To effectively tackle obesity, it is necessary to identify all specific socioeconomic factors which contribute to its development. We aimed to highlight the prevalence of adult overweight/obesity in European countries and investigate the association of various socioeconomic factors and their accumulative effect on overweight/obesity status. Cross-sectional data from the Feel4Diabetes study for 24,562 adults residing in low socioeconomic areas were collected, representing Belgium, Finland, Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Socioeconomic Burden Score (SEBS) was created, accounting for unemployment, financial insecurity, and education ≤ 12 years. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and logistic regression. In total, 19,063 adults with complete data were included (34.5% overweight and 15.8% obese). The highest overweight/obesity rates occurred in Greece (37.5%/17.8%) and Hungary (35.4%/19.7%). After adjusting for confounders, age of <45 years and female sex were inversely associated with overweight/obesity, while low educational level (≤12 years), unemployment, and financial insecurity were positively associated. The increase in SEBS (clustering of socioeconomic disadvantages) was associated with increased overweight/obesity likelihood. This association of SEBS scores with overweight/obesity was evident for males and females across all examined countries, excluding males in low-income countries (Bulgaria and Hungary), where the highest SEBS score was inversely associated with overweight/obesity. The clustering burden of socioeconomic disadvantages on overweight/obesity was found to be influenced by the countries’ economic state and sex.

Coronavirus disease (SARSCoV-2) appeared in 2019 was confirmed as pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020. Stay-at-home order had an impact on consumers’ food purchase habits, as people around the world were able to leave their homes solely in extremely severe or urgent cases. In our research, we delve into the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ food purchase habits. The research involved 3000 consumers during the first wave of coronavirus. The sample represents the Hungarian population by gender and age. To achieve the research goals, we applied multivariate statistical tools. The findings suggest that the pandemic could not change consumer attitude significantly, but the order of factors influencing purchases changed. Consumer motivation factors were organized into four well-distinguished factors: Healthy, domestic, and environmentally friendly choice; Usual taste and quality; Reasonable price; Shelf life. Due to the lack of outstanding data during segmentation, we developed four segments by hierarchical cluster analysis: Health- and environment-conscious women; Price sensitive young people; Taste-oriented men; Quality-oriented intellectuals. The results confirm that food manufacturers and traders need to be prepared for further restrictions in the future.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of food parenting practices (FPP), including home availability of different types of foods and drinks, parental modelling of fruit intake, permissiveness and the use of food as a reward in the relationship between parental education and dietary intake in European children.Design: Single mediation analyses were conducted to explore whether FPP explain associations between parents’ educational level and children’s dietary intake measured by a parent-reported FFQ.Setting: Six European countries.Participants: Parent–child dyads (n 6705, 50·7 % girls, 88·8 % mothers) from the Feel4Diabetes-study.Results: Children aged 8·15 ± 0·96 years were included. Parental education was associated with children’s higher intake of water, fruits and vegetables and lower intake of sugar-rich foods and savoury snacks. All FPP explained the associations between parental education and dietary intake to a greater or lesser extent. Specifically, home availability of soft drinks explained 59·3 % of the association between parental education and sugar-rich food intake. Home availability of fruits and vegetables was the strongest mediators in the association between parental education and fruit and vegetable consumption (77·3 % and 51·5 %, respectively). Regarding savoury snacks, home availability of salty snacks and soft drinks was the strongest mediators (27·6 % and 20·8 %, respectively).Conclusions: FPP mediate the associations between parental education and children’s dietary intake. This study highlights the importance of addressing FPP in future interventions targeting low-educated populations.

Food parenting practices (FPPs) have an important role in shaping children’s dietary behaviors. This study aimed to investigate cross-sectional and longitudinal associations over a two-year follow-up between FPP and dietary intake and compliance with current recommendations in 6- to 11-year-old European children. A total of 2967 parent-child dyads from the Feel4Diabetes study, a randomized controlled trial of a school and community-based intervention, (50.4% girls and 93.5% mothers) were included. FPPs assessed were: (1) home food availability; (2) parental role modeling of fruit intake; (3) permissiveness; (4) using food as a reward. Children’s dietary intake was assessed through a parent-reported food frequency questionnaire. In regression analyses, the strongest cross-sectional associations were observed between home availability of 100% fruit juice and corresponding intake (β = 0.492 in girls and β = 0.506 in boys, p < 0.001), and between parental role modeling of fruit intake and children’s fruit intake (β = 0.431 in girls and β = 0.448 in boys, p < 0.001). In multilevel logistic regression models, results indicated that improvements in positive FPPs over time were mainly associated with higher odds of compliance with healthy food recommendations, whereas a decrease in negative FPP over time was associated with higher odds of complying with energy-dense/nutrient-poor food recommendations. Improving FPPs could be an effective way to improve children’s dietary intake.

Early identification of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension (HTN) risk may improve prevention and promote public health. Implementation of self-reported scores for risk assessment provides an alternative cost-effective tool. The study aimed to develop and validate two easy-to-apply screening tools identifying high-risk individuals for insulin resistance (IR) and HTN in a European cohort. Sociodemographic, lifestyle, anthropometric and clinical data obtained from 1581 and 1350 adults (baseline data from the Feel4Diabetes-study) were used for the European IR and the European HTN risk assessment index respectively. Body mass index, waist circumference, sex, age, breakfast consumption, alcohol, legumes and sugary drinks intake, physical activity and sedentary behavior were significantly correlated with Homeostatic Model Assessment of IR (HOMA-IR) and/or HTN and incorporated in the two models. For the IR index, the Area Under the Curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity for identifying individuals above the 75th and 95th of HOMA-IR percentiles were 0.768 (95%CI: 0.721–0.815), 0.720 and 0.691 and 0.828 (95%CI: 0.766–0.890), 0.696 and 0.778 respectively. For the HTN index, the AUC, sensitivity and specificity were 0.778 (95%CI: 0.680–0.876), 0.667 and 0.797. The developed risk assessment tools are easy-to-apply, valid, and low-cost, identifying European adults at high risk for developing T2DM or having HTN.

The Feel4Diabetes program was comprised of a community-based screening and a two-year intervention phase aiming to prevent type 2 diabetes (T2D) in families at risk for diabetes across Europe. The current work aimed to identify the socio-demographic characteristics and body weight perceptions of participants who benefitted the most, achieving at least a 5% reduction in body weight, waist circumference and glycaemic indices (fasting plasma glucose, insulin, glycosylated haemoglobin levels), over two-year period. Following a two-stage screening procedure, 2294 high-risk parents were randomly allocated to standard care or more intensive intervention. The participants who benefitted most were living in Southern (OR 2.39–3.67, p < 0.001) and Eastern Europe (OR 1.55–2.47, p < 0.05), received more intensive intervention (OR 1.53–1.90, p = 0.002) and were younger (<40 years old) adults (OR 1.48–1.51, p < 0.05). Furthermore, individuals with tertiary education (OR 2.06, p < 0.001), who were unemployed (OR 1.62–1.68, p < 0.05) and perceived their body weight to be higher than normal (OR 1.58–3.00, p < 0.05) were more likely to benefit from the program. Lastly, males were more likely to show improvements in their glycaemic profiles compared to females (OR 1.40, p = 0.024). These findings point out the regions in Europe and the sociodemographic profile of individuals that benefitted the most in the current study, highlighting the need to prioritise regions in greater need for such interventions and also tailor future interventions to the characteristics and perceptions of the target populations.