Understanding Differential Susceptibility to Obesogenic Environments: early findings of the APPETItE project

• In Event: Influences on child obesity and obesity-related health behaviors from infancy through adolescence

Abstract

The APPETItE (Appetite in Preschoolers: Producing Evidence for Tailoring Interventions Effectively) project aims to understand preschool children’s differential susceptibility to obesogenic environments, to improve future intervention efficacy. It is well established that childhood obesity develops through a combination of genetic susceptibility and exposure to an obesogenic environment. While establishing a healthy home food environment can buffer genetic risk, we do not know what the best advice is regarding feeding practice for parents who have young children with avid appetites. Current public health advice regarding children’s eating and weight is generic, ineffective, and does not tackle variability in children’s appetite, which makes behaviour change even more challenging for parents. Using current theory to inform complex intervention development, the aim of the APPETItE project is to examine how parents interact with their pre-school children with avid appetites in the food context, how these interactions predict short- and long-term effects on obesogenic eating outcomes, and to develop recommendations for intervention. In a series of studies over three years, combining a wide range of methods, we will:
1. Understand the directional and longitudinal relationships between avid appetite and feeding practice using behaviour genetics
2. Understand the views and perspectives of parents of children with avid appetite using questionnaires, qualitiative interviews and ecological momentary assessment.
3. Test whether specific feeding practices can change eating behaviour in children with avid appetite in laboratory settings.
4. Co-develop guidelines for future evidence-based intervention design.

This presentation will summarise our theoretical approach and study protocol, and the initial findings of the first year of the APPETItE study will be briefly summarised, including
i) the identification of three latent profiles of 3-5 year old children’s eating behaviour from a survey of 995 UK parents/carers
ii) an examination of the longitudinal relationships between avid appetite and feeding practice in n=1858 parents and their children from 15 to 60 months and
iii) a qualitative analysis of parental experiences of feeding their children who have avid appetites.

Together these findings demonstrate the complex picture of the individual, family and environmental factors which predict and moderate children’s appetite development, which highlight the specific challenges faced by parents of children with avid appetite. Next steps for the APPETItE project intervention development will be described.

Authors

• Jacqueline Blissett, Aston University
  Presenting Author

• Helen Croker, World Cancer Research Fund

• Katie Leigh Edwards, Aston University

• Emma Haycraft, Loughborough University

• Moritz Herle, King's College London

• Alice Kininmonth, University College London

• Clare Llewellyn, University College London

• Abigail Pickard, Aston University

• Claire Farrow, Aston University