Health behaviour profiles in young Australian adults in relation to physical and mental health: The Raine Study.

ISSUES ADDRESSED: We aimed to identify latent health behaviour profiles of young adults and examine their associations with physical and mental health outcomes. We also characterised the profiles by socio-demographic characteristics. METHODS: Data were collected between 2012 and 2014. Participants (N = 476) were young adults (M age [SD] = 22.1 [.57] years) from Generation 2 of the Raine Study longitudinal cohort. Health behaviours were measured via ActiGraph GT3X waist monitors (physical activity, sedentary behaviour) and questionnaires (diet quality, alcohol, smoking and sleep). Physical and mental health were measured using clinical health assessments, blood biomarkers, and questionnaires. Latent Profile Analysis using Mplus (8.2) was employed to identify profiles. RESULTS: Four latent profiles were identified: 'heavy drinkers with moderately unhealthy eating habits' (high takeaway foods; n = 135), 'unhealthy food abstainers' (low takeaway foods; n = 138), 'moderately sedentary alcohol abstainers' (n = 139) and 'physically active drinkers with unhealthy eating habits' (high takeaway foods and sugary drinks; n = 64). 'Physically active drinkers with unhealthy eating habits' had the poorest (physical and mental) health outcomes, yet the lowest insulin resistance. 'Unhealthy food abstainers' had the most favourable health outcomes (adiposity, health perceptions, blood pressure). Sex differed among the profiles. CONCLUSIONS: The profiles identified among young adults are different to profiles with general adult populations. A novel finding was that 'physically active drinkers with unhealthy eating habits' had low insulin resistance. The findings also suggest that future interventions may need to be sex specific. SO WHAT: Our findings suggest that health behaviour interventions for young adults should be targeted to distinct profile characteristics.

Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.

Wearable devices can capture unexplored movement patterns such as brief bursts of vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) that is embedded into everyday life, rather than being done as leisure time exercise. Here, we examined the association of VILPA with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality in 25,241 nonexercisers (mean age 61.8 years, 14,178 women/11,063 men) in the UK Biobank. Over an average follow-up of 6.9 years, during which 852 deaths occurred, VILPA was inversely associated with all three of these outcomes in a near-linear fashion. Compared with participants who engaged in no VILPA, participants who engaged in VILPA at the sample median VILPA frequency of 3 length-standardized bouts per day (lasting 1 or 2 min each) showed a 38%-40% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 48%-49% reduction in CVD mortality risk. Moreover, the sample median VILPA duration of 4.4 min per day was associated with a 26%-30% reduction in all-cause and cancer mortality risk and a 32%-34% reduction in CVD mortality risk. We obtained similar results when repeating the above analyses for vigorous physical activity (VPA) in 62,344 UK Biobank participants who exercised (1,552 deaths, 35,290 women/27,054 men). These results indicate that small amounts of vigorous nonexercise physical activity are associated with substantially lower mortality. VILPA in nonexercisers appears to elicit similar effects to VPA in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise.

Food Choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective.

In this Special Issue, entitled "Food choice and Nutrition: A Social Psychological Perspective", three broad themes have been identified: (1) social and environmental influences on food choice; (2) psychological influences on eating behaviour; and (3) eating behaviour profiling.The studies that addressed the social and environmental influences indicated that further research would do well to promote positive food choices rather than reduce negative food choices; promote the reading and interpretation of food labels and find ways to effectively market healthy food choices through accessibility, availability and presentation. The studies on psychological influences found that intentions, perceived behavioural control, and confidence were predictors of healthy eating. Given the importance of psychological factors, such as perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy, healthy eating interventions should reduce barriers to healthy eating and foster perceptions of confidence to consume a healthy diet. The final theme focused on the clustering of individuals according to eating behaviour. Some "types" of individuals reported more frequent consumption of fast foods, ready meals or convenience meals or greater levels of disinhibitiona nd less control over food cravings. Intervention designs which make use of multi-level strategies as advocated by the Ecological Model of Behaviour change that proposes multi-level (combining psychological, social and environmental) strategies are likely to be more effective in reaching and engaging individuals susceptible to unhealthy eating habits than interventions operating on a single level.

Predicting psychological needs and well-being of individuals engaging in weight management: the role of important others.

BACKGROUND: Using the self-determination theory (SDT) framework, we examined how significant others might support or thwart psychological needs of people with weight management goals, and in turn might affect their psychological well-being and weight control behaviors. DESIGN: Longitudinal design with three sets of questionnaires administered over a 6-month period. METHODS: One hundred and fifty-six eligible participants (age = 31.01 ± 13.21 years) were asked to complete questionnaires of SDT-based constructs, weight management behaviors, and psychological well-being. Hypotheses were tested using Bayesian path analysis. RESULTS: Perceived autonomy support from significant others was related to psychological need satisfaction, while controlling behaviors by others were associated with need thwarting. In turn, need satisfaction was associated with some beneficial outcomes such as life satisfaction, and need thwarting was related to some maladaptive outcomes such as higher levels of depressive symptoms and increases in unhealthy diet behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the quality of interactions between individuals engaged in weight management and their significant others matters in terms of predicting the psychological needs and well-being of the former.

The role of motivation to eat in the prediction of weight control behaviors in female and male adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether motivation to eat variables predict changes in dieting and weight control behaviors in both gender groups over time. METHOD: Greek adolescents (n=247), aged 14-18 years, completed questionnaires measuring different dimensions of motivation to eat, dieting, healthy and unhealthy weight control behaviors. Dieting and weight control behaviors were measured five months later. RESULTS: Compliance motivation positively predicted changes in dieting in males and a number of unhealthy weight control behaviors in females. Coping motivation negatively predicted meal skipping in both genders and was associated with a lower risk of vomiting in females. Social motivation positively predicted eating less high fat food in males while pleasure motivation was associated with a reduced likelihood of eating more fruits and vegetables in females and a reduced risk of fasting in males. CONCLUSION: Intervention programs designed to facilitate healthy and circumvent unhealthy weight control practices in adolescents should attend to gender differences in motivational factors shown to predict dieting and weight control behaviors. For females it may be important to minimize compliance motivation whereas for males, programs that foster social motivation to eat might be appropriate.