Changes in physical activity, diet, and body weight across the education and employment transitions of early adulthood: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Winpenny, Eleanor; Smith, M.D. J. Clinton; Penney, Tarra L.; Foubister, Campbell; Guagliano, Justin M.; Love, Rebecca; Astbury, Chloe Clifford; Sluijs, Esther M. F. van; Corder, Kirsten

doi:10.1111/obr.12962

Cited by 84 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Our results are mostly in line with previous reviews indicating that events and transitions during young adulthood are oftentimes accompanied by declines in PA [18][19][20][23][24][25][26] and that retirement may offer a window of opportunity [105] for positive changes in PA despite declines in occupational PA and active commuting [19,27]. Moreover, our results indicate a decreasing trend in PA for the transition from primary to secondary school.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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The impact of life events and transitions on physical activity: A scoping review

et al. 2020

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Background Physical activity (PA) is a fluctuating behavior and prone to change across the life course. Changes in PA may be particularly due to the experience of life events and transitions. For well-timed and successful PA interventions, it is important to understand when and why individuals take up or terminate PA. Objectives This scoping review aims to examine the extent, range, and nature of research on the impact of life events and transitions on PA and to summarize key findings. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. Articles were included if they had been published in peer-reviewed journals between 1998 and 2020 and assessed the impact of at least one life event or transition on PA. Results 107 studies that assessed 72 distinct life events and transitions were included and summarized in ten categories. Events and transitions that are primarily associated with decreases in PA were starting cohabitation, getting married, pregnancy, evolving parenthood, and the transitions from kindergarten to primary school, from primary to secondary school, and from high school to college or into the labor market. Retirement was associated with increases in PA; yet, long-term trajectories across retirement indicated a subsequent drop in activity levels. Divorce was associated with no changes in PA. No trends could be identified for changing work conditions, quitting or losing a job, starting a new relationship, widowhood, moving, and diagnosis of illness. Conclusion Life events and transitions can be conceptualized as natural interventions that occur across the life course and that are oftentimes associated with changes in PA behavior. Our study

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…These previous reviews have suggested that the transition from primary to secondary school is associated with decreasing levels of total PA [22]. Moreover, leaving high school [23] and evolving parenthood [24][25][26] are linked to declines in PA, while retirement is linked to increases especially in leisure-time PA and exercise [27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of life events and transitions on physical activity: A scoping review

et al. 2020

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“…There are very limited data on changes in diet and eating behaviours across early adulthood life transitions, as reported in our recent systematic reviews [20,21], and we have found no other studies that systematically looked at changes in fast food intake across life transitions. Our finding of a relative decrease in fast food intake on leaving the parental home may initially seem counterintuitive.…”

Section: Comparison With Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), collected at around the same time as the Project EAT study (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002), and using a very similar measure, reported a fast food consumption frequency of 2. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] reported consuming fast food on a given day [9], with an overall decrease in fast food consumption with age among U.S adults [9].…”

Section: Comparison With Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of these transitions have previously been found to be associated with changes in adiposity and physical activity. For example, transitions from high school to college, and the transition to becoming a parent have been found to be associated with increases in body weight, and leaving high school is associated with decreases in physical activity [20,21]. However, there is little evidence of these transitions leading to changes in eating behaviours or dietary intake.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Associations of early adulthood life transitions with changes in fast food intake: a latent trajectory analysis

Winpenny

Winkler

Štochl

et al. 2020

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act

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Background Early adulthood is a period of rapid personal development when individuals experience major life transitions (e.g. leaving the parental home, leaving education, beginning employment, cohabitation and parenthood). Changes in social and physical environments associated with these transitions may influence development of health-related behaviours. Consumption of fast food is one behaviour associated with poor diet and long-term health outcomes. In this study we assess how frequency of fast food consumption changes across early adulthood, and how major life transitions are associated with changes in fast food intake. Methods Data were collected across four waves of the Project EAT study, from mean age 14.9 (SD = 1.6) to mean age 31.1 (SD = 1.6) years. Participants reporting data at two or more waves were included (n = 2902). Participants reported past week frequency of eating food from a fast food restaurant and responded to questions on living arrangements, education and employment participation, and having children. To assess changes in fast food we developed a latent growth model incorporating an underlying trajectory of fast food intake, five life transitions, and time-invariant covariates. Results Mean fast food intake followed an underlying quadratic trajectory, increasing through adolescence to a maximum of 1.88 (SE 0.94) times/week and then decreasing again through early adulthood to 0.76 (SE 2.06) times/week at wave 4. Beginning full-time employment and becoming a parent both contributed to increases in fast food intake, each resulting in an average increase in weekly fast food intake of 0.16 (p < 0.01) times/week. Analysis of changes between pairs of waves revealed stronger associations for these two transitions between waves 1–2 (mean age 14.9–19.4 years) than seen in later waves. Leaving the parental home and beginning cohabitation were associated with decreases in fast food intake of − 0.17 (p = 0.004) and − 0.16 (p = 0.007) times/week respectively, while leaving full-time education was not associated with any change. Conclusions The transitions of beginning full-time employment and becoming a parent were associated with increases in fast food intake. Public health policy or interventions designed to reduce fast food intake in young adults may benefit from particular focus on populations experiencing these transitions, to ameliorate their impact.

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Executive function, perceived stress and eating behaviours among Chinese young adults

Chen,

Lam,

Yuan

et al. 2024

Stress and Health

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Young adults in a transitional period may experience more stress and, hence, suffer from an increased risk of unhealthy eating. Executive function (EF) involves not only inhibitory control and mental flexibility (the ‘cool’ facet) to facilitate resistance to immediate temptations, but also affective decision making (the ‘hot’ facet) that helps to regulate emotional eating. The effects of different facets of EF and their interactions with perceived stress on eating behaviours remained underexplored. In this study, 594 young adults in their graduation year of post‐secondary education were included. We used latent profile analysis to identify major patterns of eating behaviours and analysed their associations with perceived stress, and both the ‘cool’ and ‘hot’ facets of EF using multinominal logistic regression models. Latent profile analysis identified three clusters of eating patterns: non‐approaching moderate eaters (N = 312, 52.5%), approaching eaters (N = 229, 38.6%), and approaching‐and‐avoidant eaters (N = 53, 8.9%). Logistic regression models found that the approaching‐and‐avoidant eating pattern was associated with higher perceived stress (OR = 3.16, p value = 0.007) and poorer affective decision‐making (OR = 0.97, p value = 0.006). Stratified analysis further revealed that higher perceived stress was significantly associated with approaching‐and‐avoidant eating only among individuals with poorer affective decision‐making. These findings suggest that individuals with poorer emotional regulation may face greater difficulties in regulating eating behaviours when experiencing higher stress. Interventions for people with a mixed pattern of approaching‐and‐avoidance eating should focus on providing support to regulate emotion‐related eating.

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Changes in physical activity, diet, and body weight across the education and employment transitions of early adulthood: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Cited by 84 publications

References 47 publications

The impact of life events and transitions on physical activity: A scoping review

The impact of life events and transitions on physical activity: A scoping review

Associations of early adulthood life transitions with changes in fast food intake: a latent trajectory analysis

Executive function, perceived stress and eating behaviours among Chinese young adults

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