Eating Disorders: Don’t Tell Me What I Should Do, but What Others Do: The Influence of Descriptive and Injunctive Peer Norms on Fruit Consumption in Adolescents.

Don’t tell me what I should do, but what others do: The influence of descriptive and injunctive peer norms on fruit consumption in adolescents.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Br J Health Psychol. 2013 Feb 14;
Stok FM, de Ridder DT, de Vet E, de Wit JB

OBJECTIVES: While healthy eating patterns are of high importance in adolescence, most adolescents portray quite unhealthy eating behaviour. One reason for this may be that social norms among peers tend to be unsupportive of healthy eating. The current study investigates whether communicating health-promoting descriptive and injunctive norms influences adolescents’ intended and actual fruit consumption. DESIGN: The study employed an experimental prospective design. METHODS: A norm message manipulation (descriptive vs. injunctive vs. no-norm control) was administered to high school students, after which fruit intake intention (N = 96) was assessed. At follow-up, actual fruit intake over 2 days (N = 80) was recorded. RESULTS: Adolescents receiving the descriptive norm did not report higher fruit intake intentions than the control group, but did consume significantly more fruit in the following 2 days (2.3 portions per day) than the control condition (1.7 portion per day). Adolescents receiving the injunctive norm reported lower fruit intake intentions than the other two groups, but actual fruit consumption (1.5 portions per day) was similar to that of the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Health-promoting injunctive norms not only had no positive effects on fruit intake but actually caused a decrease in fruit intake intentions, indicating that injunctive norms may be vulnerable to reactance. A health-promoting descriptive norm was found to positively affect fruit intake in adolescents. No effect on fruit intake intention was found. Results show that simple single-sentence norm messages hold the potential to substantially influence health behaviour. STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION: What is already known on this subject? Previous research has shown that both descriptive and injunctive norms can influence behaviour. There are indications that for health behaviour specifically, descriptive norms may be more influential than injunctive norms. These previous studies have, however, been cross-sectional in nature. What does this study add? The current study demonstrates that a very short and simple norm manipulation has the potential to substantially influence health behaviour. The current study demonstrates that injunctive norm messages have no influence on fruit intake, but a negative influence on fruit intake intentions, pointing to the potential that injunctive norms hold to induce resistance and reactance. The current study demonstrates that descriptive norm messages positively influence fruit intake behaviour, while intentions did not change, pointing to the possibility of descriptive norms functioning as heuristics for behaviour.
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Abnormal eating behaviors in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Eur J Neurol. 2013 Mar; 20(3): e47-8
Erro R, Barone P, Moccia M, Amboni M, Vitale C

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Psychological functioning measures in patients with primary insomnia and sleep state misperception.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Acta Neurol Scand. 2013 Feb 13;
Dittoni S, Mazza M, Losurdo A, Testani E, Di Giacopo R, Marano G, Di Nicola M, Farina B, Mariotti P, Mazza S, Della Marca G

OBJECTIVE: Sleep state misperception (SSM) is a term used in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders to indicate people who mistakenly perceive their sleep as wakefulness. SSM is a form of primary insomnia. The aim of this study was to record psychological functioning measures (anxiety, depression, ability to feel pleasure, obsessive-compulsive traits) in a population of patients with primary insomnia and to evaluate the relationship between these measures and the patients’ perception of their sleep. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-six consecutive patients with primary insomnia were enrolled: 34 men and 42 women, mean age 53.9 ± 13.1. Sleep study included the following: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Berlin’s Questionnaire and home-based polysomnography. Psychometric evaluation included the following: Self-Administered Anxiety Scale, Beck’s Depression Inventory, Maudsley’s Obsessive Compulsive Inventory, Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, Eating Attitude Test. RESULTS: All patients with insomnia had psychometric scores higher than the general population, but very few patients, in both groups, had anxiety or depression scores consistent with severe mood or anxiety disorders. Comparisons between subjective and objective scores confirmed that most sleep parameters were underestimated. Patients with SSM had lower anxiety scores as compared to patients without SSM. CONCLUSIONS: The study did not succeed in identifying any predictor of sleep misperception. We speculate that a group of patients, rather than being extremely worried by their insomnia, may have a sort of agnosia of their sleep.
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Study protocol: Fit for Delivery – Can a lifestyle intervention in pregnancy result in measurable health benefits for mothers and newborns? A randomized controlled trial.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

BMC Public Health. 2013 Feb 13; 13(1): 132
Sagedal LR, Overby NC, Lohne-Seiler H, Bere E, Torstveit MK, Henriksen T, Vistad I

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The global obesity epidemic has led to increased attention on pregnancy, a period when women are at risk of gaining excessive weight. Excessive gestational weight gain is associated with numerous complications, for both mother and child. Though the problem is widespread, few studies have examined the effect of a lifestyle intervention in pregnancy designed to limit maternal weight gain. The Fit for Delivery study will explore the effectiveness of nutritional counseling coupled with exercise classes compared with standard prenatal care. The aims of the study are to examine the effect of the intervention on maternal weight gain, newborn birth weight, glucose regulation, complications of pregnancy and delivery, and maternal weight retention up to 12 months postpartum.Methods/design: Fit for Delivery is a randomized controlled trial that will include 600 women expecting their first child. To be eligible, women must be 18 years of age or older, of less than 20 weeks gestational age, with a singleton pregnancy, and have a Body Mass Index (BMI) >= 19 kg/m2. The women will be randomly allocated to either an intervention group or a control group. The control group will receive standard prenatal care. The intervention group will, in addition, receive nutritional counseling by phone, access to twice-weekly exercise sessions, and information on healthy eating and physical activity provided in pamphlets, evening meetings and an interactive website. Both groups will be monitored by weighing (including bioimpedance measurements of percent body fat), blood tests, self-report questionnaires and hospital record review. DISCUSSION: Weight gained in pregnancy affects the health of both the mother and her unborn child, and simple models for efficient intervention are in high demand. The Fit for Delivery intervention provides concrete advice on limiting energy intake and practical training in increasing physical activity. This lifestyle intervention is simple, reproducible, and inexpensive. The design of the study reflects the realities of clinical practice, where patients are free to choose whether or not they respond to health initiatives. If we find measurable health benefits associated with the intervention, it may be an easily adopted supplement to routine prenatal care, in the prevention of obesity.Trial registration: ClinicalTrial.gov, NCT01001689.
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[In Process Citation].

Filed under: Eating Disorders

G Ital Med Lav Ergon. 2012 Jul-Sep; 34(3 Suppl): 196-8
Crapanzano R, Vigna L, Tirelli AS, Sommaruga D, Cassinelli L, Bertazzi PA, Riboldi L

Numerous evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency is implicated in the development of cardiovascular risk. It has been investigated the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and vitamin D concentrations in 264 consecutive workers from Centro Obesità e Lavoro della Clinica del Lavoro di Milano. For these studies, glicometaboliche analysis, anthropometric measurements and impedance evalutation were performed and questionnaires to estimate nutrient levels in the diet were administered. The levels of vitamin D are found to be deficient in 166 patients (less than 20 ng/mL), insufficient in 63 patients (less than 30 ng/mL) and optimal for the remaining 35 patients. A significant negative association was observed between the concentrations of vitamin D and cardiovascular risk factors (HOMA ratio and TG/HDL) ratios and BMI. Vitamin D is a cardiovascular risk factor “corrected” for example by changing the eating habits of workers.
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