Welcome

Welcome to the 1st edition of the ISBNPA Young Adults Special Interest Group Newsletter.

The aim of the Young Adults (YA) SIG is to create a collaborative community of ISBNPA members with research expertise and interest relating to young adults’ (aged 16-35 years) behavioural nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and/or sleep. The YA SIG will create an opportunity for members to discuss and disseminate new evidence, identify and address significant research gaps, and foster global collaborations to advance research in this important field.

You are amongst the first members to be part of this community and we are thrilled to have you onboard! As you’ll see below, there are several ways you can contribute and get involved.

Our newsletter will be an important source of communication between the SIG and its members. Among other things, the newsletter will include important information about relevant research and upcoming events and awards.

Dr Melinda Hutchesson, Chair of ISBNPA Young Adult SIG

First Young Adults SIG Webinar: 11th November 2021

Person-centered approaches: Designing with and not for young people

This webinar will provide attendees with an opportunity to hear from guest speakers with interdisciplinary expertise in applying person-centered design methods with young people to design behavioural programs in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, and health-related behaviour change more broadly. Each speaker will share insights from their applied work designing programs with (and not for) young people before participating in a semi-structured panel discussion.

Date: Thursday the 11th of November 2021

Time: 9:00 am Thursday, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) | 8:00 pm Thursday, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT) (*7pm AEST)

For more details and to register see here

Young Adults SIG Publication award: Open now!

Have you published a paper on young adults and either diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and/or sleep in 2020 or 2021?

This award could be for you! The award is open to all career stages, with four awards up for grabs (Post-Graduate Student, Early-Career, Mid-Career, and Senior Academic).

Eligibility:

The requirements are:

You must be first author on the paper
A member of our ISBNPA Young Adult SIG (if not sign up here)
Paper must be on young adults (broadly defined as aged 16-35 years) and directly or indirectly relevant to diet, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and/or sleep

How to apply: Please fill out the nomination form

Applications are due by 31st October 2021.

2022 ISBNPA Annual Meeting

The 21st ISBNPA Annual Meeting will be hosted in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

Key dates:

Symposia submissions due 28th October 2021
Dare to share submissions due 7th December 2021
Regular abstract submissions due 7th December 2021
Late breaking abstract submissions due 1st March 2022.

For the first time there will be a Young Adults SIG track at the Annual Meeting, so we encourage our researchers to submit any relevant research.

If you select the Young Adults SIG track when submitting it also means you will be eligible for any conference prize(s) the SIG offers.

Meet the Young Adults SIG team

Dr Melinda Hutchesson (Chair) is a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focuses on understanding how to improve young adults health behaviours to promote mental health and wellbeing, and chronic disease prevention.

Dr Eleanor Winpenny

(Co-chair) is a Senior Research Associate (MRC Career Development Award Fellowship) at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge. Her research group focuses on the environmental and behavioural factors which influence trajectories of diet, eating behaviours and cardiovascular health across adolescence and early adulthood.

Dr Stephanie Partridge (Secretary) is a Senior Research Fellow (NHMRC/National Heart Foundation Early Career Fellowship) and Accredited Practising Dietitian at the University of Sydney. Her research is focused on improving nutrition and physical activity behaviours for effective prevention of obesity and chronic diseases in young people.

Dr Taylor Willmott (Events Officer) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Social Marketing @ Griffith, Griffith University. Taylor leads a program of research focused on the prevention of noncommunicable disease and the nexus between diet, physical activity, and body weight, particularly during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood.

Dr Megan Whatnall (Communications Officer) is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Accredited Practising Dietitian in the Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focuses on understanding and optimising the health and wellbeing of young adults and university students.

Ming Yu Claudia Wong (Communications Officer) is a PhD candidate (ready to be graduated by 2021) in the Department of Sport, Physical Education and Health of the Hong Kong Baptist University. Claudia being a former elite athlete, her PhD combines knowledge from the field of exercise and health, and psychology to investigate the association between physical activity and positive self, self-compassion in particular, among adolescents

Dr Lee Ashton

(Awards Officer) is a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Priority Research Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition (PRC-PAN) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Lee's research focuses on digital health and research translation

New SIG officer roles available

We are also currently recruiting two SIG officers. We are seeking a PhD student, and a mid-career researcher, with a passion for young adults health. They will initially be the editors of the SIG quarterly newsletter.

If you are interested please email our chair for more details

Recent publications

Each newsletter we will share some recent publications relevant to the SIG. If you would like to feature your publication please email our chair.

Aira, T., Vasankari, T., Heinonen, O., Korpelainen, R., Kotkajuuri, J., Parkkari, J., . . . Kokko, S. P. (2021). Physical activity from adolescence to young adulthood: patterns of change, and their associations with activity domains and sedentary time. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 18, 85. Find here

Mahumud, R. A., Sahle, B. W., Owusu-Addo, E., Chen, W., Morton, R. L., & Renzaho, A. M. (2021). Association of dietary intake, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours with overweight and obesity among 282,213 adolescents in 89 low and middle income to high-income countries. International Journal of Obesity. Find here

Sexton-Dhamu, M. J., Livingstone, K. M., Pendergast, F. J., Worsley, A., & McNaughton, S. A. (2021). Individual, social–environmental and physical–environmental correlates of diet quality in young adults aged 18–30 years. Appetite, 162. Find here

Whatnall, M. C., Hutchesson, M. J., Sharkey, T., Haslam, R. L., Bezzina, A., Collins, C. E., . . . Ashton, L. M. (2021). Recruiting and retaining young adults: what can we learn from behavioural interventions targeting nutrition, physical activity and/or obesity? A systematic review of the literature. Public Health Nutrition, 1-18. Find here

Willmott, T. J., Pang, B., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2021). Capability, opportunity, and motivation: an across contexts empirical examination of the COM-B model. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-17. Find here

Winpenny, E. M., Howe, L.D., van Sluijs, E.M.F, Hardy R, Tilling K. Early adulthood socioeconomic trajectories contribute to inequalities in adult cardiovascular health, independently of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position. J Epidemiol Community Health. Find here

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