Multigenerational transmission of obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Nurses' Role in Obesity Management in Adults in Primary Healthcare Settings Worldwide: A Scoping Review

Obesity is a chronic, prevalent, and complex health condition that adversely impairs physical and mental health. The World Health Organization calls for integrating obesity care into existing chronic disease management programs within primary healthcare services. This scoping review aimed to examine registered nurses' roles in the primary healthcare management of individuals with obesity. A scoping review was conducted using the Johanna Briggs Institute methodology framework. Thematic analysis was used to identify and categorize nurses' roles in primary healthcare obesity management of adults. Of 1142 documents included in this review, 15 papers met the inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis yielded the following six themes representing nurses' major roles: patient-centred care, patient assessments, therapeutic interventions, care management, patient education, and professional development. This review identified that the literature on nurses' roles primarily described their focus on lifestyle interventions (mainly nutrition and physical activity), anthropometric measurements, health planning, goal setting, supportive care, monitoring progress, and arranging follow-up. The Discussion highlights the importance of determining RN knowledge gaps and biases. More research is required to determine the need for additional RN pre-and or post-education related to obesity as a complex chronic disease.

Obesity in childhood: associations with parental neglect, nutritional habits, and obesity awareness

Background

The relationships underlying the dynamic between obesity and parental neglect in terms of nutritional habits and obesity awareness are unclear. Parental neglect remains a significant subject of concern that needs to be examined in the context of obesity.

Methods

The aim was to examine the relationships between childhood obesity, parental neglect, children's eating habits and obesity. The study group consisted of 404 children and their parents from Ankara, Turkiye. As data collection tools, an Individual Information Form, Obesity Awareness Scale, the Parents Form of the Multidimensional Neglectful Behaviors Scale were administered. In addition, information on the children's body mass indexes was obtained by anthropometric measurements and the findings were recorded on the questionnaires of each child.

Results

It was found that 98 (24.3%) of the children included in the study were overweight and 63 (15.6%) were obese. The results of the multinomial logistic regression analysis indicated that in the underweight and overweight group, the parents' perception of their child's weight predicted body mass index in children, and in the obese group, along with the parents' perception of their child's weight, the age and gender of the child, eating fast, obesity in the family and parental neglect were also predictors.

Conclusion

Practitioners such as nurses, dietitians and child developmentalists working in schools should consider weight problems in children as one of the indicators of parental neglect and should implement interventive efforts to enhance parental supervision of children at risk.

The impact of excessive maternal weight on the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring-a narrative review of clinical studies

The global prevalence of overweight and obesity is a significant public health concern that also largely affects women of childbearing age. Human epidemiological studies indicate that prenatal exposure to excessive maternal weight or excessive gestational weight gain is linked to various neurodevelopmental disorders in children, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, internalizing and externalizing problems, schizophrenia, and cognitive/intellectual impairment. Considering that inadequate maternal body mass can induce serious disorders in offspring, it is important to increase efforts to prevent such outcomes. In this paper, we review human studies linking excessive maternal weight and the occurrence of mental disorders in children.

Research Review: Grandparental care and child mental health - a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The number of children residing in grandfamilies is growing worldwide, leading to more research attention on grandparental care over the past decades. Grandparental care can influence child well-being in various forms and the effects vary across contexts. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we synthesize the evidence on the relation between grandparental care and children's mental health status.

METHODS

We identified 5,745 records from seven databases, among which 38 articles were included for review. Random effects meta-analyses were used to synthesize evidence from eligible studies. We also examined the variability across study and participant characteristics, including study design, recruitment method, child age, child gender, study region, family type, comparison group, and outcome rater.

RESULTS

The meta-analysis consisted of 344,860 children from the included studies, whose average age was 10.29, and of which 51.39% were female. Compared with their counterparts, children being cared for by their grandparents had worse mental health status, including more internalizing problems (d = -0.20, 95% CI [-0.31, -0.09], p = .001), externalizing problems (d = -0.11, 95% CI [-0.21, -0.01], p = .03), overall mental problems (d = -0.37, 95% CI [-0.70, -0.04], p = .03), and poorer socioemotional well-being (d = -0.26, 95% CI [-0.49, -0.03], p = .03). The effects varied by study design and child gender.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight that grandparental care is negatively associated with child mental health outcomes with trivial-to-small effect sizes. More supportive programs and interventions should be delivered to grandfamilies, especially in disadvantaged communities.

The developmental origins of health and disease and intergenerational inheritance: a scoping review of multigenerational cohort studies

Epidemiologic research has increasingly acknowledged the importance of developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) and suggests that prior exposures can be transferred across generations. Multigenerational cohorts are crucial to verify the intergenerational inheritance among human subjects. We carried out this scoping review aims to summarize multigenerational cohort studies' characteristics, issues, and implications and hence provide evidence to the DOHaD and intergenerational inheritance. We adopted a comprehensive search strategy to identify multigenerational cohorts, searching PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases from the inception of each dataset to June 20th, 2022, to retrieve relevant articles. After screening, 28 unique multigenerational cohort studies were identified. We classified all studies into four types: population-based cohort extended three-generation cohort, birth cohort extended three-generation cohort, three-generation cohort, and integrated birth and three-generation cohort. Most cohorts (n = 15, 53%) were categorized as birth cohort extended three-generation studies. The sample size of included cohorts varied from 41 to 167,729. The study duration ranged from two years to 31 years. Most cohorts had common exposures, including socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, and grandparents' and parents' health and risk behaviors over the life course. These studies usually investigated intergenerational inheritance of diseases as the outcomes, most frequently, obesity, child health, and cardiovascular diseases. We also found that most multigenerational studies aim to disentangle genetic, lifestyle, and environmental contributions to the DOHaD across generations. We call for more research on large multigenerational well-characterized cohorts, up to four or even more generations, and more studies from low- and middle-income countries.

Dietary trends and the decline in male reproductive health

Over the twentieth century, male reproductive health has suffered a substantial decline, as evidenced by decreases in sperm counts and testosterone levels and increases in reproductive pathologies. At the same time, the prevalence of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome has risen dramatically. Metabolic and reproductive health are highly interconnected, suggesting that their respective trends are intertwined and, given the timeframe of such trends, environmental and not genetic factors are most likely to be the primary causes. Industrialization, which began in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, has resulted in profound changes to our diet, lifestyle, and environment, many of which are causal factors in the rise in chronic diseases. Industrialization results in a nutrition transition from an agricultural unprocessed to a modern processed diet, incorporating increases in sugar, vegetable oils, ultra-processed foods, linoleic acid, trans-fats, and total energy. This dietary shift has incurred numerous adverse effects on metabolic and reproductive health, characterized by chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance. Moreover, these effects appear to multiply across subsequent generations via epigenetic inheritance. Men's fertility is markedly affected by obesity and diabetes, with an increase in total energy via processed food intake arguably being the key factor driving the diabesity pandemic. In contrast, wholefoods rich in micronutrients and phytonutrients support male fertility and a healthy body weight. Therefore, men wanting to maximize their fertility should consider making positive dietary changes, such as replacing processed foods with unprocessed foods that support metabolic and reproductive health.