An investigation of psychological, social and environmental correlates of obesity and weight gain in young women

Objectives: This study explored the biological, psychological, social and environmental correlates of young women\u27s current weight and retrospective 2-year weight change. Methods: A total of 790 young women (mean age 26.8 years), sampled from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women\u27s Health, provided self-reported data on their height and weight, sociodemographics and a range of biological, psychological, social and environmental variables. Results: Several variables from all domains (biological, psychological, social support and environmental) were correlated with higher body mass index, and less strongly greater 2-year weight change. Key correlates included the tendency to never put on weight, no matter what; self-efficacy for avoiding weight gain, and for healthy eating; attention paid to weight; family support and friends\u27 support/sabotage of physical activity/healthy eating; and perceived difficulty of taking the stairs rather than the elevator as part of the daily routine. Conclusions: Intervention strategies aimed at reducing weight gain and obesity may need to focus on social and environmental, as well as psychological factors; however, further research is necessary to confirm these findings given that a number of hypothesized associations were not observed.<br /

Perceptions of local neighbourhood environments and their relationship to childhood overweight and obesity

OBJECTIVES: To examine associations between parent and child perceptions of the local neighbourhood and overweight/obesity among children aged 5&ndash;6 and 10&ndash;12 y. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SUBJECTS: In total, 291 families of 5&ndash;6-y-old and 919 families of 10&ndash;12-y-old children. MEASURES: Parent\u27s perceptions of local neighbourhood and perceived child access to eight local destinations within walking distance of home; 10&ndash;12-y-old children\u27s perception of local neighbourhood; socio-demographic characteristics (survey). Children\u27s height and weight (measured). RESULTS: No perceptions of the local neighbourhood were associated with weight status among 5&ndash;6-y-old children. Among 10&ndash;12-y-old children, those whose parents agreed that there was heavy traffic in their local streets were more likely to be overweight or obese (OR=1.4, 95% CI=1.0&ndash;1.8), and those whose parents agreed that road safety was a concern were more likely to be obese (OR=3.9, 95% CI=1.0&ndash;15.2), compared to those whose parents disagreed with these statements. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that parental perceptions of heavy traffic on local streets and concern about road safety may be indirect influences on overweight and obesity among 10&ndash;12-y-old children. Future work should also consider perceptions of the neighbourhood related to food choice.<br /

Make time for physical activity or you may spend more time sick!

This work estimates the association between various types of physical activities and physical health, mental health and health service utilization. Specifically, we consider participation in housework, manual, walking, sports/exercise and total physical activities to a moderate level. We view this as an important contribution given that governments usually recommend a total level of activity that their citizens should achieve to be healthy, rather than a particular activity per se. Our results suggest that participation in any of these activities predicts a lower probability of poor health roughly to the same level. For mental health, our estimates highlight that those who participate in (and do more of) any activity have better mental health when compared to those who do not. The associations are higher for women. The associations are also higher for manual activities and sports/exercise when compared to other activities. The analysis also reveals some lower utilization of in-patient, out-patient visits and GP services among individuals who are moderately physically active