This commentary highlights the release of findings now available in the report International Food Policy Study Youth Surveys: Summary of Findings 2019–2021.

The survey data described in this commentary consist of repeated cross-sectional surveys conducted annually beginning in 2019.

Online surveys were conducted in 2019 to 2021 among respondents living in Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Survey respondents were youth aged 10–17 years in 2019 (n 12 031), 2020 (n 11 108) and 2021 (n 10 459).

The report described in this commentary summarises findings on food and nutrition behaviours, attitudes and knowledge among youth, including their diet sources and patterns, school nutrition environments, food security, diet intentions, weight perceptions and weight loss behaviours, sugary drink perceptions, awareness of public education and mass media campaigns, perceptions of food labels and exposure to food and beverage marketing.

Results from the IFPS Youth surveys provide important insights into key policies of global interest, including front-of-package nutrition labelling, levies on sugary beverages and restrictions on marketing unhealthy food and beverages to children. As policymakers continue to seek effective strategies to improve adolescent health outcomes, ongoing cross-country monitoring of food and nutrition-related indicators, such as the data from the International Food Policy Study, will be critical in assessing dietary trends and evaluating upcoming policies.

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) commonly show memory deficits on neuropsychological tests. The BVMT-R is a widely used test of visual learning and memory that involves accurately reproducing an array of figures in the correct special location. The present study examined performance processes of visual memory in presurgical patients with TLE, including item (i.e., accuracy) and associative memory (i.e., location), which have been shown to be dissociable in studies of visual memory in other neurologic populations.

Participants included nine patients with left TLE (67% female; 67% left-handed; mean age = 46.15 years, range = 24-55; mean education = 14.8 years, range = 9-18) and six patients with right TLE (17% female; 33% left-handed; mean age = 57.64 years, range = 22-62; mean education = 15.52 years, range 11-18). Mean duration of epilepsy was 19 years. Participants had an average of two failed anti-seizure medications prior to surgery. TLE groups were compared to 22 healthy controls (36% female; 14% left-handed; mean age = 33.68 years, range = 2253; mean education = 17.66 years, range = 1620). All participants completed comprehensive neuropsychological testing at a large Northeastern medical center. The BVMT-R was scored using standard and novel scoring paradigms. All data were retrospectively reviewed from archival datasets.

MANCOVA results indicated a significant multivariate main effect for group membership and standard BVMT-R scoring after controlling for level of education, Wilks’ A = 0.59, F(4, 64) = 4.91, p = .002. The multivariate partial eta squared (np2) of .58 indicated a strong relationship between group membership and both immediate and delayed recall, with the control group performing better overall. The TLE groups did not perform significantly different from each other. A significant multivariate main effect for group and novel BVMT-R scoring was found (also controlling for education), Wilks’ A = 0.42, F(8, 58) = 3.97, p = .001. Overall, the control group demonstrated better item learning with no significant difference between TLE groups observed. Both the control (M = (16.5, SD = 2.04) and left TLE (M = 12.33, SD = 4.03) showed stronger associative learning compared to the right TLE group (M = 10.2, SD = 4.27). For item and location delayed recall, controls (M = 4.82, SD = 1.62) had more accurate recall compared to left TLE (M = 1.56, SD = 2.04) with a trend toward better performance compared to the right TLE patients (M = 2.6, SD = 1.82); the TLE groups performed similarly. No difference was observed for associative delayed recall between the three groups.

Patients with right TLE showed worse associative learning compared to left TLE, while performance was generally comparable to their right TLE counterparts on other novel BVMT-R scoring paradigms. Unsurprisingly, patients with TLE performed worse on BVMT-R using standard scoring procedures, though no lateralizing effect was observed. While these findings suggest that associative visual learning weakness may be characteristic of right TLE, findings should be interpreted cautiously the given small sample size and demographic considerations (i.e., uneven gender distribution, lack of data on ethnicity/race).

Among people with dementia, poor nutritional status has been associated with worse cognitive and functional decline, but few studies have examined its association with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). We examined this topic in a population-based sample of persons with dementia.

Longitudinal, observational cohort study.

Community.

Two hundred ninety-two persons with dementia (71.9% Alzheimer’s disease, 56.2% women) were followed up to 6 years.

We used a modified Mini-Nutritional Assessment (mMNA) and the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) to evaluate nutritional status and NPS, respectively. Individual linear mixed effects models examined the associations between time-varying mMNA total score or clinical categories (malnourishment, risk for malnourishment, or well-nourished) and NPI total score (excluding appetite domain) or NPI individual domain or cluster (e.g. psychosis) scores. Covariates tested were dementia onset age, type, and duration, medical comorbidities, sex, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, and education.

Compared to the well-nourished, those at risk for malnourishment and those malnourished had higher total NPI scores [b (95% CI) = 1.76 (0.04, 3.48) or 3.20 (0.62, 5.78), respectively], controlling for significant covariates. Higher mMNA total score (better nutritional status) was associated with lower total NPI [b (95% CI) = −0.58 (−0.86, −0.29)] and lower domain scores for psychosis [b (95% CI) = −0.08 (−0.16, .004)], depression [b (95% CI = −0.11 (−0.16, −0.05], and apathy [b (95% CI = −0.19 (−0.28, −0.11)].

Worse nutritional status is associated with more severe NPS. Dietary or behavioral interventions to prevent malnutrition may be beneficial for persons with dementia.

In February 2020, San Francisco proposed mandatory health warnings for sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) advertisements. Industry legal challenges stated that the warning would detract from advertisers’ ability to convey their intended message and mislead consumers into believing that SSB cause weight gain regardless of consumption amount, lifestyle or intake of other energy-dense foods.

Online between-group experiments tested the impact of SSB warnings on advertising outcomes and consumer perceptions. Respondents were randomised to view six SSB print advertisements with or without a health warning (‘Warning’ and ‘No Warning’ condition, respectively). Linear and binary logistic regression models tested differences between groups, including ad recall, brand perceptions and beliefs about SSB health effects.

Panelists from the US Nielsen Global Panel.

Sixteen to 65-year-old respondents (n 1064).

Overall, 69·2 % of participants in the ‘Warning’ condition recalled seeing warnings on SSB ads. Compared with the ‘No Warning’ condition, participants in the ‘Warning’ condition who reported noticing the warnings were equally likely to recall the brands featured in the SSB ads and to recall specific attributes of the final ad they viewed. Similarly, no differences were observed between groups in perceptions of SSB, such as perceived taste, or in the prevalence of false beliefs regarding the health effects of SSB and intake of other sugary foods on weight gain.

Overall, there was no evidence that SSB health warnings detracted from attention to promotional elements in advertisements or that the warnings misled consumers into false beliefs about SSB as the exclusive cause of weight gain.