Associations of adherence to the DASH diet and Mediterranean diet with maternal c-reactive protein levels during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) during pregnancy, a marker of inflammation, is associated with adverse outcomes. Better understanding the relationship between CRP and modifiable factors, including diet, is essential to assist early pregnancy lifestyle interventions. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between adherence to the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet (DASH-diet) and the Mediterranean diet (MED-diet) during pregnancy with maternal plasma CRP in early and late pregnancy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Secondary analysis of the Creatine and Pregnancy Outcomes (CPO) study was undertaken. Women (n = 215) attending antenatal clinics through Monash Health, Melbourne were recruited at 10-20 weeks gestation. Medical history and blood samples were collected at 5 antenatal visits. Adapted DASH-diet and MED-diet scores were calculated from Food Frequency Questionnaires completed at early ([mean ± SD]) (15 ± 3 weeks) and late (36 ± 1 week) pregnancy. CRP was measured in maternal plasma samples collected at the same time points. Adjusted linear regression models assessed associations of early-pregnancy DASH and MED-diet scores with early and late pregnancy plasma CRP. There were no statistically significant changes in DASH-diet score from early (23.5 ± 4.8) to late (23.5 ± 5.2) pregnancy (p = 0.97) or MED-diet score from early (3.99 ± 1.6) to late pregnancy (4.08 ± 1.8) (p = 0.41). At early-pregnancy, there was an inverse relationship between DASH-diet scores and MED-diet scores with plasma CRP; (ß = -0.04 [95%CI = -0.07, -0.00], p = 0.044), (ß = -0.12 [95%CI = -0.21, -0.02], p = 0.023). CONCLUSION: Adherence to the DASH-diet and MED-diet during early pregnancy may be beneficial in reducing inflammation. Assessment of maternal dietary patterns may assist development of preventive strategies, including dietary modification, to optimise maternal cardiometabolic health in pregnancy.

Associations between psychological stress, eating, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and body weight among women: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: There is an increased risk of obesity amongst socioeconomically disadvantaged populations and emerging evidence suggests that psychological stress may be a key factor in this relationship. This paper reports the results of cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of relationships between perceived stress, weight and weight-related behaviours in a cohort of socioeconomically disadvantaged women. METHODS: This study used baseline and follow-up self-report survey data from the Resilience for Eating and Activity Despite Inequality study, comprising a cohort of 1382 women aged 18 to 46 years from 80 of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Victoria, Australia. Women reported their height (baseline only), weight, sociodemographic characteristics, perceived stress, leisure-time physical activity, sedentary and dietary behaviours at baseline and three-year follow-up. Linear and multinomial logistic regression were used to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between stress (predictor) and weight, and weight-related behaviours. RESULTS: Higher perceived stress in women was associated with a higher BMI, and to increased odds of being obese in cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations were found between stress and both less leisure-time physical activity, and more frequent fast food consumption. Longitudinal associations were also found between stress and increased television viewing time. CONCLUSION: The present study contributes to the literature related to the effects of stress on weight and weight-related behaviours. The findings suggest that higher stress levels could contribute to obesity risk in women. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms underlying these associations. However, interventions that incorporate stress management techniques might help to prevent rising obesity rates among socioeconomically disadvantaged women.

Facial affect recognition and schizotypal personality characteristics.

AIM: Deficits in facial affect recognition are well established in schizophrenia, yet relatively little research has examined facial affect recognition in hypothetically psychosis-prone or 'schizotypal' individuals. Those studies that have examined social cognition in psychosis-prone individuals have paid little attention to the association between facial emotion recognition and particular schizotypal personality features. The present study therefore sought to investigate relationships between facial emotion recognition and the different aspects of schizotypy. METHODS: Facial affect recognition accuracy was examined in 50 psychiatrically healthy individuals assessed for level of schizotypy using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. This instrument provides a multidimensional measure of schizophrenia proneness, encompassing 'cognitive-perceptual', 'interpersonal' and 'disorganized' features of schizotypy. It was hypothesized that the cognitive-perceptual and interpersonal aspects of schizotypy would be associated with difficulties identifying facial expressions of emotion during a forced-choice recognition task using a standardized series of colour photographs. RESULTS: As predicted, interpersonal aspects of schizotypy (particularly social anxiety) were associated with reduced accuracy on the facial affect recognition task, but there was no association between affect recognition accuracy and cognitive-perceptual features of schizotypy. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that subtle deficits in facial affect recognition in otherwise psychiatrically healthy individuals may be related to the vulnerability for interpersonal communication difficulties, as seen in schizophrenia.

Park improvements and park activity: a natural experiment.

BACKGROUND: Parks are an important setting for leisure-time physical activity. Understanding how to attract residents to parks and encourage park users to be physically active is an important public health initiative. Natural experiments are a research priority for investigating whether changes to the physical environment affect physical activity; however, natural experiments involving parks have rarely been conducted. PURPOSE: This natural experiment examined whether improvements to a park in Victoria, Australia, increased its use and park-based physical activity of users. METHODS: Observational data were collected on park use and park-based activity among park users at the intervention park and a control park at three time points; baseline (T1, August 2009); post-improvement (T2, March 2010); and 12 months after baseline (T3, August 2010). At each time point, observations were undertaken during three 1.5-hour periods each day on 9 days. Analyses were conducted in 2011. RESULTS: In the intervention park, there were significant increases from pre- to post-improvement in the number of park users (T1=235, T3=985) and the number of people observed walking (T1=155, T3=369) and being vigorously active (T1=38, T3=257). At the control park, counts of usage decreased over the same period and no differences in walking or vigorous activity were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Improving the features of a local neighborhood park may lead to increased usage and physical activity.

Schizotypy and subjective well-being in university students.

One hundred and thirty-nine university students completed measures of schizotypy and subjective well-being (SWB). Inverse associations were found between schizotypy and SWB scores. These results provide evidence that diminished SWB is characteristic along the schizophrenia continuum. Further research is required to determine the mechanisms by which schizotypal individuals experience reduced life satisfaction.