Children’s cartoons – adding to the obesity crisis?
A recent report conducted at Colorado State University investigated whether cartoon characters are causing children to consume more food. The study analysed the effect of stereotype exposure on around 300 students split into 3 groups of 8, 12 and 13 year-olds. Researchers found that children consumed twice as much high-calorie food, like cookies and sweets after observing certain larger cartoon characters such as Peppa Pig or Homer Simpson. The effect of the overweight stereotype remained when overweight and healthy weight characters appeared simultaneously. Furthermore, the researchers found that children view ovoid shaped characters as obese, even though these characters are imaginary, and are therefore more likely to consume unhealthy foods afterwards.
Whilst this has shown that marketers need to be careful how they use characters in selling food to children, another idea that the study has brought to attention is that reinforcing healthy thinking and information in children’s cartoon characters may be an effective way to curb obesity.
Read MoreWeight loss – a futile exercise?
This is a conclusion from a large UK-based study conducted over 10 years. The analysis covered nearly 300,000 adults with data taken from the UK Clinical Practice Research Database, which is an anonymised database of longitudinal patient electronic medical records. Being the world’s largest primary care database and containing more than 7% of the UK population, the data is thought to be largely representative of the UK.
The study found that the chance of returning to a normal weight whilst being obese was 1 in 210 for men and 1 in 124 for women over a year. In morbidly obese patients these figures were 6 times worse in each group. Additionally, the research found that the probability of obese patients with BMI 30-34.9 (simple obesity) achieving a 5% weight reduction were 1 in 12 for men and 1 in 10 for women, however most had regained this weight and more after 5 years.
The study raised questions against the efficacy of current obesity treatments, saying that ‘current nonsurgical obesity treatments are failing’. It called for research to develop new and much more effective approaches to obesity management programmes that stop further weight gain and maintain weight loss. One of the authors of the paper, Professor Martin Gulliford commented that ‘the greatest opportunity for stemming the current obesity epidemic is in wider-reaching public health policies to prevent obesity in the population’.
Read MoreAnxiety about Eating Disorders?
A study, performed by Nadia Micali at UCL and others, on almost six thousand 14 and 16 year olds in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) found that all eating disorders (EDs) are predictive of later anxiety disorders. EDs are associated with high morbidity and mortality, and a previous study in America had shown them to be associated with depressive symptoms, drug use, binge drinking, and overweight or obesity. This study was conducted with the aim of finding out whether a range of eating disorders, including purging disorder, were prospectively associated with depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and self-harm. It reported that all were associated with depression, and all but anorexia nervosa predicted drug use and self-harm. Those with anorexia nervosa were more likely to be underweight, but those with binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa were more likely to be overweight or obese. Furthermore, the study found that the prevalence of eating disorders almost doubled between the ages of 14 and 16.
The study recommended improving identification of adolescents with eating disorders and behaviours in the community and delivering early intervention programmes, thereby identifying any risk of development into a full blown eating disorder and also limiting the chances of mental health problems in the future. It has highlighted how much of an effect eating disorders have on the general health of the public, whilst also showing that more needs to be done to curb adolescent eating disorders in order to protect their future.
Read MoreLiraglutide, a new drug for weight management
Obesity is a chronic disease with serious health consequences, but weight loss is difficult to maintain through lifestyle intervention alone. Liraglutide, a glucagon like peptide-1 analogue that is used in pill form to treat diabetes, has been shown to have potential benefit for weight management at a once-daily dose of 3.0 mg, injected subcutaneously. There has been concurrent reductions in glycaemic variables and multiple cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as improvements in health-related quality of life.
The 56-week study was a double-blind trial involving 3731 patients with a BMI above 30 that did not have type 2 diabetes. Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive once-daily subcutaneous injections of liraglutide at a dose of 3.0 mg (2487 patients) or placebo (1244 patients). Both groups received counselling on lifestyle modification.
63.2% of the patients in the liraglutide group as compared with 27.1% in the placebo group lost at least 5% of their body weight, and 33.1% and 10.6%, respectively, lost more than 10% of their body weight. This illustrates the effectiveness in losing weight from this recently marketed drug, which has been approved by the European Medicines Agency but is yet to be licensed in the UK, where still the only available drug is orlistat.
Read MoreIs bariatric surgery justified for the super-obese elderly?
Ample evidence supports the safety and effectiveness of bariatric surgery in the general adult population, but more information is needed in patients age 60 years and older (elderly). In England, in 2012/13, the annual Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) statistics show over 8,000 bariatric surgery procedures were performed. Many more surgical procedures were carried out on women than men (in 2012/13, 6,080 for women and 1,944 for men).
There has been no data until now on the efficacy of bariatric surgery in the super-obese elderly. A new study from combined hospitals in London identified 50 consecutive patients undergoing bariatric surgery aged 60 years or over, and compared the outcomes of the super-obese (BMI≥50; n=26) with those of BMI<50. Mean follow-up was 33 months. It was found there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of comorbidities, operation-type or peri-operative complications.
Since life expectancy is naturally limited in elderly patients, quality of life is an important outcome measure. The study found quality of life outcomes were as good, if not better, for super-obese elderly patients as compared to morbidly obese. This trend is potentially counter intuitive since the super-obese patients were heavier at the end of the study period, with a greater proportion remaining obese.
Therefore, although super obese elderly patients may not lose as much weight during bariatric surgery compared to their lighter counterparts, their quality of life is enhanced, thus bariatric surgery may be justified more psychologically then physically in this group. This leads to the super obese elderly having a more positive attitude that may help them control their weight and exercise more frequently.
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