Melanie D Hingle

Melanie D Hingle

Associate Professor, Nutritional Sciences
Associate Professor, Public Health
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-3087

Work Summary

Melanie Hingle's work focuses on understanding determinants of energy balance behaviors (i.e. how and why behaviors are initiated and sustained), and identifying contributors to the success of interventions (i.e. when, where, and how interventions should be delivered) are critical steps toward developing programs that effectively change behavior, thereby mitigating unhealthy weight gain and promoting optimal health. Current projects include: Determinants of metabolic risk, and amelioration of risk, in pediatric cancer survivors, Guided imagery intervention delivered via a mobile software application to increase healthy eating and physical activity in weight-concerned women smokers, and Family-focused diabetes prevention program delivered in partnership with the YMCA.

Research Interest

Identify and understand determinants of behavioral, weight-related, and metabolic outcomes in children, adolescents, and families, including how and why so-called “obesogenic behaviors” (unhealthy dietary habits, sedentary behaviors) are initiated and sustained. Develop and test novel approaches to motivate healthy lifestyle changes in children, adolescents, and families, including development, testing, and assessment of face-to-face and mobile device-based interventions.

Publications

Hingle, M. D., Castonguay, J. S., Ambuel, D. A., Smith, R. M., & Kunkel, D. (2015). Alignment of Children's Food Advertising With Proposed Federal Guidelines. American journal of preventive medicine, 48(6), 707-13.

It is well established that children are exposed to food marketing promoting calorically dense, low-nutrient products. Reducing exposure to obesogenic marketing presents an opportunity to improve children's health. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which televised food advertising practices targeting children (aged ≤12 years) were consistent with guidelines proposed by a coalition of federal authorities known as the Interagency Working Group on Foods Marketed to Children (IWG).

Zaslavsky, O., Palgi, Y., Rillamas-Sun, E., LaCroix, A. Z., Schnall, E., Woods, N. F., Cochrane, B. B., Garcia, L., Hingle, M., Post, S., Seguin, R., Tindle, H., & Shrira, A. (2015). Dispositional optimism and terminal decline in global quality of life. Developmental psychology, 51(6), 856-63.

We examined whether dispositional optimism relates to change in global quality of life (QOL) as a function of either chronological age or years to impending death. We used a sample of 2,096 deceased postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative clinical trials who were enrolled in the 2005-2010 Extension Study and for whom at least 1 global QOL and optimism measure were analyzed. Growth curve models were examined. Competing models were contrasted using model fit criteria. On average, levels of global QOL decreased with both higher age and closer proximity to death (e.g., M(score) = 7.7 eight years prior to death vs. M(score) = 6.1 one year prior to death). A decline in global QOL was better modeled as a function of distance to death (DtD) than as a function of chronological age (Bayesian information criterion [BIC](DtD) = 22,964.8 vs. BIC(age) = 23,322.6). Optimism was a significant correlate of both linear (estimate(DtD) = -0.01, SE(DtD) = 0.005; ρ = 0.004) and quadratic (estimate(DtD) = -0.006, SE(DtD) = 0.002; ρ = 0.004) terminal decline in global QOL so that death-related decline in global QOL was steeper among those with a high level of optimism than those with a low level of optimism. We found that dispositional optimism helps to maintain positive psychological perspective in the face of age-related decline. Optimists maintain higher QOL compared with pessimists when death-related trajectories were considered; however, the gap between those with high optimism and those with low optimism progressively attenuated with closer proximity to death, to the point that is became nonsignificant at the time of death.

Hingle, M. D., Snyder, A. L., McKenzie, N. E., Thomson, C. A., Logan, R. A., Ellison, E. A., Koch, S. M., & Harris, R. B. (2014). Effects of a short messaging service-based skin cancer prevention campaign in adolescents. American journal of preventive medicine, 47(5), 617-23.

Skin cancer prevention emphasizes early adoption and practice of sun protection behaviors. Adolescence represents a high-risk period for ultraviolet radiation exposure, presenting an opportunity for intervention. The ubiquity of mobile phones among teens offers an engaging medium through which to communicate prevention messages.

O'Connor, T. M., Mâsse, L. C., Tu, A. W., Watts, A. W., Hughes, S. O., Beauchamp, M. R., Baranowski, T., Pham, T., Berge, J. M., Fiese, B., Golley, R., Hingle, M., Kremers, S. P., Rhee, K. E., Skouteris, H., & Vaughn, A. (2017). Food parenting practices for 5 to 12 year old children: a concept map analysis of parenting and nutrition experts input. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 14(1), 122.

Parents are an important influence on children's dietary intake and eating behaviors. However, the lack of a conceptual framework and inconsistent assessment of food parenting practices limits our understanding of which food parenting practices are most influential on children. The aim of this study was to develop a food parenting practice conceptual framework using systematic approaches of literature reviews and expert input.

Hingle, M. D., Wertheim, B. C., Tindle, H. A., Tinker, L., Seguin, R. A., Rosal, M. C., & Thomson, C. A. (2014). Optimism and diet quality in the Women's Health Initiative. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 114(7), 1036-45.

Diet quality has not been well studied in relation to positive psychological traits. Our purpose was to investigate the relationship between optimism and diet quality in postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative observational study (OS) and clinical trials (CTs), and to determine whether optimism was associated with diet change after a 1-year dietary intervention. Diet quality was scored with the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and optimism assessed with the Life Orientation Test-Revised. Baseline characteristics were compared across AHEI quintiles or optimism tertiles using regression models with each variable of interest as a function of quintiles or tertiles (OS, n=87,630; CT, n=65,360). Association between optimism and baseline AHEI and change in AHEI over 1 year were tested using multivariate linear regression (CT, n=13,645). Potential interaction between optimism and trial arm and demographic/lifestyle factors on AHEI change was tested using likelihood ratio test (CT intervention, n=13,645; CT control, n=20,242). Women reporting high AHEI were non-Hispanic white, educated, physically active, past or never smokers, hormone therapy users, had lower body mass index and waist circumference, and were less likely to have chronic conditions. In the CT intervention, higher optimism was associated with higher AHEI at baseline and with greater change over 1 year (P=0.001). Effect modification by intervention status was observed (P=0.014), whereas control participants with highest optimism achieved threefold greater AHEI increase compared with those with the lowest optimism. These data support a relationship between optimism and dietary quality score in postmenopausal women at baseline and over 1 year.