Eating and Feeding Behavior: Exploring Phenotypes and Influencing Outcomes

我们的研究小组调查了接收公共卫生型肥胖风险信息对3-7岁儿童父母的影响。这是一项随机的实验试验，其中母亲和父亲接受控制(一般营养、体力活动和睡眠)信息、关于家庭家庭环境的信息、关于遗传因素的信息或关于基因-家庭环境相互作用的信息。我们使用虚拟现实自助餐餐厅评估了儿童喂养行为。在VR自助餐中，父母给孩子提供信息的条件与对照组没有什么不同。然而，在接受任何遗传信息的母亲选择VR自助餐中高卡路里食物的消息提供条件之间存在差异。在为期一周的随访中，只接受了遗传信息的父母报告说，在自我报告的食物频率评估中，给他们的孩子喂了更多垃圾食品和高脂肪肉类；而在含糖饮料、含糖食品或快餐方面则没有这样的差异。对于只接受家庭环境信息但没有调节信息提供与喂养结果之间关系的参与者来说，父母的负罪感通常更高。 虽然没有一条消息改善了喂养超过控制条件，但GxFE消息与更好的总体结局相关。因此，将反映基因和环境对肥胖风险影响的复杂性的内容包括在内，可能有利于向父母传递有关儿童肥胖风险的信息。这个项目的主要手稿目前正在印刷中。 在进行这项试验的过程中，我们进行了一个在线实验，评估父母对儿童肥胖风险的四种不同类型的因果解释(与两种控制条件相比)对认知和情感反应的反应。我们已经发表了一篇关于这项工作的论文。在这项研究的基础上，我们还在评估招募父亲参加研究的途径，因为我们和我们的同事在确定和有效招募父亲进行研究方面遇到了困难。这一数据尚未公布。 在研究项目的第二个要素方面，与识别与饮食相关的表型有关，我们对健康的志愿者参与者进行了调查。我们在这一领域准备了两篇手稿，重点关注成年人对基因在特定饮食行为中的作用的看法，以及父母对基因在孩子饮食行为中的作用的看法。后者目前正在出版中。在本研究中，父母对儿童饮食行为的遗传归因低于与儿童体重相关的遗传归因。儿童进食行为的高遗传归因与较低的喂养适量食物的自我效能感、在基于虚拟现实的自助餐模拟中为儿童选择更高卡路里的食物以及更高的负罪感有关。目前的发现表明，对遗传在儿童饮食行为中作用的更高信念与父母的不适应情绪和行为有关。在考虑是否、何时以及如何向父母提供强调遗传在儿童饮食行为中的作用的信息时，应该牢记这一点。 最后一项研究汇集了以前工作的要素，以迭代方式构建和评估虚拟现实技术的使用，以向个人传授与基因-环境相互作用在饮食行为中的作用相关的概念。这项工作已经计划好了，但还没有收集到数据。

Our study team investigated the influence of receiving public health-style obesity risk information on parents of 3-7 year old children. This was a randomized, experimental trial in which mothers and fathers received either control (general nutrition, physical activity and sleep) information, information about the family home environment, information about genetic factors, or information about gene-family environment interaction. We assessed child feeding behavior using a virtual reality buffet restaurant. In the VR Buffet, parents did not feed their children differently in message provision conditions versus control. There were, however, differences among message provision conditions wherein mothers who received any genetic information chose higher-calorie meals in the VR Buffet. At one-week follow-up, parents who received information about genetics alone reported feeding their child more junk food and fatty meat on self-report food frequency assessments; there were no such differences for sugary beverages, sugary foods, or fast foods. Parental guilt was typically higher for participants who received family environment information alone but did not mediate the relation between information provision and feeding outcomes. While none of the messages improved feeding above the control condition, GxFE messages were associated with a better overall profile of outcomes. As such, it may be beneficial for messaging for parents about childrens obesity risk to include content that reflects the complexity of genetic and environmental contributions to obesity risk. The primary manuscript stemming from this project is currently in-press. In the course of conducting this trial, we ran an online experiment assessing parent reaction to four different types of causal explanations for children's obesity risk (versus two control conditions) on cognitive and affective reactions. We have published a paper on this work. Layered on top of this study, we are also assessing avenues for recruitment of fathers into the study given the difficulty we and our colleagues have had in identifying and effectively recruiting fathers for research. this data is yet unpublished. In terms of the second element of the research project, related to the identification of eating-related phenotypes, we conducted a survey of healthy volunteer participants. We have prepared two manuscripts in this area focusing on adult's beliefs about the role of genetics in specific eating behaviors, and also related to the beliefs of parents vis a vis the role of genes in their children's eating behaviors. The latter is in press at present. In this work, parents' genetic attributions for child eating behaviors were lower than genetic attributions related to child weight. Higher genetic attributions for child eating behaviors were related to lower self-efficacy for feeding the right amounts of food, higher-calorie food choices for the child in a virtual reality-based buffet simulation, and higher levels of guilt. The current findings suggest that heightened beliefs about role of genetics in children's eating behavior is associated with maladaptive affect and behavior among parents. This should be kept in mind when considering whether, when, and how to provide information to parents highlighting the role of genetics in children's eating behavior. A final study brings together elements of previous work to iteratively build and evaluate the use of virtual reality technology to teach individuals concepts related to the role of gene-environment interaction in eating behaviors. This work has been planned, but data are not yet collected.