Until recently, most studies investigating the acute relationships between affective and physical feeling states and physical activity were conducted in controlled laboratory settings, whose results might not translate well to everyday life. This review was among the first attempts to synthesize current evidence on the acute (e.g., within a few hours) relationships between affective and physical feeling states and physical activity from studies conducted in free-living, naturalistic settings in non-clinical populations. A systematic literature search yielded 14 eligible studies for review. Six studies tested the relationship between affective states and subsequent physical activity; findings from these studies suggest that positive affective states were positively associated with physical activity over the next few hours while negative affective states had no significant association. Twelve studies tested affective states after physical activity and yielded consistent evidence for physical activity predicting higher positive affect over the next few hours. Further, there was some evidence that physical activity was followed by a higher level of energetic feelings in the next few hours. The evidence for physical activity reducing negative affect in the next few hours was inconsistent and inconclusive. Future research in this area should consider recruiting more representative study participants, utilizing higher methodological standards for assessment (i.e., electronic devices combined with accelerometry), reporting patterns of missing data, and investigating pertinent moderators and mediators (e.g., social and physical context, intensity, psychological variables). Knowledge gained from this topic could offer valuable insights for promoting daily physical activity adoption and maintenance in non-clinical populations.

BackgroundEcological momentary assessment (EMA) is a method of collecting real-time data based on careful timing, repeated measures, and observations that take place in a participant’s typical environment. Due to methodological advantages and rapid advancement in mobile technologies in recent years, more studies have adopted EMA in addressing topics of nutrition and physical activity in youth.ObjectiveThe aim of this systematic review is to describe EMA methodology that has been used in studies addressing nutrition and physical activity in youth and provide a comprehensive checklist for reporting EMA studies.MethodsThirteen studies were reviewed and analyzed for the following 5 areas of EMA methodology: (1) sampling and measures, (2) schedule, (3) technology and administration, (4) prompting strategy, and (5) response and compliance.ResultsResults of this review showed a wide variability in the design and reporting of EMA studies in nutrition and physical activity among youth. The majority of studies (69%) monitored their participants during one period of time, although the monitoring period ranged from 4 to 14 days, and EMA surveys ranged from 2 to 68 times per day. More than half (54%) of the studies employed some type of electronic technology. Most (85%) of the studies used interval-contingent prompting strategy. For studies that utilized electronic devices with interval-contingent prompting strategy, none reported the actual number of EMA prompts received by participants out of the intended number of prompts. About half (46%) of the studies failed to report information about EMA compliance rates. For those who reported, compliance rates ranged from 44-96%, with an average of 71%.ConclusionsFindings from this review suggest that in order to identify best practices for EMA methodology in nutrition and physical activity research among youth, more standardized EMA reporting is needed. Missing the key information about EMA design features and participant compliance might lead to misinterpretation of results. Future nutrition and physical activity EMA studies need to be more rigorous and thorough in descriptions of methodology and results. A reporting checklist was developed with the goal of enhancing reliability, efficacy, and overall interpretation of the findings for future studies that use EMAs.

The risk of obesity during childhood can be significantly reduced through increased physical activity and decreased sedentary behavior. Recent technological advances have created opportunities for the real‐time measurement of these behaviors. Mobile phones are ubiquitous and easy to use, and thus have the capacity to collect data from large numbers of people. The present study tested the feasibility, acceptability, and validity of an electronic Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) protocol using electronic surveys administered on the display screen of mobile phones to assess children's physical activity and sedentary behaviors. A total of 121 children (ages 9–13, 51% male, 38% at risk for overweight/overweight) participated in EMA monitoring from Friday afternoon to Monday evening during children's nonschool time, with 3–7 surveys/day. Items assessed current activity (e.g., watching TV/movies, playing video games, active play/sports/exercising). Children simultaneously wore an Actigraph GT2M accelerometer. EMA survey responses were time‐matched to total step counts and minutes of moderate‐to‐vigorous physical activity (MVPA) occurring in the 30 min before each EMA survey prompt. No significant differences between answered and unanswered EMA surveys were found for total steps or MVPA. Step counts and the likelihood of 5+ min of MVPA were significantly higher during EMA‐reported physical activity (active play/sports/exercising) vs. sedentary behaviors (reading/computer/homework, watching TV/movies, playing video games, riding in a car) (P < 0.001). Findings generally support the acceptability and validity of a 4‐day EMA protocol using mobile phones to measure physical activity and sedentary behavior in children during leisure time.

Parental stress is an understudied factor that may compromise parenting practices related to children's dietary intake, physical activity, and obesity. However, studies examining these associations have been subject to methodological limitations, including cross-sectional designs, retrospective measures, a lack of stress biomarkers, and the tendency to overlook momentary etiologic processes occurring within each day. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and data analytic protocols for the MATCH (Mothers And Their Children's Health) study, a longitudinal investigation using novel real-time data capture strategies to examine within-day associations of maternal stress with children's physical activity and dietary intake, and how these effects contribute to children's obesity risk. In the MATCH study, 200 mothers and their 8 to 12 year-old children are participating in 6 semi-annual assessment waves across 3 years. At each wave, measures for mother-child dyads include: (a) real-time Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) of self-reported daily psychosocial stressors (e.g., work at a job, family demands), feeling stressed, perceived stress, parenting practices, dietary intake, and physical activity with time and location stamps; (b) diurnal salivary cortisol patterns, accelerometer-monitored physical activity, and 24-hour dietary recalls; (c) retrospective questionnaires of sociodemographic, cultural, family, and neighborhood covariates; and (d) height, weight, and waist circumference. Putative within-day and longitudinal effects of maternal stress on children's dietary intake, physical activity, and body composition will be tested through multilevel modeling and latent growth curve models, respectively. The results will inform interventions that help mothers reduce the negative effects of stress on weight-related parenting practices and children's obesity risk.

Introduction: Mobile phones are ubiquitous and easy to use, and thus have the capacity to collect real-time data from large numbers of people. Research tested the feasibility and validity of an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) self-report protocol using electronic surveys on mobile phones to assess adults’ physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Methods: Adults (N = 110; 73% female, 30% Hispanic, 62% overweight/obese) completed a 4-day signal-contingent EMA protocol (Saturday–Tuesday) with eight surveys randomly spaced throughout each day. EMA items assessed current activity (e.g., Watching TV/Movies, Reading/Computer, Physical Activity/Exercise). EMA responses were time-matched to minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary activity (SA) measured by accelerometer immediately before and after each EMA prompt. Results: Unanswered EMA prompts had greater MVPA (±15 min) than answered EMA prompts (p = 0.029) for under/normal weight participants, indicating that activity level might influence the likelihood of responding. The 15-min. intervals before versus after the EMA-reported physical activity (n = 296 occasions) did not differ in MVPA (p > 0.05), suggesting that prompting did not disrupt physical activity. SA decreased after EMA-reported sedentary behavior (n = 904 occasions; p < 0.05) for overweight and obese participants. As compared with other activities, EMA-reported physical activity and sedentary behavior had significantly greater MVPA and SA, respectively, in the ±15 min of the EMA prompt (ps < 0.001), providing evidence for criterion validity. Conclusion: Findings generally support the acceptability and validity of a 4-day signal-contingent EMA protocol using mobile phones to measure physical activity and sedentary behavior in adults. However, some MVPA may be missed among underweight and normal weight individuals.

Child obesity continues to be a prevalent public health issue. This meta-analysis synthesized 17 studies investigating the association between levels of psychological stress experienced by mothers and the body mass index of their children. The overall standardized mean difference effect size was positive and significantly different from zero in cross-sectional d = 0.20 [k = 14, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.06, 0.34] and longitudinal studies d = 0.18 (k = 5, 95% CI: 0.00, 0.351), and had significant heterogeneity in both [cross-sectional, Q(13) = 193.00, p < 0.001; longitudinal, Q(4) = 29.46, p < 0.001]. In longitudinal studies, effect sizes were larger when children also would have experienced the stressor, Q(6) = 4.68, p < 0.05, for toddlers than infants, Q(4) = 5.04, p < 0.05, and in higher quality studies, Q(4) = 14.58, p < 0.05. Results highlight the potential benefits of including a parent stress management component in childhood obesity prevention programs.

Results describing the value of outdoor and social settings could inform context-specific interventions in this age group.

BackgroundNew methods for assessing diet in research are being developed to address the limitations of traditional dietary assessment methods. Mobile device–assisted ecological momentary diet assessment (mEMDA) is a new dietary assessment method that has not yet been optimized and has the potential to minimize recall biases and participant burden while maximizing ecological validity. There have been limited efforts to characterize the use of mEMDA in behavioral research settings.ObjectiveThe aims of this study were to summarize mEMDA protocols used in research to date, to characterize key aspects of these assessment approaches, and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mEMDA compared with the traditional dietary assessment methods as well as implications for future mEMDA research.MethodsStudies that used mobile devices and described mEMDA protocols to assess dietary intake were included. Data were extracted according to Preferred Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Cochrane guidelines and then synthesized narratively.ResultsThe review included 20 studies with unique mEMDA protocols. Of these, 50% (10/20) used participant-initiated reports of intake at eating events (event-contingent mEMDA), and 50% (10/20) used researcher-initiated prompts requesting that participants report recent dietary intake (signal-contingent mEMDA). A majority of the study protocols (60%, 12/20) enabled participants to use mobile phones to report dietary data. Event-contingent mEMDA protocols most commonly assessed diet in real time, used dietary records for data collection (60%, 6/10), and provided estimates of energy and nutrient intake (60%, 6/10). All signal-contingent mEMDA protocols used a near real-time recall approach with unannounced (ie, random) abbreviated diet surveys. Most signal-contingent protocols (70%, 7/10) assessed the frequency with which (targeted) foods or food groups were consumed. Relatively few (30%, 6/20) studies compared mEMDA with the traditional dietary assessment methods.ConclusionsThis review demonstrates that mEMDA has the potential to reduce participant burden and recall bias, thus advancing the field beyond current dietary assessment methods while maximizing ecological validity.