Consumer concerns about food and health : examination of general and specific relationships with personal values and demographics

Purpose – Aims to investigate the relationships between consumers' food concerns and their personal values and demographic characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was administered in a cross sectional random population survey conducted among a sample of 1,000 adults in South Australia. The questionnaire elicited information about respondents' concerns about 20 food and health issues, the perceived importance of 23 values items derived from the Schwartz values inventory, and their demographic characteristics.

Findings – Principal components analyses derived four food concerns factors and six personal values factors. Respondents' safety concerns scores were positively associated with devout-tradition, order-discipline, and moderate-independent values. Their disease concerns score was positively linked to beauty-nature, devout-tradition, and order-discipline. Multiple regression and chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) analyses showed that individual values items were strong predictors of consumers; specific concerns such as food and heart disease, and, genetic modification of foods.

Research limitations/implications – The research was based on a cross sectional study. More refined indices of food concerns and personal values should be used in replications of this preliminary study.

Practical implications – The findings support the use of psychographic market segmentation approaches in communication programs about food and health issues.

Originality/value – The findings suggest that personal values, may be stronger predictors of consumers' concerns about food and health issues than demographics. They also show that measurement level of values and concerns influence the observed strength of their relationships.

Associations between parental concern for adolescent weight and the home food environment and dietary intake

Objective: Examine associations between parental concern about adolescent weight and adolescent perceptions of their dietary intake, home food availability, family mealtime environment, and parents' feeding practices.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Adolescents, aged 12-15 years from 37 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, and their parents completed surveys in 2004-2005.

Participants: 1,448 adolescent–parent pairs.

Main Outcome Measures: Parental concern about adolescent weight; adolescent perceptions of their food intake and home food environment.

Analysis: Chi-square tests, exploratory factor analysis, independent t tests (P < .01).

Results: Although 12% of parents perceived their adolescent as overweight, 27% were concerned about their adolescent's weight (under- or overweight). Adolescents of concerned parents reported lower intakes of energy-dense snacks and less home availability of these food items, and they perceived that their parents less often listened to and considered their food preferences when shopping and cooking, than did adolescents of unconcerned parents. Concerned parents were no more likely to provide fruits and vegetables in the home or a positive family mealtime environment than unconcerned parents, at least as reported by their adolescents.

Conclusions and Implications: Parental concern about adolescent weight was associated with lower intakes of energy-dense snacks among adolescents, less home availability of these food items, and less supportive parental feeding practices. Parents should be encouraged to listen to and consider their adolescents' food preferences, and provide supportive family mealtime environments and healthful food in the home.

Impact of learning environment and learning context on student satisfaction : a comparative study of postgraduate students from Asia

The growth of the international education market with increasing export income has created a highly competitive environment among education providers worldwide. WTO reports that this market is now worth around $27 billion a year (Alderman, 2001) while IDP Australia has estimated an increase in the number of students seeking higher education overseas at 7.2 million by 2025. This alludes to the attractiveness of the international education market in the form of both pecuniary and non pecuniary benefits to provider nations and the higher educational institutions and hence the need for strategies to maintain a globally competitive position. This paper looks at the impact of the learning environment and the learning context on student satisfaction among international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Australian universities. The growing competition requires provider institutions to be highly responsive to the needs and aspirations of the diverse student community and to deliver services to create satisfaction and loyalty, which would be critical in sustaining a competitive position. The study, based on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, and a model of post choice satisfaction in the educational setting, uses logistic regression, MANOVA, ANOVA and chi square testing, investigates factors relevant to student learning environment and the learning context to assess satisfaction levels of these students. The sample size used in the study is 371 and is drawn from a mail survey of five leading universities in Australia.

Data mining techniques for the assessment of factors contributing to the damage of residential houses in Australia

This paper reports on the preparation and management processes of inconsistent data on damage on residential houses in Victoria, Australia. There are no existing specific and fully relevant databases readily available except for the incomplete paper-based and electronic-based reports. Therefore, the extracting of information from the reports is complicated and time consuming in order to extract and include all the necessary information needed for analysis of damage on residential houses founded on expansive soils. Data mining is adopted to develop a database. Statistical methods and Artificial Intelligence methods are used to quantify the quality of data. The paper concludes that the development of such database could enable BHC to evaluate the usefulness of the reports prepared on the reported damage properties for further analysis.

Latent structure of mentoring function scales

The latent structure of a 16-item mentoring function instrument was analyzed with the responses of 568 full-time employees. Features of the analyses included (a) assessment of the items' distributional properties (i.e., skewness and kurtosis); (b) assessment of the factor structure using the Satorra-Bentler scaled test statistic; and (c) evaluation of the instrument's invariance across sex. Confirmatory factor analyses using the scaled chi-square supported a two-factor oblique model that consisted of psychosocial and career-related mentoring functions. The invariance tests suggested that the structure was invariant across sex groups.

Sex reversal in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus Linnaeus) by androgen immersion

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the efficacy of three androgens applied through immersion treatments on the sex ratio of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) fry. In experiment 1, 14 days post-hatching (DPH) larvae were exposed to a single immersion treatment in 17α-methyltestosterone (MT), 17α-methyldihydrotestosterone (MDHT) or 17α-ethynyltestosterone (ET) at 200, 600 and 1800 μg L⁻¹ over 4 h (130 larvae per treatment). In experiment 2, Nile tilapia larvae were exposed to the higher androgen concentration (1800 μg L⁻¹) applied as either a single immersion (14 DPH) or double immersion (10 and 14 DPH) over 4 h (125 larvae per treatment). Change in sex proportion within each experiment as well as between experiments was analysed by the chi-square test. In experiment 1, MT, MDHT and ET were equally effective in significantly increasing the proportion of males when applied at 1800 μg L⁻¹ (86.0%, 90.0% and 86.7% respectively). At 200 μg L⁻¹ none of the androgens altered sex ratio. At 600 μg L⁻¹, only MDHT slightly, but significantly skewed the sex ratio towards males (73.0%). In experiment 2, a single immersion treatment at 14 DPH (1800 μg L⁻¹) significantly increased the proportion of males, but at this time the response was significantly hormone dependent (MDHT, 100.0%; MT, 91.6%; ET, 76.9%). When compared with a single immersion, two-immersion treatments significantly increased the proportion of males in the MT-treated group (from 91.6% to 98.3%), decreased the proportion of males in the MDHT group (from 100.0% to 93.4%) and had no significant effect the ET-treated group (change from 76.9% to 82.5%). The overall comparison of the sex ratio among same treatments from different experiments (a single immersion in 1800 μg L⁻¹) was not significantly different.

Scaling-up from an implementation trial to state-wide coverage : results from the preliminary Melbourne Diabetes Prevention Study

Background
The successful Greater Green Triangle Diabetes Prevention Program (GGT DPP), a small implementation trial, has been scaled-up to the Victorian state-wide ‘Life!’ programme with over 10,000 individuals enrolled. The Melbourne Diabetes Prevention Study (MDPS) is an evaluation of the translation from the GGT DPP to the Life! programme. We report results from the preliminary phase (pMDPS) of this evaluation.
Methods
The pMDPS is a randomised controlled trial with 92 individuals aged 50 to 75 at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes randomised to Life! or usual care. Intervention consisted of six structured 90-minute group sessions: five fortnightly sessions and the final session at 8 months. Participants underwent anthropometric and laboratory tests at baseline and 12 months, and provided self-reported psychosocial, dietary, and physical activity measures. Intervention group participants additionally underwent these tests at 3 months. Paired t tests were used to analyse within-group changes over time. Chi-square tests were used to analyse differences between groups in goals met at 12 months. Differences between groups for changes over time were tested with generalised estimating equations and analysis of covariance.
Results
Intervention participants significantly improved at 12 months in mean body mass index (−0.98 kg/m2, standard error (SE) = 0.26), weight (−2.65 kg, SE = 0.72), waist circumference (−7.45 cm, SE = 1.15), and systolic blood pressure (−3.18 mmHg, SE = 1.26), increased high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (0.07 mmol/l, SE = 0.03), reduced energy from total (−2.00%, SE = 0.78) and saturated fat (−1.54%, SE = 0.41), and increased fibre intake (1.98 g/1,000 kcal energy, SE = 0.47). In controls, oral glucose at 2 hours deteriorated (0.59 mmol/l, SE = 0.27). Only waist circumference reduced significantly (−4.02 cm, SE = 0.95).

Intervention participants significantly outperformed controls over 12 months for body mass index and fibre intake. After baseline adjustment, they also showed greater weight loss and reduced saturated fat versus total energy intake.

At least 5% weight loss was achieved by 32% of intervention participants versus 0% controls.
Conclusions
pMDPS results indicate that scaling-up from implementation trial to state-wide programme is possible. The system design for Life! was fit for purpose of scaling-up from efficacy to effectiveness.

Alcohol sponsorship of community football clubs : the current situation

Issue addressed: There is accumulating evidence supporting a link between alcohol industry sponsorship and alcohol-related problems in both community and elite-level sports. Little is known, however, about the current status of such sponsorship, particularly of community sport. This study aimed to assess associations between alcohol industry sponsorship and different community football clubs in Australia.

Methods: The study involved 101 community football clubs across New South Wales, Australia. One representative from each club took part in a cross-sectional telephone survey designed to assess club (football code, number of players, socioeconomic and geographic descriptors) and alcohol industry sponsorship (money, equipment, free alcohol or discounted alcohol) characteristics. Chi-square analysis was used to test associations between club characteristics, and: i) any alcohol industry sponsorship; and ii) type of sponsorship.

Results: Eighty-eight per cent of clubs reported receiving sponsorship from the alcohol industry, and most clubs (82%) were sponsored by a licensed premises. There were no significant associations between club characteristics and source of alcohol industry sponsorship. However, small clubs were found to be significantly more likely to receive free or discounted alcohol sponsorship than larger clubs (p=0.05).

Conclusions: This exploratory study suggests a significant presence of alcohol industry sponsorship among community football clubs in Australia.

Stochastic models of road geometry and wind condition for vehicle energy management and control

Modeling and simulation is commonly used to improve vehicle performance, to optimize vehicle system design, and to reduce vehicle development time. Vehicle performances can be affected by environmental conditions and driver behavior factors, which are often uncertain and immeasurable. To incorporate the role of environmental conditions in the modeling and simulation of vehicle systems, both real and artificial data are used. Often, real data are unavailable or inadequate for extensive investigations. Hence, it is important to be able to construct artificial environmental data whose characteristics resemble those of the real data for modeling and simulation purposes. However, to produce credible vehicle simulation results, the simulated environment must be realistic and validated using accepted practices. This paper proposes a stochastic model that is capable of creating artificial environmental factors such as road geometry and wind conditions. In addition, road geometric design principles are employed to modify the created road data, making it consistent with the real-road geometry. Two sets of real-road geometry and wind condition data are employed to propose probability models. To justify the distribution goodness of fit, Pearson's chi-square and correlation statistics have been used. Finally, the stochastic models of road geometry and wind conditions (SMRWs) are developed to produce realistic road and wind data. SMRW can be used to predict vehicle performance, energy management, and control strategies over multiple driving cycles and to assist in developing fuel-efficient vehicles.

Family support and ease of access link socio-economic status and sports club membership in adolescent girls : a mediation study

Background Much research has been conducted into the determinants of physical activity (PA) participation among adolescent girls. However, the more specific question of what are the determinants of particular forms of PA participation, such as the link between participation through a sports club, has not been investigated. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between participation in a sports club and socio-economic status (SES), access to facilities, and family and peer support, for female adolescents.

Methods A survey of 732 female adolescent school students (521 metropolitan, 211 non-metropolitan; 489 Year 7, 243 Year 11) was conducted. The survey included demographic information (living arrangements, ethnicity indicators, and indicators of SES such as parental education and employment status and locality); access to facilities; and family and peer support (travel, encouragement, watching, praise, joint participation). For each characteristic, sports club participants and non-participants were compared using chi-square tests. Multiple mediation analyses were used to investigate the role of access, family and peer support in the link between SES and sport participation.

Results There were significant associations (p<0.05) between sports club participation and: all demographic characteristics; all measures of family and peer support; and access to sport-related facilities. Highest levels of participation were associated with monolingual Australian-born families, with two parents, at least one of whom was well-educated, with both parents employed, and high levels of parental assistance, engagement and support. Participation in club sport among both younger and older adolescent girls was significantly positively associated with the SES of both their neighbourhoods and their households, particularly in metropolitan areas. These associations were most strongly mediated by family support and by access to facilities.

Conclusions To facilitate and promote greater participation in club sport among adolescent girls from low SES neighbourhoods and households, strategies should target modifiable determinants such as facility access and parental support. This will involve improving access to sports facilities and promoting, encouraging and assisting parents to provide support for their daughters’ participation in sport clubs.

Emerging nutritional and lifestyle risk factors for bone health in young women: a mixed longitudinal twin study

Late adolescence and early adulthood are times of major behavioral transition in young women as they become more independent and make choices about lifestyle that will affect their long-term health. We prospectively evaluated nutritional and lifestyle factors in 566 15 30-year-old female twins participating in a mixed longitudinal study of diet and lifestyle.Twins completed 790 visits including questionnaires and measures of anthropometry. Nonparametric tests (chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis; SPSS) were used to examine age-related differences in selected variables. Dietary calcium intake by short food frequency questionnaire was relatively low [511 (321,747)] mg/day (median, IQR; 60 % of estimated daily total) and did not vary significantly with age. The number of young women who reported ever consuming alcohol (12+ standard drinks ever) increased from 50 % under 18 years to 93 99 % for the 18+ age groups. Of those who consumed alcohol in the preceding year, monthly intake doubled from under 18 years (5.7, 3.9, 19.0 standard drinks; median, IQR) to 18+ years (12.0, 4.7, 26.0; P < 0.001) with the highest consumers being 21 23 and 27 29 years. At age 15 17 years, 14 % reported ever smoking and by age 27–29, 51 % had smoked (P = 0.002). Under the age of 20 years, average cigarette consumption in smokers was six cigarettes per day, increasing to ten above age 20 (P < 0.001). Participation in sporting activity decreased with age (P < 0.001): 47.5 % of 15–17-year-olds undertook 4 or more hour/week of sport, compared with 23.5 % at age 27–29 years. Conversely, sedentary behavior increased with age: 25.0 % of 15–17-year-olds reported 1 or less hour/week of exercise compared with 50.0 % at age 27–29 years. BMI increased with age (P = 0.011), from 21.3 (19.5, 23.6; median, IQR) in the youngest to 23.1 (21.5, 25.9) in the oldest. These highly significant changes in behavior in young women as they transitioned into independent adult living are predicted to impact adversely on bone and other health outcomes in later life. It is crucial to improve understanding of the determinants of these changes and to develop effective interventions to improve long-term health outcomes in young women.

Rheumatoid arthritis and incident fracture in women: a case-control study

Background:
To examine fracture incidence in women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for an entire geographical region of south-eastern Australia.

Methods:
Women aged 35 years and older, resident in the Barwon Statistical Division (BSD) and clinically diagnosed with RA 1994–2001 were eligible for inclusion as cases (n =1,008). The control population (n = 172,422) comprised the entire female BSD population aged 35 years and older, excluding those individuals identified as cases. Incident fractures were extracted from the prospective Geelong Osteoporosis Study Fracture Grid. We calculated rate ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to compare the age- adjusted rate of fracture between the RA and non-RA populations, and used a chi-square test to compare proportions of fractures between women with and without RA, and a two-sided Mann–Whitney U-test to examine age-differences.

Results:
Among 1,008 women with RA, 19 (1.9%) sustained a fracture, compared to 1,981 fractures sustained by the 172,422 women without RA (1.2%). Fracture rates showed a trend for being greater among women diagnosed with RA (age-adjusted RR 1.43, 95%CI 0.98-2.09, p= 0.08). Women with RA sustained vertebral fractures at twice the expected frequency, whereas hip fractures were underrepresented in the RA population (p< 0.001). RA status was not associated with the likelihood of sustaining a fracture at sites adjacent to joints most commonly affected by RA (p= 0.22).

Conclusion:
Given that women with RA have a greater risk of fracture compared to women without RA, these patients may be a suitable target population for anti-resorptive agents; however, larger studies are warranted.

The impact of knowledge and attitudes on access to eye-care services in Cambodia

Purpose: To investigate how knowledge and attitudes influence the access to eye-care services in Takeo Province, Cambodia.

Design: A cross-sectional survey (n=600).

Methods: 30 villages were randomly selected. Groups included: >50 years, 30–49 years, and parents with children <5 years. A newly developed Knowledge, Attitude and Practice in Eye Health (KAP-EH) questionnaire about knowledge and treatment of eye diseases, practices and attitudes to accessing services was used to interview respondents. Descriptive analysis, including Chi square and logistic regression tested for associations with sub-groups of gender, age group, education and self-reported type of disability.

Results: The proportion of respondents who reported having knowledge of specific eye conditions ranged from 97% for eye injury, to 8% for diabetic eye disease. While 509 (85%) people reported knowledge of cataract, 47% did not know how cataract was treated and only 19% listed surgery. The older group (66.5%) were least informed about cataract (p= 0.001) compared to other groups, and were least likely to believe that some blindness could be prevented (p < 0.001). Women (55%) were more likely than men (46%) (p=0 .003) to report that a child with blindness could attend school, as did people without a disability compared to those with a disability (58% vs 34%) (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The knowledge about cataract and refractive error and what to do to resolve the problems was low among this population and this study suggests that poor knowledge of eye diseases might contribute to the occurrence of un-operated cataract and uncorrected refractive error.

Effect of nutritional supplements on wound healing in home-nursed elderly: a randomized trial

 Objective: The objective was to determine whether provision of oral nutritional supplements, delivered by community nurses, could improve nutritional status and wound healing in home-nursed elderly. Methods: This was a double-blind, randomized trial in 50 elderly patients referred for wound management. Patients received 237 mL/d of 4 or 8 kJ/mL of an oral nutritional supplement for 4 wk. Nutritional status was measured with the Subjective Global Assessment and the Mini-Mental State Examination questionnaire to determine cognitive function and wound characteristics to assess healing. Differences between variables were examined with the Mann-Whitney or Student's t test for comparing two groups, one-way analysis of variance when there was more than two groups, and chi-square analysis for comparing two categorical variables. Associations between variables were examined with Pearson's correlation and regression analysis. Results: At baseline, 34% subjects were moderately malnourished and 8% were severely malnourished. In both groups, there was significantly greater improvement in Mini-Mental State Examination scores at week 4 (95% confidence interval -2.0 to -0.001, P = 0.04) and a greater decrease in the wound effusion score (95% confidence interval -2.0 to 0.0, P = 0.045). Median length of stay did not differ between groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Malnutrition is common in elderly patients who are nursed at home for wound management. Provision of energy- and protein-dense oral supplements by community nurses is effective in improving some indices of wound healing and cognitive function in this group. Although further study is needed to determine the effect on length of stay, the nutritional needs of this vulnerable group should not be overlooked. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The German SCREEN project - design and evaluation of the communication strategy

Background: Skin cancer is the most common cancer in light-skinned populations worldwide. Primary and secondary preventive activities such as skin cancer screening are intended to reduce skin cancer burden. In 2003, a population-based skin cancer screening project [SCREEN (Skin Cancer Research to Provide Evidence for Effectiveness of Screening in Northern Germany)] was conducted in Northern Germany with more than 360 000 people screened. SCREEN was supported by a communication intervention that was aimed at informing the population about skin cancer, its risk factors and the screening intervention as well as preparing the health professionals for the project. Within SCREEN both physicians and practice nurses were educated in counselling. The aim of the present article is to describe and evaluate the communication strategy accompanying SCREEN. Methods: Two computer-assisted telephone interview surveys were performed in April/May 2003 and May 2004. Participants had to be members of the statutory health insurance and be aged ≥20 years. They were asked about knowledge of skin cancer, perception of physicians' performance and skin cancer screening in general. Data are mainly presented in a descriptive manner. For statistical analyses, Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson's chi-square test were used. Results: Knowledge about sunburn in childhood and high ultraviolet exposure as skin cancer risk factors increased during SCREEN. Simultaneously, the awareness for early detection of skin cancer increased significantly from 41.3 to 74.0% (P < 0.001). A total of 21.5% of the interviewees participated in the skin cancer screening project, similar to the population-based participation rate reached. Conclusion: A comprehensive communication strategy accompanying a screening intervention improves the knowledge of potential screenees and may additionally increase the participation rate.