The role of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness in food choices of European adolescents

• Main Authors: Stefanie Do (Author), Vanessa Didelez (Author), Claudia Börnhorst (Author), Juul M.J. Coumans (Author), Lucia A. Reisch (Author), Unna N. Danner (Author), Paola Russo (Author), Toomas Veidebaum (Author), Michael Tornaritis (Author), Dénes Molnár (Author), Monica Hunsberger (Author), Stefaan De Henauw (Author), Luis A. Moreno (Author), Wolfgang Ahrens (Author), Antje Hebestreit (Author), on behalf of the IDEFICS/I.Family consortia (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: BMC, 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.1186/s12966-023-01551-w; 1479-5868
• Keywords: Causal mediation; Food preferences; I.Family study; Impulsivity; Mental health; Causal inference; Nutritional diseases. Deficiency diseases; RC620-627; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2024)

Abstract Background It is unclear whether a hypothetical intervention targeting either psychosocial well-being or emotion-driven impulsiveness is more effective in reducing unhealthy food choices. Therefore, we aimed to compare the (separate) causal effects of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness on European adolescents' sweet and fat propensity. Methods We included 2,065 participants of the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort (mean age: 13.4) providing self-reported data on sweet propensity (score range: 0 to 68.4), fat propensity (range: 0 to 72.6), emotion-driven impulsiveness using the UPPS-P negative urgency subscale, and psychosocial well-being using the KINDLR Questionnaire. We estimated, separately, the average causal effects of psychosocial well-being and emotion-driven impulsiveness on sweet and fat propensity applying a semi-parametric doubly robust method (targeted maximum likelihood estimation). Further, we investigated a potential indirect effect of psychosocial well-being on sweet and fat propensity mediated via emotion-driven impulsiveness using a causal mediation analysis. Results If all adolescents, hypothetically, had high levels of psychosocial well-being, compared to low levels, we estimated a decrease in average sweet propensity by 1.43 [95%-confidence interval: 0.25 to 2.61]. A smaller effect was estimated for fat propensity. Similarly, if all adolescents had high levels of emotion-driven impulsiveness, compared to low levels, average sweet propensity would be decreased by 2.07 [0.87 to 3.26] and average fat propensity by 1.85 [0.81 to 2.88]. The indirect effect of psychosocial well-being via emotion-driven impulsiveness was 0.61 [0.24 to 1.09] for average sweet propensity and 0.55 [0.13 to 0.86] for average fat propensity. Conclusions An intervention targeting emotion-driven impulsiveness, compared to psychosocial well-being, would be marginally more effective in reducing sweet and fat propensity in adolescents.