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Exploring food insecurity and obesity in Dutch families: a mediation analysis
- Laura van der Velde, Claire Nyns, Marije Engel, Judith Neter, Irene van der Meer, Mattijs Numans, Jessica Kiefte-de Jong
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 79 / Issue OCE2 / 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 June 2020, E316
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Food insecurity is related to risk of adverse health outcomes such as obesity, but the factors underlying this association are still unclear. We aimed to assess the association between food insecurity status and obesity, and to explore potential mediation by sociodemographic and lifestyle factors.
This cross-sectional study was conducted among 250 participants in a deprived urban area in The Hague, the Netherlands. Data on sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, food insecurity status and diet quality were collected using questionnaires. Diet quality was determined based on current national dietary guidelines. Regression analyses were performed to explore the association between food insecurity and BMI status. To assess the role of potential mediators, mediation analyses were performed to estimate the total effect, direct effect, and indirect effect and proportion of the total effect mediated of the food insecurity status-obesity association through potential mediators, crude and controlling for confounders.
The overall prevalence of food insecurity was 26 percent. Food insecurity was associated with obesity (OR = 2.49, 95%CI 1.16, 5.33), but not with overweight (OR 1.15, 95%CI 0.54, 2.45). The association between food insecurity status and obesity was partially mediated by living situation (proportion mediated: 15.3%), and general health status (19.1%) (consistent mediation). Diet quality was an inconsistent partial mediator (-17.7%). After controlling for confounders, smoking status became an inconsistent partial mediator (-15.8%), and living situation and diet quality remained partial mediators.
Food insecurity is associated with obesity and this association is partially mediated by living situation, and inconsistently partially mediated by diet quality and smoking status when controlling for confounders. Future studies are warranted to test other potential mediators that might underlie the association between food insecurity and obesity. Our findings emphasize the importance of preventing food insecurity to achieve public health goals. In addition, food insecurity and its potential consequences (i.e. an unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking, poor health, and unfavorable living situations) need to be taken into account in obesity prevention programs and policies.
Surface Preparation Techniques for the Atomic Layer Deposition of Hafnium Oxide
- Laura Nyns, Lindsey Hall, Thierry Conard, Annelies Delabie, Wim Deweerd, Marc Heyns, Sven Van Elshocht, Nausikaa Van Hoornick, Chris Vinckier, Stefan De Gendt
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- Journal:
- MRS Online Proceedings Library Archive / Volume 917 / 2006
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 February 2011, 0917-E10-05
- Print publication:
- 2006
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Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been successfully used over the years for the deposition of conformal dielectric layers with precise thickness down to the nanometer scale. Therefore, optimization of the growth behaviour of the dielectric is mandatory. Since ALD is a surface sensitive growth technique, determined by the amount of available reaction sites at the starting surface, the impact of various wet chemical and thermal Si treatments on the HfO2 growth was evaluated. Thin SiO2 starting layers, based on wet chemical processing, were prepared by using a diluted peroxide mixture and an ozone/DI-water treatment. The thermally grown oxides were gradually etched by slowly immersing the oxidized Si substrate into a diluted HF solution, creating a thickness range on a single wafer. Our results demonstrate that the HfO2 deposition is more dependent on the thickness of the SiO2 layer than on the chemistry used to grow the oxide layer. For all studied oxides, two regions can clearly be distinguished. First, a linear relationship between the oxide thickness and the amount of deposited HfO2 is seen. Because chemical oxides tend to grow in islands, this trend can be explained by an increase in density of surface OH groups when the oxide grows thicker. When an ellipsometric thickness of ~0.8 nm is reached, saturation of the HfO2 growth is obtained. We believe that, from this thickness on, the starting surface is completely covered with hydroxyl groups, leaving the HfO2 growth only dependent on the ALD process itself. Since both the wet chemical as the thermal oxides are showing the same trend in HfO2 deposition, it can be stated that surface preparations can be selected solely based on their ease of processing. However, the electrical results show that there may be a difference between the ozone based wet chemical oxides and the etched thermal oxides, since the latter seems to possess slightly more leakage current. The electrical results will be discussed in more detail during the presentation.