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BackgroundPhysical inactivity is a widespread problem with a great need for innovative intervention concepts to overcome it. Epidemiological studies have identified working women in high-income Western countries to be at greater risk for physical inactivity. The current study included working mothers and examined within-subject associations between doing exercise/sport together with one’s child and five different affective states, and with light physical activity (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).MethodDuring 1 week, mothers (N = 192) completed up to eight ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys a day to assess momentary affect and certain situational circumstances (e.g., doing exercise/sport, being together with child). Physical activity was assessed objectively with waist-worn accelerometers.ResultsMultilevel analysis showed that doing exercise/sport together with one’s child was associated with higher positive affect and lower negative affect compared to being active alone. However, greater frequency of doing exercise/sport together with children was negatively associated with MVPA.ConclusionDue to the positive effect on momentary affect, combining spending time together with one’s child and simultaneously doing exercise/sport might be a good strategy of pairing two relevant personal goals. However, this strategy was not associated with sufficient MVPA. published

Background The burden of childhood and adult obesity disproportionally affects Hispanic and African-American populations in the US, and these groups as well as populations with lower income and education levels are disproportionately affected by environmental pollution. Pregnancy is a critical developmental period where maternal exposures may have significant impacts on infant and childhood growth as well as the future health of the mother. We initiated the “Maternal And Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES)” cohort study to address critical gaps in understanding the increased risk for childhood obesity and maternal obesity outcomes among minority and low-income women in urban Los Angeles. Methods The MADRES cohort is specifically examining whether pre- and postpartum environmental exposures, in addition to exposures to psychosocial and built environment stressors, lead to excessive gestational weight gain and postpartum weight retention in women and to perturbed infant growth trajectories and increased childhood obesity risk through altered psychological, behavioral and/or metabolic responses. The ongoing MADRES study is a prospective pregnancy cohort of 1000 predominantly lower-income, Hispanic women in Los Angeles, CA. Enrollment in the MADRES cohort is initiated prior to 30 weeks gestation from partner community health clinics in Los Angeles. Cohort participants are followed through their pregnancies, at birth, and during the infant’s first year of life through a series of in-person visits with interviewer-administered questionnaires, anthropometric measurements and biospecimen collection as well as telephone interviews conducted with the mother. Discussion In this paper, we outline the study rationale and data collection protocol for the MADRES cohort, and we present a profile of demographic, health and exposure characteristics for 291 participants who have delivered their infants, out of 523 participants enrolled in the study from November 2015 to October 2018 from four community health clinics in Los Angeles. Results from the MADRES cohort could provide a powerful rationale for regulation of targeted chemical environmental components, better transportation and urban design policies, and clinical recommendations for stress-coping strategies and behavior to reduce lifelong obesity risk. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2330-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background The transition from the home to college is a phase in which emerging adults shift toward more unhealthy eating and physical activity patterns, higher body mass indices, thus increasing risk of overweight/obesity. Currently, little is understood about how changing friendship networks shape weight gain behaviors. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and data analytic protocols for the SPARC (Social impact of Physical Activity and nutRition in College) study, a longitudinal examination of the mechanisms by which friends and friendship networks influence nutrition and physical activity behaviors and weight gain in the transition to college life. Methods The SPARC study aims to follow 1450 university freshmen from a large university over an academic year, collecting data on multiple aspects of friends and friendship networks. Integrating multiple types of data related to student lives, ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) are administered via a cell phone application, devilSPARC. EMAs collected in four 1-week periods (a total of 4 EMA waves) are integrated with linked data from web-based surveys and anthropometric measurements conducted at four times points (for a total of eight data collection periods including EMAs, separated by ~1 month). University databases will provide student card data, allowing integration of both time-dated data on food purchasing, use of physical activity venues, and geographical information system (GIS) locations of these activities relative to other students in their social networks. Discussion Findings are intended to guide the development of more effective interventions to enhance behaviors among college students that protect against weight gain during college.