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Background: In young men, unhealthy lifestyle behaviours can be detrimental to their physical and/or mental health and set them on a negative health trajectory into adulthood. Despite this, there is a lack of evidence to guide development of effective health behaviour change interventions for young men. This study assessed the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the 'HEYMAN' (Harnessing Ehealth to enhance Young men's Mental health, Activity and Nutrition) healthy lifestyle program for young men.Methods: A pilot RCT with 50 young men aged 18-25 years randomised to the HEYMAN intervention (n = 26) or waitlist control (n = 24). HEYMAN was a 3-month intervention, targeted for young men to improve eating habits, activity levels and well-being. Intervention development was informed by a participatory research model (PRECEDE-PROCEED). Intervention components included eHealth support (website, wearable device, Facebook support group), face-to-face sessions (group and individual), a personalised food and nutrient report, home-based resistance training equipment and a portion control tool. Outcomes included: feasibility of research procedures (recruitment, randomisation, data collection and retention) and of intervention components. Generalized linear mixed models estimated the treatment effect at 3-months for the primary outcomes: pedometer steps/day, diet quality, well-being and several secondary outcomes.Results: A 7-week recruitment period was required to enrol 50 young men. A retention rate of 94% was achieved at 3-months post-intervention. Retained intervention participants (n = 24) demonstrated reasonable usage levels for most program components and also reported reasonable levels of program component acceptability for attractiveness, comprehension, usability, support, satisfaction and ability to persuade, with scores ranging from 3.0 to 4.6 (maximum 5). No significant intervention effects were observed for the primary outcomes of steps/day (1012.7, 95% CI = -506.2, 2531.6, p = 0.191, d = 0.36), diet quality score (3.6, 95% CI = -0.4, 7.6, p = 0.081, d = 0.48) or total well-being score (0.4, 95% CI = -1.6, 2.5, p = 0.683, d = 0.11). Significant intervention effects were found for daily vegetable servings, energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, MVPA, weight, BMI, fat mass, waist circumference and cholesterol (all p < 0.05).Conclusions: The HEYMAN program demonstrated feasibility in assisting young men to make some positive lifestyle changes. This provides support for the conduct of a larger, fully-powered RCT, but with minor amendments to research procedures and intervention components required.Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12616000350426 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a lack of understanding of young men's perspectives in obesity-related research. This study aims to: (1) identify young men's perceived motivators and barriers in adopting healthy eating and physical activity behaviours, and (2) explore any differences in responses by weight status categories. Methods: Ten focus groups (32-63 minutes; 3-9 participants per group) were conducted with 61 young men (BMI: 25.3 ± 5.1 kg/m², aged: 18-25 years) from the Hunter region, New South Wales, Australia. There were 35 (57.4 %) healthy weight men and 26 (42.6 %) overweight/ obese men. Three groups were with healthy weight participants, three with overweight/obese participants and four with mixed-BMI participants. Sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data analysis was conducted by an independent researcher using NVIVO10. Results: Motivators for healthy eating grouped into four themes: physical health (e.g. to live longer), sport or performance (e.g. to support their sporting goals), physical appearance (e.g. sexual attractiveness) and social influences (e.g. societal expectations to eat healthy), while key motivators for physical activity were: physical appearance (e.g. sexual attractiveness), social inclusion (e.g. making friends), physical and mental health (e.g. relieve stress) and improvements for sport or performance (e.g. improve fitness). Themes for key barriers to eating healthy were: intrinsic (e.g. perceived effort to adopt healthy eating), logistic (e.g. cost), and social factors (e.g. peer influence), while busy lifestyles (e.g. lack of time), logistic (e.g. cost), cognitive-emotional (e.g. feelings of inferiority) and social factors (e.g. family upbringing) were key barriers for physical activity. Responses varied little by BMI status. Conclusion: This research emphasises the importance of consulting young men when developing healthy lifestyle programs that aim to promote healthy eating and physical activity in young men. Future research is needed to identify the most effective ways to address their motivators and barriers in intervention research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Young adult males commonly engage in risky behaviours placing them at risk of acute and chronic health conditions. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide an overview of existing literature, describing the interventions targeting risk behaviours in young adult males. Methods: A search of seven electronic databases, grey literature and relevant journals reported in English language until May 2013 was conducted. All interventions that promoted healthy behaviours or reductions in risky behaviours to treat or prevent an associated health issue(s) in young adult males (17-35 years) in upper-middle and high-income countries were included. For inclusion the appropriate age range had to be reported and the sample had to be young adult male participants only or the outcomes reported with stratification by age and/or sex to include young adult males. Risk behaviours included: physical inactivity, poor diet, alcohol use, tobacco smoking, recreational drug use, unsafe sexual behaviours, tanning/sun exposure, violence, unsafe vehicle driving, gambling and self-harm. Results: The search strategy identified 16,739 unique citations and the full-text of 1149 studies were retrieved and screened with 100 included studies focussed on: physical inactivity (27%), alcohol use (25%), unsafe sexual behaviour (21%), poor diet (5%), unsafe vehicle driving (5%), tobacco smoking (4%), recreational drug use (2%), and tanning/sun exposure (1%) with no relevant studies targeting violence, gambling or self-harm. Also 10% of the studies targeted multiple risk behaviours. The most common study design was randomized controlled trials (62%). Face-to-face was the most common form of intervention delivery (71%) and the majority were conducted in university/college settings (46%). There were 46 studies (46%) that included young adult male participants only, the remaining studies reported outcomes stratified by age and/or sex. Conclusion: Risk behaviours in young men have been targeted to some extent, but the amount of research varies across risk behaviours. There is a need for more targeted and tailored interventions that seek to promote healthy behaviours or decrease risky behaviours in young men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Better diet quality has been associated with less weight gain over time. However, few studies have examined the role of diet quality during weight loss. This study aimed to compare changes in diet quality in overweight/obese adults during a weight loss intervention, and determine whether an association between diet quality score and weight loss exists.Methods: Overweight or obese (BMI 25-40 kg/m2) adults, aged 18-60 years, were recruited from the Hunter Region of NSW, Australia and randomized to one of three groups: a standard online weight loss program (n = 94); an enhanced version of this online program that provided additional personalized feedback and reminders (n = 98); or a wait-list control group (n = 97). Diet quality was calculated using the Australian Recommended Food Score (ARFS) with dietary data from the Australian Eating Survey (AES) Food Frequency Questionnaire at baseline and 12-weeks.Results: The basic and enhanced groups lost significantly more weight than the control group after 12 weeks (basic -2.2 ± 3.4 kg, enhanced -3.0 ± 4.0 kg, control 0.4 ± 2.4 kg, P < 0.001) with no difference between the basic and enhanced groups. The mean change in ARFS in the enhanced group (2.2 ± 5.7) was significantly higher (P = 0.03) than the control group. There were no significant differences in change in ARFS between the enhanced and basic, or basic and control groups. The ARFS and the fruit, meat, wholegrain, dairy and water sub-scale scores at 12 weeks were significantly associated with greater weight loss (P < 0.05).Conclusions: Diet quality improved significantly in the enhanced group compared to controls following 12-weeks intervention. Furthermore, higher diet quality was associated with greater weight loss.Trial Registration: ACTRN12610000197033. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]