1,720,958 research outputs found
Extension Empowers Alabama Youth to Improve Dietary Behaviors
Get PDFThe purposes were to determine the outcome and procedural efficacies of Eat Better, Move More (EBMM), an obesity prevention program, and to identify sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in the home. A convenience sample of youth attending summer programs in Alabama and their parents participated in a 6-week SNAP-Ed intervention. Youth completed health behaviors surveys. Parents completed a survey measuring health behaviors and beverage availability in the home. A process evaluation was performed to assess intervention procedures. Youth (n =144) reported significant increases in daily vegetable consumption (p = .004) and significant decreases in SSB consumption (p = .002) (p = .028). More than 50% of parents (n = 263) answered “yes” to having the following SSBs available in the home: Regular Soda Pop, Sport Drinks and Fruit Drinks. Six themes emerged from the process evaluation. During EBMM, health behaviors that contribute to obesity improved in these youth and identified SSBs available in the home helped fill knowledge gaps. The process evaluation themes identified implementation difficulties. These findings can help tailor future programming
Quest for Healthy Schools: A Program Evaluation of School Wellness Efforts in SNAP-Ed Eligible Alabama Schools
Get PDFPromoting a healthy school environment may be a key component in the prevention of childhood obesity, a condition disproportionately affecting students from limited resource, low-income populations. Quest for Healthy Schools (QHS) is a school wellness initiative seeking to influence school wellness policies, systems and environments (PSE) in Alabama schools serving limited resource, low-income populations. The program evaluation for Quest for Healthy Schools utilized a quasi-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest case study design including quantitative and qualitative components. The program Organization Readiness for Implementing Change (ORIC) surveys and AHG Healthy Schools Program School Wellness Assessments were collected for quantitative analysis and outcome evaluation. Structured interviews were conducted with School Wellness Champions. SNAP-Ed site reports for school partners were submitted by local SNAP-Ed educators. Results showed no statistical significance between pre and post ORIC surveys and AHG Healthy Schools Program School Wellness Assessments. Although results from the ORIC surveys were statistically insignificant, most stakeholders were confident in their school’s ability to make school wellness PSE changes. Findings indicate QHS school partners were able to overcome literature-based challenges to school wellness including (1) inability to gain support from key stakeholders, (2) not having adequate tools to support those responsible for implementation and evaluation, (3) lack of time and personnel, (4) not prioritizing school wellness efforts, (5) need for training opportunities and (6) being unfamiliar with school wellness policy requirements. Alabama SNAP-Ed supported full implementation of PSE changes with additional PSE efforts still in progress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study demonstrates how local intermediaries can be effective in supporting school wellness promotion
Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption of Third Grade Students in Body Quest: Food of the Warrior, a 17-class Childhood Obesity Prevention Program
No full textObjective: To increase fruit and vegetable (F/V) consumption, third grade students participated in Body Quest (BQ), a 17-class childhood obesity prevention program.
Methods: Students (n = 2,477) were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 1,674) and control (n = 803) groups; half were female and half were Black. Two weeks each of What’s for Lunch (W4L) pre- and post-assessments were given to treatment and control groups. F/V tastings were given to only treatment group students during pre- and post-assessments. Between pre- and post-assessments, treatment group students received 17 classes using iPad apps/pencil-and-paper activities and weekly F/V tastings. After lunch, students reported foods consumed on a W4L form. W4L assessed changes in F/V consumption throughout the program. Growth modeling examined patterns of change in F/V consumption.
Results: There were significant increases in fruit (p<.01) and vegetable (p<.001) consumptions at post for treatment group students compared to control group students. When analyzing only treatment group students, significant increases in fruit (p<.001) and vegetable (p<.001) consumption from pre to post were found. Both F/V consumptions increased up to class 10, and then stabilized. Race was found as a predictor of F/V consumption. Black students in the treatment group reported higher F/V servings compared to non-Black students.
Conclusions: F/V intakes of youth can be increased through childhood obesity prevention programs. Long-term programs lasting at least 10 classes are desirable to allow students to adopt new F/V habits
Effectiveness of a Text Messaging Program to Promote Weight Loss and Improve Dietary Behaviors in Low-income Women Ages 19-49 Years
Get PDFCombating obesity is a top public health priority in the United States. Currently, Alabama ranks 2nd in the nation for obesity. The goal of this dissertation was to develop My Quest, a 12-week mHealth initiative to evaluate predictors and behaviors known to improve weight loss/management in a limited-resource, overweight/obese population. My Quest used an easily accessible mHealth (text message-based) format for intervention delivery. My Quest was developed using Social Cognitive Theory focusing on personal, behavioral and home environmental factors (availability of produce and beverages). Scales and pedometers were provided to participants for self-monitoring. Recruitment took place in 80% of Alabama counties; data collection occurred through text message response and online surveys from April to July 2016. Participants (n=218) were low-income, predominantly minority, overweight/obese women in principally rural (84%) communities. After pre-assessment, participants were block randomized into comparison or text message group. Comparison participants received a traditional nutrition education program through a weekly eNewsletter providing tips, reminders and a low-cost recipe and self-monitored body weight through a weekly text prompt requiring response. My Quest text message participants received short texts (n=2-3/day), which included health tips and goal setting prompts. Text message participants received the same weekly eNewsletter as comparison participants as well as text prompts to respond with self-monitored daily step counts and weekly body weight. From pre- to post-assessment, analyses between comparison and text message group showed both groups had significant weight loss (P<.01), improved food environment and increase dietary/physical activity goal setting and behaviors (P<.05). Although traditional education was just as effective as text messaging at promoting weight loss and improving several predictors of behavior change/behaviors known to promote weight loss/management, qualitative feedback from text message participants found the text messages helpful, motivating, informative, and helped keep them on track. My Quest provides support that targeted, evidence-based mHealth programs can effectively improve weight status, and diet and physical activity behaviors at a relatively low-cost in an at-risk population. My Quest also determined it does not take a large outlay of time or financial resources by researchers to provide a successful health behavior change program to improve body weight and behaviors. In conclusion, text messaging is an easy delivery modality to reach a socioeconomically disadvantaged, rural dwelling population to improve body weight and health behaviors, leading to improved quality of life
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
Get PDFRecent shifts in public health approaches to reduce and prevent chronic disease encourage interventions to include multiple levels of the social ecological model. The objective of this 1-group pretest-posttest study was to determine differences in faith community policies and environments; interpersonal support; and individual behavior before and after Live Well Faith Communities, a 9-week, faith-based health promotion initiative. The study included a convenience sample of faith communities and participants. Validated instruments assessed faith communities' policies and environments and participants' interpersonal and individual practices and behaviors. Seventy-two small-group sessions with 737 adults were implemented in 14 faith communities. Faith communities adopted policies requiring healthy options for meals and snacks and implemented environmental changes to promote healthy eating and physical activity. Participants reported significant improvements in healthy eating encouragement, shopping practices, and vegetable consumption. Multilevel interventions prompt community organizations to become healthier places and individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
