Psychological wellbeing in 20-year-old adults receiving repeated lifestyle counselling since infancy

The Influence of Dietary Counseling Over 20 Years on Tracking of Non-High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol from Infancy to Young Adulthood

This 26-year study found that non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) levels tracked from infancy to young adulthood suggesting early-life non-HDL-C could predict future levels. However, infancy-onset dietary counseling reduced the odds of maintaining at-risk non-HDL-C, highlighting the potential importance of early interventions in preventing cardiovascular risk associated with high pediatric non-HDL-C.

Identifying Personality Characteristics and Indicators of Psychological Well-Being Associated With Attrition in the Motivation Makes the Move! Physical Activity Intervention: Randomized Technology-Supported Trial

BACKGROUND

Data attrition has been a common problem in longitudinal lifestyle interventions. The contributors to attrition in technology-supported physical activity interventions have not been thoroughly studied.

OBJECTIVE

The present study examined the roles of personality characteristics and indicators of psychological well-being in data attrition within a technology-supported, longitudinal intervention study with overweight adults.

METHODS

Participants (N=89) were adults from the Motivation Makes the Move! intervention study. Data attrition was studied after a 3-month follow-up. Participants' personality characteristics were studied using the Short Five self-report questionnaire. Psychological well-being indicators were assessed with the RAND 36-item health survey, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Beck Depression Inventory. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the risk of discontinuing the study. The analyses were adjusted for sex, age, study group, and educational status.

RESULTS

At the 3-month follow-up, 65 of 89 participants (73% of the initial sample) had continued in the study. Participants' personality characteristics and indicators of psychological well-being were not associated with the risk of dropping out of the study (all P values >.05). The results remained the same after covariate controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Participant attrition was not attributable to personality characteristics or psychological well-being in the Motivation Makes the Move! study conducted with overweight adults. As attrition remains a challenge within longitudinal, technology-supported lifestyle interventions, attention should be paid to the potentially dynamic natures of personality and psychological well-being, as well as other elements beyond these.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02686502; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02686502.

Prevention of atherosclerosis from childhood

Cardiovascular diseases caused by atherosclerosis do not typically manifest before middle age; however, the disease process begins early in life. Preclinical atherosclerosis can be quantified with imaging methods in healthy populations long before clinical manifestations present. Cohort studies have shown that childhood exposure to risk factors, such as dyslipidaemia, elevated blood pressure and tobacco smoking, are associated with adult preclinical atherosclerotic phenotypes. Importantly, these long-term effects are substantially reduced if the individual becomes free from the risk factor by adulthood. As participants in the cohorts continue to age and clinical end points accrue, the strongest evidence linking exposure to risk factors in early life with cardiovascular outcomes has begun to emerge. Although science has deciphered the natural course of atherosclerosis, discovered its causal risk factors and developed effective means to intervene, we are still faced with an ongoing global pandemic of atherosclerotic diseases. In general, atherosclerosis goes undetected for too long, and preventive measures, if initiated at all, are inadequate and/or come too late. In this Review, we give an overview of the available literature suggesting the importance of initiating the prevention of atherosclerosis in early life and provide a summary of the major paediatric programmes for the prevention of atherosclerotic disease. We also highlight the limitations of current knowledge and indicate areas for future research.

Bidirectional associations between psychosocial well-being and adherence to healthy dietary guidelines in European children: prospective findings from the IDEFICS study

Background

In children the relationship between a healthy diet and psychosocial well-being has not been fully explored and the existing evidence is inconsistent. This study investigates the chronology of the association between children’s adherence to healthy dietary guidelines and their well-being, with special attention to the influence of weight status on the association.

Methods

Seven thousand six hundred seventy five children 2 to 9 years old from the eight-country cohort study IDEFICS were investigated. They were first examined between September 2007 and June 2008 and re-examined again 2 years later. Psychosocial well-being was measured using self-esteem and parent relations questions from the KINDL® and emotional and peer problems from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. A Healthy Dietary Adherence Score (HDAS) was calculated from a 43-item food frequency questionnaire as a measure of the degree to which children’s dietary intake follows nutrition guidelines. The analysis employed multilevel logistic regression (country as random effect) with bidirectional modeling of dichotomous dietary and well-being variables as both exposures and outcomes while controlling for respective baseline values.

Results

A higher HDAS at baseline was associated with better self-esteem (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0;1.4) and fewer emotional and peer problems (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1;1.3 and OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2;1.4) 2 years later. For the reversed direction, better self-esteem was associated with higher HDAS 2 years later (OR 1.1 95% CI 1.0;1.29). The analysis stratified by weight status revealed that the associations between higher HDAS at baseline and better well-being at follow-up were similar in both normal weight and overweight children.

Conclusion

Present findings suggest a bidirectional relation between diet quality and self-esteem. Additionally, higher adherence to healthy dietary guidelines at baseline was associated with fewer emotional and peer problems at follow-up, independent of children’s weight status.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-017-4920-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.