Supermarket policies on less-healthy food at checkouts: Natural experimental evaluation using interrupted time series analyses of purchases.

Background: In response to public concerns and campaigns, some United Kingdom supermarkets have implemented policies to reduce less-healthy food at checkouts. We explored the effects of these policies on purchases of less-healthy foods commonly displayed at checkouts.

Methods And Findings: We used a natural experimental design and two data sources providing complementary and unique information.

Voluntary policies on checkout foods and healthfulness of foods displayed at, or near, supermarket checkout areas: a cross-sectional survey.

Objective: To determine if voluntary policies on supermarket checkout foods are associated with a difference in the healthfulness of foods displayed at, or near, supermarket checkout areas.

Design: Cross-sectional survey of foods at, or near, supermarket checkouts categorised as less healthy or not according to the Food Standards Agency's Nutrient Profiling Model.

Setting: One city in Eastern England (population about 125 000).

The Influence of Maternal Obesity and Breastfeeding on Infant Appetite- and Growth-Related Hormone Concentrations: The SKOT Cohort Studies.

Background/aims: Exposure to obesity during pregnancy may lead to adverse changes in the offspring's metabolic profile. We compared appetite- and growth-related hormones in a cohort of infants born to obese mothers (SKOT-II) with infants born mainly to nonobese mothers (SKOT-I).

Methods: Infants from SKOT-I (n = 273) and SKOT-II (n = 132) were examined including anthropometric measurements and blood samples analyzed for glucose, insulin, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), adiponectin, and leptin.

The nature of UK supermarkets' policies on checkout food and associations with healthfulness and type of food displayed: cross-sectional study.

Background: Food choices are often determined by stimuli from our immediate surroundings, including strategic placement in shops to encourage impulse purchases. One example of this is food in shop checkout areas. Recently a number of UK supermarkets have voluntarily committed to providing healthier checkout foods.

Descriptive analysis of preschool physical activity and sedentary behaviors - a cross sectional study of 3-year-olds nested in the SKOT cohort.

Background: Further collection of surveillance data is warranted, particularly in preschool populations, for optimizing future public health promotion strategies. This study aims to describe physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) across different settings, including time in and out of daycare, and to determine the proportion of children complying with suggested PA recommendations in a high income country.

Methods: Valid PA was assessed in 231 children (36.

Development of Dietary Patterns Spanning Infancy and Toddlerhood: Relation to Body Size, Composition and Metabolic Risk Markers at Three Years.

Little is known about the development of dietary patterns during toddlerhood and the relation to growth and health. The study objective was to characterise the development of dietary patterns from 9-36 mo of age and investigate the association to body size, body composition and metabolic risk markers at 36 mo. Food records were filled out at 9, 18 and 36 mo of age (n = 229).

The impact of early growth patterns and infant feeding on body composition at 3 years of age.

Early excessive weight gain is positively associated with later obesity, and yet the effect of weight gain during specific periods and the impact of infant feeding practices are debated. The objective of the present study was to examine the impact of weight gain in periods of early childhood on body composition at 3 years, and whether infant feeding modified the relationship between early growth and body composition at 3 years. We studied 233 children from the prospective cohort study, SKOT (in Danish: Småbørns Kost og Trivsel).

Infant BMI peak, breastfeeding, and body composition at age 3 y.

Background: With the increasing focus on obesity, growth patterns in infancy and early childhood have gained much attention. Although the adiposity rebound has been in focus because of a shown association with adult obesity, not much has been published about the infant peak in body mass index (BMI).

Objective: This study links age and BMI at infant peak to duration of breastfeeding and body composition at 3 y of age.

Establishment of intestinal microbiota during early life: a longitudinal, explorative study of a large cohort of Danish infants.

Fecal samples were obtained from a cohort of 330 healthy Danish infants at 9, 18, and 36 months after birth, enabling characterization of interbacterial relationships by use of quantitative PCR targeting 31 selected bacterial 16S rRNA gene targets representing different phylogenetic levels. Nutritional parameters and measures of growth and body composition were determined and investigated in relation to the observed development in microbiota composition. We found that significant changes in the gut microbiota occurred, particularly from age 9 to 18 months, when cessation of breastfeeding and introduction of a complementary feeding induce replacement of a microbiota characterized by lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, and Enterobacteriaceae with a microbiota dominated by Clostridium spp.

Prediction of fat-free body mass from bioelectrical impedance and anthropometry among 3-year-old children using DXA.

For 3-year-old children suitable methods to estimate body composition are sparse. We aimed to develop predictive equations for estimating fat-free mass (FFM) from bioelectrical impedance (BIA) and anthropometry using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as reference method using data from 99 healthy 3-year-old Danish children. Predictive equations were derived from two multiple linear regression models, a comprehensive model (height(2)/resistance (RI), six anthropometric measurements) and a simple model (RI, height, weight).

Validity of anthropometric measurements to assess body composition, including muscle mass, in 3-year-old children from the SKOT cohort.

Nutritional status of children is commonly assessed by anthropometry both in under and overnutrition. The link between anthropometry and body fat, the body compartment most affected by overnutrition, is well known, but the link with muscle mass, the body compartment most depleted in undernutrition, associated with infections, remains unknown. In this study, we examined the relationship between common anthropometric indices and body composition measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) in a sample of 121 healthy 3-year-old Danish children.