Giacomo Bignardi

The TIPPME intervention typology for changing environments to change behaviour

Reflecting widespread interest in concepts of ‘nudging’ and ‘choice architecture’, there is increasing research and policy attention on altering aspects of the small-scale physical environment, such as portion sizes or the placement of products, to change health-related behaviour at the population level. There is, however, a lack of clarity in characterizing these interventions and no reliable framework incorporating standardized definitions. This hampers both the synthesis of cumulative evidence about intervention effects, and the identification of intervention opportunities. To address this, a new tool, TIPPME (typology of interventions in proximal physical micro-environments), has been developed and here applied to the selection, purchase and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco. This provides a framework to reliably classify and describe, and enable more systematic design, reporting and analysis of, an important class of interventions. In doing so, it makes a distinct contribution to collective efforts to build the cumulative evidence base for effective ways of changing behaviour across populations.

Executive Function Mediates the Relations between Parental Behaviors and Children's Early Academic Ability

The past decade has witnessed a growth of interest in parental influences on individual differences in childrens executive function (EF) on the one hand and in the academic consequences of variation in childrens EF on the other hand. The primary aim of this longitudinal study was to examine whether childrens EF mediated the relation between three distinct aspects of parental behavior (i.e., parental scaffolding, negative parent-child interactions, and the provision of informal learning opportunities) and childrens academic ability (as measured by standard tests of literacy and numeracy skills). Data were collected from 117 parent-child dyads (60 boys) at two time points ~1 year apart (M Age at Time 1 = 3.94 years, SD = 0.53; M Age at Time 2 = 5.11 years, SD = 0.54). At both time points children completed a battery of tasks designed to measure general cognitive ability (e.g., non-verbal reasoning) and EF (e.g., inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory). Our models revealed that childrens EF (but not general cognitive ability) mediated the relations between parental scaffolding and negative parent-child interactions and childrens early academic ability. In contrast, parental provision of opportunities for learning in the home environment was directly related to childrens academic abilities. These results suggest that parental scaffolding and negative parent-child interactions influence childrens academic ability by shaping childrens emerging EF.

Information-based cues at point of choice to change selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco products: a systematic review

BackgroundReducing harmful consumption of food, alcohol, and tobacco products would prevent many cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Placing information-based cues in the environments in which we select and consume these products has the potential to contribute to changing these behaviours.MethodsIn this review, information-based cues are defined as those which comprise any combination of words, symbols, numbers or pictures that convey information about a product or its use. We specifically exclude cues which are located on the products themselves. We conducted a systematic review of randomised, cluster- randomised, and non-randomised controlled trials to assess the impact of such cues on selection and consumption. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 12 targeted food (most commonly fruit and vegetables), one targeted alcohol sales, and none targeted tobacco products.ResultsTen studies reported statistically significant effects on some or all of the targeted products, although studies were insufficiently homogenous to justify meta-analysis. Existing evidence suggests information-based cues can influence selection and consumption of food and alcohol products, although significant uncertainty remains.ConclusionsThe current evidence base is limited both in quality and quantity, with relatively few, heterogeneous studies at unclear or high risk of bias. Additional, more rigorously conducted studies are warranted to better estimate the potential for these interventions to change selection and consumption of food, alcohol and tobacco products.Trial registrationPROSPERO. 2016;CRD42016051884.