Mobile health interventions – Improving youth health outcomes
A new meta-analysis has been published in JAMA Pediatrics that assesses the use of mobile-phone apps, and improved health outcomes, in children. Up until now, the only systematic review of mHealth intervention effectiveness focused exclusively on childhood obesity. The authors found that overall, smartphones can be extremely useful in not only promoting healthy behaviours such as diet and exercise, but also promoting the uptake of vaccines amongst children. They analysed 37 studies in total, looking at evidence that behaviours were changed in children (defined as 18 years old or younger). As many children now have access to mobile phones the authors wanted to thoroughly examine this modality as a form of education for children, parents and caregivers.
mHealth interventions can reach many people and can contain dynamic health-related data, further to this using certain algorithms these apps can deliver personalised advice at times when a caregiver may not be available. However the authors are keen to highlight that the best results were seen when a caregiver was still involved in the process and given the early stage of mHealth literature, these results must be replicated and furthered to fully examine the extent to which a caregiver should be involved, and what type of professional this is.
Read MorePreventing childhood obesity before conception
A research team from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, have recently received funding to determine if childhood obesity can be prevented even before a woman falls pregnant. They will specifically be analysing whether an exercise and nutrition program designed for mothers will have any effect on their future children’s health. Most studies up to this point have focused on programs after the woman has become pregnant, this is the first study of its kind. The Lifestyle Intervention in Preparation for Pregnancy Program (LIPP) will aim to reduce body fat and improve lipid and glucose metabolism in the body in women who are planning on having children.
For the study 200 women will be randomly assigned to two groups: usual care and LIPP, the women in LIPP will then be sub-divided into groups of 10 and receive varying amounts of education on nutrition, exercise programs and support groups. The team are currently seeking further funding so that they may be able to follow the women and any subsequent births in the future. The researchers are particularly excited as they might be able to prove that childhood obesity can in fact be prevented well before birth, and not simply treated after it has occurred.
Read MoreBrain signals dulled in obese children
The signals from our brain that tell us we’re full do not appear to work properly in obese children. This is the outcome of a study that is due to be presented at the Endocrine Society’s 99th annual meeting. The study used images of high-calorie foods and measured the brain activity of obese children after a meal, compared to their normal weight counterparts. Using a technique called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) the researchers were able to measure the brain activity in real-time.
For the trial, 54 obese children and 22 lean children were included, they were each shown pictures of high-calorie foods and low-calorie foods and then fed the same meal. This was calculated as 33% of the weight-based estimated daily calorie intake for each child, so that they were all ‘equally full’. They were then showed the images again and provided with a buffet meal. It was found that before the meal, there was no significant difference in brain activity between the two groups; further to this, both groups had similar self-ratings of fullness after the meal. However, when shown the images again, the obese children showed more brain activation in the regions of satiety processing than the normal weight children. This suggests that obese children have a somewhat blunted satiety response that does not halt them from craving high-calorie foods. The researchers are hoping to repeat the experiment after providing a six-month behavioural weight loss program to the children, to examine what can be done to change their habits.
Read MoreMPs calling for reduction in multi-buy offers
A group of MPs have urged the government that more must be done to reduce the number of multi-buy offers on unhealthy foods to help curb childhood obesity. Further to this, they say that rules on junk food advertising must get more stringent and clear, claiming that the current obesity plan set forth by the government is too vague. The British government announced a childhood obesity plan in 2016, one of the main points was the sugar tax, however many in the wider health community have criticised this plan saying that there must be more action.
In the latest Health Select Committee report, the MPs are calling for more to be done to stop big discounts on unhealthy food and therefore halt their promotion towards children. This comes after evidence from the food industry that responsible retailers are being undercut by those who continue to offer attractive discounts. Whilst some supermarket chains have reduced the number of deals that they promote, many others are still pushing theirs forward. The British Retail Consortium has stated that there will have to be industry-wide agreement if junk food promotions were to be reduced, and this is an incredibly difficult thing to implement.
The MPs also suggested that more must be done to stop junk food advertisements to children. Currently, these types of adverts are banned during programmes that are aimed at children, the MPs suggest that they should be banned during all programmes that children might watch as well. They go on to propose that the sugar tax should extend to milk-based products that are currently excluded but still contain added sugar. Whilst they are aware that many of these plans are ambitious, they are keen to point out that more must be done to stop the development of childhood obesity, and only by implementing new plans and strategies can this be achieved.
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