Secondary school tuck shop options and student choices: A cross‐sectional survey

Obesity in children is rapidly becoming a major public health problem in Hong Kong; the prevalence of overweight in children increased from 16.2% to 22.2% between 1998 and 2008. Healthy eating programs and policies exist, but only for primary schools, and students’ eating habits change when they are exposed to the new environment in secondary schools. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between available food in secondary school tuck shops and students’ purchasing preferences. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted from mid‐March to mid‐April 2016 across six secondary schools, using a questionnaire to measure students’ healthy eating knowledge and eating habits and a checklist to explore food options in each school's tuck shop. Linear regression was used to explore the relationship between eating knowledge and eating habits and logistic regression to explore the relationship between available foods at the tuck shops and the children's purchasing preferences. A total of 374 junior secondary students participated in the survey. A weak, positive correlation was found between healthy eating knowledge and healthy eating habits. No association was found between available food at tuck shops and children's purchasing preferences. The results reveal a definite knowledge‐attitude gap where healthy eating is concerned. Despite there being no significant association between the food offerings in tuck shops and students’ measured purchasing preferences (p > .05), 81% of the students stated that they would choose healthy food if offered, illustrating the urgent need to assess the variety and nutritional quality of foods available in secondary school tuck shops.     

An empirical analysis on the determinants of overweight and obesity in China

Overweight and obesity in adult populations is considered to be a growing epidemic worldwide, and appears to be rapidly increasing in China. From 1992 to 2002, the incidence of overweight in adults increased by 39.0%, while that of obesity doubled. To identify the determinants of adult overweight and obesity in China, micro-level data from a questionnaire survey entitled the ‘Preference Parameters Study,’ which was conducted by the Global Centers of Excellence programme at Osaka University, were analysed. In addition to the entire sample, data from urban and rural subsamples were also analysed in order to investigate whether the determinants of overweight and obesity differed. The results suggested that body mass index (BMI) is correlated with subjective well-being, gender, age, labour intensity and drinking and eating habits among urban respondents, and with age, monthly income, number of siblings and eating habits among rural respondents.     

Evaluation of the Reggio approach to early education

We evaluate the Reggio Approach using non-experimental data on individuals from the cities of Reggio Emilia, Parma and Padova belonging to one of five age cohorts: ages 50, 40, 30, 18, and 6 as of 2012. The treated were exposed to municipally offered infant-toddler (ages 0–3) and preschool (ages 3–6) programs in Reggio Emilia. The control group either did not receive formal childcare or were exposed to programs offered by municipal systems (outside of Reggio Emilia), or by state or religious systems (in all three cities). We exploit the city-cohort structure of the data to estimate treatment effects using three strategies: difference-in-differences, matching, and matched-difference-in-differences. Most positive and significant effects are generated from comparisons of the treated with individuals who did not receive formal childcare. Relative to not receiving formal care, the Reggio Approach significantly boosts outcomes related to employment, socio-emotional skills, high school graduation, participation in elections, and obesity. Comparisons with individuals exposed to alternative forms of childcare do not yield strong patterns of positive and significant effects. This suggests that differences between the Reggio Approach and other alternatives are not sufficiently large to result in significant differences in outcomes. This interpretation is supported by a survey we conduct, which documents increasing similarities in the administrative and pedagogical practices of childcare systems in the three cities over time.     

肥胖对健康的危害及运动减肥

文章介绍了肥胖产生的原因及对人体健康的危害，并阐述了如何通过有效的体育运动进行减肥。     

Social marketing and big social change: personal social marketing insights from a complex system obesity prevention intervention

ABSTRACT

To address ‘wicked problems’ such as obesity, family violence or community safety, we need systems change interventions that reach large numbers, are scalable and can be enriched over time.

Follow the development of a social marketing platform as it became a critical component of Healthy Together Victoria; an internationally recognised, and radically different, approach to driving change for better health. Working beyond the delivery of public education campaigns, social marketing became a key pillar of this powerful movement – one that emboldened governments, business and other partners across sectors and communities – to tackle the rising tide of obesity through leadership, big thinking and joint action.     

Weight Discrimination: A Multidisciplinary Analysis

Protection against obesity discrimination is extremely limited under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). No obese plaintiff has won using the actual disability theory, but a few have won under the perceived disability theory. Weight-related appearance standards are legal. We estimate weight-based wage penalties for young men and women. We find that mildly obese (20% over standard weight) white women experience greater wage penalties than black men experience for weight that is 100% over standard weight. Men do not experience wage penalties until their weight exceeds standard weight by over 100 lb. A gender-plus analysis under Title VII is more appropriate than the ADA for addressing the weight-based wage penalties that women experience.     

Fighting Childhood Poverty: How a Universal Child Allowance Would Impact the U.S. Population

Modern developed economies have a material abundance beyond the imagination of people living two centuries ago, yet for many the guaranteed ability to access that material abundance is more tenuous than ever. In the United States, a job loss or an illness can strip the family of all assets faster than a drought could destroy the livelihood of a nineteenth-century farmer. As a reaction to this, many young adults are choosing to delay or forego having children. The largest age demographic in the United States who live in poverty are children. Social Security is politically popular and has been successful at dramatically lowering poverty amongst the elderly. A similar policy could be equally successful for children. This article uses Consumer Expenditure Survey data to explore how a universal child allowance could decrease the number of children living in poverty and help all U.S. families with children.     

体育锻炼与人体脂肪

脂肪是人体的重要组成部分,且对人体有许多重要功能,过多的脂肪储存于体内,使人形成肥胖,而肥胖是高血压、冠心病、高血脂症等病的诱因,科学的体育锻炼与合理节食相结合是改变过胖体形的正确方式。     

Socioeconomic Status and Obesity Gradient over Age: New Evidence from China

This paper presents a systematic analysis of the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on overweight and obesity in China and investigates how and why the SES-obesity gradient differs with age. Using a longitudinal sample drawn from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), I find that body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with SES during early childhood but becomes inversely related to childhood SES as children age into adulthood. Estimation results show that children from low SES families are less likely to be overweight or obese than their median and high SES peers. The results from subsamples stratified by living area reveal that the SES gaps of obesity are generally larger for urban residents than rural residents. Females are significantly less likely to be overweight than males in China. The SES during childhood has independent effects after controlling for respondents’ contemporaneous SES. The relationship between the contemporaneous SES of a male adult and his chance of being overweight or obese is significantly positive, while the contemporaneous SES of a female adult is negatively related to her chance of being overweight or obese.     

Food security,obesity, and inequality: Measuring the risk of exposure to the neoliberal diet

In reviewing the so‐called obesity “epidemic”, we critique the individual‐focused explanations that also lead to interventions at this level. Instead, we suggest a different possibility: that food choices are structurally conditioned by income inequality, first; and, second, that we eat what huge oligopolistic food producers and distributors have on offer, which is in turn shaped or facilitated by neoliberal state intervention. To highlight the relevance of structural factors, we develop an index that measures the risk of exposure to what we call the “neoliberal diet” for low‐to‐middle‐income working classes. Using this index, we compare the United States and Canada, advanced capitalist countries that are also agro‐export powerhouses, with a group of countries including the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) plus Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey. We conclude that state interventions need to refocus on reducing social inequality and the social determinants of food production and distribution. Transcending individualistic and consumption approaches will help us appreciate that the state, not the individual consumer, is best positioned to implement change when it comes to food “choices” and food production.