The role of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness in food choices of European adolescents

BACKGROUND

It is unclear whether a hypothetical intervention targeting either psychosocial well-being or emotion-driven impulsiveness is more effective in reducing unhealthy food choices. Therefore, we aimed to compare the (separate) causal effects of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness on European adolescents' sweet and fat propensity.

METHODS

We included 2,065 participants of the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort (mean age: 13.4) providing self-reported data on sweet propensity (score range: 0 to 68.4), fat propensity (range: 0 to 72.6), emotion-driven impulsiveness using the UPPS-P negative urgency subscale, and psychosocial well-being using the KINDLR Questionnaire. We estimated, separately, the average causal effects of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness on sweet and fat propensity applying a semi-parametric doubly robust method (targeted maximum likelihood estimation). Further, we investigated a potential indirect effect of psychosocial well-being on sweet and fat propensity mediated via emotion-driven impulsiveness using a causal mediation analysis.

RESULTS

If all adolescents, hypothetically, had high levels of psychosocial well-being, compared to low levels, we estimated a decrease in average sweet propensity by 1.43 [95%-confidence interval: 0.25 to 2.61]. A smaller effect was estimated for fat propensity. Similarly, if all adolescents had high levels of emotion-driven impulsiveness, compared to low levels, average sweet propensity would be decreased by 2.07 [0.87 to 3.26] and average fat propensity by 1.85 [0.81 to 2.88]. The indirect effect of psychosocial well-being via emotion-driven impulsiveness was 0.61 [0.24 to 1.09] for average sweet propensity and 0.55 [0.13 to 0.86] for average fat propensity.

CONCLUSIONS

An intervention targeting emotion-driven impulsiveness, compared to psychosocial well-being, would be marginally more effective in reducing sweet and fat propensity in adolescents.

Digital Media Use in Association with Sensory Taste Preferences in European Children and Adolescents-Results from the I.Family Study

Digital media (DM) influences children's food choice. We aim to investigate associations between DM use and taste preferences (TP) for sweet, fatty, bitter, and salty in European children and adolescents. Individuals aged 6-17 years (N = 7094) providing cross-sectional data for DM use: television (TV), computer/game console (PC), smartphone and internet, were included. Children (6 to <12 years) and adolescents (≥12 years) completed a Food and Beverage Preference Questionnaire; scores were calculated for sweet, fatty, salty and bitter preference and categorized (high vs. low). Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios as association measures between DM exposure and TP. On average, individuals used media for 2.4 h/day (SD = 1.7). Increasing exposures to DM were associated positively with sweet, fatty and salty TP, while inversely with bitter preference. In female adolescents, DM exposure for >2 h/day was associated with sweet (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.02-1.57) and fatty preference (OR = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.10-1.70). Internet exposure was inversely associated with bitter preference, notably in male adolescents (OR = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.50-0.84), but positively associated with salty preference (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.02-1.64). DM exposure was associated with sweet, fatty, salty and bitter TP in children and adolescents, serving as the basis for future longitudinal studies to shed light on the underlying mechanism by which DM exposure may determine eating habits.

Fat, sugar and water intakes among families from the IDEFICS intervention and control groups: first observations from I.Family

BACKGROUND

The objective of this paper is to investigate differences in diets of families in intervention versus control communities 5 years after the Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants intervention ended.

METHODS

Altogether, 4,691 families from the I.Family study with at least one participating parent and one child are included in this analysis. Diet quality indicators, defined as propensities to consume fat, sugar, water and fruit and vegetables, are calculated from a 59-item food frequency questionnaire. Multilevel linear models with random intercepts for study centre are used to determine whether mean diet indicators, calculated at the family level, differed as a function of previous exposure to the intervention.

RESULTS

Families in the intervention communities reported a significantly lower sugar propensity (19.8% vs. 20.7% of total food items, p < 0.01) and a higher water propensity (47.3% vs. 46.0% of total beverages, p < 0.05) compared with families in the control communities, while fat and fruit and vegetables propensities were similar. No significant diet differences between intervention and control children were present at the Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants baseline.

DISCUSSION

This result indicates better diet quality in intervention families, which was not present in children when their diets were assessed before the intervention, and gives some cause for optimism regarding the sustainability of some aspects of the diet intervention.