The influence of age and gender on food choice: a focus group exploration

With 25% of the UK population predicted to be obese by 2010, the costs to individuals and society are set to rise. Due to the extra economic and social pressures obesity causes, there is an increasing need to understand what motivates and prevents consumers from eating a healthy diet so as to be able to tailor policy interventions to specific groups in society. In so doing, it is important to explore potential variations in attitudes, motivation and behaviour as a function of age and gender. Both demographic factors are easily distinguished within society and a future intervention study which targets either, or both, of these would likely be both feasible and cost-effective for policy makers. As part of a preliminary study, six focus groups (total n = 43) were conducted at the University of Reading in November 2006, with groups segmented on the basis of age and gender. In order to gather more sensitive information, participants were also asked to fill out a short anonymous questionnaire before each focus group began, relating to healthy eating, alcohol consumption and body dissatisfaction. Making use of thematic content analysis, results suggested that most participants were aware of the type of foods that contribute to a healthy diet and the importance of achieving a healthy balance within a diet. However, they believed that healthy eating messages were often conflicting, and were uncertain about where to find information on the topic. Participants believed that the family has an important role in educating children about eating habits. Despite these similarities, there were a number of key differences among the groups in terms of their reasons for making food choices. Older participants (60+ years old) were more likely to make food choices based on health considerations. Participants between the ages of 18–30 were less concerned with this link, and instead focused on issues of food preparation and knowledge, prices and time. Younger female participants said they had more energy when they ate healthier diets; however, very often their food choices related to concern with their appearance. Older female participants also expressed this concern within the questionnaire, rather than in the group discussions. Overall, these results suggest that consumer motivations for healthy eating are diverse and that this must be considered by government, retailers and food producers.

Effect of breed, gender, housing system and dietary crude protein content on performance of finishing beef cattle fed maize-silage-based diets

Maize silage-based diets with three dietary crude protein (CP) supplements were offered to 96 finishing cattle of contrasting breed (Holstein Friesian (HF) v. Simmental x HF (SHF)) and gender (bull v. steer) housed in two types of feeding system (group fed v. individually fed). The three protein supplements differed either in CP or protein degradability (degradable (LUDP) v. rumen undegradable (HUDP)) and provided CP concentrations of 142 (Con), 175 (LUDP) and 179 (HUDP) g/kg dry matter (DM) respectively, with ratios of degradable to undegradable of 3.0, 1.4 and 0.9:1 for diets Con, LOP and HUDP respectively. DM intakes were marginally higher (P = 0. 102) for LOP when compared with Con and HOP Rates of daily live-weight gain (DLWG) were higher (P = 0.005) in LUDP and HOP when compared with Con. HF had higher DM intakes than SHF although this did not result in any improvement in HF DLWG. Bulls had significantly better DM intakes, DLWG and feed conversion efficiency than steers. Conformation scores were better in SHF than HF (P < 0.001) and fat scores lower in bulls than steers (p < 0.001). There was a number of first order interactions established between dietary treatment, breed, gender and housing system with respect to rates of gain and carcass fat scores.

Extreme gender biased post-fledging brood division in the toc-toc

The possibility that parents of one sex may preferentially invest in offspring of a certain sex raises profound evolutionary questions about the relative worth of sons and daughters to their mothers and fathers. Post-fledging brood division-in which cacti parent feeds a different subset of offspring-has been well documented in birds. However, a lack of empirical evidence that this may be based oil offspring sex, combined with the theoretical difficulty of explaining such an interaction, has led researchers to consider a gender bias in post-fledging brood division highly unlikely. Here we show that in the toc-toc, Foudia sechellarum, postfledging brood division is extreme and determined by sex; where brood composition allows, male parents exclusively provision male fledglings, whereas female parents provision female fledglings. This is the first study to provide unambiguous evidence, based on molecular sexing, that sex-biased post-fledging brood division can occur in birds. Male and female parents provisioned at the same rate and neither offspring nor parent survival appeared to be affected by the sex of the parent or offspring, respectively. The current hypotheses predicting advantages for brood division and preferential care for one specific type of offspring are discussed in the light of our results.

Influence of apoA-V gene variants on postprandial triglyceride metabolism: impact of gender

Although apolipoprotein AN (apoA-V) polymorphisms have been consistently associated with fasting triglyceride (TG) levels, their impact on postprandial lipemia remains relatively unknown. In this study, we investigate the impact of two common apoA-V polymorphisms (-1131 T>C and S19W) and apoA-V haplotypes on fasting and postprandial lipid metabolism in adults in the United Kingdom (n = 259). Compared with the wild-type TT, apoA-V -1131 TC heterozygotes had 15% (P = 0.057) and 21% (P = 0.002) higher fasting TG and postprandial TG area under the curve (AUC), respectively. Significant (P = 0.038) and nearly significant (P = 0.057) gender X genotype interactions were observed for fasting TG and TG AUC, with a greater impact of genotype in males. Lower HDL-cholesterol was associated with the rare TC genotype (P = 0.047). Significant linkage disequilibrium was found between the apoA-V -1131 T>C and the apoC-III 3238 C>G variants, with univariate analysis indicating an impact of this apoC-III single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on TG AUC (P = 0.015). However, in linear regression analysis, a significant independent association with TG AUC (P = 0.007) was only evident for the apoA-V -1131 T>C SNP, indicating a greater relative importance of the apoA-V genotype.

Gender differences in early accommodation and vergence development

A remote haploscopic photorefractor was used to assess objective binocular vergence and accommodation responses in 157 full-term healthy infants aged 1-6 months while fixating a brightly coloured target moving between fixation distances at 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.33 m. Vergence and accommodation response gain matured rapidly from 'flat' neonatal responses at an intercept of approximately 2 dioptres (D) for accommodation and 2.5 metre angles(MA) for vergence, reaching adult-like values at 4 months. Vergence gain was marginally higher in females (p = 0.064), but accommodation gain (p = 0.034) was higher and accommodative intercept closer to zero (p = 0.004) in males in the first 3 months as they relaxed accommodation more appropriately for distant targets. More females showed flat accommodation responses (p = 0.029). More males behaved hypermetropically in the first two months of life, but when these hypermetropic infants were excluded from the analysis, the gender difference remained. Gender differences disappeared after three months. Data showed variable responses and infants could behave appropriately and simultaneously on both, neither or only one measure at all ages. If accommodation was appropriate (gain between 0.7 and 1.3; r(2) > 0.7) but vergence was not, males over- and under-converged equally, while the females who accommodated appropriately were more likely to overconverge (p = 0.008). The apparent earlier maturity of the male accommodative responses may be due to refractive error differences but could also reflect gender-specific male preference for blur cues while females show earlier preference for disparity, which may underpin the earlier emerging, disparity dependent, stereopsis and full vergence found in females in other studies.

Coping, depressive feelings and gender differences in late life widowhood

The study investigated the relationship between depressive feelings and coping amongst older widowed men and women. Participants were interviewed about their affective experiences of widowhood and completed two depression questionnaire assessments, the Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression Scale ( SAD) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale ( HADS). Participants were assessed as either coping or not coping. The results showed that both measures were effective at differentiating those who coped (Copers) from those who did not (Non-Copers) in the sample as a whole. Amongst the widows the HADS significantly differentiated the two groups. Amongst men, neither measure significantly distinguished Copers from Non-Copers. However, an examination of the interviews suggested that widowers reported depressive feelings significantly more often than widows. The results suggest that depressive feelings are associated with non-coping in older widowed people. There is also evidence to suggest that widows and widowers respond differentially to assessment measures.