Dose-Response Relationship between Western Diet and Being Overweight among Teachers in Malaysia

Prevalence and determinants of healthy and balanced diet among office workers in a sedentary working environment: evidence from Southern Sri Lanka

BACKGROUND

An unhealthy diet is a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCD), which account for a significant number of premature deaths and disability-adjusted life years worldwide. Office workers are reported to have unhealthy and unbalanced diets, while being sedentary due to the nature of their work, placing them at a greater risk of NCD. This study aimed to determine dietary intake and associated factors among sedentary office workers in Southern Sri Lanka.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 518 sedentary workers in 20 offices in the Galle district. Socio-demographic, health and work-related factors and dietary practices were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Twenty-four-hour dietary recall was used to assess dietary intake, which was converted into the number of servings from each food group. Healthy dietary intake was defined as 'adherence to the numbers of servings recommended in Food Based Dietary Guidelines for Sri Lankans for more than three food groups including cereal and cereal-based foods, fruits, and vegetables, with the consumption of one or no unhealthy food per day'.

RESULTS

Only 4.6% (n = 24) of the participants consumed a healthy diet, while a considerable proportion had the recommended intake of cereal-based foods, vegetables and fish, meat and pulses (65.3%, 65.8% and 50.8%, respectively). Intake of fruits, dairy products, nuts and seeds was low among the participants. Meal skipping and group eating were significantly associated with an overall unhealthy diet. Stratified analysis showed sex as an effect modifier for the association between group eating and unhealthy diet. In multivariate analysis, none of the factors showed a significant association with healthy dietary intake.

CONCLUSIONS

The dietary intake of sedentary office workers was not up to the recommendations. Meal skipping and group eating were associated with unhealthy dietary intake. This study recommends introducing interventions to improve the intake of fruits, dairy products, nuts, and seeds for sedentary office workers.

Sex-specific effects of Fat-1 transgene on bone material properties, size, and shape in mice

Western diets are becoming increasingly common around the world. Western diets have high omega 6 (ω-6) and omega 3 (ω-3) fatty acids and are linked to bone loss in humans and animals. Dietary fats are not created equal; therefore, it is vital to understand the effects of specific dietary fats on bone. We aimed to determine how altering the endogenous ratios of ω-6:ω-3 fatty acids impacts bone accrual, strength, and fracture toughness. To accomplish this, we used the Fat-1 transgenic mice, which carry a gene responsible for encoding a ω-3 fatty acid desaturase that converts ω-6 to ω-3 fatty acids. Male and female Fat-1 positive mice (Fat-1) and Fat-1 negative littermates (WT) were given either a high-fat diet (HFD) or low-fat diet (LFD) at 4 wk of age for 16 wk. The Fat-1 transgene reduced fracture toughness in males. Additionally, male BMD, measured from DXA, decreased over the diet duration for HFD mice. In males, neither HFD feeding nor the presence of the Fat-1 transgene impacted cortical geometry, trabecular architecture, or whole-bone flexural properties, as detected by main group effects. In females, Fat-1-LFD mice experienced increases in BMD compared to WT-LFD mice; however, cortical area, distal femur trabecular thickness, and cortical stiffness were reduced in Fat-1 mice compared to pooled WT controls. However, reductions in stiffness were caused by a decrease in bone size and were not driven by changes in material properties. Together, these results demonstrate that the endogenous ω-6:ω-3 fatty acid ratio influences bone material properties in a sex-dependent manner. In addition, Fat-1 mediated fatty acid conversion was not able to mitigate the adverse effects of HFD on bone strength and accrual.

Relationship between Lifestyle Determinants and Perceived Mental and Physical Health in Italian Nursery and Primary School Teachers after the COVID-19 Lockdown

The COVID-19 lockdown and the consequent distance school learning made epochal changes in children's lifestyles; however, little is known about the lockdown effects on school teacher habits. The aim of this observational study is to examine differences in the lifestyle of nursery (NS) and primary (PS) school teachers after one of the COVID-19 lockdowns and investigate the relationship between perceived physical/mental health and demographics, weight status and lifestyle determinants, such as adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) and physical activity level (PAL). A total sample of 265 participants (49.22 ± 6.95 years) filled out an online information questionnaire and standardized questionnaires to collect data on the Physical Component Summary (PCS), Mental Component Summary (MCS), PAL and MD-adherence. A t-test or ANOVA analysis was used to assess differences between quantitative variables: Mann-Whitney U or Kruskal-Wallis tests for qualitative variables. Spearman's correlations and multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to identify categorical factors associated with classes of PCS and MCS. Teachers showed sufficient/high PAL, with a significantly higher level in the PS group (p < 0.05). This last showed a higher PCS score (p < 0.05). No differences between groups were found for MD-adherence, which was moderate/fair in both groups, and MCS, which was sufficient/good. Logistic regression showed that the only positive predictor of a high PCS was being physically active (OR 2.10, 95%CI 1.05-4.2, p < 0.05), while MCS was positively associated with normal weight status (OR 0.48, 95%CI 0.33-0.78, p = 0.020). This study highlights that PS teachers are more active than the NS group and perceive a higher physical health level. Mere predictors of physical and mental well-being are PA practice and being normal weight, respectively. This suggests that interventions to improve perceived health in this work category should be focused on the promotion of physical activity practice and on the maintenance of an optimal weight status.

Addressing schoolteacher food and nutrition-related health and wellbeing: a scoping review of the food and nutrition constructs used across current research

BACKGROUND

Teachers form a large and essential workforce globally. Their wellbeing impacts personal health-related outcomes with flow on effects for the health, and wellbeing of their students. However, food and nutrition (FN) interventions that include teachers, typically neglect the impact of personal FN factors on a teachers' ability to achieve optimal nutrition-related health and wellbeing, and successfully fulfil their professional FN roles as health promoters, gate keepers, educators', and role models. The aim of this review was to scope FN constructs that have been studied internationally regarding teacher FN-related health and wellbeing.

METHODS

Six databases were searched, and papers extracted in June/July 2021. Eligibility criteria guided by the population, concept, context mnemonic included studies published after 2000, in English language, with an aspect of personal FN-related health and wellbeing, among in-service (practising) and pre-service (training), primary, and secondary teachers. Screening studies for inclusion was completed by two independent researchers with data extraction piloted with the same reviewers and completed by lead author, along with complete descriptive and thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Ten thousand six hundred seventy-seven unique articles were identified with 368 eligible for full text review and 105 included in final extraction and analysis. Sixty-nine descriptive studies were included, followed by 35 intervention studies, with the main data collection method used to assess both personal and professional FN constructs being questionnaires (n = 99 papers), with nutrition knowledge and dietary assessment among the most commonly assessed.

CONCLUSION

FN constructs are used within interventions and studies that include teachers, with diversity in constructs included and how these terms are defined. The evidence from this scoping review can be used to inform data collection and evaluation in future epidemiological and interventional research that addresses teacher FN-related health and wellbeing.

Dietary patterns and their association with cardiovascular risk factors in Ethiopia: A community-based cross-sectional study

Purpose

To identify the dietary patterns and their association with cardiovascular risk factors among adult people in urban and rural areas of Wolaita, southern Ethiopia.

Methods

A total of 2,483 participants aged 25-64 years were selected using a three-stage random sampling. Data for this study were collected using structured questionnaires, the previous 24-h dietary intake assessment, anthropometric, blood pressure, and biochemical measurements. We used factor analysis to identify dietary patterns. Factors associated with dietary patterns were analyzed using multiple linear regression models. The adjusted regression coefficients with their 95% CI were used to ascertain the association.

Result

We identified three major dietary patterns that explained 51% of the variance in food consumption. The western dietary pattern was characterized by the consumption of meat/organ meat, biscuits/sweets, chicken stew, pasta-macaroni recipes, butter, white wheat bread, egg recipe, and Ethiopian dish shiro-wet, and was positively associated with urban residence, obesity, hypertension, blood glucose, and total cholesterol levels. Adherence to the consumption of tubers, whole-grain maize products, coffee leaves-and-herbs beverage, legumes, and sweet potatoes featured the traditional dietary pattern. The traditional dietary pattern showed a positive relationship with rural residence, physical activity, and obesity, and it had a negative relationship with hypertension. The healthy dietary pattern was characterized by the intake of green leafy vegetables, green pepper, and whole-grain maize products, and negatively related to obesity, and hypertension, while positively related to urban residence.

Conclusion

The coexistence of western, traditional, and healthy dietary patterns in the present study indicates the transition to a new dietary pattern in the study area. All dietary patterns were associated with one or more cardiovascular risk factors, but the western dietary pattern was associated with most of these, while the traditional diet showed fewer such associations. Therefore, it might be useful to promote healthy and traditional dietary patterns along with physical activity. Interventions related to the current findings, if initiated early in life, may benefit the public in preventing cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, and type 2-diabetes.

Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet during the COVID-19 national lockdowns: a systematic review of observational studies

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE WORK

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries adopted restrictive measures to mitigate infection spread, which might have influenced people's lifestyle and dietary habits. We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the impact of national lockdowns on adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD).

METHODS

Studies were identified searching Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. Studies published until 4th May 2021 were included. We only considered studies reporting original data from quantitative analysis and assessing changes in adherence to the MD, using validated dietary scores, or in consumption of MD food items. Data extraction, pooling, and quality appraisal of included studies were conducted following the PRISMA guidelines.

RESULTS

Forty-two studies were retrieved. After screening, 12 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the review, of which 4 (33%) were longitudinal studies. Six (85.7%) of the seven studies that measured changes in MD adherence before-during lockdown reported an increase (rate of change of high-adherence to MD ranged between +3.3% and +21.9%). Evidence indicates that consumption of MD food items increased during lockdown but is heterogeneous in study design, quality, and findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest adherence to the MD during lockdown might have increased in some settings, while the determinants of such a trend are to be further explored. We raise awareness of the need to research further the impacts and long-term consequences of COVID-19 containment measures on dietary and lifestyle habits.