No abstract

These findings demonstrate the need for urgent action in Portugal and provide policy-makers with comprehensive and detailed information to assist with this.

Objective: Results of the WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative indicated that on average one out of four primary-school children is overweight or obese. Portugal presented one of the highest prevalences of obesity. Childhood obesity prevention and treatment should be a top priority. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Program Obesity Zero (POZ), a multicomponent, community-, family-and school-based childhood obesity intervention. Design: Parents and children attended four individual nutrition and physical activity counselling sessions, a one-day healthy cooking workshop and two school extracurricular sessions of nutrition education. Waist circumference, BMI, physical activity level, sedentary behaviours, and nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes and behaviour were assessed at baseline and after 6 months. Diet was assessed using two 24 h recalls, at baseline and at 6 months. Setting: Five Portuguese municipalities and local communities. Subjects: Two hundred and sixty-six overweight children (BMI $ 85th percentile) aged 6-10 years, from low-income families in five Portuguese municipalities, were assigned to the intervention. Results: Children showed reductions in waist circumference (22?0 cm; P , 0?0001), mean BMI (20?7 kg/m 2 ; P , 0?0001) and BMI-for-age percentile (21?7; P , 0?0001) at 6 months. Overall, children's intake of fruit and vegetables was ,400 g/d throughout the intervention. After 6 months, higher fibre consumption and an apparent decrease in sugary soft drinks intake to a quarter of that observed at baseline (mean intake: 198 ml/d at baseline), with improvements in physical activity levels and screen time ,2 h/d, were also observed. Conclusions: The findings suggested that POZ is a promising intervention programme, at municipality level, to tackle childhood overweight and obesity.

The neural mechanisms that underlie responses to drugs of abuse are complex, and impacted by a number of neuromodulatory peptides. Within the past 10 years it has been discovered that several of the receptors for neuromodulators are enriched in the primary cilia of neurons. Primary cilia are microtubule‐based organelles that project from the surface of nearly all mammalian cells, including neurons. Despite what we know about cilia, our understanding of how cilia regulate neuronal function and behavior is still limited. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the contributions of primary cilia on specific neuronal populations to behavioral responses to amphetamine. To test the consequences of cilia loss on amphetamine‐induced locomotor activity we selectively ablated cilia from dopaminergic or GAD2‐GABAergic neurons in mice. Cilia loss had no effect on baseline locomotion in either mouse strain. In mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons, locomotor activity compared to wild‐ type mice was reduced in both sexes in response to acute administration of 3.0 mg/kg amphetamine. In contrast, changes in the locomotor response to amphetamine in mice lacking cilia on GAD2‐GABAergic neurons were primarily driven by reductions in locomotor activity in males. Following repeated amphetamine administration (1.0 mg kg−1 day−1 over 5 days), mice lacking cilia on GAD2‐GABAergic neurons exhibited enhanced sensitization of the locomotor stimulant response to the drug, whereas mice lacking cilia on dopaminergic neurons did not differ from wild‐type controls. These results indicate that cilia play neuron‐specific roles in both acute and neuroplastic responses to psychostimulant drugs of abuse.