Objective: The present study aimed at investigating the influence of food availability, rules and television viewing habits on eating behaviours in adolescents. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Four randomly selected middle schools. Subjects: A sample of 534 seventh and eighth graders. Interventions: Validated questionnaires were used to measure the family environment and fat, soft drink and fruit consumption. Hierarchical regression analyses on fat, soft drink and fruit consumption, with demographic and psychosocial variables entered as the first and environmental factors as the second block were conducted in boys and girls. Results: Boys with more unhealthy products available at home consumed more fat (Pp0.001, 95% CI: 8.2-29.4) and more soft drinks (Pp0.01, 95% CI: 0.2-1.4). Boys who reported better television viewing habits ate more fruit (Pp0.001, 95% CI: À1.7 to À0.5). Girls who reported better television viewing habits consumed less fat (Pp0.01, 95% CI: 1.4-9.0) and more fruit (Pp0.05, 95% CI: À1.0 to À0.1). Girls who reported higher availability of healthy products at home (Pp0.05, 95% CI: 0.3-3.1) and more food rules (Pp0.001, 95% CI: À1.8 to À0.5), consumed more fruit. Environmental factors were poor predictors of soft drink consumption among girls. Conclusion: Availability of (un)healthy food products, family food rules and TV viewing habits were related to one or more eating behaviours in boys or girls. Although home environmental factors can play an important role in influencing adolescents' eating behaviours, these factors were generally less predictive than demographic and psychosocial variables.

Objectives: To investigate the reproducibility of the HELENA Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) developed as a basis for an online tailored intervention and to compare the FFQ with four computerized 24-h recalls. Subjects/methods: A convenience sample of 48 Belgian-Flemish adolescents completed four computerized 24-h recalls, the FFQ and a retest 1-2 weeks later. Correlations, the Wilcoxon's signed rank test and Bland and Altman's plots were used to compare the intakes of 22 food groups, energy (kcal), fibre (g, g/1000 kcal), vitamin C (mg, mg/1000 kcal), calcium (mg, mg/1000 kcal), iron (mg, mg/1000 kcal) and fat (g, % from total energy). Results: Reproducibility correlations were good (0.46-0.90). De-attenuated correlations between both methods were high (X0.51) for all nutrients and nutrient densities, except for fibre (g), vitamin C (mg) and percent energy from fat (respectively 0.23, 0.40 and 0.30). On a food group level correlations were significant (r unadjusted 40.3) for most (17/22) food groups. No systematic differences were found between test and retest; comparison with the recalls resulted in a significantly higher intake of bread, breakfast cereals, other snacks, vegetables, potatoes, coffee and tea, alcoholic beverages, energy, and most nutrients. No significant difference was found for calcium, whereas an underestimation was found for nutrient density of calcium and fat. Conclusions: The overestimation in seven food groups, resulting in an overestimation of energy, fibre, iron and vitamin C, and underestimation of percentage energy from fat, needs to be considered when the estimated intakes are used for tailored feedback.

SummaryThe ToyBox-intervention is a kindergarten-based, family-involved intervention targeting multiple lifestyle behaviours in preschool children, their teachers and their families. This intervention was conducted in six European countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain. The aim of this paper is to provide a descriptive overview of the harmonization and standardization procedures of the baseline and follow-up evaluation of the study (and substudies). Steps related to the study's operational, standardization and harmonization procedures as well as the impact and outcome evaluation assessment tools used are presented. Experiences from the project highlight the importance of safeguarding the measurement process to minimize data heterogeneity derived from potential measurement error and country-by-country differences. In addition, it was made clear that continuing quality control and support is an important component of such studies. For this reason, well-supported communication channels, such as regular email updates and teleconferences, and regular internal and external meetings to ensure smooth and accurate implementation were in place during the study. The ToyBox-intervention and its harmonized and standardized procedures can serve as a successful case study for future studies evaluating the efficacy of similar interventions.Keywords: Assessment tools, harmonization, preschool children, standardization. obesity reviews (2014) obesity reviews

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