To identify trajectories of Indonesian children and adolescent’s BMI-z scores between 1993 and 2014, examine whether the pattern differs by sex and assess associations with host, agent and environmental factors.

Longitudinal data were from the Indonesian Family Life Survey with up to five measurements of height and weight. Group-based trajectory models investigated changes in BMI-z score across time; differences by sex were investigated using random effect (mixed) models. The association between the trajectories and host, agent and environmental factors were examined using multinomial logistic regression.

Thirteen provinces in Indonesia.

Indonesian children and adolescents aged 6–18 years (n 27 394 for BMI-z trajectories; n 8805 for risk factor analyses).

Mean BMI-z score increased from –0·743 sd in 1993 to –0·414 sd in 2014. Four distinct trajectory groups were estimated with mean BMI-z increasing more rapidly in the most recent time periods. One group (11·7 % of participants) had a mean BMI-z entirely within the moderately underweight range; two had trajectories in the normal range and one (5·6 %) had a mean BMI-z starting in the overweight range but within the obesity range by 2014. There were differences in trajectory groups by sex (P< 0·001). Those born in 2000s, frequent consumption of meat, fast foods, soft drinks and fried snacks, and living in urban areas were associated with rapid gain weight.

These trajectories highlight the double burden of malnutrition and suggest that the prevalence of overweight and obesity is likely to increase substantially unless public health interventions are implemented.

This study aims to investigate diet-related cancer risk awareness and behaviours among cancer survivors compared with non-cancer individuals.

It is a cross-sectional study initiated from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINT).

Relevant survey questions from different iterations of HINTS were harmonised. Chi-square test and logistic regression models were performed to identify differences in diet-related cancer risk awareness and behaviours between the two groups.

Participants in the study were drawn from the HINT survey with various variables including age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, marital status and BMI.

The analysis revealed no significant differences in diet-related cancer risk awareness or behaviours between cancer survivors and non-cancer individuals. Those dietary factors included red and processed meat, alcohol, fibre, sugar-sweetened beverages, fruits and vegetables. Specifically, 82 % of both survivors and non-survivors failed to meet the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommendations for daily fruit consumption (OR = 0·91; 95 % CI = 0·77, 1·06), and approximately 75 % did not meet the daily vegetable intake guidelines (OR = 0·96; 95 % CI = 0·83, 1·11). The findings suggest that a cancer diagnosis does not inherently lead to improved dietary awareness or healthier eating behaviours.

The lack of improvement in diet-related cancer risk awareness and behaviours among cancer survivors indicated missed education opportunities. The ‘teachable moment’ of cancer diagnosis was not effectively utilised, which highlighted a need for stronger guidance from healthcare providers. This gap may also reflect barriers, including limited training, time constraints and limited interprofessional collaboration among health professionals in delivering targeted dietary advice.

This study investigated how the belief systems and interests of policy actors shaped their framing of the causes and solutions to obesity and how this influenced policy recommendations.

Submissions to the Select Committee on Obesity Epidemic in Australia (SCOEA) were collected, and actors were classified according to their interests in commercial and non-commercial groups. A framework grounded in social constructionism was used to code frames and underlying belief systems. The SCOEA report was analysed to identify the representative distribution of belief systems in recommendations.

Australia.

None.

150 submissions were collected and analysed. 120 submitters were actors with non-commercial interests, including governments (n 13), non-government organisations (n 49), civil society groups and citizens (n 24) and academia (n 34). Thirty submitters were actors with commercial interests including food industry representatives (n 23) and health enterprises (n 7). Conflicting belief systems in the framing of obesity were identified among policy actors, particularly between commercial and non-commercial groups. Non-commercial actors framed obesity in biomedical, lifestyle and socio-ecological terms, whereas commercial actors exclusively framed obesity as an issue of individual choices and proposed behavioural change interventions. A broad range of belief systems expressed by the submitters was represented in the SCOEA final report.

These findings illustrate how policy actors’ beliefs and interests shaped their frames and influenced the development of a key policy report. Policymakers seeking to advance obesity prevention policy must critically evaluate strategic framing by various actors and ensure that policy decisions are evidence-based and aligned with health, equity and ecological perspectives.

This study aimed to adapt and validate the NOVA 27 ultra-processed food (UPF) Screener for use in Ecuador by identifying commonly consumed foods, classifying them using the NOVA system and testing the screener’s validity in an urban sample and a national food survey.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in two phases: screener validation with a convenience sample of 327 adults in Quito through an online questionnaire (2021) and assessment of its applicability using data from the 2012 Ecuadorian National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT-Ecu). The method, adapted from a similar study in Brazil, compared NOVA UPF scores to the 24 h-Recall (24-HR) automated multiple-pass method, used as the gold standard.

The study included Quito’s urban population for validation and secondary data from ENSANUT-Ecu.

Three hundred and twenty-seven adults aged 18–64 from Quito were included in the validation phase, and 3510 adults from the ENSANUT-Ecu dataset were analysed in the secondary analysis.

The screener adaptation identified twenty-seven subgroups of commonly consumed UPF, summarising 90 % of UPF energy intake. Validation results indicated significant agreement between the NOVA-UPF score and UPF intake, with PABAK indices above 0·8 for most socio-demographic groups. Higher NOVA-UPF scores corresponded to increased UPF dietary shares, mirroring patterns observed in the ENSANUT-Ecu dataset.

The adapted NOVA 27 UPF Screener is a valid tool for assessing UPF intake in Ecuador, offering a practical resource for future dietary surveys to monitor and address UPF intake among Ecuadorian adults.

This study aims to assess consumer preferences for fifteen proposed front-of-package ‘Healthy’ label candidates under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) of the US updated guidelines for the ‘Healthy’ label. The goal of this study is to identify which label designs best align with consumer preferences, thereby supporting the FDA’s efforts to promote healthier dietary choices through effective labelling.

A best-worst scaling (BWS) experiment was conducted using a balanced incomplete block design to assess consumer preferences for the fifteen FDA-proposed ‘Healthy’ labels. Participants completed fifteen best-worst scaling choice tasks where they identified the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ design from three randomly presented options in each task.

The experiment was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting in the USA.

Three hundred and eight US adult consumers who are primary household shoppers without dietary restrictions.

Results from the random parameter logit model indicate that labels 12 and 8 emerged as the most preferred designs, with preference shares of 16·7 and 16·1 %, respectively. These two labels featured a prominent ‘Healthy’ display with bold blue font, balanced colour themes and check marks, which likely contributed to their appeal. The Krinsky and Robb bootstrapping method confirmed the statistical significance of the preferences for these labels over others.

This study identifies two labels as the most preferred FDA-proposed ‘Healthy’ label designs, offering clear guidance to policymakers on effective labelling strategies. By adopting a consumer-preferred design, the FDA’s ‘Healthy’ label may have greater potential to influence healthier food choices.

To describe the design and psychometric assessment of the Adolescent Home Food Environment Questionnaire (Acronym in Portuguese: QAAD).

This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected between August 2021 and January 2022 through self-administered questionnaires via a survey management application accessible by computer or smartphone. The instrument was subjected to analysis by a panel of experts and to a pretest that enabled the adjustment of the language and the reformulation of the questions. The psychometric evaluation included the assessment of test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient), internal consistency (composite reliability), structural validity (exploratory structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis) and construct validity (Mann‒Whitney test; P< 0·05). The following food environment aspects were evaluated: family eating practices, food availability and accessibility, cooking equipment availability and parental feeding style. Moreover, the weekly frequency of fruit, bean and added sugar beverage consumption was assessed.

A public high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

14-to-19-year-old students (n 34 in the test‒retest reliability study; n 501 in the validation analysis).

The final version of the QAAD included thirty-two questions allowing the assessment of seven dimensions of the home food environment. The QAAD demonstrated satisfactory reliability (ICC ranging from 0·44 to 0·78), adequate internal consistency (composite reliability > 0·70) and satisfactory structural and construct validity.

The careful QAAD design provided a valid, reliable and consistent instrument for characterising adolescents’ home food environments, which may provide information for tailoring and targeting healthy eating promotion actions aimed at adolescents.

This study aimed to evaluate the association between food addiction (FA), food environment and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in socially vulnerable women.

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Favelas and Urban Communities of Maceió-Brazil. The availability of UPF in the food environment was evaluated through the audit of retailers with the support of the AUDITNOVA instrument. The women taking part in the study were interviewed, and a 24-hour food recall was used to assess the proportion of UPF in their diet. The modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 was also used to determine FA. Association analysis was performed using binary logistic regression and generalised estimation equations.

1702 adult women of reproductive age (20–44 years) residents in Favelas and Urban Communities.

It was found that 14·6 % of the women had FA. The adjusted multivariate association analysis showed that the high availability of UPF in food retail increased the chance of women having FA by up to 47 % (P= 0·02 OR: 1·53; 95 % CI: (1·07, 2·18)). It was also possible to observe that the greater calorific contribution of UPF in the diet increased the chance of women presenting FA by up to 61 % (P< 0·01 OR: 1·39; 95 % CI: (1·48, 1·97)).

The environment and what is available in it are associated with additive behaviour independent of individual factors, and UPF consumption increases the chance of FA. This demonstrates the need for changes in the food environment in Brazilian favelas, contributing to improving women’s health.

Young adulthood is a transitional period between childhood and adulthood characterised by unique stressors that increase the risk of food insecurity and poor mental health. This study examined the association between food insecurity and mental health outcomes among U.S. young adults aged 18–25.

A cross-sectional survey was completed by young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years between January and April 2022. Key measures included food insecurity, perceived stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and insomnia. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analyses were used to determine the prevalence of and associations between food insecurity and mental health outcomes, controlling for key demographic and social factors.

Online survey.

1630 U.S. young adults.

Among the analytic sample of 1041 young adults, nearly 70 % of participants identified as being food insecure in the last year. Participants reported moderate to high levels of perceived stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and insomnia. Food insecurity was positively associated with each mental health outcome including perceived stress (β = 2·28, P< 0·01), anxiety (β = 2·84, P< 0·01), depressive symptoms (β = 2·74, P< 0·01) and insomnia (β = 1·28, P< 0·01) after controlling for all other factors.

Food insecurity is associated with mental health problems among young adults. Future efforts should explore the directionality of this relationship to determine if food insecurity initiates or exacerbates poor mental health outcomes or if poor mental health contributes to food insecurity. Interventions to improve food security status may also help support mental health among young adults.

The marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages (hereafter: food) high in fat, salt and/or sugar (HFSS) is implicated in the development of poor dietary habits, overweight and obesity. Digital media, including video game live streaming platforms (VGLSP), are an increasingly prominent source of food marketing exposure, particularly for young people. This study aimed to experimentally examine the impact of food marketing via VGLSP on eating behaviour in young people.

A between-subjects randomised controlled trial design was used to explore the impact of exposure to HFSS food marketing in a video game live stream (a static food banner advert present throughout the footage) on immediate consumption of the marketed snack and an ‘alternative brand’ of the same snack in a sample of adolescents (n 91, Mage = 17·8, 69 % female). Relationships with food-advertising-related attentional bias and inhibitory control in relation to branded food cues were also examined.

University Psychology laboratory.

Exposure to HFSS food marketing, compared with non-food marketing, did not significantly impact immediate marketing or overall snack intake. Additionally, no significant effects for attentional bias or inhibitory control were found. However, although the overall model was non-significant, greater weekly use of VGLSP was significantly associated with greater marketed snack intake.

Findings suggest that while acute exposure to food marketing in VGLSP did not impact snack intake, perhaps more sustained exposure is impactful. Further exploration of this effect is needed, as well as studies investigating the potential impacts of other food marketing formats within VGLSP.