Internet interventions in physical activity and dietary behavior for adolescents – with or without schools?

Purpose of Study: To perform a review on internet interventions for adolescents focusing physical activity and dietary behavior and to understand the effect of schools and teachers involvement in the outcomes. Background: Although the well known benefits of a healthy lifestyle (high physical activity levels and a healthy eating pattern), the adolescents of most industrialized countries fail to meet dietary and physical activity guidelines. Most governments are trying to find effective interventions that may focus in a wide range of individuals, rather than face to face (school based) interventions. The internet has been used recently in a lot of health interventions, its advantages have been mentioned broadly, especially when targeting children and adolescents. Recent reviews on similar topics are not coherent on their conclusions, some are in favour of the computer based interventions, others mention that there is no clear effectiveness of eHealth interventions. However no studies exclusively on adolescents were found. It seems relevant to perform an updated review, focusing studies with adolescents. Methods: Articles were identified for inclusion using key word database literature searches. An initial search using electronic databases: Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge, Elsevier and Ebsco was performed, using as key terms: Internet Intervention; Web based intervention or online intervention. The search was completed using the Boolean term “and” with expressions: nutrition; diet; physical activity; exercise or motor activity. The full text review was done according to a matrix developed in a Microsoft windows excel database. It was calculated a quality score, based in nine methodological items. Conclusions and discussion: Most of the papers reviewed had modest results in favour of the intervention group, but failed to show long term effects, when evaluated. Less than 50% of the studies involved teachers, schools, parents or group leaders, and no relation was found between this involvement and the outcomes. This review shows that besides the importance of interventions for adolescents, few studies are published. The improvement in diet and physical activity outcomes seem modest and not long term, either with the involvement of schools or not. Schools should evaluate and improve the health education programmes. The authors suggest that more interventions should be planned including innovative methodologies, as so much is still to be known in how to improve health behaviours in adolescents

Nutrition knowledge in adolescents: perception of parents and peers behavior and stimulus

It is well known the influence that parents and peers have in children and adolescent choices and behaviors, including eating habits and physical activity practice. No work has been done yet about parents and peers influence in nutrition knowledge. This work aims to study the relation between adolescents’ perception of parents and peers food habits, physical activity practice, stimulus to the adolescent to follow a healthy diet and be physically active and adolescents Nutritional Knowledge. Methods: A translated and validated version of the Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire (Parmenter and Wardle, 1999) was used with another questionnaire about adolescents’ perception of parents and peers behavior and stimulus. Results: Data from a 653 male and female sample, mean age 15,9 years (SD=2,10) show that Nutrition Knowledge is related to the perception adolescents have of their fathers’ physical activity level (p<0,05), and of their mothers (p<0,05) and peers (p<0,01) healthy eating habits. No statistical significance was found to the relation between nutrition knowledge and all other adolescent perceptions. Conclusions: These results suggest that beside there is a relation of Nutrition Knowledge and parents and peers perceived habits, the major role must be in schools. Showing that school based and adolescent focused interventions must be planned to improve nutrition knowledge

Nutrition knowledge in adolescents: perception of parents and peers behavior and stimulus

It is well known the influence that parents and peers have in children and adolescent choices and behaviors, including eating habits and physical activity practice. No work has been done yet about parents and peers influence in nutrition knowledge. This work aims to study the relation between adolescents’ perception of parents and peers food habits, physical activity practice, stimulus to the adolescent to follow a healthy diet and be physically active and adolescents Nutritional Knowledge. Methods: A translated and validated version of the Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire (Parmenter and Wardle, 1999) was used with another questionnaire about adolescents’ perception of parents and peers behavior and stimulus. Results: Data from a 653 male and female sample, mean age 15.9 years (SD = 2.10) show that Nutrition Knowledge is related to the perception adolescents have of their fathers’ physical activity level (P < 0.05), and of their mothers (P < 0.05) and peers (P < 0.01) healthy eating habits. No statistical significance was found to the relation between nutrition knowledge and all other adolescent perceptions. Conclusions: These results suggest that beside there is a relation of Nutrition Knowledge and parents and peers perceived habits, the major role must be in schools. Showing that school based and adolescent focused interventions must be planned to improve nutrition knowledge

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Do boys and girls achieve di!erent results?" Changes in physical activity and adiposity: acorda project

School-based interventions show inconsistent results in reducing obesity-related problems. Most of intervention studies are targeting girls because they have shown lower rates of physical activity and higher prevalence of obesity. ! The aim of this study was to compare the changes observed in BMI, percentage of Body Fat, percentage of Trunk Fat and Moderate to Vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels between boys and girls engaged in a school-based intervention program.Significant improvements in body composition and MVPA levels were observed in boys, but not in girls, after 8 months intervention. In accordance with previous findings, these results showed that gender may influence response to intervention programs and generalization of treatment effects may depend on gender-specificities and programs characteristics.

Physical activity levels and nutritional knowledge’s among children and adolescents

Childhood obesity is a consequence of environments that disrupt the balance of energy intake and energy expenditure. Obesogenic environments consist of social norms and environmental factors that facilitate unhealthy behaviors around diet and physical activity. Nutritional knowledge and physical activity are cornerstones of every obesity treatment. The aims are to understand and compare how nutritional knowledge and physical activily panerns occur in children and adolescents, and if there's any differences by gender. Methods Sample comprised 467 children and adolescents, 237 boys. PA was measured using Actigraph accelerometers (GTSXsl^ Participants were instructed to use the accelerometer, according to standard procedures, and data analyzed using the recommended guidelines (Evenson et al, 2008) Nutritional Knowledge INKI was assessed using the General Nutrition Questionnaire for Portuguese Adolescent, and results presented as a Final Nutritional Score, in accordance with standard procedures (Ferro-Lebres, V, Ribeiro, J, Moreira, P, 2014). Height, weight body mass index were also assessed. Univariate Analysis of Variance-GLM was used to compare genders ad|usted to different school leveis of the studente, using SPSS. Results Our results present higher (p<0,05| nutritional scores for"girls (67,11 than boys (63,6 scorel. Opposed to these results boys los expectedl significantly present higher amounts of moderate to vigorous PA compared to girls 171,6 min. /day vs 42,3 min. /day; p<0, 01|. Additionally, we have 14,7% overweight/obese girls and 17,4% overweight/obese boys. Discussion Other studies have obsen/ed similar results regarding MVPA in boys and girls, but the NK about diet and nutritïon is also crucial for the treatment ond prevention of obesity in chiidren. Therefore ifs important to understand if higher scores in NK would lead to better nutritional practices; would it be possible that inaeasing studenfs NK about food contents regarding different nutrients could improve their daily practices. Do children and adolescents that have better NK behave differently regarding PA practices?Project supported by: PTDC/DTP-DES/1328/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028619); and Research Center supported by: PEst-OE/SAU/UI0617/2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Screening of natural Wolbachia infection in mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) from the Cape Verde islands

Funding Information: We are grateful to the National Institute of Public Health for the laboratory support in Cape Verde, and to technicians from the Ministry of Health for their assistance in field work. We would like to thank Prof. Paulo Almeida for providing DNA controls of Cx. pipiens and Cx. quinquefasciatus used in the species identification PCR assay. Funding Information: This work was funded by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., within the framework of the project ARBOMONITOR (PTDC/BIA-OUT/29477/2017. Aires da Moura was funded by the Ph.D. fellowship program of Camões I.P. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Background: Wolbachia pipientis is an endosymbiont bacterium that induces cytoplasmic incompatibility and inhibits arboviral replication in mosquitoes. This study aimed to assess Wolbachia prevalence and genetic diversity in different mosquito species from Cape Verde. Methods: Mosquitoes were collected on six islands of Cape Verde and identified to species using morphological keys and PCR-based assays. Wolbachia was detected by amplifying a fragment of the surface protein gene (wsp). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was performed with five housekeeping genes (coxA, gatB, ftsZ, hcpA, and fbpA) and the wsp hypervariable region (HVR) for strain identification. Identification of wPip groups (wPip-I to wPip-V) was performed using PCR–restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) assay on the ankyrin domain gene pk1. Results: Nine mosquito species were collected, including the major vectors Aedes aegypti, Anopheles arabiensis, Culex pipiens sensu stricto, and Culex quinquefasciatus. Wolbachia was only detected in Cx. pipiens s.s. (100% prevalence), Cx. quinquefasciatus (98.3%), Cx. pipiens/quinquefasciatus hybrids (100%), and Culex tigripes (100%). Based on the results of MLST and wsp hypervariable region typing, Wolbachia from the Cx. pipiens complex was assigned to sequence type 9, wPip clade, and supergroup B. PCR/RFLP analysis revealed three wPip groups in Cape Verde, namely wPip-II, wPip-III, and wPip-IV. wPip-IV was the most prevalent, while wPip-II and wPip-III were found only on Maio and Fogo islands. Wolbachia detected in Cx. tigripes belongs to supergroup B, with no attributed MLST profile, indicating a new strain of Wolbachia in this mosquito species. Conclusions: A high prevalence and diversity of Wolbachia was found in species from the Cx. pipiens complex. This diversity may be related to the mosquito's colonization history on the Cape Verde islands. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to detect Wolbachia in Cx. tigripes, which may provide an additional opportunity for biocontrol initiatives. publishersversionpublishe

Alergia ao látex e à banana em crianças com mielomeningocele na cidade do Rio de Janeiro

Recentemente, reações de hipersensibilidade do tipo I ao látex foram relatadas com freqüência, principalmente nos indivíduos cujo contato com produtos de látex é íntimo e freqüente. Crianças com mielomeningocele (MMC) são as que mais se sensibilizam ao látex, pelo contato freqüente e precoce com este material. Reações alérgicas cruzadas entre alimentos são conhecidas há anos. Atualmente, a alergia ao látex é freqüentemente associada à alergia a frutas como abacate, banana, kiwi, grapefruit, pêssego, papaia e castanha. OBJETIVOS: O objetivo deste trabalho consistiu em identificar o número de pacientes com MMC e sensibilização clínico-laboratorial à banana e ao látex. MÉTODOS: Questionários foram aplicados a 33 crianças com MMC, e sangue foi colhido de 30 para ser efetuada a dosagem de imunoglobulina E (IgE) específica (RAST Pharmacia) para látex, e de 29 para banana. Foi considerada positiva a IgE específica igual ou superior à classe I. RESULTADOS: Quatro crianças relataram histórias de urticária com látex, e uma criança descreveu urticária e diarréia com banana. 14/30 (46,6%) apresentavam IgE específica para látex positiva, e 4/29 (13,7%) para banana. Nenhum cruzamento de variáveis foi estatisticamente significativo com a sensibilização clínico laboratorial ao látex e à banana. CONCLUSÕES: Identificou-se elevada prevalência de alergia ao látex e à banana no grupo de pacientes com MMC. No Brasil necessitamos de mais estudos para analisar a prevalência de reações alérgicas cruzadas entre alimentos e látex em crianças com MMC.<br>PURPOSE: Recently, latex type I hypersensibility reactions were frequently described, mainly in children with myelomeningocele (MMC), which maintain earlier intimate and frequent contact with latex products. Allergic food cross-reactions are well known for many years. Nowadays, latex allergy is frequently associated with food allergies to avocado, banana, kiwi, grapefruit, papaya, chestnut and peach. BACKGROUND: The objective of this study consisted in identifying the number of patients with myelomeningocele (MMC) and banana-latex clinico-laboratorial sensitization. METHODS: Questionnaires were applied to 33 children with MMC, and blood was collected from 30 to perform latex Ig E (RAST Pharmacia), and from 29 to banana Ig E. Specific Ig E equal or above class I was considered positive. RESULTS: Four children related histories of latex contact urticaria, and one child related a history of urticaria and diarrhea with banana. 14/30 (46.6%) were latex Ig E positive, and 4/29 (13.7%) to banana. There was no statistically significant association between variables. CONCLUSIONS: We identified high prevalence of latex and banana allergies in patients with MMC, and we need more studies to analyze the prevalence of food-latex allergic cross-reactions in children with MMC

Intervention program in children and adolescents to promote physical fitness, physical activity and nutritional knowledge

In young people, reduced values of cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) align themselves with the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF). The relationships between volumes, physical activity (PA) intensities and CRF levels on the prevalence and clustering of CVRF have not yet been completely clarified. Assuming that inadequate levels of PA and suitable diets would influence the CRF, the body fat and, therefore, the metabolic profile, it seems prudent to intervene on sedentary behaviors and unhealthy habits to improve cardiovascular health from an early age. Studies involving together the two major determinants of health in these ages: food and exercise are fundamental to the establishment of effective and reasoned health policies. Objective: To assess nutritional knowledge and dietary habits, and PA in a cohort of adolescents before and after an intervention program (IP) of nutritional food education and PA. Methods: PA will be measured by accelerometers and food knowledge through questionnaire (Nutritional Knowledge Questionnaire - NKQ). The IP will be an experimental study based at school and on the internet for promoting healthy behaviors related to PA and healthy nutritional choices, supported by theories of behavioral change. Duration - 9 months involving school and parents community in curricular and extracurricular activities. Results: (1) validation of NKQ (2) explore the associations between CRF, PA and food knowledge; and (3) evaluating the effects of an IP based at school and on the Internet (website), involving the promotion of PA and healthy nutrition behaviors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio