‘We Eat Together; Today She Buys, Tomorrow I Will Buy the Food’: Adolescent Best Friends’ Food Choices and Dietary Practices in Soweto, South Africa.

‘We eat together; today she buys, tomorrow I will buy the food’: adolescent best friends’ food choices and dietary practices in Soweto, South Africa.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Public Health Nutr. 2012 Jul 16; 1-9
Voorend CG, Norris SA, Griffiths PL, Sedibe MH, Westerman MJ, Doak CM

OBJECTIVE: To explore if and how female adolescents engage in shared eating and joint food choices with best friends within the context of living in urban Soweto, South Africa. DESIGN: A qualitative, exploratory, multiple case study was conducted using semi-structured duo interviews of best friend pairs to ascertain their eating patterns, friendship and social interactions around dietary habits. SETTING: Participants were recruited from three high schools in the urban township of Soweto, South Africa. SUBJECTS: Fifty-eight female adolescents (twenty-nine friend pairs) still in high school (mean age of 18 years) were enrolled. RESULTS: Although overweight rates were high, no association between friends was found; neither did friends share dieting behaviours. Both at school and during visits to the shopping mall, foods were commonly shared and money pooled together by friends to make joint purchases. Some friends carefully planned expenditures together. Foods often bought at school were mostly unhealthy. Availability, price and quality were reported to affect choice of foods purchased at school. Preference shaped joint choices within the shopping mall environment. CONCLUSIONS: Food sharing practices should be investigated in other settings so as to identify specific behaviours and contexts for targeted and tailored obesity prevention interventions. School-based interventions focusing on price and portion size should be considered. In the Sowetan context, larger portions of healthy food may improve dietary intake of fruit and vegetables where friends are likely to share portions.
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Assessing diabetes-related quality of life of youth with type 1 diabetes in routine clinical care: the MIND Youth Questionnaire (MY-Q).

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Pediatr Diabetes. 2012 Dec; 13(8): 638-646
de Wit M, Winterdijk P, Aanstoot HJ, Anderson B, Danne T, Deeb L, Lange K, Nielsen AO, Skovlund S, Peyrot M, Snoek F,

AIM: It is recommended to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in teenagers with diabetes as part of their ongoing medical care. Here, we describe the development and psychometric evaluation of the Monitoring Individual Needs in Diabetes Youth Questionnaire (MY-Q), a multi-dimensional self-report HRQoL questionnaire designed for use in pediatric diabetes care. DESIGN AND METHODS: In expert meetings, characteristics and domains of interest were defined. Existing questionnaires were reviewed, topics selected, and new items added, resulting in the 36-item MY-Q. To test face validity, we interviewed 22 teenagers. In addition, 84 teenagers with type 1 diabetes (age 10-18?yr) completed the MY-Q and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) generic and diabetes-modules to examine psychometric properties. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) values were obtained by chart audit. RESULTS: The MY-Q consists of seven subscales (social impact, parents, diabetes control perceptions, responsibility, worries, treatment satisfaction, and body image and eating behavior) as well as general HRQoL and emotional well-being. Cronbach’s alpha for the total scale was 0.80. Strong correlations between MY-Q total and PedsQL generic and diabetes-module scores (r?=?0.58 and r?=?0.71, p?HubMed – eating

 

[Influence of selected factors on fortified food intake by children].

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig. 2012; 63(3): 339-46
Rolf K, Januszko O, Bylinowska J, Sici?ska E, Pietruszka B, Ka?uza J

The range of food products fortified with vitamins and minerals in Poland is growing rapidly in the last years. Also the consumption of such food and dietary supplements is increasing. Therefore there is a risk of excessive intake of vitamins and minerals.The aim of the study was to analyze the determinants of intake of food products fortified with vitamins and minerals among children aged 6-12.Data was collected by a questionnaire specially developed and a FFQ method including vitamins and/or minerals in fortified food products. There were collected data from parents of 743 children (374 boys, 369 girls) attending primary schools, placed in four different districts of Poland.More than 70% of children consumed food products fortified with vitamins and/or minerals, among them 76% – every day. As a main reason of intake of fortified food by children, parents mentioned the beneficial effects on health (86.2% parents) and taste preferences (61.2%). However, the main reason of no consuming this kind of products, were proper nutrition of the children (57.4%), no influence on health (30.3%) and prohibitive price (24,1%). There were statistically significant relationships between intake of food fortified with vitamins and/or minerals and children’s age (75.8% of age 6-9 years vs. 58.1% of age 10-12 years), health condition (71.6% of children with good and very good health status -assessed by parents – vs. 55.6% with average and poor health status), the number of meals eaten during the day (75.6% eating 4 meals/day vs. 67.8% – 5 and more meals vs. 52.3% – 3 meals), regular breakfast eating (71.8% eating vs. 50.0% non consumption), brunch eating (73.3% vs. 54.0% respectively), afternoon snack eating (75.7% vs. 59.4%) and using of dietary supplements (84.6% among children who use supplements vs. 61.4% among non users).It was established that about 22% of parents were unaware that their children consumed food fortified with vitamins and/or minerals. Food fortified with vitamins and/or minerals was consumed more frequently among younger children, specially among those who eat more meals per day and with good and very good health status. Due to the fact that many children consumed both fortified foods and dietary supplements, there is a risk of exceeding levels consider as safe (UL) of some vitamins and/or minerals.
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