Effects of Advertising: A Qualitative Analysis of Young Adults’ Engagement with Social Media About Food

Young adults are constantly exposed to energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages, particularly through advertising. Exposure can influence poor food choices and negatively impact health. This study aimed to understand young adults’ attitudes and experiences associated with food-related advertisements, particularly on social media. This qualitative analysis involved n = 166 Australian 18 to 24-year-olds who were involved in a four-week online conversation on different areas relating to health, social media, and eating. Inductive thematic analysis was utilised on two forums on the recall and perceptions of food-related advertisements. Young adults commonly mentioned aspects of the marketing mix (promotion, product, price, and place) in food advertisements. Participants were more readily able to recall energy-dense, nutrient-poor food advertisements compared to healthy food-related advertisements. Digital advertisements were often discussed alongside the use of ad-blockers and algorithms which tailored their social media viewing to what they like. Participants felt constant exposure to unhealthy food advertisements hindered their ability to realise healthy eating behaviours and created feelings of guilt. This current analysis highlights the need to provide an advertising environment that appropriately motivates healthy eating and a food environment that allows healthy food to be the affordable and convenient option.     

Ecological Systems Affecting Urban Childbearing Puerto Rican Women in the City of Philadelphia

Maternal and Child Health Journal - The purpose of this study was to explore socio-ecological influences affecting the daily lives of urban, pregnant Puerto Rican women and factors negatively...     

Veridical causal inference using propensity score methods for comparative effectiveness research with medical claims

Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology - Medical insurance claims are becoming increasingly common data sources to answer a variety of questions in biomedical research. Although...     

The First Genome-Wide Association Study for Type 2 Diabetes in Youth: The Progress in Diabetes Genetics in Youth (ProDiGY) Consortium

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in youth has increased substantially, yet the genetic underpinnings remain largely unexplored. To identify genetic variants predisposing to youth-onset type 2 diabetes, we formed ProDiGY, a multiethnic collaboration of three studies (TODAY, SEARCH, and T2D-GENES) with 3,006 youth case subjects with type 2 diabetes (mean age 15.1 ± 2.9 years) and 6,061 diabetes-free adult control subjects (mean age 54.2 ± 12.4 years). After stratifying by principal component–clustered ethnicity, we performed association analyses on ∼10 million imputed variants using a generalized linear mixed model incorporating a genetic relationship matrix to account for population structure and adjusting for sex. We identified seven genome-wide significant loci, including the novel locus rs10992863 in PHF2 (P = 3.2 × 10⁻⁸; odds ratio [OR] = 1.23). Known loci identified in our analysis include rs7903146 in TCF7L2 (P = 8.0 × 10⁻²⁰; OR 1.58), rs72982988 near MC4R (P = 4.4 × 10⁻¹⁴; OR 1.53), rs200893788 in CDC123 (P = 1.1 × 10⁻¹²; OR 1.32), rs2237892 in KCNQ1 (P = 4.8 × 10⁻¹¹; OR 1.59), rs937589119 in IGF2BP2 (P = 3.1 × 10⁻⁹; OR 1.34), and rs113748381 in SLC16A11 (P = 4.1 × 10⁻⁸; OR 1.04). Secondary analysis with 856 diabetes-free youth control subjects uncovered an additional locus in CPEB2 (P = 3.2 × 10⁻⁸; OR 2.1) and consistent direction of effect for diabetes risk. In conclusion, we identified both known and novel loci in the first genome-wide association study of youth-onset type 2 diabetes.     

Bolus versus continuous feeding regimens post gastrostomy tube placement in children

Background/purposeOwing to the frequency of gastrostomy tube placement in children and the numerous regimens used to start feeds after placement we attempted to see if it matters if the initial feeds after a gastrostomy tube placement are provided in a bolus or continuous manner.MethodsUsing a prospective randomized trial, children were randomized to initial bolus or continuous chimney feeding after gastrostomy tube placement. Feeding tolerance and complications related to the gastrostomy tube were collected for 4 weeks after placement.ResultsDemographics were similar in the two groups. Times to goal feeds were similar in both groups, but in the first two weeks more feeding modifications were required in the bolus group. Other than the rate of leakage during the second week after placement which occurred more in the bolus group, all other clinical outcomes were similar in the two groups.ConclusionsOther than minor, clinically insignificant differences noted above, the method of initial feeding after a gastrostomy tube placement does not affect feeding tolerance or gastrostomy tube complication in the first month after placement.Level of evidenceTherapeutic, level II.