Healthy Families Study: Design of a Childhood Obesity Prevention Trial for Hispanic Families.

Healthy Families Study: Design of a Childhood Obesity Prevention Trial for Hispanic Families.

Contemp Clin Trials. 2013 Apr 25;
Zoorob R, Buchowski M, Beech BM, Canedo JR, Chandrasekhar R, Akohoue S, Hull PC

BACKGROUND: The childhood obesity epidemic disproportionately affects Hispanics. This paper reports on the design of the ongoing Healthy Families Study, a randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a community-based, behavioral family intervention to prevent excessive weight gain in Hispanic children using a community-based participatory research approach. METHODS: The study will enroll 272 Hispanic families with children ages 5-7 residing in greater Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Families are randomized to the active weight gain prevention intervention or an alternative intervention focused on oral health. Lay community health promoters implement the interventions primarily in Spanish in a community center. The active intervention was adapted from the We Can! parent program to be culturally-targeted for Hispanic families and for younger children. This 12-month intervention promotes healthy eating behaviors, increased physical activity, and decreased sedentary behavior, with an emphasis on parental modeling and experiential learning for children. Families attend eight bi-monthly group sessions during four months then receive information and/or support by phone or mail each month for eight months. The primary outcome is change in children’s body mass index. Secondary outcomes are changes in children’s waist circumference, dietary behaviors, preferences for fruits and vegetables, physical activity, and screen time. RESULTS: Enrollment and data collection are in progress. CONCLUSION: This study will contribute valuable evidence on efficacy of a childhood obesity prevention intervention targeting Hispanic families with implications for reducing disparities. HubMed – eating

Get Your Own Mirror: Investigating How Strict Eating Disordered Women Are in Judging the Bodies of Other Eating Disordered Women.

Appetite. 2013 Apr 24;
Alleva J, Jansen A, Nederkoorn C, Martijn C

Previous research has shown that eating disordered women lack a self-serving body image bias and largely make self-defeating social comparisons. These factors influence how eating disordered women feel about their bodies, and may also influence treatment for disordered eating. In group mirror exposure therapy, women inevitably compare their own bodies to other women’s bodies. Yet, how eating disordered women view their own bodies in relation to other women’s bodies has never been investigated. This study investigated how subjects high in eating disorder symptoms (“high symptomatics”) view the bodies of other women and of other high symptomatics specifically. Twelve high symptomatics and 13 low symptomatics viewed photos of, and rated the attractiveness of, their own and other participants’ bodies. The results show that low symptomatics rated both other women’s bodies and other low symptomatic bodies specifically as less attractive, but not as fatter, than their own bodies. In contrast, high symptomatics rated both other women’s bodies and other high symptomatic bodies specifically as equally (un)attractive, but as thinner than their own bodies. These results suggest that high symptomatics lack a self-serving body image bias when it comes to aspects of weight specifically. Considering weight is a self-relevant dimension to eating disordered women, the impact of these self-defeating comparisons may be especially negative and may impede treatment progress. HubMed – eating

Adjustable gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass. Can evidence-based medicine help us to choose?

J Visc Surg. 2013 Apr 23;
Caiazzo R, Pattou F

Dietary management of obesity, based on modification of eating patterns, increased physical activity and psychological and social support has provided inconsistent and disappointing results. Surgery is an invasive and often irreversible alternative that offers substantial and durable weight loss at the price of non-negligible morbidity and mortality. Three procedures account for almost all bariatric surgical procedures in France: adjustable gastric banding (AGB), vertical or sleeve gastrectomy (SG), and gastric bypass (GBP). The goal of this review is to help the surgeon make the best choice among these procedures, depending on his surgical convictions, abilities, and habits. Evidence-based data were extracted from the literature using the major data-base resources (Medline, Web of knowledge, Scopus); as well the most recent recommendations from relevant learned societies and health care organisms were analyzed. In 2010, 26,558 bariatric operations were performed in France; these were more or less equally distributed between AGB, SG and GBP. In 2011, the proportion of SG increased enormously and represented 43.9% of all bariatric procedures. In terms of weight loss and perioperative morbidity/mortality, SG tends to stand midway between AGB and GBP. HubMed – eating

Attachment insecurity mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and eating disorder psychopathology in a clinical sample: A structural equation model.

Child Abuse Negl. 2013 Apr 24;
Tasca GA, Ritchie K, Zachariades F, Proulx G, Trinneer A, Balfour L, Demidenko N, Hayden G, Wong A, Bissada H

OBJECTIVES: Childhood maltreatment occurs often among those with an eating disorder and is considered a nonspecific risk factor. However, the mechanisms by which childhood maltreatment may lead to an eating disorder are not well understood. The current study tests a model in which attachment insecurity is hypothesized to mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and eating disorder psychopathology. METHOD: Treatment seeking adults with eating disorders (N=308) completed questionnaires about childhood maltreatment, eating disorder psychopathology, and adult attachment. RESULTS: Structural equation models indicated that childhood trauma had a direct effect on eating disorder symptoms. Also, attachment anxiety and avoidance each equally mediated the childhood maltreatment to eating disorder psychopathology relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Attachment insecurity, characterized by affect dysregulation and interpersonal sensitivities may help to explain why eating disorder symptoms may be one consequence of childhood maltreatment in a clinical sample. Clinicians treating primarily those with trauma might assess for disordered eating as a potential manifestation of the sequelae of trauma and attachment insecurity. HubMed – eating