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Purpose Binge eating is a common behavior in children and adolescents who suffer from either eating disorders (EDs) or from severe obesity. The purpose of the current study was to explore the association between social anxiety and binge eating and compare prevalence rates of social anxiety between youth with severe obesity or EDs who did or did not engage in binge eating. Methods Retrospective data on treatment-seeking youth’s ( n  = 490) eating behaviors and social anxiety at assessment were analyzed. Results Results indicate that those who engage in binge eating have higher rates of social anxiety; frequency of binges does not predict severity of social anxiety, though social anxiety predicts presence of binge eating. Adolescents with EDs had higher rates of social anxiety than those with obesity, and for both groups, rates of social anxiety were highest in those who binge. Conclusions Clinicians who treat youth with EDs and with obesity should be aware of the relationship between binge eating and social anxiety and of the need for treatment to address both these disorders. Level of Evidence Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Aim2Be is a gamified lifestyle app designed to promote lifestyle behavior changes among Canadian adolescents and their families. The primary aim was to test the efficacy of the Aim2Be app with support from a live coach to reduce weight outcomes (BMI Z score [zBMI]) and improve lifestyle behaviors among adolescents with overweight and obesity and their parents versus a waitlist control group over 3 months. The secondary aim was to compare health trajectories among waitlist control participants over 6 months (before and after receiving access to the app), assess whether support from a live coach enhanced intervention impact, and evaluate whether the app use influenced changes among intervention participants. A 2-arm parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted from November 2018 to June 2020. Adolescents aged 10 to 17 years with overweight or obesity and their parents were randomized into an intervention group (Aim2Be with a live coach for 6 months) or a waitlist control group (Aim2Be with no live coach; accessed after 3 months). Adolescents' assessments at baseline and at 3 and 6 months included measured height and weight, 24-hour dietary recalls, and daily step counts measured with a Fitbit. Data on self-reported physical activity, screen time, fruit and vegetable intake, and sugary beverage intake of adolescents and parents were also collected. A total of 214 parent-child participants were randomized. In our primary analyses, there were no significant differences in zBMI or any of the health behaviors between the intervention and control groups at 3 months. In our secondary analyses, among waitlist control participants, zBMI (P=.02), discretionary calories (P=.03), and physical activity outside of school (P=.001) declined, whereas daily screen time increased (P<.001) after receiving access to the app compared with before receiving app access. Adolescents randomized to Aim2Be with live coaching reported more time being active outside of school compared with adolescents who used Aim2Be with no coaching over 3 months (P=.001). App use did not modify any changes in outcomes among adolescents in the intervention group. The Aim2Be intervention did not improve zBMI and lifestyle behaviors in adolescents with overweight and obesity compared with the waitlist control group over 3 months. Future studies should explore the potential mediators of changes in zBMI and lifestyle behaviors as well as predictors of engagement. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03651284; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT03651284. RR2-10.1186/s13063-020-4080-2.

Despite the growing number of mobile health (mHealth) interventions targeting childhood obesity, few studies have characterized user typologies derived from individuals' patterns of interactions with specific app features (digital phenotypes). This study aims to identify digital phenotypes among 214 parent-child dyads who used the Aim2Be mHealth app as part of a randomized controlled trial conducted between 2019 and 2020, and explores whether participants' characteristics and health outcomes differed across phenotypes. Latent class analysis was used to identify distinct parent and child phenotypes based on their use of the app's behavioral, gamified, and social features over 3 months. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess whether the phenotypes differed by demographic characteristics. Covariate-adjusted mixed-effect models evaluated changes in BMI z scores (zBMI), diet, physical activity, and screen time across phenotypes. Among parents, 5 digital phenotypes were identified: socially engaged (35/214, 16.3%), independently engaged (18/214, 8.4%) (socially and independently engaged parents are those who used mainly the social or the behavioral features of the app, respectively), fully engaged (26/214, 12.1%), partially engaged (32/214, 15%), and unengaged (103/214, 48.1%) users. Married parents were more likely to be fullyengaged than independently engaged (P=.02) or unengaged (P=.01) users. Socially engaged parents were older than fullyengaged (P=.02) and unengaged (P=.01) parents. The latent class analysis revealed 4 phenotypes among children: fully engaged (32/214, 15%), partially engaged (61/214, 28.5%), dabblers (42/214, 19.6%), and unengaged (79/214, 36.9%) users. Fully engaged children were younger than dabblers (P=.04) and unengaged (P=.003) children. Dabblers lived in higher-income households than fully and partiallyengaged children (P=.03 and P=.047, respectively). Fully engaged children were more likely to have fully engaged (P<.001) and partiallyengaged (P<.001) parents than unengaged children. Compared with unengaged children, fully and partiallyengaged children had decreased total sugar (P=.006 and P=.004, respectively) and energy intake (P=.03 and P=.04, respectively) after 3 months of app use. Partially engaged children also had decreased sugary beverage intake compared with unengaged children (P=.03). Similarly, children with fully engaged parents had decreased zBMI, whereas children with unengaged parents had increased zBMI over time (P=.005). Finally, children with independently engaged parents had decreased caloric intake, whereas children with unengaged parents had increased caloric intake over time (P=.02). Full parent-child engagement is critical for the success of mHealth interventions. Further research is needed to understand program design elements that can affect participants' engagement in supporting behavior change. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03651284; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03651284. RR2-10.1186/s13063-020-4080-2.

Few studies have examined how psychosocial risk and protective factors in adolescence shape mental health outcomes and other multimorbid conditions in adulthood, particularly among Canadian youth. The Research on Eating and Adolescent Lifestyle (REAL) 2.0 study was a 15-year follow-up cohort study designed to investigate how early etiological factors, including body image and disordered eating symptoms in adolescence, contribute to the development of eating, weight-related concerns, mental health and substance use health problems in early adulthood. In this paper, we describe the REAL 2.0 cohort's demographic and clinical characteristics alongside an overview of the study procedures, laying the groundwork for collaboration on future learnings with this unique data. The cross-sectional REAL study initially surveyed middle and high school students from 2004 to 2010 (n=3043) across 43 schools in the Ottawa, Canada region. Of those, respondents in grade 7 or 9 (n=1197 from 25 of the 43 original schools) were asked to participate in a longitudinal arm of the study that consisted of yearly follow-ups. From the longitudinal cohort, there were 278 participants (29.1% male; M =28.6) from those who consented to be re-contacted (n=912), who completed the REAL 2.0 survey electronically (30.4%), providing comprehensive data on demographic, clinical, eating and weight-related behaviour, psychological, social, environmental and substance use health factors in adulthood. 9.4% of REAL 2.0 participants met DSM-5 criteria for an eating disorder, while 17.6% met criteria for disordered eating. Moderate to severe anxiety was reported by 28% of participants, while 21.6% experienced moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Regarding substance use, 16.9% engaged in hazardous drinking, 16.9% used cannabis daily or almost daily, and 4.3% reported daily tobacco use. REAL 2.0 has the potential to answer multiple research questions about several mental health outcomes, but its priority focus is to answer questions related to risk and protective factors of multimorbidity in adulthood. Additionally, profiling work, linked to health service utilisation data for systems planning work and predictive modelling studies are secondary goals. By leveraging the Health Data Nexus (HDN) platform, we welcome collaboration with interested researchers who would like to utilise the breadth of data both in adolescence and adulthood to answer other pertinent aetiological questions in mental health and substance use health outcomes. Future plans to conduct additional follow-ups remain feasible.

Objectives(1) To explore individual and family characteristics related to anthropometric and cardiometabolic health indicators and (2) examine whether characteristics that correlate with cardiometabolic health indicators differ across severity of obesity at time of entry to Canadian pediatric weight management clinics.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 2–17 year olds with overweight or obesity who registered in the CANadian Pediatric Weight Management Registry (CANPWR) between May 2013 and October 2017 prior to their first clinic visit. Individual modifiable health behaviors included dietary intake, physical activity, screen time, and sleep. Family characteristics included parental BMI, family medical history, socioeconomic status and family structure. Linear mixed effects stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine which characteristics were related to each health indicator: BMI z-score; waist circumference; waist to height ratio; blood pressure; glycemia; HDL cholesterol; non-HDL cholesterol; triglycerides.ResultsThis study included 1296 children (mean age ± standard deviation: 12.1 ± 3.5 years; BMI z-score: 3.55 ± 1.29; 95.3% with obesity). Hours spent sleeping (estimated β = −0.10; 95% CI [−0.15, −0.05], p = 0.0001), hours per week of organized physical activity (estimated β = −0.32; 95% CI [−0.53, −0.11], p = 0.0026), daily sugared drink intake (estimated β = 0.06; 95% CI [0.01, 0.10], p = 0.0136) and maternal BMI (estimated β = 0.03; 95% CI [0.02, 0.04], p < 0.0001) were associated with BMI z-score (adj. R2 = 0.2084), independent of other individual and family characteristics. Physical activity, total sugared drink intake and sleep duration were associated with glycemia and non-HDL cholesterol, independent of child BMI z-score. However, irrespective of obesity severity, little of the variance (0.86–11.1%) in cardiometabolic health indicators was explained by individual modifiable health behaviors.ConclusionsPhysical activity, total sugared drink intake and hours spent sleeping were related to anthropometric and some cardiometabolic health indicators in children entering pediatric weight management programs. This highlights the importance of these modifiable health behaviors on multiple health indicators in children with obesity.

Many adolescents with obesity do not meet recommendations for nutrition, physical and sedentary activities, and sleep habits, all of which can influence weight management. To explore barriers and enablers that influenced the adoption of lifestyle behavior changes among adolescents receiving multidisciplinary clinical care for pediatric weight management. In this multi-centre, qualitative description study, we used purposeful sampling to recruit 13-17 year olds (body mass index ≥85th percentile) enrolled in one of two pediatric weight management clinics in Edmonton and Ottawa, Canada. Adolescents participated in one-on-one, in-person, semi-structured interviews in English or French. Interviews lasted 30-60 minutes, were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and managed using NVivo 11. Data were triangulated using transcripts, field notes, and memos and analyzed by two independent researchers using inductive, semantic thematic analysis. In total, 19 adolescents (12 Anglophone and 7 Francophone; 15.1±1.7 years old; 3.5±0.6 BMI z-score; n = 11 female; n = 13 Caucasian) participated. Adolescents reported diverse barriers to and enablers of healthy nutrition, physical and sedentary activities, and sleep habits, which we organized into the following themes: physiological mechanisms and physical health status, self-regulation for behavior change, controllability and competence beliefs, social relationships and interactions, and accessibility to and availability of opportunities for lifestyle enhancement. Across these themes and lifestyle areas, we identified three shared barriers and/or enablers, including the degree of controllability, the impact of mental health, and social pressures related to weight management. This research provides evidence that can be used to tailor interventions and health services delivery, including a focus on psychosocial well-being, to support adolescents with obesity in making and maintaining healthy lifestyle behavior changes.

Although it remains debatable, exogenous oxytocin, commonly used for labour induction and augmentation, reportedly increases risks of neurodevelopment delay, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder among children prenatally exposed to exogenous oxytocin. However, only few studies have objectively examined exogenous oxytocin’s impact on early childhood development through scoring evaluations. This study investigated the association between exogenous oxytocin exposure and neurodevelopment in 3-year-old children using the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, Third Edition. In this nationwide prospective cohort study, we extracted data from 104,062 foetal records regarding exogenous oxytocin use during labour from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. Participants completed questionnaires throughout the pregnancy and postpartum periods. Outcomes comprised the developmental status less than each cut-off value for the five domains of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition. We conducted multivariable logistic regression analyses on the data of 55,400 children after controlling for confounders. Among the 55,400 included women, 19.0% ( n  = 10,506) used exogenous oxytocin during labour and 81.0% ( n  = 44,894) did not. Children exposed to exogenous oxytocin showed no significantly increased risk of developmental delay in any domain (communication: odds ratio [OR] 1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92–1.16; gross motor: OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.87–1.08; fine motor: OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.92–1.09; problem-solving: OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.94–1.11; personal-social: OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.80–1.03).     Conclusion : Exogenous oxytocin for labour induction did not adversely affect early childhood development. Further studies accounting for the degree of exogenous oxytocin exposure are required to confirm these results. What is Known: • In developed countries, labour is induced in 20–25% of all pregnancies, for which oxytocin is commonly used. • Studies have associated risks of neurodevelopment delay, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder with exposure to exogenous oxytocin. What is New: • Evaluation with the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition, revealed that exogenous oxytocin use did not adversely affect early childhood development. • This prospective study reinforced the lack of evidence of an association between exogenous oxytocin use and early childhood development after adjustment for confounding and rigorous bias elimination.

Abstract Background: Youth with severe obesity are vulnerable to body dissatisfaction. Extracurricular activity (ECA) involvement has been linked to positive social interactions and body image in community samples; however, these links remain to be tested in clinical samples of youth with severe obesity. The present study explored ECA involvement [both physical and nonphysical activities (PAs)] in a clinical sample of youth with obesity to determine whether ECA involvement was related to body image (appearance and weight esteem) and social life (i.e., social experiences with peers). Methods: Participants were 209 adolescents (Mean age = 15.05; 50.2% female) who completed a baseline assessment at a tertiary care weight management program. Results: Of the participants, 70.3% of youth reported participating in PAs, and 56.5% reported participating in non-PAs. As hypothesized, weight esteem and social life were higher in those who participated in PA vs. those who did not. Mediation analyses revealed that social life positively mediated the relationship between PA participation and weight esteem. Conclusions: Social life may be a mechanism by which PA participation is positively related to weight esteem in youth with severe obesity. Findings could inform weight management programs for youth with obesity who are at risk for social inclusion and body dissatisfaction.

In the original version of this Article the following were listed as authors; however, they should have only been referred to in the Acknowledgments section and not listed in this way:

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209219.].