The role of parental behaviour in the development of food preferences is considered. Food preferences develop from genetically determined predispositions to like sweet and salty flavours and to ...dislike bitter and sour tastes. Particularly towards the second year of life, there is a tendency to avoid novel foods (neophobia). Food aversions can be learnt in one trial if consumption is followed by discomfort. There is a predisposition to learn to like foods with high-energy density. However, from birth genetic predispositions are modified by experience and in this context during the early years parents play a particularly important role. Parental style is a critical factor in the development of food preferences. Children are more likely to eat in emotionally positive atmospheres. Siblings, peers and parents can act as role models to encourage the tasting of novel foods. Repeated exposure to initially disliked foods can breakdown resistance. The offering of low-energy-dense foods allows the child to balance energy intake. Restricting access to particular foods increases rather than decreases preference. Forcing a child to eat a food will decrease the liking for that food. Traditionally, educational strategies have typically involved attempts to impart basic nutritional information. Given the limited ability of information to induce changes in behaviour, an alternative strategy would be to teach parents about child development in the hope that an understanding of the characteristic innate tendencies and developmental stages can be used to teach healthy food preferences.
Objective: The impact on mood and memory of consuming a probiotic containing milk drink, or a placebo, was examined as, previously, a poor mood has been found to correlate with the frequency of ...constipation. Design: A double-blind placebo-controlled trial with random allocation of subjects. Setting: Subjects went about their normal life in the community apart from three visits to the laboratory. Subjects: One hundred and thirty-two healthy members of general population, mean age 61.8 years, volunteered in response to local media coverage. One hundred and twenty-four finished the trial. Intervention: For a 3-week period, either a probiotic containing milk drink, or a placebo, were consumed daily. Mood and cognition were measured at baseline, and after 10 and 20 days of consumption. Results: At baseline those who reported themselves to be less frequently constipated were more clearheaded, confident and elated. Although the taking of the probiotic did not generally change the mood, this appeared to be a reflection of the generally good mood in this sample. When those in the bottom third of the depressed/elated dimension at baseline were considered, they selectively responded by reporting themselves as happy rather than depressed after taking the probiotic. The intervention did not, however, influence the reported frequency of defaecation, probably a reflection of the initially low incidence of constipation. An unexpected and possibly chance finding was that the consumption of probiotics resulted in a slightly-poorer performance on two measures of memory. Conclusions: The consumption of a probiotic-containing yoghurt improved the mood of those whose mood was initially poor. This improvement in mood was not, however, associated with an increased frequency of defaecation.
Addiction to a wide range of substances of abuse has been suggested to reflect a 'Reward Deficiency Syndrome'. That is, drugs are said to stimulate the reward mechanisms so intensely that, to ...compensate, the population of dopamine D2 receptors (DD2R) declines. The result is that an increased intake is necessary to experience the same degree of reward. Without an additional intake, cravings and withdrawal symptoms result. A suggestion is that food addiction, in a similar manner to drugs of abuse, decrease DD2R. The role of DD2R in obesity was therefore examined by examining the association between body mass index (BMI) and the Taq1A polymorphism, as the A1 allele is associated with a 30-40% lower number of DD2R, and is a risk factor for drug addiction. If a lower density of DD2R is indicative of physical addiction, it was argued that if food addiction occurs, those with the A1 allele should have a higher BMI. A systematic review found 33 studies that compared the BMI of those who did and did not have the A1 allele. A meta-analysis of the studies compared those with (A1/A1 and A1/A2) or without (A2/A2) the A1 allele; no difference in BMI was found (standardized mean difference 0.004 (s.e. 0.021), variance 0.000, Z=0.196, P<0.845). It was concluded that there was no support for a reward deficiency theory of food addiction. In contrast, there are several reports that those with the A1 allele are less able to benefit from an intervention that aimed to reduce weight, possibly a reflection of increased impulsivity.
Postprandial glucose, together with related hyperinsulinemia and lipidaemia, has been implicated in the development of chronic metabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and ...cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this review, available evidence is discussed on postprandial glucose in relation to body weight control, the development of oxidative stress, T2DM, and CVD and in maintaining optimal exercise and cognitive performance. There is mechanistic evidence linking postprandial glycaemia or glycaemic variability to the development of these conditions or in the impairment in cognitive and exercise performance. Nevertheless, postprandial glycaemia is interrelated with many other (risk) factors as well as to fasting glucose. In many studies, meal‐related glycaemic response is not sufficiently characterized, or the methodology with respect to the description of food or meal composition, or the duration of the measurement of postprandial glycaemia is limited. It is evident that more randomized controlled dietary intervention trials using effective low vs. high glucose response diets are necessary in order to draw more definite conclusions on the role of postprandial glycaemia in relation to health and disease. Also of importance is the evaluation of the potential role of the time course of postprandial glycaemia.
Traumatic stressors during childhood and adolescence are associated with psychopathology, mostly studied in the context of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. We investigated ...broader associations of traumatic stress exposure with psychopathology and cognition in a youth community sample.
The Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (N = 9498) is an investigation of clinical and neurobehavioral phenotypes in a diverse (56% Caucasian, 33% African American, 11% other) US youth community population (aged 8-21). Participants were ascertained through children's hospital pediatric (not psychiatric) healthcare network in 2009-2011. Structured psychiatric evaluation included screening for lifetime exposure to traumatic stressors, and a neurocognitive battery was administered.
Exposure rate to traumatic stressful events was high (none, N = 5204; one, N = 2182; two, N = 1092; three or more, N = 830). Higher stress load was associated with increased psychopathology across all clinical domains evaluated: mood/anxiety (standardized β = .378); psychosis spectrum (β = .360); externalizing behaviors (β = .311); and fear (β = .256) (controlling for covariates, all p < 0.001). Associations remained significant controlling for lifetime PTSD and depression. Exposure to high-stress load was robustly associated with suicidal ideation and cannabis use (odds ratio compared with non-exposed 5.3 and 3.2, respectively, both p < 0.001). Among youths who experienced traumatic stress (N = 4104), history of assaultive trauma was associated with greater psychopathology and, in males, vulnerability to psychosis and externalizing symptoms. Stress load was negatively associated with performance on executive functioning, complex reasoning, and social cognition.
Traumatic stress exposure in community non-psychiatric help-seeking youth is substantial, and is associated with more severe psychopathology and neurocognitive deficits across domains, beyond PTSD and depression.
Introduction
For several decades, there have been repeated calls for nurses to become more involved in policy and political processes.
Aims
The purpose of this article is to conduct an integrative ...review to identify and assess the current state of the science relating to supporting the pursuit of greater involvement by the nursing profession in policy and political processes.
Design
Standard integrative review procedures were used to identify studies that examined how policy competence could be achieved. A comparative thematic approach to synthesis was used. Both published and grey literature written in English between January 1965 and January 2015 were identified via a structured search of CINAHL, SCOPUS, Science Direct and Google Scholar.
Results
Forty‐five primary studies were identified with literature from North America dominating, but contributions from low‐ and middle‐income countries have recently started to feature. Studies tended to focus on the immediate impact of didactic and action learning–based approaches. The majority of articles were descriptive survey designs utilizing small convenience samples.
Conclusions and policy implication
Many programmes of education have focused on developing an understanding of legislative policy and political processes, but the development of policy and political competencies at team and institutional levels has been ignored. Existing research have looked at the short‐term effects of educational programmes. At this time, there are conflicting reports on the impact of variables such as gender and educational preparation on policy and political competence. There is an urgent need to address these major gaps if nurses at all levels are to play a full role in shaping policy and political process.
The effect of breakfast glycaemic load (GL) on cognition was systematically examined. Randomised and non-randomised controlled trials were identified using PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library (up to ...May 2022). 15 studies involving adults (aged 20 – 80 years) were included. Studies had a low risk, or some concerns, of bias. A random-effects meta-analysis model revealed no effect of GL on cognition up to 119 min post-consumption. However, after 120 min, immediate episodic memory scores were better following a low-GL compared to a high-GL (SMD = 0.16, 95% confidence interval CI = −0.00 to 0.32, p = 0.05, I2 = 5%). Subgroup analyses indicated that the benefit was greater in younger adults (<35 years) and those with better GT. A qualitative synthesis of 16 studies involving children and adolescents (aged 5 – 17 years) suggested that a low-GL breakfast may also benefit episodic memory and attention after 120 min. Methodological practises were identified which could explain a failure to detect benefits in some studies. Consequently, guiding principles were developed to optimise future study design.
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•A lower breakfast glycaemic load benefitted episodic memory, in adults, >120 min post-breakfast.•The effect of breakfast glycaemic load, in adults, was influenced by participants age and glucose tolerance.•A series of guiding principles were developed to guide study design.
Background
Suicidal behavior is highly familial. Neurocognitive deficits have been proposed as an endophenotype for suicide risk that may contribute to the familial transmission of suicide. Yet, ...there is a lack of research on the neurocognitive functioning of first‐degree biological relatives of suicide attempters. The aim of the present study is to conduct the largest investigation to date of neurocognitive functioning in community youth with a family history of a fatal or nonfatal suicide attempt (FH).
Methods
Participants aged 8–21 years from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort completed detailed clinical and neurocognitive evaluations. A subsample of 501 participants with a FH was matched to a comparison group of 3,006 participants without a family history of suicide attempt (no‐FH) on age, sex, race, and lifetime depression.
Results
After adjusting for multiple comparisons and including relevant clinical and demographic covariates, youth with a FH had significantly lower executive function factor scores (F1,3432 = 6.63, p = .010) and performed worse on individual tests of attention (F1,3382 = 7.08, p = .008) and language reasoning (F1,3387 = 5.12, p = .024) than no‐FH youth.
Conclusions
Youth with a FH show small differences in executive function, attention, and language reasoning compared to youth without a FH. Further research is warranted to investigate neurocognitive functioning as an endophenotype for suicide risk. Implications for the prevention and treatment of suicidal behaviors are discussed.
Abstract We previously reported that asthma prevalence was higher in the United States (US) compared to Mexico (MX) (25.8% vs. 8.4%). This investigation assessed differences in microbial dust ...composition in relation to demographic and housing characteristics on both sides of the US–MX Border. Forty homes were recruited in the US and MX. Home visits collected floor dust and documented occupants’ demographics, asthma prevalence, housing structure, and use characteristics. US households were more likely to have inhabitants who reported asthma when compared with MX households (30% vs. 5%) and had significantly different flooring types. The percentage of households on paved roads, with flushing toilets, with piped water and with air conditioning was higher in the US, while dust load was higher in MX. Significant differences exist between countries in the microbial composition of the floor dust. Dust from Mexican homes was enriched with Alishewanella , Paracoccus , Rheinheimera genera and Intrasporangiaceae family. A predictive metagenomics analysis identified 68 significantly differentially abundant functional pathways between US and MX. This study documented multiple structural, environmental, and demographic differences between homes in the US and MX that may contribute to significantly different microbial composition of dust observed in these two countries.
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