Psychosocial, Socioeconomic, Behavioral, and Environmental Risk Factors for BMI and Overweight Among 9-to-11-Year Old Children

This study explored the risk factors for higher BMI and overweight in 9- to 11-year-old children using the 2007 California Children’s Healthy Eating and Exercise Practices Survey. A total of 741 children completed a two-day food and activity diary. Of these, 299 children participated in the follow-up telephone interview, reporting attitudes and beliefs. Linear regressions identified risk factors related to BMI z-scores; logistic regressions were used for binomial overweight status. Independent variables included children’s diet, activity, screen time, food modeling, family norms/rules, home environment, poverty, and parent education, adjusting for race/ethnicity. Parent education was the strongest risk factor with a clear gradient towards reduced risk as parent education improved. Children were .3 BMI z points lower and one-third less likely to be overweight as education level rose. Each serving of fried vegetables consumed was related to .3 point increase in BMI z. Children were 1.2-1.3 times more likely to be overweight with each increase in school lunch participation. Low-cost overweight prevention efforts targeting children with less parent education, school lunches, and consumption of fried vegetables may reduce BMI and help prevent childhood overweight. Additional investigation should determine the underlying factors contributing to the relationship between eating school lunch and overweight

Responses of Geoffroy's marmosets (Callithrix geoffroyi) to playbacks of conspecific food calls

Monkeys of the family Callitrichidae sometimes emit a characteristic vocalization upon encountering a food source. It is unclear how food calling behavior benefits the caller, but most functional hypotheses depend on its ability to recruit group members to a caller's location. Few studies have attempted to test the recruitment ability of callitrichid food calling, and these have produced conflicting results. In addition, callitrichid food calls seem to contain functionally referential information, signaling the presence of food, but no previous study has yet tested whether listeners perceive this information. The purpose of the current study was twofold. First, using playback techniques to control for confounding variables such as visual and olfactory cues, I tested the hypothesis that marmoset food calls attract group members to the caller. Secondly, this study described and quantified behavioral responses to playbacks to determine if listeners respond as if they perceive referential information (i.e., that the presence of food has been signaled). Fifteen captive-born Geoffroy's marmosets living in a naturalistic environment were presented with recordings of conspecific food calls and twitter calls and with a no-sound control condition; observations were made of behavioral responses (i.e., approach and food-related behaviors). Results indicate that food calls 1) recruit groupmates, and possibly other conspecifics, towards the caller and 2) elicit food-related behaviors in conspecifics. When considered together, these results suggest that food calls likely function, at least in part, to communicate the presence and location of food to groupmates. KEYWORDS: Callithrix, food call, vocal communication, functional referenc