The role of improved social support for healthy eating in a lifestyle intervention: Texercise Select

Abstract

Objective: We examined the measurement and mediating role of social support in dietary intake among participants in Texercise Select, an intervention for improving lifestyle behaviours. Design: Quasi-experimental study. Participants reported their dietary intake, level of social support measured by the new Social Support for Healthy Eating scale, sociodemographics and disease profile. We conducted exploratory factor analysis for scale evaluation and structural equation modelling for mediation analysis to test if changes in dietary-specific social support mediate the relationship between the intervention and changes in dietary intake. Setting: Texas. Participants: Community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults completed a self-reported survey at baseline and 3-month follow-up (intervention group n 211, comparison group n 175). Results: The majority of the sample was aged ≥70 years (mean 74·30, sd 8·54), female (82·1 %) and had at least two chronic conditions (63·5 %). The acceptable levels of reliability and validity of the dietary-specific social support scale were confirmed. Compared with the comparison group, the intervention group reported improved intake of fruit/vegetables and water, and improved dietary-specific social support. Improved dietary-specific social support mediated the association between intervention and change in fruit/vegetable intake, controlling for sociodemographics, number of chronic conditions and geographic residence. About 12 % of intervention effect was mediated by social support. Conclusions: The current study confirms positive intervention effects on healthy eating, and highlights social support relating to dietary behaviours that may be helpful for healthy eating. Future research should investigate additional social support for developing healthy eating behavioural skills.

Dietary Barriers Appear to Influence the Effects of a Dyadic Web-Based Lifestyle Intervention on Caloric Intake and Adiposity: A Mediation Analysis of the DUET Trial

“…The challenge in targeting social support in this current study and others may stem from the quality and availability of social networks, factors that may influence support received during the intervention [28,66]. Our results and these others contradict a recent large group-based Texercise Select trial [67], in which participants in the intervention arm reported significant improvements in social support compared to the control arm, and social support was found to be a significant mediator of the intervention's effect on diet. However, unlike our study that measured dietary, social support from family and friends, Texercise Select measured diet-specific social support (i.e., support for planning dietary goals, keeping dietary goals, and reducing barriers to healthy eating) and was much larger in size (n = 386) compared to this current study (n = 112).…”

Differential Effects of Sleep Disturbance and Malnutrition on Late-Life Depression Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults

“…Moreover, for the older adult population, nutritional status may be an indicator of the quality of social support systems and social interactions. This association between social relationships and nutritional deficiency has also been confirmed in previous studies (45)(46)(47). Psychological factors and the social meaning of eating can also affect dietary patterns, including the type and amount of food intake (48).…”

“This cage that I’m stuck inside”: Autistic adults’ perceptions of weight management, body weight, and body image

“…So, it's difficult for me to reach out to other people for support and commiseration, which means I don't really feel connected to other people when I'm trying to lose weight. Social support is a key factor in physical activity and dietary interventions (Barrera et al, 2006;Yoshikawa et al, 2020) and a determinant of successful weight management interventions (Karfopoulou et al, 2016). This finding builds upon prior research with autistic adults (Colombo-Dougovito et al, 2020;Kinnaird et al, 2019) suggesting that it is critical to identify effective methods of socially supporting autistic adults in health-promotion activities.…”