Background: Obesity is increasingly severe all over the world. With the development of the society, people tend to less eating time, perhaps because of longer working hours. Some studies showed that there was the association between eating rate and obesity. Yet, these studies are under‐researched. Objective: To explore if there is a positive association between eating rate and overweight or obesity using a systematic review. Method: I systematically reviewed relevant studies examining the association between eating rate and overweight or obesity published between 1st Jan., 2000 and 20th May, 2014 in PubMed, 万方 and 中国知网 databases using relevant key word search. There were no restriction in the study designs and population characteristics and animal studies were excluded. Results: Thirteen (13) studies were included in the systematic review. Among these 13 studies, 11 were English and 2 were Chinese. Eleven (11) studies were cross-sectional studies and the remaining 2 studies were longitudinal studies. The sample size ranges from 61 to 14,176, and from different parts of the world. The studies included used various exposures and outcomes to assess the association between fast eating and obesity. For example, exposures varied from self‐reported eating rate to calculated bite rate, and outcomes varied from body mass index (BMI) to six skinfold thickness. All 13 studies showed a positive association between the speed of eating and overweight or obesity. Discussion: This systematic review suggested a positive association between eating rate and obesity. However, given a lot of studies only used a cross‐sectional study design, more research is needed to explore the causal relationship between these two factors, possibly longitudinal and experimental studies. Such evidence would be important for relevant public health policies such public awareness to slow down eating rate. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review is to investigate the effectiveness of school lunch programs for reducing childhood obesity by examining changes to the Body Mass Index (BMI) as an outcome measure to compare and assess the effectiveness of different school lunch interventions. Background: Childhood obesity has a high likelihood of leading to obesity in adulthood and this negative effect is well documented. School lunches have been widely implemented in this decade for tackling childhood obesity. Many countries are following this trend to align school lunches with national or standard nutrition guidelines as part of the school policy. Since many schools have only recently started to provide school lunches, the impact of these programs in terms of reducing childhood obesity has yet to be fully explored. Methods: Published literature about school lunch and body mass index from 2008 to 2014 was collected through PubMed and ScienceDirect. Relevant studies, including cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, case control studies, and observational studies, were included if they involved interventions that measured BMI as an independent outcome. Results: Nine studies from USA and one from Norway were included in this systematic review. For measuring school lunch participation, 4 were associated with increased BMI after intervention, 1 was associated with decreased BMI and 3 were not statistically significant with BMI. For studies that included consumption or observed energy intake, 3 were associated with lower BMI and 1 study showed that higher consumption lowered initial BMI but increased BMI over time. Overall, the results were inconsistent, and this may be attributed to confounding factors such as different food environments, meal quality, and availability of school snacks. Conclusion: The implications for school lunch programs as a key factor in lowering childhood obesity are complicated. No solid conclusions can be inferred for the effectiveness of school lunch program for lowering childhood obesity, as certain studies show positive relationships and others show no association. Future research with primary data and longitudinal cohort with years follow up may be considered for studying the relationship of between the school lunch program and the trend of BMI of children change at each level of school. Research on extending observed energy intake should also be applied in order to provide guidance for policy change on the meal quality, food options, competitive foods availability as well as nutrition guidelines. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Background: Adult obesity is a major public health issue for both developed and developing countries. Apart from diet and physical activity, evidence suggests that child abuse may also be a possible risk factor associated with the adult obesity. Methods: The objectives in this review are to systematically identify from 2 electronic databases (PubMed and Google Scholar) and investigate the association between child abuse and adult obesity. The impact of using different self-reported questionnaire to evaluate the abuse experience in childhood are assessed and discussed. Quality and limitations of this review were also emphasized. This systematic review includes articles from various groups of population and explores the different types of abuse. Results: Studies consistently show that child abuse is more likely to be a risk factor of adult obesity after adjustment for age, sex, race, psychological risk behavior, health risk behavior (exercise), and social economic status. During the past decades the association between child abuse and adult obesity has been well explored. Consistent with the inclusive papers, some identified potential and common confounding factors sex, race, age, social economic status, health behavior (exercise), psychosocial risk factors, and mental health is summarized for further study. Discussion: Limitations include reporting and information bias, where child abuse can be assessed self-administered questionnaire, face-to-face interview or child services records. Publication bias is another concern that the null findings are less likely to be publish. Although, the measurement suffers several bias, it did help evaluate the abuse situation in childhood and generalize the association between into a standardize form. Due to the prevalence of child abuse and economic burden related to obesity in China, studies in the developing or recently transitioned setting are needed to clarify the relevance of evidence from Western studies to policy making and public health interventions in China. According to recent studies, polices should consider screening of child abuse to better identify the target population and provide effective interventions that help people who are at high risk of obesity due to the child abuse. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

No description available.

Understanding the complex linkage between obesity and food choice is pivotal to establishing effective dietary guidance that resonates with consumers. The aims of this thesis were to evaluate: (1) serving size (SS) guidance schemes and their effectiveness; (2) consumer estimations of portion size (PS) and energy density (ED), and anticipated consumption guilt (ACG) for perceived 'healthier' vs. 'standard' foods; (3) consumer opinions, perceptions of efficacy and the precision of a range of portion size estimation aids (PSEA); and (4) the nutritional quality (NQ) and energy cost (EC) of own brand (OB) vs. market brand (MB) foods. A literature review and three studies were undertaken. In the first study, three pairs of isoenergy dense (kJIlOOg) foods - 'healthier' vs. 'standard' cereals, drinks and coleslaws - were selected. For each food, subjects (n186) served an appropriate PS for themselves, estimated its ED and rated their ACG. Subjects estimated larger portions of the ' healthier' (reduced fat) coleslaw than the 'standard' version, and perceived all 'healthier' foods to be lower in ED than their 'standard' alternatives, despite being isoenergy dense. Higher ACG was associated with the 'standard' foods . In the second study, a range of PSEA were evaluated using both qualitative (six focus groups, each of three to eight participants) and quantitative (practical use of PSEA; n 120) methods. Consumers indicated preference for "visual" PSEA (reference objects, household measures e.g. cup, and indicators on food packaging) for amorphous cereal products such as rice. In the third study, a basket of commonly consumed foods (n 32) were compared in terms of NQ and EC at two time points using two methods of nutritional profiling. Despite OB foods being significantly lower in EC (£/MJ) than the MB, there were no differences in the overall NQ. In conclusion, consumer understanding of PS, perceptions of ED and preferences for PSEA should be considered in future dietary guidance. OB foods should be promoted as nutritionally comparable to their more expensive MB counterparts where appropriate.

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. The effect of obesity on cancer mortality is striking: approximately 90,000 deaths per year from cancer may be avoided if Americans could maintain a BMI of <25.0 throughout adulthood. The aim of this research was to employ and evaluate energy balance interventions designed to reverse obesity-related risk factors. The overarching hypothesis was that energy balance interventions would reduce cancer risk. To test this hypothesis, we used mostly animal models of diet-induced obesity and tested the effect of a low carbohydrate diet, calorie restriction, and exercise on adiposity, levels of circulating hormones, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress. To extend on in vivo findings from the final animal study, we utilized a human breast cancer cell line to further characterize the gene expression of thioredoxin-interacting protein in the context of p53 deficiency. Calorie restriction was the most potent energy balance intervention. It caused weight loss, slowed tumor growth, reduced circulating IGF-1 and leptin levels, improved insulin resistance, and elicited a robust transcriptional response in visceral white adipose tissue following weight loss. Although a low carbohydrate diet and exercise did decrease hormones associated with obesity, (IGF-1 and leptin respectively) calorie restriction proved to be the most effective at reducing multiple obesity-related factors. Finally, from our studies analyzing the effect of obesity and exercise on oxidative stress in the context of p53-deficiency, we discovered that thioredoxin-interacting protein is transcriptionally upregulated in response to increased glucose flux associated with metabolic dysregulation that occurs as a consequence of loss of p53. / text

published_or_final_version / Medicine / Master / Master of Research in Medicine

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.