Effects of Motivational Interviewing to Promote Weight Loss in Obese Children.

Effects of motivational interviewing to promote weight loss in obese children.

J Clin Nurs. 2013 Mar 8;
Wong EM, Cheng MM

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of motivational interviewing for obese children and telephone consultation for parents to promote weight loss in obese children. BACKGROUND: Childhood obesity is a worldwide health problem that leads to serious metabolic and physiological consequences. An effective intervention to manage obesity is essential. Motivational interviewing is designed to resolve ambivalence, enhance intrinsic motivation and promote confidence in a person’s ability to make behaviour changes. It has shown promise in the adult obesity literature as effecting positive health behaviour changes. Motivational interviewing has also been proposed as an effective method for improving the weight loss of obese children. DESIGN: A pre-post quasi-experimental design with repeated measures was used. METHODS: The study was conducted in four primary schools over an 11-month period in 2010-2011. Obese children (n = 185) were screened from 791 school children studying the equivalent to UK grades 5 and 6 and were divided into three groups: motivational interviewing, motivational interviewing+ and a control group. The motivational interviewing group (n = 70) children were provided with motivational interviewing counselling; the motivational interviewing+ group (n = 66) children were provided with motivational interviewing counselling while telephone consultation was provided for their parents; and the control group did not receive any intervention (n = 49). RESULTS: Children in both the motivational interviewing and motivational interviewing+ groups showed significant improvement in their weight-related behaviour and obesity-related anthropometric measures from the baseline to the end of the 14-week intervention, while the control group had significant deterioration in their anthropometric measures. CONCLUSION: Motivational interviewing appears to be a promising intervention for promoting weight loss in obese children. Motivational interviewing counselling may be extended to obese children of different age groups. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study indicates that motivational interviewing is a useful method for improving behaviour changes in eating, physical activity and weight loss for obese children, suggesting the benefits of such intervention. HubMed – eating

 

Binge eating in adults: prevalence and association with obesity, poor self-rated health status and body dissatisfaction.

Public Health Nutr. 2013 Mar 11; 1-7
de França GV, Gigante DP, Olinto MT

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of episodes of binge eating and to assess potential associations with nutritional status, satisfaction with current body weight, self-rated health status and self-rated body weight. DESIGN: A cross-sectional population-based study. Binge eating was assessed using adapted questions from the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Questionnaire on Eating and Weight Patterns and was defined as binging one or more times over the last 3 months before the interview. SETTING: City of Pelotas, southern Brazil. SUBJECTS: Individuals (n 2097) aged 20-59 years. RESULTS: The prevalence of binge eating and recurrent binge eating was 7·9 % and 2·7 %, respectively. In the adjusted analysis, obesity, fair/poor self-rated health status and body dissatisfaction remained strongly associated with binge eating. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed a high prevalence of binge eating among adults in Pelotas, being higher among younger women, the obese and those who desired to weigh less. The current results are informative, but longitudinal studies would be needed to demonstrate the causal relationship between these events. HubMed – eating

 

Information Seeking From Media and Family/ Friends Increases the Likelihood of Engaging in Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors.

J Health Commun. 2013 Mar 8;
Ramírez AS, Freres D, Martinez LS, Lewis N, Bourgoin A, Kelly BJ, Lee CJ, Nagler R, Schwartz JS, Hornik RC

The amount of cancer-related information available to the general population continues to grow; yet, its effects are unclear. This study extends previous cross-sectional research establishing that cancer information seeking across a variety of sources is extensive and positively associated with engaging in health-related behaviors. The authors studied how active information seeking about cancer prevention influenced three healthy lifestyle behaviors using a 2-round nationally representative sample of adults ages 40-70 years (n = 1,795), using propensity scoring to control for potential confounders including baseline behavior. The adjusted odds of dieting at follow-up were 1.51 (95% CI: 1.05, 2.19) times higher for those who reported baseline seeking from media and interpersonal sources relative to nonseekers. Baseline seekers ate 0.59 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.91) more fruits and vegetable servings per day and exercised 0.36 (95% CI: 0.12, 0.60) more days per week at 1-year follow-up compared with nonseekers. The effects of seeking from media and friends/family on eating fruits and vegetables and exercising were independent of seeking from physicians. The authors offer several explanations for why information seeking predicts healthy lifestyle behaviors: information obtained motivates these behaviors; information sought teaches specific techniques; and the act of information seeking may reinforce a psychological commitment to dieting, eating fruits and vegetables, and exercising. HubMed – eating

 

Improving measurement in nutrition literacy research using Rasch modelling: examining construct validity of stage-specific ‘critical nutrition literacy’ scales.

Public Health Nutr. 2013 Mar 11; 1-7
Guttersrud O, Dalane JO, Pettersen S

OBJECTIVE: Critical nutrition literacy (CNL), as an increasingly important area in public health nutrition, can be defined as the ability to critically analyse nutrition information, increase awareness and participate in action to address barriers to healthy eating behaviours. Far too little attention has been paid to establishing valid instruments for measuring CNL. The aim of the present study was to assess the appropriateness of utilizing the latent scales of a newly developed instrument assessing nursing students’ ‘engagement in dietary habits’ (the ‘engagement’ scale) and their level of ‘taking a critical stance towards nutrition claims and their sources’ (the ‘claims’ scale). DESIGN: Data were gathered by distributing a nineteen-item paper-and-pencil self-report questionnaire to university colleges offering nursing education. The study had a cross-sectional design using Rasch analysis. Data management and analysis were performed using the software packages RUMM2030 and SPSS version 20. SETTING: School personnel handed out the questionnaires. SUBJECTS: Four hundred and seventy-three students at ten university colleges across Norway responded (52 % response rate). RESULTS: Disordered thresholds were rescored, an under-discriminating item was discarded and one item showing uniform differential item functioning was split. The assumption of item locations being differentiated by stages was strengthened. The analyses demonstrated possible dimension violations of local independence in the ‘claims’ scale data and the ‘engagement’ scale could have been better targeted. CONCLUSIONS: The study demonstrates the usefulness of Rasch analysis in assessing the psychometric properties of scales developed to measure CNL. Qualitative research designs could further improve our understanding of CNL scales. HubMed – eating

 


 

Thin- A documentary about eating disorders. (4/11) – The 2006 cinéma vérité documentary film, THIN, directed by Lauren Greenfield and distributed by HBO, is an exploration of The Renfrew Center in Coconut Creek…