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Objective: It remains unclear whether ethnicity has an impact on obesity independent of socioeconomic status (SES) and environmental factors. Singapore provides a unique opportunity to address this issue because three major Asian ethnic groups are represented, and government policies prevent ethnic segregation. Therefore this study examined associations between ethnicity, SES, and obesity within neighborhoods in Singapore.Methods: Cross-sectional data from 29,819 participants of the Singapore Multiethnic Cohort who were aged 21 to 75 years and of Chinese, Malay, and Indian ethnicity were used. Obesity was defined using Asian criteria. Multilevel models used obesity as the dependent variable and age, marital status, ethnicity, education level, income, and neighborhood SES as independent variables.Results: Education level was more strongly inversely associated with obesity than income level or neighborhood SES. The association between ethnicity and obesity was not substantially explained by measures of individual and neighborhood SES. In females, the fully adjusted odds ratio of obesity was 5.01 for Malay ethnicity and 4.81 for Indian ethnicity as compared with Chinese ethnicity. In males, these odds ratios were 2.61 and 2.07, respectively.Conclusions: Ethnicity was strongly associated with obesity independent of SES and neighborhood environment. More research on sociocultural factors contributing to ethnic differences in obesity is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Integration of mobile health data collection methods into cohort studies enables the collection of intensive longitudinal information, which gives deeper insights into individuals' health and lifestyle behavioral patterns over time, as compared to traditional cohort methods with less frequent data collection. These findings can then fill the gaps that remain in understanding how various lifestyle behaviors interact as students graduate from university and seek employment (student-to-work life transition), where the inability to adapt quickly to a changing environment greatly affects the mental well-being of young adults., Objective: This paper aims to provide an overview of the study methodology and baseline characteristics of participants in Health@NUS, a longitudinal study leveraging mobile health to examine the trajectories of health behaviors, physical health, and well-being, and their diverse determinants, for young adults during the student-to-work life transition., Methods: University students were recruited between August 2020 and June 2022 in Singapore. Participants would complete biometric assessments and questionnaires at 3 time points (baseline, 12-, and 24-month follow-up visits) and use a Fitbit smartwatch and smartphone app to continuously collect physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, and dietary data over the 2 years. Additionally, up to 12 two-week-long bursts of app-based ecological momentary surveys capturing lifestyle behaviors and well-being would be sent out among the 3 time points., Results: Interested participants (n=1556) were screened for eligibility, and 776 participants were enrolled in the study between August 2020 and June 2022. Participants were mostly female (441/776, 56.8%), of Chinese ethnicity (741/776, 92%), undergraduate students (759/776, 97.8%), and had a mean BMI of 21.9 (SD 3.3) kg/m 2 , and a mean age of 22.7 (SD 1.7) years. A substantial proportion were overweight (202/776, 26.1%) or obese (42/776, 5.4%), had indicated poor mental well-being (World Health Organization-5 Well-Being Index ≤50; 291/776, 37.7%), or were at higher risk for psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale ≥13; 109/776, 14.1%)., Conclusions: The findings from this study will provide detailed insights into the determinants and trajectories of health behaviors, health, and well-being during the student-to-work life transition experienced by young adults., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05154227; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05154227., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/56749., (©Xin Hui Chua, Sarah Martine Edney, Andre Matthias Müller, Nicholas A Petrunoff, Clare Whitton, Zoey Tay, Claire Marie Jie Lin Goh, Bozhi Chen, Su Hyun Park, Salome A Rebello, Alicia Low, Janelle Chia, Daphne Koek, Karen Cheong, Rob M van Dam, Falk Müller-Riemenschneider. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 17.07.2024.)

Limited attention has been given to the role of cultural orientation towards different ethnic groups in multi-ethnic settings without a dominant host culture. We evaluated whether acculturation levels, reflecting cultural orientation towards other ethnic groups, were associated with obesity and related lifestyle behaviors in a cosmopolitan Asian population. We conducted the current study based on data from the Singapore Multi-Ethnic Cohort ( N = 10,622) consisting of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians aged 21 to 75 years. Multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between the acculturation level (z-score), obesity, and related lifestyle behaviors, including dietary habits and physical activity. A higher acculturation level was directly associated with a higher prevalence of obesity among Chinese, whereas an inverse association was found for ethnic Indians, and no significant association in Malays. In ethnic Malays, greater acculturation was significantly associated with higher dietary quality and less sedentary time. Furthermore, a high acculturation level was significantly associated with higher sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and more leisure-time PA in all ethnic groups. Our findings suggest that greater cultural orientation towards other ethnic groups was associated with convergence in obesity levels. More research is required to understand how acculturation affects obesity-related lifestyle factors in multi-ethnic settings., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.