| 1. |
- Björnwall, Amanda, et al.
(författare)
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The impact of eating alone on food intake and everyday eating routines : A cross-sectional study of community-living 70- to 75-year-olds in Sweden
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1471-2458. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundEating is fundamental not only to survival and health, but also to how humans organise their social lives. Eating together with others is often seen as the healthy ideal, while eating alone is highlighted as a risk factor for negative health outcomes, especially among older adults. This paper, therefore, investigates the relationship between the frequency and subjective experience of eating alone and food-related outcomes among 70- to 75-year-olds in Sweden.MethodsA survey was distributed to a nationally representative random sample of 1500 community-living in Sweden, aged 70–75 years. Two different constructs of eating alone (objective and subjective) were measured, along with the following food-related outcomes: a food index, intake of food groups, consumption of ready-made meals, number of main meals per day, and body mass index (BMI).ResultsIn total, 695 respondents were included in the final sample. A quarter of the respondents were categorised as eating alone, of which a small proportion reported that doing so bothered them. There were no associations between eating alone and food index scores, BMI, or intake frequencies of fruits and berries, or fish and shellfish. However, people eating alone were less likely to report eating three meals per day (OR: 0.53, CI: 0.37–0.76, p = 0.006), less likely to report higher intake frequencies of vegetables and snacks, sugary foods, and sweet drinks (adjusted OR: 0.68, CI: 0.48–0.95, p = 0.023 resp. OR: 0.59, CI: 0.43–0.81, p = 0.001), and more likely to report higher intake frequencies of ready-made meals (adjusted OR: 3.71, CI: 2.02–6.84, p < 0.001) compared to those eating together with others. The subjective experience of eating alone did not have an impact on food-related outcomes.ConclusionEating alone or with others played a role in participants’ food intake, and seemed to influence aspects of the organisation of everyday eating routines rather than overall dietary healthiness or weight status. Our findings add to the previous body of research on commensality, eating alone, and health among the older population, providing insights into the development of future health policies and research.
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| 2. |
- Neuman, Nicklas, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond conviviality : Facets of Eating Together
- 2024. - 1
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Ingår i: Eating Together in the Twenty-first Century. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 9781032447698 ; , s. 180-190
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The stability of the human tendency to eat in groups is remarkable. We find it to be valued and mostly desirable across geographical locations, cultures, and historical time periods. Yet, there is a great deal of variety in how the practice is expressed, how individuals experience it, and how the sharing of meals is understood culturally. This chapter focuses on three facets of eating together that deserve more attention in the literature: the biology of eating together; the differentiation and cohesion of eating together; and the performativity of eating together. It ends with a postulation about carefulness with normative claims about meals in company or in solitude.
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| 3. |
- Neuman, Nicklas, 1987-
(författare)
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Commensal attraction : Eating together as a social tool
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8308 .- 1468-5914.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social and human sciences have demonstrated again and again how commensality – the practice of eating together – has substantial implications, across time and place, for how social life is configured. Closely related phenomena have also been explored in biologically oriented sciences focused on human behavior. Yet, there is still little dialogue between these and the mainstream social science analysis of food and eating, despite their shared interests in the role played by food and eating in the organization of social life. The paper strengthens this dialogue and proposes that eating together be analyzed as a social tool: an innovation for the organization of complex behavior. More precisely, the proposition is that the habitual, routinized, and ritualized communal eating we see today developed into a social tool for exercising a diverse set of biologically evolved social traits. Through in-depth analyses of food sharing, meal sharing, and feasting, I propose three distinct propositions of commensality as a social tool: social coordination of needs (mainly nutritional); social order and complex interaction (primarily conversations); and the symbolic display of stratified social relations. Understanding communal eating as a social tool thus opens up for a unified theory to explain seemingly disparate social phenomena, such as the underlying sociality displayed through different meal arrangements. For a thorough understanding of this, intensified conversations across the borders of scientific paradigms are required. Commensality is a social tool that satisfies both the social and biological appetites.
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| 4. |
- Neuman, Nicklas, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Does home economics education make men cook? : Evidence from a natural experiment
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Educational policy has two objectives: foster children’s learning in academic subjects and socialize them into citizens. Evaluating whether these objectives are met in the long-term is notoriously difficult, since society is noisy (statistically speaking). In the absence of randomized controlled trials of school systems, social scientists have increasingly come to utilize natural experiments. Using data from five rounds of the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (LNU) we analyse specialized and generalized educational effects on self-reported housework participation of adult Swedish men. Specifically, we study potential effects of the content of a given school subject, Home economics (HE), and from education overall.The Swedish gender gap in housework is comparatively small, and in this context sociological research has discussed men’s cooking and childcare involvement in particular. Two unique features of mid-1900s Swedish school reform could have influenced this: the early introduction of HE for boys and the successive transformation from a 7-year folkskola to a 9-year grundskola, including a decade-long assessment period. First, based on information in curricula and government reports, we establish whether HE was mandatory for boys. If so, did it contain practical cooking and childcare or mostly theoretical schooling? Second, we identify when Swedish municipalities partook in the assessment period and when they implemented the 9-year grundskola. Connecting this to (1) the LNU participants’ year of birth and (2) the municipality they grew up in, we allocate them to treatment and comparison groups. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we analyse (potential) differences in time reported on a selection of housework activities.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Sjunnestrand, My, et al.
(författare)
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"A balancing act" : parents' longitudinal perspectives of weight-related discussions with their children following obesity treatment
- 2024
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1471-2458. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Weight-related discussions during childhood may have long-lasting effects on children's body image and well-being. However, little is known about how parents frame these discussions with children who have undergone treatment for obesity. Our study aimed to explore how parents perceive weight-related discussions, several years after their children started obesity treatment. This qualitative study is part of the 4-year follow-up of the More and Less study, a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of a parental support program as part of obesity treatment for preschool-aged children in Stockholm, Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 parents (79% mothers, 48% with a university degree, 47% with foreign background) of 33 children (mean age 9.3 years (SD 0.7), 46% girls), transcribed and analyzed using realist informed thematic analysis. Three main themes, encompassing three subthemes were developed. Under the first theme, Parental attitudes and concerns, parents emphasized the importance of discussing weight and health behaviors with their children, yet found it challenging due to uncertainties about how to approach it safely and sensitively. A few parents found the conversation manageable, citing their own experiences of having overweight or their style of communication with the child as facilitating the conversation. Under the second theme, The significance of time and context, parents said they engaged in weight-related conversations with their children more frequently as the children matured, driven by their growing self-awareness. Parents also expressed how contextual factors, such as gender and the presence of others, shaped conversations. Parents perceived boys as more resilient, thus exposing them to more negative weight talk. The third theme, Navigating weight stigma, revealed how parents employed strategies such as nurturing their children's self-confidence, downplaying the significance of appearance and emphasizing health when discussing weight to shield their children from weight stigma. Taken together, we found that many parents need support to navigate weight-related discussions. Addressing weight stigma is part of children's obesity management process, as children may be bullied, teased, or experience discrimination in different social settings. More research is needed to explore how young children undergoing obesity treatment experience weight stigma and to understand gendered differences in these experiences.
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| 7. |
- Sjunnestrand, My, et al.
(författare)
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“A balancing act” : parents’ longitudinal perspectives of weight-related discussions with their children following obesity treatment
- 2024
-
Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - 1471-2458. ; 24:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Weight-related discussions during childhood may have long-lasting effects on children’s body image and well-being. However, little is known about how parents frame these discussions with children who have undergone treatment for obesity. Our study aimed to explore how parents perceive weight-related discussions, several years after their children started obesity treatment. This qualitative study is part of the 4-year follow-up of the More and Less study, a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of a parental support program as part of obesity treatment for preschool-aged children in Stockholm, Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 parents (79% mothers, 48% with a university degree, 47% with foreign background) of 33 children (mean age 9.3 years (SD 0.7), 46% girls), transcribed and analyzed using realist informed thematic analysis. Three main themes, encompassing three subthemes were developed. Under the first theme, Parental attitudes and concerns, parents emphasized the importance of discussing weight and health behaviors with their children, yet found it challenging due to uncertainties about how to approach it safely and sensitively. A few parents found the conversation manageable, citing their own experiences of having overweight or their style of communication with the child as facilitating the conversation. Under the second theme, The significance of time and context, parents said they engaged in weight-related conversations with their children more frequently as the children matured, driven by their growing self-awareness. Parents also expressed how contextual factors, such as gender and the presence of others, shaped conversations. Parents perceived boys as more resilient, thus exposing them to more negative weight talk. The third theme, Navigating weight stigma, revealed how parents employed strategies such as nurturing their children’s self-confidence, downplaying the significance of appearance and emphasizing health when discussing weight to shield their children from weight stigma. Taken together, we found that many parents need support to navigate weight-related discussions. Addressing weight stigma is part of children’s obesity management process, as children may be bullied, teased, or experience discrimination in different social settings. More research is needed to explore how young children undergoing obesity treatment experience weight stigma and to understand gendered differences in these experiences.
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| 8. |
- Taylor, Rachael M., et al.
(författare)
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Diet quality and cardiovascular outcomes : A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nutrition & Dietetics. - : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Inc.. - 1446-6368 .- 1747-0080.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- AimsTo evaluate relationships between diet quality and cardiovascular outcomes.MethodsSix databases were searched for studies published between January 2007 and October 2021. Eligible studies included cohort studies that assessed the relationship between a priori diet quality and cardiovascular disease mortality and morbidity in adults. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Checklist was used to assess the risk of bias. Study characteristics and outcomes were extracted from eligible studies using standardised processes. Data were summarised using risk ratios for cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality with difference compared for highest versus lowest diet quality synthesised in meta-analyses using a random effects model.ResultsOf the 4780 studies identified, 159 studies (n = 6 272 676 adults) were included. Meta-analyses identified a significantly lower cardiovascular disease incidence (n = 42 studies, relative risk 0.83, 95% CI 0.82–0.84, p < 0.001) and mortality risk (n = 49 studies, relative risk 0.83, 95% CI 0.82–0.84, p < 0.001) among those with highest versus lowest diet quality. In sensitivity analyses of a high number of pooled studies (≥13 studies) the Mediterranean style diet patterns and adherence to the heart healthy diet guidelines were significantly associated with a risk reduction of 15% and 14% for cardiovascular disease incidence and 17% and 20% for cardiovascular disease mortality respectively (p < 0.05).ConclusionsHigher diet quality is associated with lower incidence and risk of mortality for cardiovascular disease however, significant study heterogeneity was identified for these relationships.
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