Objectives: To review associations between the family environment and young people's fruit and vegetable consumption. Design: A systematic review. Published English-language (n 60) papers were identified using electronic databases and manual searches of personal files and reference lists. Observational research reporting a measure of fruit/vegetable intake for children (aged 6-11 years) and/or adolescents (aged 12-18 years) and at least one potential family correlate of dietary intake was included. Results: Parental modelling and parental intake were consistently and positively associated with children's fruit and fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) consumption. There were also positive associations between home availability, family rules and parental encouragement and children's fruit and vegetable consumption. Parental intake was positively associated with adolescents' fruit and vegetable consumption. There were also positive associations between parental occupational status and adolescent fruit consumption and between parental education and adolescents' FJV consumption. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of targeting the family environment for the promotion of healthy eating behaviours among children and adolescents. Future interventions should encourage parents to be positive role models by targeting parental intake and to create a supportive home environment through increased encouragement and availability of fruits and vegetables and employing rules to govern eating behaviours. For adolescents, indicators of family circumstances (e.g. parental education) should be used to identify target groups for interventions aimed at promoting healthy eating. Keywords Adolescents Children Family correlates Fruit VegetablesThere is compelling evidence that diets rich in fruits and vegetables have health-protective effects (1) . While most of the research on associations between fruit and vegetable consumption and health outcomes has focused on adults, there is growing evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption in children may protect against a range of childhood illnesses (2) . Targeting young people to improve health behaviours, such as consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables, is important because evidence suggests that dietary behaviours track from childhood to adolescence (3,4) and food behaviour and food choices established in childhood or adolescence may significantly track into adulthood (5) . Moreover, child fruit consumption may be protective against cancer in adulthood (6) .Recommendations vary by country but public health agendas across the globe share the common goals of increasing the consumption levels of fruit and vegetables and encouraging people to eat a variety of fruit and vegetables. Despite the health benefits of diets rich in fruits and vegetables, national health surveys indicate that children and adolescents are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than is recommended for health (7)(8)(9) . Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC) ...

Objective: To review the empirical evidence concerning the strength of tracking of sedentary behaviors from childhood and adolescence. Methods:Published English language studies were located from computerised and manual searches in 2009. Included studies were prospective, longitudinal studies with at least one sedentary behavior for at least two time-points, with tracking coefficients reported, and included children (aged 3-11 years) and adolescents (12-18 years) at baseline.Results: Based on data from 21 independent samples, tracking coefficients (r) ranged from 0.08 (over 16 years) to 0.73 (over 2 years) for TV viewing, from 0.18 (boys over 3 years) to 0.52 (over 2 years) for electronic game/computer use, from 0.16 (girls over 4 years) to 0.65 (boys over 2 years) for total screen time, and from -0.15 (boys over 2 years) to 0.48 (over 1 year) for total sedentary time. Study follow-up periods ranged from 1 to upto 27 years, and tracking coefficients tended to be higher with shorter follow-ups. Conclusions:Sedentary behaviors track at moderate levels from childhood or adolescence.Data suggest that sedentary behaviors may form the foundation for such behaviors in the future and some may track slightly better than physical activity.

Context: Sedentary behavior is implicated in youth and adult overweight and obesity. However, the relationship between sedentary behavior and weight status is often small or inconsistent with few studies controlling for confounding factors such as diet and physical activity. Diet has been hypothesized to co-vary with some sedentary behaviors. It is opportune, therefore, to review whether dietary intake is associated with sedentary behavior in young people and adults. This may allow for better interpretation of the diversity of findings concerning sedentary behavior and weight status.Evidence acquisition: Published English language studies were located from computerized and manual searches in early 2010. Included studies were observational studies assessing an association between at least one sedentary behavior and at least one aspect of dietary intake in children (<11 years), and/or adolescents (12-18 years), and/or adults (>18 years).Evidence synthesis: 53 studies (k), totaling 111 independent samples were eligible for this review. Sedentary behavior in children (k=19; independent samples=24), adolescents (k=26; independent samples=72), and adults (k=11; independent samples=14) appears to be clearly associated with elements of a less healthy diet including lower fruit and vegetable consumption, higher consumption of energy-dense snacks, drinks and fast foods, and higher total energy intake. Strength of associations were mainly in the range of small-to-moderate. Conclusions:The association drawn mainly from cross-sectional studies is that sedentary behavior, usually assessed as screen time and predominantly TV viewing, is associated with unhealthy dietary behaviors in children, adolescents and adults. Interventions need to be developed that target reductions in sedentary time to test whether diet also changes. ContextSedentary behavior is rapidly emerging as an important issue in public health. Researchers are now investigating the role of sedentary behavior in diverse health outcomes. Typically, researchers have defined 'sedentary' as not meeting a criterion level of physical activity.However, by sedentary behavior we are referring to very low levels of energy expenditure through sitting and lying. Excessive sitting time is essentially the main concern for sedentary behavior researchers. 1,2 Studies are now showing associations between sedentary behavior (usually assessed as screen-based behaviors such as TV and computer use), and a range of health outcomes, including all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease, 3, 4 adverse metabolic profile, 5 and obesity. 6 However, relationships are not always consistent across age, gender or health outcomes. For example, while there has been a longstanding assumption that TV viewing in youth is associated with overweight and obesity, 7 a meta-analysis of mainly cross-sectional studies found that the strength of such an association was actually very small. 8 Moreover, a review of sedentary behavior intervention studies showed inconsistent weight loss for young people. 9 ...

BackgroundThe assessment of physical activity is an essential part of understanding patterns and influences of behaviour, designing interventions, and undertaking population surveillance and monitoring, but it is particularly problematic when using self-report instruments with young people. This study reviewed available self-report physical activity instruments developed for use with children and adolescents to assess their suitability and feasibility for use in population surveillance systems, particularly in Europe.MethodsSystematic searches and review, supplemented by expert panel assessment.ResultsPapers (n = 437) were assessed as potentially relevant; 89 physical activity measures were identified with 20 activity-based measures receiving detailed assessment. Three received support from the majority of the expert group: Physical Activity Questionnaire for Children/Adolescents (PAQ-C/PAQ-A), Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance Survey (YRBS), and the Teen Health Survey.ConclusionsPopulation surveillance of youth physical activity is strongly recommended and those involved in developing and undertaking this task should consider the three identified shortlisted instruments and evaluate their appropriateness for application within their national context. Further development and testing of measures suitable for population surveillance with young people is required.

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour are associated with metabolic and mental health during childhood and adolescence. Understanding the inter-relationships between these behaviours will help to inform intervention design. This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesized evidence from observational studies describing the association between sedentary behaviour and physical activity in young people (<18 years). English-language publications up to August 2013 were located through electronic and manual searches. Included studies presented statistical associations between at least one measure of sedentary behaviour and one measure of physical activity. One hundred sixty-three papers were included in the meta-analysis, from which data on 254 independent samples was extracted. In the summary meta-analytic model (k = 230), a small, but significant, negative association between sedentary behaviour and physical activity was observed (r = −0.108, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.128, −0.087). In moderator analyses, studies that recruited smaller samples (n < 100, r = −0.193, 95% CI = −0.276, −0.109) employed objective methods of measurement (objectively measured physical activity; r = −0.233, 95% CI = −0.330, −0.137) or were assessed to be of higher methodological quality (r = −0.176, 95% CI = −0.215, −0.138) reported stronger associations, although effect sizes remained small. The association between sedentary behaviour and physical activity in young people is negative, but small, suggesting that these behaviours do not directly displace one another.

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Background: Leisure-time is increasingly spent in sedentary pursuits such as screen-viewing