Eating and Feeding Behavior: Exploring Phenotypes and Influencing Outcomes

我们的研究小组调查了3 - 7岁儿童的父母接受公共健康型肥胖风险信息的影响。这是一项随机的实验性试验，母亲和父亲接受控制（一般营养，体力活动和睡眠）信息，家庭家庭环境信息，遗传因素信息或基因-家庭环境相互作用信息。我们使用虚拟现实自助餐厅评估儿童喂养行为。在VR自助餐中，父母在信息提供条件与控制条件下没有给孩子不同的食物。然而，在信息提供条件之间存在差异，其中接受任何遗传信息的母亲在VR自助餐中选择了高热量的食物。在一周的随访中，仅接受遗传学信息的父母报告说，在自我报告的食物频率评估中，他们给孩子喂了更多的垃圾食品和肥肉;含糖饮料，含糖食品或快餐没有这种差异。父母的内疚通常是较高的参与者谁收到的家庭环境信息，但没有调解信息提供和喂养结果之间的关系。 虽然没有任何消息改善喂养高于对照条件，但GxFE消息与更好的总体结局相关。因此，向父母传达关于儿童肥胖风险的信息可能是有益的，包括反映遗传和环境对肥胖风险的复杂性的内容。该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，我们进行了一项在线实验，评估父母对儿童肥胖风险的四种不同类型的因果解释（与两种对照条件相比）的认知和情感反应。我们发表了一篇关于这项工作的论文。在这项研究的基础上，我们还评估了招募父亲参与研究的途径，因为我们和我们的同事在识别和有效招募父亲参与研究方面遇到了困难。这一数据尚未公布。 关于研究项目的第二个要素，即与进食相关的表型的识别，我们对健康志愿者参与者进行了调查。我们准备了两份这方面的手稿，重点是成年人对遗传学在特定饮食行为中的作用的信念，以及父母对基因在子女饮食行为中的作用的信念。后者目前正在印刷中。在这项工作中，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。儿童饮食行为的较高遗传归因与喂养适量食物的较低自我效能感，基于虚拟现实的自助餐模拟中儿童选择的高热量食物以及较高的内疚感有关。目前的研究结果表明，对遗传在儿童饮食行为中的作用的高度信念与父母的适应不良情绪和行为有关。在考虑是否、何时以及如何向父母提供信息时，应牢记这一点，强调遗传学在儿童饮食行为中的作用。 最后一项研究汇集了以前工作的元素，以迭代方式构建和评估虚拟现实技术的使用，以教授个体与基因-环境相互作用在饮食行为中的作用相关的概念。这项工作已经规划，但尚未收集数据。

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.