International journal of obesity : journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity
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There is increasing evidence for an association between asthma and body weight change. The objectives of these analyses were to examine the temporal relationships of this association and to explore the role of childhood depression as an explanatory factor. ⋯ This study encourages further research on mechanisms underlying the asthma-obesity comorbidity, particularly on shared psychosocial factors operating during critical periods in childhood and adolescence that may influence the development and persistence of both obesity and asthma during adulthood.
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To investigate whether the nature of the relationship between body mass index (BMI (kg/m2)) and all-cause mortality is direct, J- or U-shaped, and whether this relationship changes as people age. ⋯ In younger/middle-aged, but not older, women and men, mortality risks appear directly related to BMI. The more complicated relationship between BMI and mortality in older subjects suggests the importance of assessing whether other markers of body composition better explain mortality risk in older adults.
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Although there is increasing interest in how environmental factors influence food intake, there are mixed results and misunderstandings of how proximity and visibility influence consumption volume and contribute to obesity. The objective of this paper is to examine two questions: first, how does the proximity and salience of a food influence consumption volume? Second, are proximate foods consumed more frequently because they are proximate, or are they consumed more frequently because people lose track of how much they eat? ⋯ These results show that the proximity and visibility of a food can consistently increase an adult's consumption of it. In addition, these results suggest that people may be biased to overestimate the consumption of foods that are less proximate, and to underestimate those that are more proximate. Knowing about these deviation tendencies is important for those attempting effectively monitor their consumption of fat and sugar.
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To describe and evaluate a fully automated method for characterizing abdominal adipose tissue from magnetic resonance (MR) transverse body scans. ⋯ The results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust and accurate. Although the separation of SAAT and VAAT is not always perfect, this method could be especially helpful in dealing with large amounts of data such as in epidemiological studies.
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The roots of the obesity epidemic need to be traced back as early in life as possible in order to develop effective means for preventing obesity and its health consequences in the future. The aim of this paper is to examine a broad range of factors that may simultaneously contribute to childhood overweight in a population-based cohort of children followed from birth to 4.5 years, to determine which factors exert the most influence in early life. ⋯ This study indicates that behavioral and social factors exert critical influences on the onset of childhood overweight in preschool years. From a population-health perspective, interventions aimed at preventing childhood obesity would do well to target smoking pregnant women, as well as nonsmoking pregnant women at risk for giving birth to high-birth-weight children, paying particular attention to rapid weight gain in the first months of life.