Is Childhood OCD a Risk Factor for Eating Disorders Later in Life? a Longitudinal Study – CORRIGENDUM.

Is childhood OCD a risk factor for eating disorders later in life? A longitudinal study – CORRIGENDUM.

Psychol Med. 2011 Dec; 41(12): 2514

HubMed – eating

A qualitative study of psychological, social and behavioral barriers to appropriate food portion size control.

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2013; 10(1): 92
Spence M, Livingstone MB, Hollywood LE, Gibney ER, O’Brien SA, Pourshahidi LK, Dean M

Given the worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity, there is a clear need for meaningful practical healthy eating advice – not only in relation to food choice, but also on appropriate food portion sizes. As the majority of portion size research to date has been overwhelmingly quantitative in design, there is a clear need to qualitatively explore consumers’ views in order to fully understand how food portion size decisions are made. Using qualitative methodology this present study aimed to explore consumers’ views about factors influencing their portion size selection and consumption and to identify barriers to appropriate portion size control.Ten focus groups with four to nine participants in each were formed with a total of 66 persons (aged 19-64 years) living on the island of Ireland. The semi-structured discussions elicited participants’ perceptions of suggested serving size guidance and explored the influence of personal, social and environmental factors on their food portion size consumption. Audiotapes of the discussions were professionally transcribed verbatim, loaded into NVivo 9, and analysed using an inductive thematic analysis procedure.The rich descriptive data derived from participants highlight that unhealthy portion size behaviors emanate from various psychological, social and behavioral factors. These bypass reflective and deliberative control, and converge to constitute significant barriers to healthy portion size control. Seven significant barriers to healthy portion size control were apparent: (1) lack of clarity and irrelevance of suggested serving size guidance; (2) guiltless eating; (3) lack of self-control over food cues; (4) distracted eating; (5) social pressures; (6) emotional eating rewards; and (7) quantification habits ingrained from childhood.Portion size control strategies should empower consumers to overcome these effects so that the consumption of appropriate food portion sizes becomes automatic and habitual. HubMed – eating

Impact of duration of structured observations on measurement of handwashing behavior at critical times.

BMC Public Health. 2013 Aug 2; 13(1): 705
Halder AK, Molyneaux JW, Luby SP, Ram PK

Structured observation is frequently used to measure handwashing at critical events, such as after fecal contact and before eating, but it is time-consuming. We aimed to assess the impact of reducing the duration of structured observation on the number and type of critical events observed.The study recruited 100 randomly selected households, 50 for short 90-minute observations and 50 for long 5-hour observations, in six rural Bangladeshi villages. Based on the first 90 minutes in the long observation households, we estimated the number of critical events for handwashing expected, and compared the expected number to the number of events actually observed in the short observation households. In long observation households, we compared soap use at critical events observed during the first 90 minutes to soap use at events observed during the latter 210 minutes of the 5-hour duration.In short 90-minute observation households, the mean number of events observed was lower than the number of events expected: before eating (observed 0.25, expected 0.45, p < 0.05) and after defecation (observed 0.0, expected 0.03, p = 0.06). However, the mean number observed was higher than the expected for food preparation, food serving, and child feeding events. In long 5-hour observation households, soap was used more frequently at critical events observed in the first 90 minutes than in the remaining 210 minutes, but this difference was not significant (p = 0.29).Decreasing the duration of handwashing significantly reduced the observation of critical events of interest to evaluators of handwashing programs. Researchers seeking to measure observed handwashing behavior should continue with prolonged duration of structured observation. Future research should develop and evaluate novel models to reduce reactivity to observation and improve the measurement of handwashing behavior. HubMed – eating

Dietary quality in a sample of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Ireland; a cross-sectional case control study.

Nutr J. 2013 Aug 6; 12(1): 110
Murray AE, McMorrow AM, O Connor E, Kiely C, Mac Ananey O, O’Shea D, Egaña M, Lithander FE

A number of dietary quality indices (DQIs) have been developed to assess the quality of dietary intake. Analysis of the intake of individual nutrients does not reflect the complexity of dietary behaviours and their association with health and disease. The aim of this study was to determine the dietary quality of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using a variety of validated DQIs.In this cross-sectional analysis of 111 Caucasian adults, 65 cases with T2DM were recruited from the Diabetes Day Care Services of St. Columcille’s and St. Vincent’s Hospitals, Dublin, Ireland. Forty-six controls did not have T2DM and were recruited from the general population. Data from 3-day estimated diet diaries were used to calculate 4 DQIs.Participants with T2DM had a significantly lower score for consumption of a Mediterranean dietary pattern compared to the control group, measured using the Mediterranean Diet Score (Range 0–9) and the Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (Range 0–9) (mean +/- sd) (3.4 +/- 1.3 vs 4.8 +/- 1.8, P < 0.001 and 3.3 +/- 1.5 vs 4.2 +/- 1.8, P = 0.02 respectively). Participants with T2DM also had lower dietary quality than the control population as assessed by the Healthy Diet Indicator (Range 0--9) (T2DM; 2.6 +/- 2.3, control; 3.3 +/- 1.1, P = 0.001). No differences between the two groups were found when dietary quality was assessed using the Alternate Healthy Eating Index. Micronutrient intake was assessed using the Micronutrient Adequacy Score (Range 0--8) and participants with T2DM had a significantly lower score than the control group (T2DM; 1.6 +/- 1.4, control; 2.3 +/- 1.4, P = 0.009). When individual nutrient intakes were assessed, no significant differences were observed in macronutrient intake.Overall, these findings demonstrate that T2DM was associated with a lower score when dietary quality was assessed using a number of validated indices. HubMed – eating