Associations between diet quality and mental health in socially disadvantaged New Zealand adolescents.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between diet quality and mental health in an ethnically diverse adolescent population in New Zealand. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Cross-sectional, population-based study design. Data were available at baseline for 4249 students. Responses from self-reported dietary questionnaires were used to assess diet quality; healthy eating and unhealthy eating were assessed as two separate scales. Mental health was assessed by the emotional subscale of the PedsQL instrument. RESULTS: Eating a healthy diet was significantly associated with better emotional health (P<0.001) and eating an unhealthy diet was significantly associated with greater emotional distress (P<0.001), after controlling for age, ethnicity and gender. The healthy and unhealthy eating scales were independently related to mental health scores. CONCLUSIONS: These findings contribute to a growing body of literature that diet quality is associated with mental health in adolescents. Further research is warranted to determine whether improvements to the diets of adolescents can have meaningful improvements to mental well-being.

The Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities project: project overview and methods.

Obesity is increasing worldwide with the Pacific region having the highest prevalence among adults. The most common precursor of adult obesity is adolescent obesity making this a critical period for prevention. The Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities project was a four-country project (Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand and Australia) designed to prevent adolescent obesity. This paper overviews the project and the methods common to the four countries. Each country implemented a community-based intervention programme promoting healthy eating, physical activity and healthy weight in adolescents. A community capacity-building approach was used, with common processes employed but with contextualized interventions within each country. Changes in anthropometric, behavioural and perception outcomes were evaluated at the individual level and school environments and community capacity at the settings level. The evaluation tools common to each are described. Additional analytical studies included economic, socio-cultural and policy studies. The project pioneered many areas of obesity prevention research: using multi-country collaboration to build research capacity; testing a capacity-building approach in ethnic groups with very high obesity prevalence; costing complex, long-term community intervention programmes; systematically studying the powerful socio-cultural influences on weight gain; and undertaking a participatory, national, priority-setting process for policy interventions using simulation modelling of cost-effectiveness of interventions.