Children's home and school neighbourhood exposure to alcohol marketing: Using wearable camera and GPS data to directly examine the link between retailer availability and visual exposure to marketing.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Neighbourhood alcohol availability has been associated with alcohol consumption by children, despite children rarely acquiring alcohol from retailers. This study explores one potential reason for this finding, by evaluating the relationships between neighbourhood alcohol availability and children's actual exposure to alcohol marketing. METHOD: Wearable cameras and GPS devices were worn by 167 children (aged 11-13 y) over a four-day period. Image and GPS data were linked and compared to known alcohol availability data. RESULTS: Off-licence retailer availability and ethnicity were positively associated with children's exposure to marketing in both residential and school neighbourhoods. CONCLUSION: Neighbourhood off-licence alcohol retailers are associated with increased childhood exposure to alcohol marketing.

Children's everyday exposure to food marketing: an objective analysis using wearable cameras.

BACKGROUND: Over the past three decades the global prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has increased by 47%. Marketing of energy-dense nutrient-poor foods and beverages contributes to this worldwide increase. Previous research on food marketing to children largely uses self-report, reporting by parents, or third-party observation of children's environments, with the focus mostly on single settings and/or media. This paper reports on innovative research, Kids'Cam, in which children wore cameras to examine the frequency and nature of everyday exposure to food marketing across multiple media and settings. METHODS: Kids'Cam was a cross-sectional study of 168 children (mean age 12.6 years, SD = 0.5) in Wellington, New Zealand. Each child wore a wearable camera on four consecutive days, capturing images automatically every seven seconds. Images were manually coded as either recommended (core) or not recommended (non-core) to be marketed to children by setting, marketing medium, and product category. Images in convenience stores and supermarkets were excluded as marketing examples were considered too numerous to count. RESULTS: On average, children were exposed to non-core food marketing 27.3 times a day (95% CI 24.8, 30.1) across all settings. This was more than twice their average exposure to core food marketing (12.3 per day, 95% CI 8.7, 17.4). Most non-core exposures occurred at home (33%), in public spaces (30%) and at school (19%). Food packaging was the predominant marketing medium (74% and 64% for core and non-core foods) followed by signs (21% and 28% for core and non-core). Sugary drinks, fast food, confectionary and snack foods were the most commonly encountered non-core foods marketed. Rates were calculated using Poisson regression. CONCLUSIONS: Children in this study were frequently exposed, across multiple settings, to marketing of non-core foods not recommended to be marketed to children. The study provides further evidence of the need for urgent action to reduce children's exposure to marketing of unhealthy foods, and suggests the settings and media in which to act. Such action is necessary if the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity's vision is to be achieved.

Kids in space: Measuring children's residential neighborhoods and other destinations using activity space GPS and wearable camera data.

INTRODUCTION: Defining the boundary of children's 'neighborhoods' has important implications for understanding the contextual influences on child health. Additionally, insight into activities that occur outside people's neighborhoods may indicate exposures that place-based studies cannot detect. This study aimed to 1) extend current neighborhood research, using data from wearable cameras and GPS devices that were worn over several days in an urban setting; 2) define the boundary of children's neighborhoods by using leisure time activity space data; and 3) determine the destinations visited by children in their leisure time, outside their neighborhoods. METHOD: One hundred and fourteen children (mean age 12y) from Wellington, New Zealand wore wearable cameras and GPS recorders. Residential Euclidean buffers at incremental distances were paired with GPS data (thereby identifying time spent in different places) to explore alternative definitions of neighborhood boundaries. Children's neighborhood boundary was at 500 m. A newly developed software application was used to identify 'destinations' visited outside the neighborhood by specifying space-time parameters. Image data from wearable cameras were used to determine the type of destination. RESULTS: Children spent over half of their leisure time within 500 m of their homes. Children left their neighborhood predominantly to visit school (for leisure purposes), other residential locations (e.g. to visit friends) and food retail outlets (e.g. convenience stores, fast food outlets). Children spent more time at food retail outlets than at structured sport and in outdoor recreation locations combined. CONCLUSION: Person-centered neighborhood definitions may serve to better represent children's everyday experiences and neighborhood exposures than previous methods based on place-based measures. As schools and other residential locations (friends and family) are important destinations outside the neighborhood, such destinations should be taken into account. The combination of image data and activity space GPS data provides a more robust approach to understanding children's neighborhoods and activity spaces.

Children's exposure to alcohol marketing within supermarkets: An objective analysis using GPS technology and wearable cameras.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Exposure to alcohol marketing within alcohol retailers has been associated with higher rates of childhood drinking, brand recognition, and marketing recall. This study aimed to objectively measure children's everyday exposure to alcohol marketing within supermarkets. METHOD: Children aged 11-13 (n = 167) each wore a wearable camera and GPS device for four consecutive days. Micro-spatial analyses were used to examine exposures within supermarkets. RESULTS: In alcohol retailing supermarkets (n = 30), children encountered alcohol marketing on 85% of their visits (n = 78). Alcohol marketing was frequently near everyday goods (bread and milk) or entrance/exit. CONCLUSION: Alcohol sales in supermarkets should be banned in order to protect children from alcohol marketing.

Is access to alcohol associated with alcohol/substance abuse among people diagnosed with anxiety/mood disorder?

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between access to off-license alcohol outlets and areas with dual treatment for alcohol/drug abuse and anxiety/mood disorder compared to areas with anxiety/mood disorder only in an urban setting in New Zealand. STUDY DESIGN: Ecologic study. METHODS: Within small areas (2840 meshblocks, mean size 0.05 km(2)) in the city of Auckland, New Zealand, counts of adults receiving anxiety/mood disorder treatment (2008-9) were identified and the proportions of these individuals also receiving treatment for alcohol/drug abuse were generated. Access to off-license alcohol outlets were defined as: 1) shortest road distance from the population-weighted centroid of each small area to an outlet; 2) count of outlets within a 3 km road network buffer; and 3) relative density of outlets across Auckland (determined through kernel density estimates). To test for the relationship between access to alcohol outlets and dual diagnosis, meshblocks without any cases of anxiety/mood disorder were excluded from analyses. Remaining meshblocks were dichotomized into any or no dual diagnosis. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between access to alcohol outlets and treatment for the dual conditions. RESULTS: Neighbourhoods with dual diagnosis were generally similar to those with anxiety/mood disorder only, in terms of ethnic and gender/age composition. Regression analyses indicated statistically significant decreased risk of dual diagnosis for those areas with the lowest density (using a buffer) of alcohol outlets (OR = 0.75, P-value = 0.027) compared with areas with the highest density, after adjustment for deprivation and population density. All access measures also indicated significant linear trends where dual diagnosis was more likely in areas with greater access. CONCLUSIONS: Generally, decreased access to alcohol outlets was associated with decreased odds of dual diagnosis of alcohol/drug abuse and anxiety/mood disorder. Measures to control access to alcohol outlets may be an important area for alcohol/substance abuse intervention, particularly for vulnerable sub-populations.

An ecological study investigating the association between access to urban green space and mental health.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to find whether proximity to urban green spaces is associated with human mental health. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional examination of the relationship between access to urban green spaces and counts of anxiety/mood disorder treatments amongst residents (aged 15 years and over) in Auckland City, New Zealand. METHODS: Anxiety/mood disorder treatment counts by three age groups were aggregated to 3149 small area units in Auckland. Six measures of green space access were derived using GIS techniques involving total green spaces and useable green spaces. Negative binomial regression models have been fitted to test the relationship between access to green space and area-level anxiety/mood disorder treatment counts, adjusted for age and area-level deprivation. RESULTS: Anxiety/mood disorder treatment counts were associated with three green space measures. The proportion of both total and useable green space within 3 km and distance to nearest useable green space all indicated a protective effect of increased access to green space against anxiety/mood disorder treatment counts. Access to total and useable green space within 300 m did not exhibit significant associations. CONCLUSION: This study found that decreased distance to useable green space and increased proportion of green space within the larger neighbourhood were associated with decreased anxiety/mood disorder treatment counts in an urban environment. This suggests the benefits of green space on mental health may relate both to active participation in useable green spaces near to the home and observable green space in the neighbourhood environment.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of alpha-ketoheterocycles as class C beta-lactamase inhibitors.

A series of specific alpha-ketoheterocycles (benzoxazole, thiazole, imidazole, tetrazole, and thiazole-4-carboxylate) has been synthesized in order to assess their potential as beta-lactamase inhibitors. The syntheses were achieved either by construction of the heterocycle (benzoxazole) from an appropriate alpha-hydroxyimidate, followed by oxidation of the alcohol, or by direct reaction of methyl phenaceturate with a lithiated heterocycle. The properties of these compounds in aqueous solution are described and their inhibitory activity against beta-lactamases assessed. They did inhibit the class C beta-lactamase of Enterobacter cloacae P99 but not the TEM beta-lactamase. The most effective inhibitor of the former enzyme (K(i)=0.11 mM) was 5-(phenylacetylglycyl) tetrazole, probably because it is an anion at neutral pH. Interpretation of the results was aided by computational models of the tetrahedral adducts. Most of the compounds also inhibited alpha-chymotrypsin but not porcine pancreatic elastase.

High resolution protein localization using soft X-ray microscopy.

Soft X-ray microscopes can be used to examine whole, hydrated cells up to 10 microm thick and produce images approaching 30 nm resolution. Since cells are imaged in the X-ray transmissive "water window", where organic material absorbs approximately an order of magnitude more strongly than water, chemical contrast enhancement agents are not required to view the distribution of cellular structures. Although living specimens cannot be examined, cells can be rapidly frozen at a precise moment in time and examined in a cryostage, revealing information that most closely approximates that in live cells. In this study, we used a transmission X-ray microscope at photon energies just below the oxygen edge (lambda = 2.4 nm) to examine rapidly frozen mouse 3T3 cells and obtained excellent cellular morphology at better than 50 nm lateral resolution. These specimens are extremely stable, enabling multiple exposures with virtually no detectable damage to cell structures. We also show that silver-enhanced, immunogold labelling can be used to localize both cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins in whole, hydrated mammary epithelial cells at better than 50 nm resolution. The future use of X-ray tomography, along with improved zone plate lenses, will enable collection of better resolution (approaching 30 nm), three-dimensional information on the distribution of proteins in cells.