Andrew Keith Wills

• Wills, Andrew Keith; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Van Lippevelde, Wendy; Barker, Mary Elizabeth; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2024). Preconception diet in adolescence and its association with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and preterm birth. Results from The HUNT study. British Journal of Nutrition. ISSN 0007-1145. p. 1–8. doi: 10.1017/S0007114524000746.
• Medin, Anine Christine; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård; Helle, Christine; Helland, Sissel Heidi; Wills, Andrew Keith & Osorio, Natalie Garzon [Show all 22 contributors for this article] (2024). Scaling up evidence-based digital early life nutrition interventions in a county setting: an implementation trial – protocol for Phase 2 of the Nutrition Now project. Frontiers in Public Health. ISSN 2296-2565. 11. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1326787. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background: Few effective health interventions transition from smaller efficacy or effectiveness studies to real-world implementation at scale, representing a gap between evidence and practice. Recognising this, we have developed Nutrition Now – a tailored digital resource building on four efficacious dietary interventions, aiming to improve nutrition in the important first 1,000 days of life. Nutrition Now targets and guides expectant parents and parents of 0–2 year olds, serves as a reliable source of evidence-based information for midwives and public health nurses at maternal and child healthcare (MCH) centres, and offers pedagogical tools for early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff. The aim of this study is to implement Nutrition Now at scale and evaluate the impact of different sets of multifaceted implementation strategies on implementation outcomes. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with three study arms will be used, providing either low, medium or high implementation support, when rolled out in 50 municipalities in 2 counties in Norway. Nutrition Now will be implemented in MCH and ECEC settings and made available to expectant parents and parents of 0–2 year olds through social media and MCH. The implementation support builds on strategies described in the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) implementation framework and is informed by dialogues with stakeholders. Impact of the different degree of implementation support will be assessed by examining reach, adoption, fidelity, and sustainability using usage data generated from the Nutrition Now resource, publicly available municipal data and qualitative interviews with MCH and ECEC staff. Discussion: Nutrition Now Phase 2 will break new ground by scaling up successively delivered and complementary dietary interventions in the first 1,000 days of life in a real-life context. The project also seeks to identify what level of implementation support is most effective when implementing digital, scalable, evidence-based early-life nutrition interventions in community settings. The project will inform implementation research and provide knowledge about effective implementation strategies to be used in a national scale-up of Nutrition Now. Trial registration: The study is registered prospectively (submitted 14/06/2022, registration date: 19/06/2022) in the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number registry (ISRCTN): reg. Number: ISRCTN10694967, https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN10694967.

• Salvesen, Lorentz; Valen, Erlend Larsen; Wills, Andrew Keith; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård & Engeset, Dagrun [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). Developmental origins of health and disease knowledge is associated with diet quality in preconception young adult men and women. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. ISSN 2040-1744. doi: 10.1017/S2040174423000314. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) approach supports that nutritional exposures in early life affect an individual’s later health and risk of disease. Dietary exposure during the preconception period may also influence individual, and inter- and transgenerational health and disease risk, in both men and women. This study aimed to describe knowledge of the DOHaD approach (DOHaDKNOWLEDGE) and diet quality in preconception young adults in Norway, to assess associations between DOHaDKNOWLEDGE and a Diet Quality Score (DQS), and to assess gender differences in those above. Data from 1362 preconception young adults was obtained from the PREPARED study baseline dataset. The sample had 88% women participants, a mean age of 27 years, 36% had overweight or obesity, and 77% had higher level of education. DOHaDKNOWLEDGE was assessed by the participants’ agreement to five statements using a Likert scale. Diet quality was assessed using aspects of diet quality and a DQS derived from a dietary screener. We found moderate level of both DOHaDKNOWLEDGE (12/20 points) and diet quality (DQS: 60/100 points), indicating potential for improvements. Specifically, the greatest potential for diet quality improvements were observed for sugary foods, red and processed meats, legumes, and unsalted nuts and seeds. Gender differences were observed for both DOHaDKNOWLEDGE and diet quality. DOHaDKNOWLEDGE was positively associated with DQS, adjusted for sociodemographic factors, with little evidence of an interaction effect by gender. This study indicates that knowledge of the DOHaD approach is positively associated with diet quality in preconception young men and women. Future studies should consider incorporating pregnancy intentions, relationship status, and health literacy.

• Øvrebø, Bente; Kjøllesdal, Marte Karoline Råberg; Stea, Tonje Holte; Wills, Andrew Keith; Bere, Elling Tufte & Magnus, Per Minor [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2023). The influence of immigrant background and parental education on overweight and obesity in 8-year-old children in Norway. BMC Public Health. ISSN 1471-2458. 23. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16571-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Background Little is known about the prevalence of overweight/obesity and socio-economic position (SEP) in children with immigrant background in Scandinavia. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of overweight/obesity by immigrant background among children in Norway and to explore the role of SEP in explaining diferences in weight status. Methods Anthropometric data from 8,858 children (age 8.3 years) from the population-based Norwegian Childhood Growth Study were used. Information about immigrant background, country of origin, and parental education (used as an indicator of SEP) were provided by Statistics Norway. For children with immigrant background, regional background was determined based on country of origin. Prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated for overweight/obesity and weight-to-height-ratio (WHtR)≥0.5 by immigration and regional background, using generalized estimating equation log-binominal models adjusting for sex, age, survey year (model 1), residential area, population density (model 2) and parental education (model 3). Results Children with immigrant background had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity and WHtR≥0.5 than non-immigrant background children. Adjusted for parental education, children with an immigrant background from Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia except South-Asia, and Africa had a higher prevalence of overweight/ obesity [PR: 1.37 (95% confdence interval (CI): 1.10–1.72), 1.28 (1.05–1.57), 1.47 (1.13–1.91), respectively] than children with a non-immigrant background. Children originating from Asia except South-Asia had a higher prevalence of WHtR≥0.5 (PR: 1.64, CI: 1.25–2.15) compared to non-immigrant background children. The adjustment for parental education did not substantially change the results. Conclusion Children with immigrant background had higher prevalence of overweight/obesity than non-immigrant background children. The diference varied according to region of origin but not substantially according to parental education. There is a need for culturally acceptable preventative measures targeting the parents of immigrant background children.

• Salvesen, Lorentz; Wills, Andrew Keith; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Engeset, Dagrun & Medin, Anine Christine (2023). Relative validity of a non-quantitative 33-item dietary screener with a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire among young adults. Journal of Nutritional Science (JNS). ISSN 2048-6790. 12, p. 1–13. doi: 10.1017/jns.2023.57. Show summary

  The objective of the study was to assess the concordance and ranking ability of a non-quantitative 33-item dietary screener developed to assess the diet of young adults in Norway, ‘MyFoodMonth 1.1’, compared to a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Data were collected in a cross-sectional dietary survey evaluating the diets of students at the University of Agder, in southern Norway. The students were asked to complete both a dietary screener and an FFQ. Data collection was carried out from September to December 2020. Participants were first-year university students aged ≥18 years familiar with Scandinavian language. Almost half of the eligible sample (n 344) was excluded due to not completing the FFQ, compared to 1⋅7 % not completing the dietary screener, resulting in 172 (66 % female) participants with a median age of 21 years. For most items of the dietary screener (n 27/33, 82 %), all aspects of diet quality and components of the Diet Quality Score showed moderate-to-strong concordance with the FFQ evaluated using Kendall's tau-b analyses (t > 0⋅31), supported by visual inspection of box and whisker plots and descriptive ranking ability in a cross-tabulation. There was little evidence to suggest that concordance was dependent on sex. The concordance and ranking ability of ‘MyFoodMonth 1.1’ is considered satisfactory compared to a semi-quantitative FFQ. This rapid dietary assessment instrument presents a valuable addition to traditional instruments and a possible solution to recruit hard-to-reach parts of the population.

• Slator, Rona; Perisanidou, Lydia I.; Sell, Debbie; Sandy, Jonathan; Ness, Andrew R. & Wills, Andrew Keith (2022). Surgical sequence, timing and volume, and variation in dento-facial outcome, speech and secondary surgery in children with unilateral cleft lip and palate: The Cleft Care UK Study. Orthodontics & craniofacial research. ISSN 1601-6335. doi: 10.1111/ocr.12612. Show summary

  Objectives: To estimate both the association of surgical variables in complete uni-lateral cleft lip and palate (cUCLP) in the UK with outcomes at age 5 years, and the association of secondary speech surgery, volume of surgery, and surgeon with the same outcomes.Setting and Sample Population: The Cleft Care UK study, a cross-sectional study of 268 5- year- olds, born from 2005 to 2007, with cUCLP.Materials and Methods: Information on surgical variables was extracted from a stand-ardized questionnaire. Dento-facial outcomes were derived from dental study casts of dental arch relationships. Three speech outcomes – intelligibility, structure and ar-ticulation – were derived using the Cleft Audit Protocol for Speech-Augmented tool.Results: Surgical and outcome data were available for 211 (79%) children from all cleft centres in the UK. Later soft palate surgery was associated with a 17% increased chance of a poor intelligibility score (P= .02), and high volume surgery with a 249% increased chance of a good articulation score (P= .01). There were no between sur-geon effects identified. No association between the surgical variables examined and dento- facial outcome, or secondary speech surgery by the age of 5 years were found.Conclusion: This study found associations between surgical variables and speech out-comes at 5 years of age, but not between surgical variables and dento-facial outcome, nor between surgical variables and secondary speech surgery. High surgical volume should be maintained, and any changes towards later surgery monitored for changes in speech outcome.

• Øvrebø, Bente; Stea, Tonje Holte; Bergh, Ingunn Holden; Bere, Elling Tufte; Suren, Pål & Magnus, Per Minor [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2022). A nationwide school fruit and vegetable policy and childhood and adolescent overweight: A quasi-natural experimental study. PLoS Medicine. ISSN 1549-1277. 19(1). doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003881. Full text in Research Archive
• Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Medin, Anine Christine; Valen, Erlend Larsen; Salvesen, Lorentz; Wills, Andrew Keith & Engeset, Dagrun [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2021). Effectiveness of a digital dietary intervention program targeting young adults before parenthood: protocol for the PREPARED randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open. ISSN 2044-6055. 11(12). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055116. Full text in Research Archive
• Blomkvist, Eli Anne Myrvoll; Wills, Andrew Keith; Helland, Sissel Heidi; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2021). Effectiveness of a kindergarten-based intervention to increase vegetable intake and reduce food neophobia amongst 1-year-old children: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Food & Nutrition Research (FNR). ISSN 1654-6628. 65. doi: 10.29219/fnr.v65.7679. Full text in Research Archive
• Øvrebø, Bente; Bergh, Ingunn Holden; Stea, Tonje Holte; Bere, Elling; Surén, Pål & Magnus, Per Minor [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2021). Overweight, obesity, and thinness among a nationally representative sample of Norwegian adolescents and changes from childhood: Associations with sex, region, and population density. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 16(8). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255699. Full text in Research Archive
• Agnihotri, Neha; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Bere, Elling Tufte; Wills, Andrew Keith; Brantsæter, Anne Lise & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2021). Development and description of New Nordic Diet scores across infancy and childhood in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Maternal & Child Nutrition. ISSN 1740-8695. 17(3). doi: 10.1111/mcn.13150. Full text in Research Archive
• Van Lippevelde, Wendy; Vik, Frøydis Nordgård; Wills, Andrew Keith; Strømmer, Sofia; Barker, Mary E. & Skreden, Marianne [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2020). The impact of diet during adolescence on the neonatal health of offspring: evidence on the importance of preconception diet. The HUNT study. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. ISSN 2040-1744. p. 1–13. doi: 10.1017/S2040174420001087.
• Agnihotri, Neha; Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Bere, Elling Tufte; Wills, Andrew Keith; Brantsæter, Anne Lise & Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord (2020). Childhood adherence to a potentially healthy and sustainable Nordic diet and later overweight: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Maternal & Child Nutrition. ISSN 1740-8695. doi: 10.1111/mcn.13101. Full text in Research Archive
• Helle, Christine; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Wills, Andrew Keith & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2019). Examining the effects of an eHealth intervention from infant age 6 to 12 months on child eating behaviors and maternal feeding practices one year after cessation: The Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health. PLOS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 14(8), p. 1–19. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220437. Full text in Research Archive
• Helle, Christine; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Wills, Andrew Keith & Øverby, Nina Cecilie (2019). Evaluation of an eHealth intervention aiming to promote healthy food habits from infancy -the Norwegian randomized controlled trial Early Food for Future Health. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. ISSN 1479-5868. 16(1), p. 1–16. doi: 10.1186/s12966-018-0763-4. Full text in Research Archive

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• Øverby, Nina Cecilie; Hillesund, Elisabet Rudjord; Helland, Sissel Heidi; Helle, Christine; Wills, Andrew Keith & Lamu, Admassu Nadew [Show all 23 contributors for this article] (2023). Evaluating the effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based early-life nutrition interventions in a community setting a hybrid type 1 non-randomized trial – the Nutrition Now project protocol. Frontiers in Endocrinology. ISSN 1664-2392. 13. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.1071489. Full text in Research Archive
• Øvrebø, Bente; Kjøllesdal, Marte Karoline Råberg; Stea, Tonje Holte; Wills, Andrew Keith; Bere, Elling Tufte & Suren, Pål [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2022). Prevalence of overweight, obesity and central adiposity among children with immigrant background in Norway.

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