Manga comics may help promote fruit consumption among youth

According to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

2014-02-11

(Press-News.org) AUDIO: May May Leung, Ph.D., R.D., discusses how a recent pilot study in Brooklyn, N.Y., with minority students found that exposure to manga comics (Japanese comic art) promoting fruit intake significantly...
Click here for more information.

PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 10, 2014 – A recent pilot study in Brooklyn, New York, with minority students found that exposure to Manga comics (Japanese comic art) promoting fruit intake significantly improved healthy snack selection. As snacking accounts for up to 27% of children's daily caloric intake, and childhood obesity has been linked to inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables, the results of this study could have wide-reaching implications.

"Manga comics could be used to promote healthier behaviors and beliefs related to fruit consumption in at-risk youth. The graphics and minimal text make it a promising format to engage younger populations," said lead author May May Leung, PhD, RD, City University of New York School of Public Health and Hunter College.

The study was set in two after-school programs affiliated with Brooklyn Community Services, a New York City-based nonprofit community organization, in the summer and fall of 2011. It comprised 57 youth, approximately 11 years of age, nearly 90% of whom were either Black/African American or Hispanic and 54% were female. The school districts in the study had greater percentages of students eligible for free lunch (79 and 96%, respectively) compared to the citywide average of 66%.

The researchers used an innovative intervention promoting positive dietary behaviors to capture the attention of youth living in a multimedia environment; specifically, Manga comics, which are Japanese comic art. Manga is a unique form of multimodal narrative media combining visual images and text. According to the Transportation-Imagery Model, persuasion of a story's messages occurs because an individual is ''transported'' or immersed into the narrative world, and images in a story are impactful in influencing behavior, which is why Manga was selected for this study.

After reading either a Manga comic, titled "Fight for Your Right to Fruit," or a non-health-related newsletter, children were given the choice between a healthy snack (oranges, grapes, apples, strawberries) or an energy-dense snack (cookies, potato chips, nacho chips, and cheese-filled crackers). Sixty-one percent of children in the comic group chose a healthy snack after reading, opposed to just 35% of the control group.

Approximately 30% to 45% of US children between the ages of 6 and 18 years do not meet recommended fruit consumption levels. Therefore, the results of this study could be useful in promoting healthy decision-making among youth as it relates to food consumption. However, because this was a pilot study, studies with a larger sample size are necessary, as are studies examining the effects of more traditional media.

INFORMATION:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Political values influence people's response to health disparities messages

2014-02-11

PHILADELPHIA (February 10, 2014) – Policymakers and advocates discussing health disparities in the United States would be wise to consider the political affiliation of their audience, suggests a new study published in the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives (2014). "Understanding Public Resistance to Messages about Health Disparities" was written by Sarah E. Gollust, University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and Joseph N. Cappella, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. The study examines how political ...

TGen study uncovers possible genetic markers in breast cancer that spreads to the brain

2014-02-11

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Feb. 10, 2014 — The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) has uncovered possible genetic origins of breast cancer that spreads to the brain, according to a first-of-its-kind study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The compendium of genetic targets uncovered by TGen now can be used to identify potential new methods of diagnosis and new drug therapies for the estimated 45,000 patients in the U.S. each year whose cancer spreads from the breast to the brain. The 3-year study is significant since these patients currently have few treatments ...

New advance in 3-D printing and tissue engineering technology

2014-02-11

Boston, MA – Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Carnegie Mellon University have introduced a unique micro-robotic technique to assemble the components of complex materials, the foundation of tissue engineering and 3D printing. Described in the Jan. 28, 2014, issue of Nature Communications, the research was conducted by Savas Tasoglu, PhD, MS, research fellow in the BWH Division of Renal Medicine, and Utkan Demirci, PhD, MS, associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Biomedical Engineering, part of the BWH Department of Medicine, in collaboration ...

Breast cancer drug fights fungal disease

2014-02-11

Tamoxifen, a drug currently used to treat breast cancer, also kills a fungus that causes a deadly brain infection in immunocompromised patients. The findings, which could lead to new treatments for a disease that kills more HIV/AIDS patients than tuberculosis, appear in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM.) "This work sets the stage for additional animal studies to see if tamoxifen can be used as a drug in people and will allow us to design new drugs related to tamoxifen that are better antifungals," says Damian Krysan ...

Study shows drop in crime rates is less where Wal-Mart builds

2014-02-10

Communities across the United States experienced an unprecedented decline in crime in the 1990s. But for counties where Wal-Mart built stores, the decline wasn't nearly as dramatic. "The crime decline was stunted in counties where Wal-Mart expanded in the 1990s," says Scott Wolfe, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina and lead author of a new study. "If the corporation built a new store, there were 17 additional property crimes and 2 additional violent crimes for every 10,000 persons in a county." The study, titled ...

Newly found tactics in offense-defense struggle with hepatitis C virus

2014-02-10

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) has a previously unrecognized tactic to outwit antiviral responses and sustain a long-term infection. It also turns out that some people are genetically equipped with a strong countermeasure to the virus' attempt to weaken the attack on it. The details of these findings suggest potential targets for treating HCV, according to a research team led by Dr. Ram Savan, assistant professor of immunology at the University of Washington. The study was published in Nature Immunology. HCV infects more than 150 million of the world's people. The ...

NTU showcases expertise in UAV technology at Singapore Airshow 2014

2014-02-10

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) will be showcasing its latest R&D expertise in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology at the Singapore Airshow, one of the most important aerospace and defence exhibitions in the world, held from 11 to 16 February. Visitors to the Singapore Airshow will be able to see 12 drones, programmed by NTU scientists and researchers, flying in formation within inches of each other and executing complex indoor aerial manoeuvres. In addition to the formation air-show by 12 quad-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles complete with strobe lights ...

Australians discover oldest star

2014-02-10

A team led by astronomers at The Australian National University has discovered the oldest known star in the Universe, which formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. The discovery has allowed astronomers for the first time to study the chemistry of the first stars, giving scientists a clearer idea of what the Universe was like in its infancy. "This is the first time that we've been able to unambiguously say that we've found the chemical fingerprint of a first star," said lead researcher, Dr Stefan Keller of the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. "This ...

New maps reveal locations of species at risk as climate changes

2014-02-10

An international team of scientists has produced global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates have shifted. In research published today in the journal Nature, CSIRO and an international team of scientists revealed global maps showing how fast and in which direction local climates are shifting. This new study points to a simpler way of looking at climatic changes and their likely effects on biodiversity. As climate change unfolds over the next century, plants and animals will need to adapt or shift locations to track their ideal climate. "The ...

JCI early table of contents for Feb. 10, 2014

2014-02-10

Researchers identify unique regulatory T cell population in human skin Regulatory T cells (Tregs) dampen the immune response against self antigens and contribute to the prevention of autoimmunity. A skin-specific population of Tregs (mTreg) has been described in mice that has properties similar to memory T cells. In mice, some mTregs are maintained in the skin for long periods of time and suppress cutaneous autoimmunity. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Michael Rosenblum and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco analyzed the mTreg ...

Manga comics may help promote fruit consumption among youth

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: