Consumer sleep trackers provide useful insight into sleep. However, large-scale performance evaluation studies are needed to properly understand sleep tracker accuracy. This study evaluated performance of an under-mattress sensor to estimate sleep and wake versus polysomnography in a large sample, including individuals with and without sleep disorders and during day versus night sleep opportunities, across multiple in-laboratory studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiet and fitness applications (apps) are marketed as health tools. Emerging research suggests that these apps may be linked to disordered eating symptomology. This systematic review aimed to collate and synthesise research examining the relationship between diet and fitness app use and disordered eating, including body image concerns and compulsive exercise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthy diets are crucial for maintaining overall well-being and reducing risk of health complications. Visual cues and primes are popular implicit nudging techniques for promoting healthier consumption habits. The present review and meta-analysis was conducted and reported according to PRISMA guidelines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry
December 2024
Background And Objectives: Transdiagnostic approaches have been promoted as a means of maximising preventative effects across multiple problems with depression and anxiety suitable targets as they appear to have highly interconnected systems in pathology development and maintenance. This study investigated long-term effects of two universal school-based programs, Emotion Regulation (ER) and Behavioral Activation (BA), that sought to prevent depression and anxiety by targeting worry (a transdiagnostic feature) to promote resilience.
Methods: This follow-up study captured data from 162 of 316 initial students (aged 8-13; 52.
Study Objectives: Shiftwork is associated with cognitive impairment and reduced sleep time and quality, largely due to circadian misalignment. This study tested if circadian-informed lighting could improve cognitive performance and sleep during simulated night shifts versus dim control lighting.
Methods: Nineteen healthy participants (mean ± SD 29 ± 10 years, 12 males, 7 females) were recruited to a laboratory study consisting of two counterbalanced 8-day lighting conditions (order randomized) 1-month apart: (1) control lighting condition - dim, blue-depleted and (2) circadian-informed lighting condition - blue-enriched and blue-depleted where appropriate.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry
December 2024
Background And Objectives: Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is a global public health issue. Consequently, there is strong interest in advancing understanding of the cognitive mechanisms that underpin excessive SSB consumption. This work proposes that selective interrogation of taste-based characteristics (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFitspiration presents idealised bodies to viewers, emphasising a fit ideal to women and a muscular ideal to men. Previous content analyses have focused on images from Instagram, with research yet to examine video content on TikTok or verify the accuracy of the diet and exercise information posted by fitness influencers. This content analysis examined 200 videos from popular TikTok fitspiration hashtags (fitness, fitspo, gymtok, fittok).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objective: Night work has detrimental impacts on sleep and performance, primarily due to misalignment between sleep-wake schedules and underlying circadian rhythms. This study tested whether circadian-informed lighting accelerated circadian phase delay, and thus adjustment to night work, compared to blue-depleted standard lighting under simulated submariner work conditions.
Methods: Nineteen healthy sleepers (12 males; mean ± SD aged 29 ± 10 years) participated in two separate 8-day visits approximately 1 month apart to receive, in random order, circadian-informed lighting (blue-enriched and dim, blue-depleted lighting at specific times) and standard lighting (dim, blue-depleted lighting).
The modern food-rich environment has contributed to the rise of unhealthy diets linked to noncommunicable diseases. Previous in-person research has found that the effect of social norms on food intake is greater when set by a perceived in-group member relative to an out-group member. Given recent increased social media use, we investigated whether this effect of group membership extends to food choices and to normative information presented remotely online.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To test whether traffic light labels and an increased range of healthy beverages, individually and in combination, can increase healthy beverage choices from vending machines.
Design: Two studies ( 558, 420) tested whether the provision of traffic light labels (green, amber and red) and an increased range of healthy beverages (from 20 % to 50 % green options), individually and in combination, could increase healthy beverage choices from a digital vending machine display. The studies used a between-subjects experimental design, and a hypothetical beverage choice, a limitation when considering real-world applicability.
Health Promot J Austr
October 2024
Issues Addressed: Research suggests visual nudging techniques can subtly encourage healthier consumption. Two experiments explored the effect of four visual primes for nudging drink choices from a vending machine display.
Methods: Participants (17-25 years) were randomly assigned to view vending machine advertising posters containing pictorial nudges of water, soft drink, general health (runner), or a text-only control, for nudging vending machine choices.
Given the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among young people, which tends to persist into adulthood, a need exists for large-scale interventions that address this problem. Film has been identified as a resource that is well-suited to large-scale dissemination, which can achieve broad impact and reach. Embrace Kids, a film aimed at improving young people's body image, is one such resource.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBy design, tripolar concentric ring electrodes (TCRE) provide more focal brain activity signals than conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes placed further apart. This study compared spectral characteristics and rates of data loss to noisy epochs with TCRE versus conventional EEG signals recorded during sleep. A total of 20 healthy sleepers (12 females; mean [standard deviation] age 27.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe global rise in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating concerns is apparent; however, limited research in Middle-Eastern populations gives an incomplete understanding of these concerns. The present study recruited 377 young women aged 18 to 25 years from the Middle-East for an online survey to determine how female family members may contribute to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviours. Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model, we investigated the relationships between appearance pressures and fat talk, from mothers and sister(s), in predicting body dissatisfaction, and in turn, disordered eating symptomatology (restriction and bulimia), as mediated by appearance comparisons and internalisation of the thin-ideal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Go/No-Go and Stop-Signal tasks have been used to reduce excess food intake via repeated pairing of food cues with response inhibition. A meta analysis of 32 studies was conducted to determine whether, and under which conditions, the Go/No-Go and Stop-Signal training tasks are effective in reducing food consumption or choice. Moderators included task parameters (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft drink and alcohol consumption have become significant public health issues. This study aimed to explore the mediating role of decision-making processes in the relationship between trait impulsivity and calorie dense beverage consumption. Participants comprised a community sample of 300 adults (aged 19-75).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA relationship between excessive sugar consumption and cognitive function has been described in animal models, but the specific effects of sugars in humans remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the current knowledge, research characteristics, and quality of evidence of studies investigating the impacts of free and added sugars on human cognition in healthy participants. The review identified 77 studies (65 experimental trials, = 3831; 9 cross-sectional studies, = 11,456; and 3 cohort studies, = 2059).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPredicting vigilance impairment in high-risk shift work occupations is critical to help to reduce workplace errors and accidents. Current methods rely on multi-night, often manually entered, sleep data. This study developed a machine learning model for predicting vigilance errors based on a single prior sleep period, derived from an under-mattress sensor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently, researchers have started investigating the influence of eating-focused social media content on viewers' body image and eating behaviour. The current systematic review collates the evidence for the relationship between exposure to eating-related social media content and people's body image, disordered eating, food consumption, and eating-related opinions. Following PRISMA guidelines, searches were conducted on five databases (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotherhood can increase vulnerability to body dissatisfaction, but positive body image interventions may mitigate this. Expand Your Horizon (Alleva et al., 2015), an online writing intervention, enhances functionality appreciation, an aspect of positive body image.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDual-pathway models suggest that poor self-regulation (immature regulatory combined with strong reactive processes) is an important factor underlying addictive behaviors among adolescents. This study examined whether there are different self-regulation profiles among community adolescents, and how these profiles are related to the presence, severity and comorbidity of different addictive behaviors. A community sample of 341 adolescents (54.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objectives: This study investigated the differences in melatonin circadian timing and output, sleep characteristics, and cognitive function in myopic and non-myopic (or emmetropic) children, aged 8-15 years.
Methods: Twenty-six myopes (refractive error [mean ± standard error mean] -2.06 ± 0.
Emerging research suggests that modifying the presentation context of healthy food items can subtly 'nudge' individuals to make healthier choices. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of spatial separation between high and low nutritional value items on food and drink choices from an online fast-food menu. Participants (N = 210 women) were presented with one of three pictorial menus in which high nutritional value food and drink items were presented spatially mixed, grouped, or separate from low nutritional value items.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFamilial influence, specifically from mothers and sisters, may impact the development of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in young women. Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model, the present study recruited 422 young Australian women for a survey to determine how appearance pressures and fat talk, exhibited by mothers and sisters, and mediational mechanisms (comparisons and internalisation), are associated with body dissatisfaction, and in turn, disordered eating symptomatology. We also explored differences in perceived ratings of mother versus sister appearance pressures and fat talk.
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