Journal of healthy eating and active living最新文献

The health benefits of physical activity and spending time in nature are well established. However, youths and adults in the United States are not participating in sufficient levels of physical activity and are not spending much time outdoors. Recently, the need for equitable access to nature for all populations has been receiving more public health attention, though a specific focus on nature-based physical activity has been limited. The purpose of this scoping review is to operationalize the health benefits of nature-based physical activity in order to provide guidance for collaborations to program administrators, advocates, and researchers. Peer-reviewed literature is found in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Google Scholar as well as in published reviews of the literature. The literature is divided into three categories of: 1) amount and location of nature-based components and physical activity; 2) added health benefits of exposure to nature-based components and physical activity; and 3) nature-based components and physical activity effect on non-white, marginalized, and vulnerable populations. This review supports and encourages multiple strategies to increase nature-based physical activity as this provides even greater benefit to health and wellness than exposure to nature or physical activity alone. Although many of the physical and mental health benefits of nature and physical activity are well established, additional research is needed to better understand the relationship between exposure to nature and nature-based physical activity, which will require greater investment and support from funding agencies.

Obesity is increasingly affecting Chinese adolescents due to trends in unhealthy eating, including lower fruit and vegetable consumption and increased consumption of processed foods. A cross-sectional study of adolescents was conducted in Wuhan, China, in October 2019 that included measurements of perceived social isolation, eating when anxious or depressed, diet composition, body weight, and height. Social isolation, eating when sad or anxious, and eating alone were significant predictors of processed food and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, although only eating when sad or anxious was a significant predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption. Eating when anxious or depressed did not mediate these relationships. Social isolation was associated with consumption of processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages by boys, but not by girls, and only eating home-cooked dinner was associated with fruit and vegetable consumption by female adolescents. Eating when sad or anxious, eating alone, and eating home-cooked meals were all associated with fruit and vegetable consumption among male adolescents. The effects of social isolation, anxiety, and depression could act to increase unhealthy eating through several mechanisms potentially mediated by chronic stress, while eating alone could also act to increase unhealthy eating due to effects of self-efficacy and food availability. The interplay between diet and outside factors, including environment, social factors, and personal psychology specific to Chinese adolescents needs to be better understood to develop comprehensive interventions for this population.

Disparities in youth obesity continue despite an increasing number of programs designed to address this challenge. Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes hold promise. Youth Engagement & Action for Health! (YEAH!) is a youth advocacy curriculum for PSE change that promotes healthy behaviors. From 2017-2019, 18 youth-serving organizations hosted YEAH! clubs serving 237 middle school youth from low-income communities. Study data include YEAH! adult leader surveys and interviews. Data were coded on themes of youth advocacy action, youth retention, and opportunities and threats to program success. After coding, the data were organized into four categories for validation by representative adult leaders. This study found that positive outcomes were facilitated by adult leaders who had previous engagement with the youth, who showed enthusiasm for youth advocacy, and who had access to resources to motivate group cohesion, participation, and commitment. Best practices highlighted from this study offer tested strategies for adult leaders of youth advocacy groups.

Black female adolescents and women have disproportionately higher rates of obesity than their racial/ethnic counterparts. There is an urgent need to address obesity prevention in Black adolescent females through interventions that enhance lifestyle physical activity and improve dietary behaviors. Middle adolescence presents an important opportunity to strengthen the daughter-mother bond and improve healthy behaviors such as physical activity and dietary intake. Because of the intersection of adolescent development, culture and structural racism, it is essential to include mothers; however, this approach is understudied in the literature. This pre-pilot proof of concept study, Black Girls Move, was conducted using a 12-week pre-post within-subjects design to assess feasibility of conducting and delivering the BGM intervention, program satisfaction, and ability to obtain outcome measures in Black ninth and tenth grade daughters and their mothers. Twenty-two dyads were recruited and 14 dyads completed baseline assessments; however, only eight daughters and their mothers attended the first session and remained for the entire study. All dyads had valid objective and self-reported physical activity data. However, two of eight daughters and one mother provided self-reported dietary data that were considered invalid. All individual sessions were rated highly. Excellent attendance, retention, and satisfaction among participants suggest that we succeeded in developing an accepted, culturally relevant intervention. This lifestyle intervention would be strengthened by modifications to recruitment and retention, as well as incorporation of a computerized dietary assessment tool, a tailored dietary app for self-monitoring, and increased photo-based and group homework activities.