Obesity Abstracts

Background: There is considerable interest in tightening food and drink advertising restrictions to address childhood obesity. However, regulations often focus on protecting children aged <12 years, with the assumption that older children are cognitively capable of understanding advertising. This review aims to systematically examine whether advertising influences children and adolescents' critical reasoning in relation to health behaviours.Methods: ...

Background: Excessive consumption of energy-dense food increases the risk of obesity, which in turn increases the risk of non-communicable diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and most non-smoking related cancers. Health warning labels (HWLs) that communicate the adverse health consequences of excess calorie consumption could reduce intake of energy-dense foods. We aimed to identify the most promising HWLs for reducing intake of energy-dense snacks in two online ...

Background: Weight perception may differ by ethnicity but has not been examined among migrants to the United Kingdom (UK). Similarly, studies have not assessed whether a figure rating scale (FRS) or perceived weight question (PWQ) are more accurate in evaluating body size perception.Methods: At 24 months postpartum, women with singleton pregnancies (n=1201) within the Born in Bradford cohort (Bradford, UK) completed the nine-item Stunkard FRS an...

Background: Laboratory studies have demonstrated that exposure to social norm messages conveying the typical eating behaviour of others, can nudge participants to consume more low energy-dense (LED) and fewer high energy-dense (HED) snacks, both of which are desirable from an obesity perspective. In the digital age, it is plausible that social norms conveying what others are eating, and approve of eating, are communicated via social media, however, this has not been tested exp...

Background: Sugar and soft drink taxes have been implemented in over 40 locations globally. This includes the UK's Soft Drink Industry Levy (SDIL) which was implemented on 6th April 2018 to reduce sugar consumption and improve health. Tax implementation is highly debated on social media. This study aimed to explore the stakeholder networks involved in the debate surrounding the SDIL on Twitter.Methods: Social network analysis (SNA) of tweets posted betwe...