Evaluation of Community Baby Showers to Promote Safe Sleep

Background. In recent years, Kansas has ranked 40th among all states for worst infant mortality rates. For African American infant mortality, Kansas had the highest rate in the nation. Because of these statistics, initiatives have been implemented to reduce these rates by the KIDS Network, in partnership with the Black Nurses Association and the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. The purpose was to describe participants’ knowledge and intentions regarding safe sleep following a Community Baby Shower. Methods. The Community Baby Shower was targeted to African American women via black churches, physician offices, clinics, black sororities, word of mouth, radio, and print. All Baby Shower participants were asked to complete a brief survey following the shower. Results. The majority were African American (61%) with a high school diploma or less schooling (63%). Nearly all (97%) planned to place their baby supine for sleep. However, less than half (47%) planned to have the baby sleep in the parents’ room in a separate crib. Attendees exhibited high levels of safe sleep knowledge, stated intentions to utilize most safe sleep recommendations, and reported babies would have slept in unsafe environments without the portable crib. Conclusions. Our Baby Showers were attended by the target audience, who exhibited high levels of safe sleep knowledge, and stated intentions to utilize most safe sleep recommendations following the Shower. However, some participants were resistant to following at least some of the recommendations. Additional venues and other educational strategies may be needed to maximize the uptake of these recommendations

A Comparison of Community and Clinic Baby Showers to Promote Safe Sleep for Populations at High Risk for Infant Mortality

Community baby showers have provided education and free portable cribs to promote safe sleep for high-risk infants. We evaluated knowledge gained at these showers and the effectiveness of holding baby showers at a primary care clinic as an alternative to traditional community venues. Participants at the community venue were more likely to exhibit risk factors associated with unsafe sleep and to report an unsafe sleep location for their infant without the provided portable crib. Following the showers, both groups showed improvement in knowledge and intentions regarding safe sleep. However, to connect with the highest risk groups, showers held at community venues appeared to be preferable to those held at high-risk clinics

Dementia risk reduction in the African context: Multi‐national implementation of multimodal strategies to promote healthy brain aging in Africa (the Africa‐FINGERS project)

Dementia prevention in Africa is critically underexplored, despite the continent's high prevalence of modifiable risk factors. With a predominantly young and middle‐aged population, Africa presents a prime opportunity to implement evidence‐based strategies that could significantly reduce future dementia cases and mitigate its economic impact. The multinational Africa‐FINGERS program offers an innovative solution, pioneering culturally sensitive, multidomain interventions tailored to the unique challenges of the region. Leveraging insights from landmark global studies such as Worldwide‐FINGERS and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, the program employs a multideterminant precision prevention framework, grounded in community based systems dynamics. Africa‐FINGERS further integrates cutting‐edge state‐of‐the‐art multimodal biomarker evaluations tailored to regional contexts, with the goal of advancing brain health and establishing a global standard for dementia prevention. This groundbreaking initiative highlights the potential for scalableand sustainable interventions, thus is poised to transform dementia risk reduction efforts across the continent. Highlights: Dementia rates are escalating in Africa, largely due to longer life spans and increased prevalence of modifiable risk factors. Yet, few regional interventions have directly targeted lifestyle factors to reduce dementia risk. The multinational Africa‐FINGERS study will address this gap by adapting the successful FINGERS lifestyle intervention to African populations. Africa‐FINGERS will pioneer a culturally informed, multidomain dementia risk reduction intervention in the African region through feasibility dementia prevention trials in rural and urban sites across Kenya and Nigeria in the first instance, enrolling 600 at‐risk adults (≥ 50 years). The program adopts participatory research methods to develop culturally appropriate interventions and build infrastructure to evaluate dementia biomarkers from ante and post mortem samples. A cost‐effectiveness analysis will be conducted to guide the strategic implementation of Africa‐FINGERS into regional health systems. The Africa‐FINGERS strategy aligns with the Worldwide‐FINGERS framework and integrates the global Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative approach, emphasizing multimodal analysis