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Issue 106

November 2009

If you report a story, we ask that you credit Elsevier’s journal as the source.

Welcome to the 106th edition of Flash, our bi-weekly alert for science, health and medical journalists. Flash is a courtesy service with access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s online platform, providing full text access to some 2,000 scientific, technical and medical journals.

Please use your Flash login and password to access each article’s full text on ScienceDirect. For a new password, forgotten passwords or if you have any feedback, please contact Anna Hogrebe at newsroom@elsevier.com or at +31 20 485 3269.

ARTICLES

1. SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES – THE OUTFIT MAY SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT A WOMAN’S BODY IMAGE

Women and shopping – the perfect match. But why? And does shopping for that perfect outfit have any links to a woman’s body image perception?

A new study featured in Elsevier’s Body Image aims to investigate the link between clothing and body experience in women of different ages. Participants included 162 female clothes shoppers between the ages of 18 and 55 who completed questionnaire measures of body image, functions of clothing, self-esteem and enjoyment of clothes shopping. On average, women in the sample reported shopping for clothing about twice a month.

Results did reveal links between body image and clothing functions in a sample of adult women. Specifically, aspects of the ways women view their bodies do translate into how they choose to clothe themselves. The women largely reported that clothing was worn primarily for assurance and fashion. BMI and body dissatisfaction, on the other hand, were related to the use of clothing for camouflage purposes and to a more negative clothes shopping experience.

The authors conclude there is little doubt that the selection of clothing represents important appearance-management behaviour for women of all ages in Western societies. As a result, shop owners may want to consider offering a wider range of clothing sizes and styles, as well as being mindful of the functions underlying women’s clothing choices. Efforts could additionally be made to soften lighting in the dressing rooms and to display mannequins and posters of models of a variety of shapes and sizes.

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2. CAN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS BE BLAMED FOR THE RISE IN OBESITY?

In the age of computers, the Internet, cell phones and advanced technology, the world continues to get smaller … and in many ways more efficient. Too bad we can’t say the same thing about our waistlines. But is there a link between the two trends?

In Elsevier’s Economics and Human Biology, authors Darius Lakdawalla and Tomas Philipson argue that technological change has induced weight growth by making home- and market-production more sedentary and by lowering food prices through agricultural innovation. They note that with the exception of the early 1970s oil shock, the relative price of food has been declining consistently, by about 0.2 percent points annually. This negative price trend over time suggests that the expansion in supply of food through agricultural innovation has outpaced any increases in demand. In an agricultural or industrial society, work is strenuous and food is expensive – in effect the worker is paid to exercise.

Technological change has freed up resources previously used for food production. In a post-industrial society, such as the United States, most work entails little exercise, and not working may not cause a large reduction in weight because of food stamps and other welfare benefits.

Across countries, mean weight is likely to be higher in richer countries. The authors conclude there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between body weight and income, specifically in U.S. males.

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3. ARE LABELS EFFECTIVE AGAINST CHILD LABOUR?

We’ve all heard the horror stories surrounding abuses of child labour – from unhealthy working conditions to long hours to miniscule pay. Numerous proposals have been put forth to promote the welfare of working children, but the jury’s still out on what actually works.

In a new study featured in Elsevier’s Journal of Public Economics, researchers investigate the impact of introducing a label certifying the absence of child labour in export production of the South. Using a model with two countries, one in the South and one in the North, several scenarios were outlined to examine the use of labels. In the North, children do not work, and spend all of their time on leisure. In
the South, households have to choose how much time a child works and how much time he spends on leisure. The model was based on the notion that customers in the North preferred goods without child labour.

Results revealed that when most eligible producers in the South can obtain the label, its impact is considerably reduced by a displacement effect whereby adult workers replace children in the export sector and children replace adults in the domestic sector. The label, therefore, is unable to create a price differential in the South between goods produced under the label and those produced without it. However, when only a small fraction of eligible producers have access to the label, the South exports that are labelled generally experience a gain over those without a label. However, if not enough producers are labelled, the average producer in the South may end up worse off.

Overall, the authors deem the label tactic is only useful if the demand from Northern consumers increases sufficiently with the label. From a child labour standpoint, it is unclear if this approach works since children can simply be transferred over to work on domestic production where the label is not used or needed.

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4. ELECTRONIC TIME MONITORS AND CHILDREN’S TELEVISION WATCHING

Numerous studies say children are watching too much TV and getting fatter because of it, however, parents continually struggle to prise their children away from the TV screen. You can tell them no, set limits, remove the TVs from their rooms, but is it enough?

Taking the intervention approach a step further, Elsevier’s latest Preventive Medicine reports on a six-week home-based electronic time monitor intervention with 29 New Zealand children aged nine to 12 years who watched more than 20 hours of television per week. The kids were split into either an intervention or control group. The intervention group received an electronic TV time monitor for six weeks, along with advice to restrict TV watching to one hour per day or less. The Time Machine, designed to reduce access to TV by controlling the TV signal, functions with the use of tokens inserted into the time monitor that activate the TV for 30 minutes per token. The monitor interrupts the signal to the TV after the allotted time is up, thus limiting further TV viewing. The control group was just given verbal advice to restrict TV watching.

In addition to reporting TV viewing, participants were asked to record details of their snack intakes and physical activity. All participants were asked to wear a pedometer for seven days at baseline and follow-up to help gather information about their activity.

Overall, time spent watching TV decreased by 4.2 hours per week in the intervention group compared with no change in the control group. Both groups reported decreases in energy intake from snacks and total screen time, as well as increases in physical activity measured by the pedometer. Ten of the 13 families in the intervention group found the tokens useful for controlling the TV time, but some commented that they disrupted parents’ TV watching and increased fighting among siblings.

In general, this pilot suggests it is feasible to introduce TV monitors into the family environment and to use them as a means to decrease TV watching, but acceptability of the device varied between families.

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5. PTSD CONTRIBUTES TO CANNABIS USE DISORDERS IN TEENS

Data from the National Comorbidity Study demonstrated that adults with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were three times more likely to have cannabis dependence as compared with those without PTSD. But what about teens – do they also turn to marijuana as a coping method?

To learn more about the effect of PTSD on cannabis use among teenagers transitioning to young adulthood, Elsevier’s Addictive Behaviors examines 693 subjects – 31 of which were diagnosed with PTSD and 161 diagnosed with cannabis use disorders (CUD). The CUD subjects included 136 male participants and 25 female participants. The mean age of onset of the CUD was 16.7 years.

Path analyses demonstrated that PTSD is directly associated with the presence of CUD and with peer deviance. Additionally, higher peer deviance is associated with the presence of CUD, and that PTSD mediated the association between peer deviance and CUD.

These findings suggest PTSD contributes to the etiology of CUD among teenagers, and therefore it is important to adequately assess for PTSD among persons at risk for CUD.

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The Scirus tool bar makes it easier than ever to find scientific, technical and medical information on the Web and is quick and easy to install. After installing, the Scirus toolbar conveniently appears below your Internet Explorer address bar, meaning you have scientific searches at your fingertips, wherever you are on the Web. Link to Scirus: http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/toolbar/ If your browser does not support HTML, you may need to copy the links below and paste them into your browser to access the articles:

1. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.07.002
2. doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2009.08.001
3. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.08.002
4. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2009.09.003
5. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.09.007