Melatonin use in managing insomnia in children with autism and other neurogenetic disorders - An assessment by the international pediatric sleep association (IPSA).

Though it is widely prescribed for improving sleep of children with autism and other neurogenetic disorders, there is a need for practical guidance to clinicians on the use of melatonin for managing insomnia in this population. Because data were either lacking or inconclusive, a task force was established by the International Pediatric Sleep Association (IPSA) to examine the literature based on clinical trials from 2012 onwards. A summary of evidence pertaining to melatonin's utility and potential side effects, practice-related caveats, and insights for use are published herewith.

Conceptualisation of personal recovery in a private hospital mental health service.

There has been limited research on personal recovery during a hospital admission. However, studies in this setting indicate that consumers' experiences of personal recovery, during an inpatient admission, may not mirror the experiences of consumers living in the community, which has been conceptualised by the CHIME processes of Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment. Findings to date posit that inpatients may be more likely to experience disconnection and hopelessness. To investigate this further, staff working in a private hospital mental health service designed and implemented a research project to understand personal recovery from patients' perspectives. The method comprised four consumer focus groups (n = 16 participants). Researchers analysed the data using inductive thematic analysis, identifying three themes: different pathways reflecting each patient's individual journey to personal recovery; challenges including experiencing hopelessness and distress, ups and downs, it not being easy, isolation and lack of support; and living well including wanting to return to everyday living, hope and acceptance, and feeling empowered. The findings suggest that the CHIME conceptualisation of recovery may need to be revised to include the experiences of hospital patients. The conceptualisation of recovery as a dynamic spectrum, with recovery moving up and down between challenges and living well may better represent hospital patient experiences. Patients also talked about a process not included in CHIME, of returning to 'everyday living' which was about getting back to doing everyday activities that most of us take for granted.

Factors relating to sustainability and scalability of the 'Food, Move, Sleep (FOMOS) for Postnatal Mental Health' program: Qualitative perspectives from key stakeholders across Australia.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Supporting healthy behaviours (quality diet, physical activity, sleep) through home-based interventions is feasible to improve postnatal mental health. Involving stakeholders in developing interventions is essential for maximising accessibility, implementation and scale-up. This study aimed to identify factors affecting the sustainable implementation and scalability of the Food, Move, Sleep (FOMOS) for Postnatal Mental Health program, including strategies to enhance research-practice translation. METHODS: Stakeholders (n = 13) involved in promoting physical activity, healthy eating, postnatal and mental health, public health and/or policy participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews, based on PRACTIS Guide recommendations for implementation and scale-up, explored perceptions of program design, implementation and scalability. Reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken. Identified implementation and scale-up strategies were mapped against the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change compendium and PRACTIS Guide. RESULTS: Individual-level: Targeting multiple systems (primary, tertiary, community-based care) and entry points (early, mid-postpartum) for uptake was important. For equity, screening women in public hospitals, engaging with community agencies and targeting most at-risk women, was suggested. Provider-level: Stakeholders identified strategies to enhance future roll-out (organisations assisting with recruitment). Factors impacting sustainability included high demand for the FOMOS program, and governance around screening and funding; online delivery, connecting with partners and providers and integration into existing services may enhance sustainability. Systems-level: Political support and community champions were perceived important for program dissemination. Nine strategies addressing program uptake, reach, implementation, potential scalability and sustainability were identified. CONCLUSIONS: For sustainable implementation and potential scalability of a home-based multi-behaviour postnatal intervention, multi-level implementation and scale-up strategies, aligned with existing health systems, policies and initiatives to support postnatal mental health should be considered. SO WHAT?: This paper provides a comprehensive list of strategies that can be used to enhance sustainable implementation and scalability of healthy behaviour programs targeting postnatal mental health. Further, the interview schedule, systematically developed and aligned with the PRACTIS Guide, may serve as a useful resource for researchers conducting similar studies in future.

Evaluating a multi-behavioural home-based intervention for reducing depressive symptoms in postnatal women : The food, move, sleep (FOMOS) for postnatal mental health randomised controlled trial protocol.

BACKGROUND: Postnatal depression (PND) is a leading cause of illness and death among women following childbirth. Physical inactivity, sedentary behaviour, poor sleep, and sub-optimal diet quality are behavioural risk factors for PND. A feasible, sustainable, and scalable intervention to improve healthy behaviours and reduce PND symptoms among women at postpartum is needed. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a multi-behavioural home-based program Food, Move, Sleep (FOMOS) for Postnatal Mental Health designed to improve PND symptoms in women at postpartum. METHODS: This randomised clinical trial will recruit 220 Australian women (2-12 months postpartum) experiencing heightened PND symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score ≥ 10). Participants will be randomised to FOMOS or wait-list control receiving standard clinical care. FOMOS is a 6-month mobile health (mHealth) intervention targeting diet quality, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, and mental health. The intervention, informed by the Social Cognitive Theory and incorporating behaviour change techniques defined in the CALO-RE taxonomy and Cognitive Behavioural Treatment of Insomnia, provides exercise equipment, and educational/motivational material and social support via mHealth and social media. Data collection pre-intervention and at 3, 6 and 12 months will assess the primary outcome of PND symptoms and secondary outcomes (diet quality, physical activity, sitting time, sleep quality) using self-report and device measures. Process evaluation will explore acceptability, appropriateness, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability via analytic tools, record keeping, interviews, and surveys. DISCUSSION: If effective, FOMOS could be a feasible and potentially scalable management strategy to support improvement of health behaviours and mental health for women with PND symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?ACTRN=12622001079730p.

Reconnecting with the Warrior Within: Australian Indigenous perspectives on the development of a social and emotional wellbeing program.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Australian Indigenous youth are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Historical determinants and socioeconomic disadvantage continue to impact their social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and sense of identity. Previous literature suggests connecting to culture significantly impacts SEWB in Indigenous youth. Given the diversity of Indigenous culture, collaboration and consultation with specific cultural groups is required to develop appropriate and relevant psychological treatments for SEWB. The Warrior Within Program was developed to improve SEWB in Indigenous youth by assisting them to better understand their identity through participation in group-based cultural activities. This research aimed to understand Central Queensland Indigenous Development staff perspectives around (1) the process of developing the program and (2) how group-based cultural activities contributed to staff perceived improvements in SEWB of program participants. METHODS: In this qualitative study, semi-structured individual interviews of 60-90 min were conducted with four Warrior Within Program staff of Central Queensland Indigenous Development. Transcripts were thematically analysed and the subthemes identified were categorised into main themes. RESULTS: The process of developing the Warrior Within Program, cultural and Indigenous identity, reconnecting and knowledge emerged as the four main themes. CONCLUSIONS: This study makes a unique and important contribution to the Australian Indigenous literature regarding the role and nature of culture in group-based programs and the importance of collaborating with Indigenous groups to increase our understanding of their usefulness and efficacy. This study also helps to bridge the gap between Indigenous ways of knowing in program development and non-Indigenous methods of evaluation. SO WHAT?: Acknowledging Australian Indigenous methods and ways of knowing are essential to the development and delivery of culturally appropriate group problems for addressing the psychological needs of this population. The methods used in this study could be used by others seeking to legitimise cultural ways of knowing.

Factors associated with melatonin use in child sleep disturbance: A survey of Australian parents.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep disturbances are prevalent in Australian children and cause a significant amount of stress to both children and their parents. If sleep disturbances are left untreated, they can result in detrimental consequences to both child and parental wellbeing. While behavioural interventions are recognised as the gold standard treatment for paediatric insomnia, there is a growing use of melatonin from both prescription and non-prescription sources in paediatrics. However, empirical research on the efficacy and safety of melatonin for children is sparse, conflicting, and inconsistent. This first Australian study aimed to investigate correlates of melatonin use in a sample of children with sleep disturbance in Australia and assess whether melatonin is being administered to children contrary to Therapeutic Goods Administration Guidelines. METHODS: An exploratory online study was undertaken with 318 parents of Australian children with sleep disturbance (95.30% females). Logistic regression, mediation and descriptive analysis were conducted. RESULTS: As hypothesised, higher parental stress, older child age, and a diagnosis of ADHD were significantly associated with melatonin use in this sleep disturbed sample. Other potential correlates such as financial stress, number of household dependents, child sleep disturbance, and autism were not significantly associated with melatonin use in adjusted analyses. CONCLUSION: Findings show off-label melatonin use in children with sleep disturbance is prevalent. For the first time, this study showed an indirect path linking child sleep disturbances with melatonin use via parental stress. Overall, while the safety of melatonin use remains unknown, there is a clear need to mitigate parental stress to minimise potentially unmonitored and improper use of melatonin in children.

Social-ecological considerations informing a universal screening strategy for sleep health in the community.

"Poor sleep health" (PSH), defined as reduced amount of sleep and non-restorative sleep, affects cognitive, social and emotional development. Evidence suggests an association of sleep deprivation and mental health problems; however, there are no universal concepts allowing a first-tier screening of PSH at a community level. The focus of this narrative review is to highlight the cultural context of the current medicalized approach to PSH and to suggest social ecological strategies informing new and holistic community-based screening concepts. We present two conceptual screening frameworks; a "medical" and a merged "social emotional wellbeing framework" and combine them utilizing the concept of "ecologies." The first framework proposes the incorporation of "sleep" in the interpretation of "vigilance" and "inappropriate" labeled behaviors. In the first framework, we provide a logic model for screening the myriad of presentations and possible root causes of sleep disturbances as a tool to assess daytime behaviors in context with PSH. In the second framework, we provide evidence that informs screening for "social emotional wellbeing" in the context of predictive factors, perpetuating factors and predispositions through different cultural perspectives. The distinct goals of both frameworks are to overcome training-biased unidirectional thinking and a priori medicalization of challenging, disruptive and/or disobedient behaviors. The latter has been explicitly informed by the critical discourse on colonization and its consequences, spearheaded by First Nations. Our "transcultural, transdisciplinary and transdiagnostic screening framework" may serve as a starting point from which adaptations of medical models could be developed to suit the purposes of holistic screening, diagnosis, and treatment of complex childhood presentations in different cultural contexts.

Do responsive sleep interventions impact mental health in mother/infant dyads compared to extinction interventions? A pilot study.

Methods to improve sleep in infants commonly involve some ignoring (extinction) but are often unpopular with mothers worried about infant distress when left to cry. Alternative more responsive methods are needed. This pilot study evaluated stress, maternal depressive symptomology and sleep in mother/infant dyads, between Responsive, Controlled Crying and Control groups. From 199 mother/infant dyads from any cultural background, 41 infants 4-12 months were randomly allocated to Responsive (RG, n = 15), Controlled Crying (CCG, n = 18) or Controls (Treatment as Usual, TAUG, n = 8), with 10 withdrawing after randomisation. Infant sleep (7-day sleep diaries) and stress (oral cortisol on two nights), maternal self-reported stress (Subjective Units of Distress, SUDS), maternal perceived infant distress (MPI-S) and symptoms of maternal depression (Edinburgh Post-natal Depression Scale, EPDS) were measured four times across 8 weeks. Sleep duration was not different between groups but Responsive woke less (p = .008). There were no differences in cortisol between groups across time points. Maternal SUDS was positively correlated with infant cortisol and MPI-S (p < 0.05) and mothers in the Responsive group were significantly less stressed (p = 0.02) and reported less symptoms of depression (p < 0.05). Findings in this small sample show Responsive methods are comparable to the extinction (Controlled Crying) in sleep outcomes but from a relational and maternal mental health perspective, are less stressful, offering families potential choices of sleep interventions.

Healthy sleep for healthy schools: A pilot study of a sleep education resource to improve adolescent sleep.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: Insufficient sleep and unhealthy sleep practices in adolescents are associated with significant health risks. Sleep education programs in schools aim to improve sleep behaviour. A new eLearning sleep education program, Healthy Sleep for Healthy Schools (HS4HS), was developed focused on these goals and is distinguishable from other sleep education programs because it is delivered by teachers, making it more sustainable and adaptable for schools. We aimed to evaluate if HS4HS would improve student sleep knowledge, healthy sleep practices, sleep duration and reduce sleepiness. We also aimed to understand if this intervention could be successfully implemented by trained teachers. METHODS: Teachers trained in sleep delivered HS4HS to 64 South Australian students in year 9 (aged 13-14 years) over 6 weeks during regular school curriculum. A sleep education survey assessing sleep patterns (such as healthy sleep practices, time in bed and sleepiness), and a sleep knowledge questionnaire was completed pre- and post-HS4HS delivery. Evaluations were also completed by teachers. RESULTS: Sleep knowledge and healthy sleep practices significantly improved post intervention. Time in bed on both school days and weekends increased slightly and sleepiness decreased slightly, but these changes were not statistically significant. Teachers found the program useful, comprehensive and easy to incorporate into their curricula. CONCLUSIONS: After short training, teachers can deliver sleep education during class and improve sleep practices in their students. This suggests that this program may offer potential as an effective and useful resource for teachers wanting to include sleep health in their curriculum. SO WHAT?: Sleep is the foundation of good health and teachers can promote and integrate sleep education into their curricula for the first time with this online teacher focussed program, which has the potential to be a sustainable sleep health promotion resource.

Sleep health and its implications in First Nation Australians: A systematic review.

Understanding the state of sleep health in First Nations Australians offers timely insight into intervention and management opportunities to improve overall health and well-being. This review explored the determinants and burden of poor sleep in First Nations Australians. A systematic search was conducted to identify studies published until August 2020 in First Nations Australian adults. Nine studies (n = 2640) were included, three in community settings, six in clinical populations. Across studies compared with non-Indigenous people, 15-34% of First Nations Australians experience less than recommended hours (<7 h/night), 22% reported fragmented, irregular, and unrefreshing sleep with a high prevalence of OSA in clinical populations (39-46%). Findings show First Nations Australians are significantly more likely to report worse sleep health than Non-Indigenous Australians in all measured domains of sleep. Co-designed sleep programs and service delivery solutions are necessary to ensure timely prevention and management of sleep issues in First Nations communities which to date have been underserved. FUNDING: No external funding was provided for this work.

The need for sleep and circadian education in Australian high schools: incidental results from a survey of university students.

ISSUE ADDRESSED: To describe the need for high school sleep education from the perspective of undergraduate university students. METHODS: Undergraduate students who completed an online course on sleep and circadian health were surveyed 6 months after course completion. Students were asked whether a similar course would have benefited them as high school students, and about the need for sleep education in high schools. Thematic analysis of this qualitative data was carried out. RESULTS: Eighty-nine students who had attended 71 unique high schools provided responses. Eight-one per cent thought they would have benefitted from a similar course during high school and identified domains of sleep knowledge particularly relevant to high school students. They cited environmental barriers to healthy sleep present during high school and believed that sleep education could improve students' lifestyle, sleep and performance. Nineteen per cent of students said they would not have benefited, because they perceived sleeping patterns during high school to be nonmodifiable or believed that previous sleep education was sufficient. Of the respondents who did not think students would benefit, 53% would still tell their high school principal that there was a need for sleep education. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the need for engaging sleep education for high school students. Future studies should examine the perspectives of students in high school directly, rather than undergraduate students who have already shown an interest in sleep health. SO WHAT?: Sleep health is missing from the Australian school curriculum. Online courses may be an engaging method of promoting sleep and circadian health to high school students.

Update on school-based sleep education programs: how far have we come and what has Australia contributed to the field?

OBJECTIVE: School-based sleep education programs help to promote sleep health information to many children and adolescents. The aim of this systematic review was to identify and describe school-based sleep education programs, to update previous reviews and identify recent advances and improvements in this field worldwide. METHODS: Four electronic databases were searched. Eligibility criteria included children aged 5-18 years, sleep education intervention conducted in a school setting, and at least one pre-post-measure of a sleep variable. RESULTS: A total of 32 articles met eligibility criteria with Australian sleep researchers constituting âˆ¼ one quarter of these studies. Studies dated from 2007 to 2020 with sample sizes ranging from 9 to 3713 students. The majority of participants were high school students and predominantly female. Education programs generally took 4-6 weeks and content was consistent across studies. Overall, exposure to sleep education increased sleep knowledge, however changes in sleep behaviour variables and secondary outcome variables (eg, mental health; cognitive function; sleep hygiene practices) presented varied results. Studies conducted since 2015 were more likely to be randomised controlled trials and to include more interactive, online designs utilising innovative content such as mindfulness. CONCLUSIONS: An exponential growth in school sleep education programs was identified since 2016. Future studies should consider utilising objective sleep measures, longer-term follow-ups, innovative delivery methods, and stronger attempts at implementing a knowledge-to-action approach for more sustainable programs.

Influences on help-seeking decisions for behavioral child sleep problems: Why parents do and do not seek help.

OBJECTIVES: Behavioral sleep problems affect 25% of children and impact functioning, but little is known about help-seeking for these problems. We identified (1) predictors for sleep problem perception and help-seeking, using nested-logit regression and (2) reasons why parents did not seek professional help for sleep problems, using chi-square. METHODS: Parents (N = 407) of children (2-10-years-old) completed the study online. Parents indicated whether their child had no sleep problem, a mild problem, or a moderate-to-severe problem and completed additional questionnaires on parent/child functioning. RESULTS: Overall, 5.4% ± 2.2% of parents sought professional help for a child sleep problem. Greater child sleep problem severity and greater child socioemotional problems were significant predictors of parents perceiving a sleep problem. Among parents who perceived a sleep problem, greater parental socioemotional problems significantly predicted professional help-seeking. Parents who perceived no problem or a mild sleep problem reported not needing professional help as the main reason for not seeking help; parents who perceived a moderate-to-severe problem reported logistic barriers most often (e.g. treatment unavailability, cost). CONCLUSIONS: Problem perception and help-seeking predictors resemble the children's mental health literature. Differences in barriers, based on problem severity, suggest differential help-seeking interventions are needed (e.g. education vs access).

Ketogenic Diet as a Normal Way of Eating in Adults With Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: A Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVES: There are currently no recommendations on following the ketogenic diet (KD) in the context of diabetes and, therefore, health-care professionals may not be comfortable in supporting this dietary regimen. In this qualitative study, we aim to understand the perspective of patients with diabetes when following the KD, particularly with regard to reasons for starting the diet, motivators, support systems, sources of information and challenges. METHODS: Adults diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who followed a KD for ≥3 months were recruited for inclusion in this study. Semistructured interviews were conducted, audio recorded and transcribed. Themes were analyzed using concept mapping until theme saturation was achieved. RESULTS: Participants were 54.5 (standard deviation 10.1) years old, on average, and had been following the KD for 6 to 19 (median 5) months; 43% were male and 79% had type 2 diabetes. The main motivation to start the diet was to improve blood glucose control or to reduce/stop taking diabetes medications, followed by weight loss and diabetes reversal. Participants reported benefits of the diet, such as improved glycemic control, weight loss and satiety, which appeared to strongly prevail over challenges, such as lack of support from health-care professionals and lack of information sources. Most participants considered the KD as a normalized way of eating that they would continue for the rest of their lives. CONCLUSIONS: A wide range of reported benefits, either expected or that emerged, strongly motivated individuals to follow the KD despite the lack of safety information and/or support. Further studies are needed to establish guidelines that health-care professionals can use to provide direction for individuals with diabetes who wish to follow the KD.

Implementation of recovery-oriented practice in hospital-based mental health services: A systematic review.

Recovery-oriented practice has become the dominant paradigm of practice in mental health services internationally. The exception is hospital-based mental health services where the biomedical model continues to prevail, in this context defined by high acuity and safety concerns. This review aims to identify the approaches to, and feasibility of, implementing recovery-oriented practice in hospital-based mental health services. A systematic review of the literature (2010-2019) identified seventeen studies of recovery-oriented practice implementation in hospital-based mental health services. One study was excluded based on quality assessment. Of the remaining studies, seven reported on staff training initiatives, four reported service user programmes facilitated by staff, and five were implementations of models of care. The findings indicate that it is feasible, albeit challenging, to implement recovery-oriented practice in hospital-based mental health services. More successful approaches are multimodal, applied over several years and have organizational support. The main barriers to implementation include resistance to change from the embedded, biomedical model, staff attitudes towards recovery, and an absence of consumer involvement in the implementation of recovery-oriented practice.

Addressing a Care Gap in Type 1 Diabetes Management: Using the Diabetes Distress Scale in a Community Care Setting to Address Diabetes-Related Treatment Challenges.

OBJECTIVES: To bridge the gap between existing clinical evidence and recommendations around screening for diabetes-related distress (DD) and the observation of a low level of adoption of these suggestions in everyday clinical practice. We focused on the use of the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) by adult diabetes care specialists. METHODS: We conducted a survey of endocrinologists and diabetes educators in our clinics, examining the use of DD screening and assessment tools, including DDS-2, DDS-17 and T1-DDS-28. RESULTS: Our results indicated that very few practitioners surveyed are currently using the DD questionnaires, and highlighted their perceptions of the primary barriers to doing so. CONCLUSIONS: We discuss the results of our survey of colleagues' use of the DDS and provide suggestions about how to incorporate this tool, and tips about how to address the various facets of DD. We argue that integrating the assessment of DD in clinical practice, with the use of standardized and validated self-report questionnaires, is a necessary and very feasible step towards achieving further improvements in the health and quality of life of people living with type 1 diabetes.

Behavioural sleep interventions in infants: Plan B - Combining models of responsiveness to increase parental choice.

In families with infants between the ages of 6 and 18 months, sleep disruption can be significant, often putting parents at risk of a range of negative psychological and psychosocial consequences. Commonly prescribed sleep interventions typically involve 'extinction' methods, which require parents to completely or periodically ignore their infant's overnight cries. These methods can be effective in many, but not all cases. For over 40 years 30-40% of parents have consistently reported difficulty ignoring their child. For this group, ignoring their child is behaviourally and/or ideologically difficult with attrition often leading to a perceived sense of failure. For these parents the treatment may be worse than the problem. On the other hand, there is emerging evidence to support the use of more responsive methods for those who find extinction approaches behaviourally or ideologically challenging. In this paper we propose an integrated, less polarised approach to infant behavioural sleep interventions that better caters to those who have difficulty with extinction methods - our so-called 'Plan B'. This approach potentially resolves the often opposing ideological and theoretical perspectives of extinction versus responsiveness into a practical, complementary and pragmatic treatment framework. Recommendations on how best to implement Plan B are also presented. In our view, Plan B could provide practitioners with a logically integrated well-targeted suite of clinical interventions that could potentially improve compliance, reduce attrition and ultimately benefit the sleep and well-being of all infants and their parents, especially those who struggle with traditional extinction methodologies.

Sleep Timing During Adolescence: A Latent Transition Analysis Approach.

Objective/Background: This paper utilized a person-centered approach to examine individual differences in sleep timing cross-sectionally and prospectively in adolescents. Participants: Data from Waves 5 and 6 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children were used. At Wave 5, the sample included 3,552 Australian adolescents aged 12-13 years (51% males, 49% females); 84% provided data at two-year follow-up (Wave 6). Methods: Through structured interviews, adolescents provided information on sleep timing (bedtimes, sleep-onset times, and wake times) on weekends and weekdays, and relevant covariates. Latent profile analysis identified sleep profiles at Waves 5 and 6 separately; latent transition analysis examined stability and change in profiles across time. Results: Six sleep timing profiles were identified at age 12-13 years: Early Larks (n = 228; 6.4%); Larks (n = 1257; 35.4%); Intermediate (n = 1311; 36.9%); Owls (n = 351; 9.9%); Variable Owls (n = 308; 8.7%); and, Late Owls (n = 97; 2.7%). Six similar profiles were identified at age 14-15 years. The latent transition analysis indicated that the Early Larks, Larks, and Intermediate profiles were more stable over time compared with the Owls, Variable Owls, and Late Owls profiles. Higher body mass index (BMI) and longer screen time predicted transitions from Larks and Early Larks to the Owls, Variable Owls, and Late Owls profiles. Conclusions: Many adolescents showed healthy sleep timing, which continued with age. However, the Variable Owls, Owls, and Late Owls profiles reflected less healthy and more variable sleep patterns that may require targeted interventions.

A Mediterranean-style dietary intervention supplemented with fish oil improves diet quality and mental health in people with depression: A randomized controlled trial (HELFIMED).

OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether a Mediterranean-style diet (MedDiet) supplemented with fish oil can improve mental health in adults suffering depression. METHODS: Adults with self-reported depression were randomized to receive fortnightly food hampers and MedDiet cooking workshops for 3 months and fish oil supplements for 6 months, or attend social groups fortnightly for 3 months. Assessments at baseline, 3 and 6 months included mental health, quality of life (QoL) and dietary questionnaires, and blood samples for erythrocyte fatty acid analysis. RESULTS: n = 152 eligible adults aged 18-65 were recruited (n = 95 completed 3-month and n = 85 completed 6-month assessments). At 3 months, the MedDiet group had a higher MedDiet score (t = 3.95, P < 0.01), consumed more vegetables (t = 3.95, P < 0.01), fruit (t = 2.10, P = 0.04), nuts (t = 2.29, P = 0.02), legumes (t = 2.41, P = 0.02) wholegrains (t = 2.63, P = 0.01), and vegetable diversity (t = 3.27, P < 0.01); less unhealthy snacks (t = -2.10, P = 0.04) and red meat/chicken (t = -2.13, P = 0.04). The MedDiet group had greater reduction in depression (t = -2.24, P = 0.03) and improved mental health QoL scores (t = 2.10, P = 0.04) at 3 months. Improved diet and mental health were sustained at 6 months. Reduced depression was correlated with an increased MedDiet score (r = -0.298, P = 0.01), nuts (r = -0.264, P = 0.01), and vegetable diversity (r = -0.303, P = 0.01). Other mental health improvements had similar correlations, most notably for increased vegetable diversity and legumes. There were some correlations between increased omega-3, decreased omega-6 and improved mental health. DISCUSSION: This is one of the first randomized controlled trials to show that healthy dietary changes are achievable and, supplemented with fish oil, can improve mental health in people with depression.

Evaluating Accessible Sleep Health Information in Rural and Urban Contexts: Delivery Face-to-Face or Online?

OBJECTIVE: New parents need education about infant sleep but is not universally available especially not in regional and rural areas. We delivered sleep education both face-to-face and online to test sleep knowledge acquisition for parents wherever they reside. Best practice delivery of accessible sleep health information for new families needs to be investigated more carefully in order for specialist services to be universally available. METHODS: Pre- and post-information session questionnaires (n = 32) assessed levels of knowledge acquisition and comparisons tested differences between face-to-face seminars compared with an online webinar. RESULTS: Sleep knowledge across participants was low (69% scoring < 50%). Sleep knowledge significantly increased for both the webinar delivery group (P = .002) and face-to-face delivery group (P = .001). No significant differences in knowledge acquisition were found between face-to-face vs online delivery (P = .170), suggesting both modes of delivery were sufficient to improve parental sleep knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Parental sleep knowledge, while low, increased with education. Online delivery was similar to face-to-face delivery suggesting ease of access for rural and remote communities needing specialist sleep information. IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: Information delivered online is effective and offers a health delivery solution to regional and remote parents unable to access sleep services and rendering sleep service accessibility more equitable.