe that firms use normative labels to impact choice behavior through loss aversion, a field experiment shows consumer's willingness to pay is inconsistent with a loss aversion explanation. Although portions were clearly visible, individuals appeared to use the labels as objective information about their size. Importantly, a second study showed these labels also led people to eat less when food was given a larger sounding name than a smaller name (double vs. regular; regular vs. half-size). If labels are used as size information, policies governing normative names could help reduce food consumption or reduce waste.
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Leaving a Flat Taste in Your Mouth: Task Load Reduces Taste Perception
Reine van der Wal & Lotte van Dillen
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In recent years, people have tended to pay less attention to their meals, often consuming them while engaging in other activities. At the same time, foods have become increasingly sweet and salty. We therefore investigated how performing concurrent activities affects taste perception and how this relates to actual consumption. Participants tasted sour, sweet, and salty substances in various concentrations under differing task loads. Our results demonstrated that under high task load (relative to low task load), participants rated the substances as less intense, consumed more of the substances, and preferred stronger tastants. Our findings suggest that increased task load reduces people's taste perception by limiting attentional capacity to assess taste intensity and that people adjust their consumption accordingly.
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Kemper Moreland
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study presents a simple model that weighs the benefits and costs of aerobic exercise to the individual. The model assumes that adding years to life serves as the primary benefit of exercise, and that hours of exercise over a lifetime serve as the cost. Given previous estimates of individual rates of time preference this study finds that people act rationally when they choose to watch a track event rather than choose to run themselves.
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S.K. Lhachimi et al.
Obesity Reviews, July 2013, Pages 523-531
Abstract:
A common policy response to the rise in obesity prevalence is to undertake interventions in childhood, but it is an open question whether this is more effective than reducing the risk of becoming obese during adulthood. In this paper, we model the effect on health outcomes of (i) reducing the prevalence of obesity when entering adulthood; (ii) reducing the risk of becoming obese throughout adult life; and (iii) combinations of both approaches. We found that, while all approaches reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases and improve life expectancy, a given percentage reduction in obesity prevalence achieved during childhood had a smaller effect than the same percentage reduction in the risk of becoming obese applied throughout adulthood. A small increase in the probability of becoming obese during adulthood offsets a substantial reduction in prevalence of overweight/obesity achieved during childhood, with the gains from a 50% reduction in child obesity prevalence offset by a 10% increase in the probability of becoming obese in adulthood. We conclude that both policy approaches can improve the health profile throughout the life course of a cohort, but they are not equivalent, and a large reduction in child obesity prevalence may be reversed by a small increase in the risk of becoming overweight or obese in adulthood.
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A Case Study of a Workplace Wellness Program That Offers Financial Incentives for Weight Loss
John Cawley & Joshua Price
Journal of Health Economics, September 2013, Pages 794-803
Abstract:
Employers are increasingly adopting workplace wellness programs designed to improve employee health and decrease employer costs associated with health insurance and job absenteeism. This paper examines the outcomes of 2,635 workers across 24 worksites who were offered financial incentives for weight loss that took various forms, including fixed payments and forfeitable bonds. We document extremely high attrition and modest weight loss associated with the financial incentives in this program, which contrasts with the better outcomes associated with pilot programs. We conclude by offering suggestions, motivated by behavioral economics, for increasing the effectiveness of financial incentives for weight loss.
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Incentivizing Wellness in the Workplace: Sticks (Not Carrots) Send Stigmatizing Signals
David Tannenbaum et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Companies often provide incentives for employees to maintain healthy lifestyles. These incentives can take the form of either discounted premiums for healthy-weight employees ("carrot" policies) or increased premiums for overweight employees ("stick" policies). In the three studies reported here, we demonstrated that even when stick and carrot policies are formally equivalent, they do not necessarily convey the same information to employees. Stick but not carrot policies were viewed as reflecting negative company attitudes toward overweight employees (Study 1a) and were evaluated especially negatively by overweight participants (Study 1b). This was true even when overweight employees paid less money under the stick than under the carrot policy. When acting as policymakers (Study 2), participants with high levels of implicit overweight bias were especially likely to choose stick policies - often on the grounds that such policies were cost-effective - even when doing so was more costly to the company. Policymakers should realize that the framing of incentive programs can convey tacit, and sometimes stigmatizing, messages.
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Family Structure and Obesity Among U.S. Children
Jennifer Augustine & Rachel Kimbro
Journal of Applied Research on Children, Spring 2013
Abstract:
Child obesity in the U.S. is a significant public health issue, particularly among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, the roles of parents' human and financial capital and racial and ethnic background have become important topics of social science and public health research on child obesity. Less often discussed, however, is the role of family structure, which is an important predictor of child well-being and indicator of family socioeconomic status. The goal of this study, therefore, is to investigate how preschool aged children's risk of obesity varies across a diverse set of family structures and whether these differences in obesity are moderated by family poverty status and the mothers' education. Using a large nationally representative sample of children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Birth Cohort, we find that preschoolers raised by two biological cohabiting parents or a relative caregiver (generally the grandparent) have greater odds of being obese than children raised by married biological parents. Also, poor children in married biological parent households and non-poor children in married step parent households have greater obesity risks, while poor children in father only, unmarried step, and married step parent families actually have lower odds of obesity than children in non-poor intact households. The implications of these findings for policy and future research linking family structure to children's weight status are discussed.
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Intuitive eating is associated with interoceptive sensitivity: Effects on body mass index
Beate Herbert et al.
Appetite, forthcoming
Abstract:
Intuitive eating is relevant for adaptive eating, body weight and well-being and impairments are associated with dieting and eating disorders. It is assumed to depend on the ability to recognize one's signs of hunger and fullness and to eat accordingly. This suggests a link to the individual ability to perceive and processes bodily signals (interoceptive sensitivity, IS) which has been shown to be associated with emotion processing and behavior regulation. This study was designed to clarify the relationships between IS as measured by a heartbeat perception task, intuitive eating and body mass index (BMI) in N = 111 healthy young women. Intuitive eating was assessed by the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES) with three facets, reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues (RIH), eating for physical rather than emotional reasons (EPR), and unconditional permission to eat when hungry (UPE). IS was not only positively related to total IES score and RIH and EPR, and negatively predicted BMI, but also proved to fully mediate the negative relationship between RIH, as well as EPR and BMI. Additionally, the subjective appraisal of one's interoceptive signals independently predicted EPR and BMI. IS represents a promising mechanism in research on eating behavior and body weight.
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The Effect of Fast-Food Restaurants on Childhood Obesity: A School Level Analysis
Pedro Alviola et al.
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We analyze, using an instrumental variable approach, the effect of the number of fast-food restaurants on school level obesity rates in Arkansas. Using distance to the nearest major highway as an instrument, our results suggest that exposure to fast-food restaurants can impact weight outcomes. Specifically, we find that the number of fast-food restaurants within a mile from the school can significantly affect school level obesity rates.
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Examining the Longitudinal Relationship Between Change in Sleep and Obesity Risk in Adolescents
Leslie Lytle et al.
Health Education & Behavior, June 2013, Pages 362-370
Abstract:
Evidence is building regarding the association between inadequate amounts of sleep and the risk of obesity, especially in younger children. Less is known about the relationship between change in sleep and change in weight during adolescence. The objective of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between change in sleep duration and change in body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat (PBF) in a cohort of adolescents. The cohort included 723 adolescents (mean age = 14.7 years at baseline) from Minnesota. Total sleep duration was assessed via self-report. BMI and PBF were objectively assessed. Covariates used in the multivariate analyses included energy intake as assessed through 24-hour recalls, activity levels as assessed by accelerometers, screen time/sedentary behavior, depression, and sociodemographic characteristics. For both males and females, average BMI and PBF increased slightly over the 2 years and average sleep duration decreased by about 30 minutes. The authors saw no statistically significant longitudinal relationships between change in total sleep and change in BMI or PBF over time in either girls or boys. The only longitudinal relationship that approached statistical significance was a positive association between sleep and PBF in females (p = .068). This research contributes to the literature as the only study to date to examine how change in sleep duration during adolescence may be related to a concomitant change in BMI and body fat. The findings of this study do not support the hypothesis that a decline in sleep duration during adolescence increases obesity risk.
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Jason Block et al.
British Medical Journal, May 2013
Objective: To investigate estimation of calorie (energy) content of meals from fast food restaurants in adults, adolescents, and school age children.
Design: Cross sectional study of repeated visits to fast food restaurant chains.
Setting: 89 fast food restaurants in four cities in New England, United States: McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts.
Participants: 1877 adults and 330 school age children visiting restaurants at dinnertime (evening meal) in 2010 and 2011; 1178 adolescents visiting restaurants after school or at lunchtime in 2010 and 2011.
Results: Among adults, adolescents, and school age children, the mean actual calorie content of meals was 836 calories (SD 465), 756 calories (SD 455), and 733 calories (SD 359), respectively. A calorie is equivalent to 4.18 kJ. Compared with the actual figures, participants underestimated calorie content by means of 175 calories (95% confidence interval 145 to 205), 259 calories (227 to 291), and 175 calories (108 to 242), respectively. In multivariable linear regression models, underestimation of calorie content increased substantially as the actual meal calorie content increased. Adults and adolescents eating at Subway estimated 20% and 25% lower calorie content than McDonald's diners (relative change 0.80, 95% confidence interval 0.66 to 0.96; 0.75, 0.57 to 0.99).
Conclusions: People eating at fast food restaurants underestimate the calorie content of meals, especially large meals. Education of consumers through calorie menu labeling and other outreach efforts might reduce the large degree of underestimation.
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Eating by example: Effects of environmental cues on dietary decisions
Sosja Prinsen, Denise de Ridder & Emely de Vet
Appetite, forthcoming
Objective: The present studies examined the role of environmental cues in steering people's dietary decisions in response to food temptations. Based on the notion that people show a tendency to conform to eating standards derived from the eating behavior of others, it was hypothesized that communication of other people's dietary decisions through environmental cues affect whether and what people eat.
Methods: Conformity to environmental cues about food intake was assessed in a local bakery (Study 1, N = 144) and a lab setting (Study 2, N = 65). Participants were unobtrusively presented with a bowl of individually wrapped chocolates. The presence of empty wrappers was manipulated, to indicate whether others who had been in the same situation had or had not eaten. Conformity to environmental cues about food choice was assessed in Study 3 (N = 90). Participants were required to choose between a healthy and an unhealthy snack. Food wrappers indicated whether previous participants had chosen the healthy or the unhealthy snack.
Results: As expected, participants were more likely to take chocolates in the presence of an environmental cue that others did too. Also, participants were more likely to choose a snack that was consistent with the choice of others.
Conclusions: Together, these findings support our main hypothesis that environmental cues steer people's decisions concerning food intake and food choice. Moreover, the results suggest that only small changes in the environment may support healthy eating behavior.
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Food Marketing to Children on U.S. Spanish-Language Television
Dale Kunkel et al.
Journal of Health Communication, forthcoming
Abstract:
Latino children in particular are at risk of childhood obesity. Because exposure to televised food marketing is a contributor to childhood obesity, it is important to examine the nutritional quality of foods advertised on Spanish-language children's programming. The authors analyzed a sample of 158 Spanish-language children's television programs for its advertising content and compared them with an equivalent sample of English-language advertising. The authors evaluated nutritional quality of each advertised product using a food rating system from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, the authors assessed compliance with industry self-regulatory pledges. The authors found that amount of food advertising on Spanish-language channels (M = 2.2 ads/hour) was lower than on English-language programs, but the nutritional quality of food products on Spanish-language channels was substantially poorer than on English channels. Industry self-regulation was less effective on Spanish-language channels. The study provides clear evidence of significant disparities. Food advertising targeted at Spanish-speaking children is more likely to promote nutritionally poor food products than advertising on English-language channels. Industry self-regulation is less effective on Spanish-language television channels. Given the disproportionately high rate of childhood obesity among Latinos, the study's findings hold important implications for public health policy.
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K.A. Kaiser et al.
Obesity Reviews, forthcoming
Abstract:
We provide arguments to the debate question and update a previous meta-analysis with recently published studies on effects of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on body weight/composition indices (BWIs). We abstracted data from randomized controlled trials examining effects of consumption of SSBs on BWIs. Six new studies met these criteria: (i) human trials, (ii) ≥ 3 weeks duration, (iii) random assignment to conditions differing only in consumption of SSBs and (iv) including a BWI outcome. Updated meta-analysis of a total of seven studies that added SSBs to persons' diets showed dose-dependent increases in weight. Updated meta-analysis of eight studies attempting to reduce SSB consumption showed an equivocal effect on BWIs in all randomized subjects. When limited to subjects overweight at baseline, meta-analysis showed a significant effect of roughly 0.25 standard deviations (more weight loss/less weight gain) relative to controls. Evidence to date is equivocal in showing that decreasing SSB consumption will reduce the prevalence of obesity. Although new evidence suggests that an effect may yet be demonstrable in some populations, the integrated effect size estimate remains very small and of equivocal statistical significance. Problems in this research area and suggestions for future research are highlighted.
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Variation in the relationship between BMI and survival by socioeconomic status in Great Britain
Jonas Minet Kinge & Stephen Morris
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between obesity and survival, and the extent to which this relationship varies by socioeconomic status (SES). The underlying model is based on the "Pathways to health" framework in which SES affects health by modifying the relationship between lifestyles and health. We use data from the British Health and Lifestyle Survey (1984-1985) and the longitudinal follow-up in June 2009, and run parametric Gompertz survival models to investigate the association between obesity and survival, also accounting for interactions between obesity and both age and SES. Generally we find that obesity is negatively associated with survival, and that SES is positively associated with survival, in both men and women. The interactions between obesity and SES predict survival among women but not among men. Obesity compared with normal weight is associated with a reduction in survival of 3.3, 3.2 and 2.8 years in men aged 40, 50 and 60 years, respectively. Corresponding numbers among women in the lowest SES group are 13.1, 9.7 and 6.1 years, respectively; in the highest SES group they are 6.2, 3.1 and 0.1 years, respectively, a difference of approximately 6 years between the highest and lowest SES groups.
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Public Reactions to Obesity-Related Health Campaigns: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Rebecca Puhl, Joerg Luedicke & Jamie Lee Peterson
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, July 2013, Pages 36-48
Background: Despite numerous obesity-related health campaigns throughout the U.S., public perceptions of these campaigns have not been formally assessed. In addition, several recent publicized campaigns have come under criticism in the popular media for reinforcing stigmatization of obese people. Thus, research in this area is warranted.
Setting/participants: The data were collected online in summer 2012 from a nationally representative sample of American adults (N=1085).
Intervention: Participants were randomly assigned to view 10 obesity-related health campaigns that were pretested and publicly criticized as being stigmatizing of obese people, or 10 campaigns that contained more-neutral content.
Results: Stigmatizing campaigns were no more likely to instill motivation for improving lifestyle behaviors among participants than campaigns that were more neutral (OR=1.095, 95% CI=0.736, 1.630). Stigmatizing campaigns were also rated as inducing less self-efficacy (adjusted mean difference = -0.171 SD, 95% CI= -0.266, -0.076) and having less-appropriate visual content compared to less stigmatizing campaigns (adjusted difference in probability = -0.092, 95% CI= -0.124, -0.059). These findings remained consistent regardless of participants' body weight, and were generally consistent across sociodemographic predictors.
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Food Prices and Body Fatness among Youths
Michael Grossman, Erdal Tekin & Roy Wada
NBER Working Paper, June 2013
Abstract:
In this paper, we examine the effect of food prices on clinical measures of obesity, including body mass index (BMI) and percentage body fat (PBF) measures derived from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), among youths ages 12 through 18. The empirical analyses employ data from various waves of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) merged with several food prices measured by county and year. This is the first study to consider clinically measured levels of body composition rather than BMI to investigate the effects of food prices on obesity among youths. We also examine whether the effects of food prices on body composition differ by gender and race/ethnicity. Our findings suggest that increases in the real price of one calorie in food for home consumption and the real price of fast-food restaurant food lead to improvements in obesity outcomes among youths. We also find that an increase in the real price of fruits and vegetables has negative consequences for these outcomes. Finally, our results indicate that measures of PBF derived from BIA and DXA are no less sensitive and in some cases more sensitive to the prices just mentioned than BMI.
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Parent-Child Resemblance in Weight Status and Its Correlates in the United States
Yinghui Liu et al.
PLoS ONE, June 2013
Background: Few studies have examined parent-child resemblance in body weight status using nationally representative data for the US.
Design: We analyzed Body Mass Index (BMI), weight status, and related correlates for 4,846 boys, 4,725 girls, and their parents based on US nationally representative data from the 2006 and 2007 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Pearson partial correlation coefficients, percent agreement, weighted kappa coefficients, and binary and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine parent-child resemblance, adjusted for complex sampling design.
Results: Pearson partial correlation coefficients between parent and child's BMI measures were 0.15 for father-son pairs, 0.17 for father-daughter pairs, 0.20 for mother-son pairs, and 0.23 for mother-daughter pairs. The weighted kappa coefficients between BMI quintiles of parent and child ranged from -0.02 to 0.25. Odds ratio analyses found children were 2.1 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.6, 2.8) times more likely to be obese if only their father was obese, 1.9 (95% CI: 1.5, 2.4) times more likely if only their mother was obese, and 3.2 (95% CI: 2.5, 4.2) times more likely if both parents were obese.
Conclusions: Parent-child resemblance in BMI appears weak and may vary across parent-child dyad types in the US population. However, parental obesity status is associated with children's obesity status. Use of different measures of parent-child resemblance in body weight status can lead to different conclusions.
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Claire Wang & Seanna Vine
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, forthcoming
Background: New York City recently proposed a restriction to cap the portion size of all sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) sold in food-service establishments at 16 oz (473 mL). One critical question is whether such a policy may disproportionally affect low-income or overweight individuals.
Objective: The objective was to determine the demographic characteristics of US individuals potentially affected by a 16-oz portion-size cap on SSBs and the potential effect on caloric intake.
Design: We analyzed dietary records from the NHANES 2007-2010. We estimated the proportion of individuals who consumed at least one SSB >16 fluid oz (473 mL) in restaurants by age, household income, and weight status.
Results: Of all SSBs >16 oz (473 mL) purchased from food-service establishments, 64.7% were purchased from fast food restaurants, 28.2% from other restaurants, and 4.6% from sports, recreation, and entertainment facilities. On a given day, the policy would affect 7.2% of children and 7.6% of adults. Overweight individuals are more likely to consume these beverages, whereas there was no significant difference between income groups. If 80% of affected consumers choose a 16-oz (473-mL) beverage, the policy would result in a change of -57.6 kcal in each affected consumer aged 2-19 y (95% CI: -65.0, -50.1) and -62.6 kcal in those aged ≥20 y (95% CI: -67.9, -57.4).
Conclusion: A policy to cap portion size is likely to result in a modest reduction in excess calories from SSBs, especially among young adults and children who are overweight.
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Obesogenic Environmental Influences on Young Adults: Evidence from College Dormitory Assignments
Kandice Kapinos, Olga Yakusheva & Daniel Eisenberg
Economics & Human Biology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study utilizes a natural experiment - conditionally random dormitory assignments of first-year US college students - to investigate the influence of obesogenic environmental factors in explaining changes in weight and exercise behavior during the 2009 to 2010 academic year. The design addresses potential selection biases resulting from the likelihood that individuals sort into built environments that match their preferences for exercise and healthy eating. We find some evidence that the food environment, specifically access to campus dining, significantly affected the weight of female students in our study. Females assigned to dormitories where the nearest campus dining hall was closed on the weekends gained about 1 pound less over the course of the year than females assigned to dormitories near dining halls that were open 7 days a week. We also find some evidence that females who lived in close proximity to a grocery store gained less weight over the course of the year. Finally, females who lived closer to campus gym reported more frequent exercise over the course of the year. We do not find significant effects of the built environment on weight changes of males in our sample, but we are cautious to draw strong conclusions from this because the male weight change in our sample was quite small.
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Rebecca Puhl, Joerg Luedicke & Chelsea Heuer
Journal of Health Communication, July 2013, Pages 805-826
Abstract:
Overweight and obese persons are frequently stigmatized in news media. The present study is the first to systematically compare public reactions to positive and negative images of obese persons accompanying news reports on obesity (while manipulating gender and race of the target)and their effects on generalized attitudes and social distance toward obese persons. The authors conducted 3 randomized experimental studies using online surveys to assess public perceptions of positive versus stereotypical images of obese adults (who varied by gender and race) accompanying a neutral news report about obesity. The sample included 1,251 adults, who were recruited through a national survey panel during May of 2010. Participants who viewed negative, stereotypical images of obese targets increased social distance, antifat attitudes, and ratings of laziness and dislike toward obese persons, whereas positive, nonstereotypical images induced more positive attitudes. These findings remained consistent when accounting for sociodemographic variables. African American female obese targets portrayed in images evoked higher ratings of dislike and social distance compared with Caucasian targets, but ratings were similar for male and female targets. This study provides evidence that images of obese person accompanying written media influence public attitudes toward obese people, and may reinforce weight stigmatization if images contain stereotypical portrayals of obese persons. Implications for efforts to report about obesity in the news media are discussed.
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Steingerdur Olafsdottir et al.
International Journal of Public Health, forthcoming
Objectives: This study investigated the associations between children's screen habits and their consumption of sweetened beverages. Because parents might be disposed to regulate their child's screen and dietary habits in a similar direction, our specific aim was to examine whether these associations were independent of parental norms.
Methods: In the Swedish sample of the European Identification and prevention of dietary and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants (IDEFICS) study, parents filled in questionnaires about their 2 to 9-year-old children's (n = 1,733) lifestyle and diets.
Results: Associations between screen habits and sweetened beverage consumption were found independent of parental norms regarding sweetened beverages. A longitudinal analysis revealed that sweetened beverage consumption at 2-year follow-up was predicted by exposure to commercial TV at baseline (OR 1.4, 95 % CI 1.1-1.9). Cross-sectional analysis showed that the likelihood of consuming sweetened beverages at least 1-3 times per week increased for each hour/day watching television (OR 1.5, 95 % CI 1.2-1.9), and for being exposed to commercials (OR 1.6, 95 % CI 1.3-2.1). TV viewing time and commercial exposure contributed to the associations independently of each other.
Conclusions: The results strengthen the assumption that it is possible to influence children's dietary habits through their TV habits.