Reading, writing, and raisinets: are school finances contributing to children’s obesity?

The proportion of adolescents in the United States who are obese has nearly tripled over the last two decades. At the same time, schools, often citing financial pressures, have given students greater access to “junk” foods and soda pop, using proceeds from these sales to fund school programs. We examine whether schools under financial pressure are more likely to adopt potentially unhealthful food policies. Next, we examine whether students’ Body Mass Index (BMI) is higher in counties where a greater proportion of schools are predicted to allow these food policies. Because the financial pressure variables that predict school food policies are unlikely to affect BMI directly, this two step estimation strategy addresses the potential endogeneity of school food policies. ; We find that a 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of schools in a county that allow students access to junk food leads to about a one percent increase in students’ BMI, on average. However, this average effect is entirely driven by adolescents who have an overweight parent, for whom the effect of such food policies is much larger (2.2%). This suggests that those adolescents who have a genetic or family susceptibility to obesity are most affected by the school food environment. A rough calculation suggests that the increase in availability of junk foods in schools can account for about one-fifth of the increase in average BMI among adolescents over the last decade.Overweight children ; Education ; Junk food

The Conduits and Barriers to Reentry for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals in San Bernardino

Numerous scholars have noted that the majority of prisoners will be reincarcerated within three years of their release. However, while there has been extensive research on recidivism, much less attention has been paid to the reentry process in the sociological and criminological literature. Given the high rates of former prisoners reentering society with struggles that may affect their friends, family members, and communities, policymakers and practitioners should understand the successful methods for their reintegration. In this paper, we explore the conduits and barriers to reentry for a sample of San Bernardino county callers using United Way’s 211 Reentry Call Center from 2014-2015. We find that human needs resources (i.e. housing, clothes, and food assistance) and legal assistance are the two most frequently requested services. The callers in our sample have intersecting, disadvantaged identities and require multiple services which suggests a need for collaboration across agencies

Child Care and Mothers' Employment Decisions

Rising female labor force participation and recent changes to the welfare system have increased the importance of child care for all women and, particularly, the less-skilled. This paper focuses on the child care decisions of women who differ by their skill level and the role that costs play in their work decision. After reviewing government child-care programs targeted at less-skilled women, we present a descriptive analysis of current utilization and child care costs. We emphasize differences across skill groups, showing that the least-skilled women both use less costly paid care and are more likely to use unpaid care. We then survey the existing evidence regarding the responsiveness of female labor supply to child care costs, reviewing both econometric studies and demonstration projects that include child care components. To investigate variation in the response to child care cost across skill levels, we implement models similar to this past literature. We conclude that while the overall elasticity of labor force participation with respect to the market price of child care is between -0.05 and -0.35, this elasticity is larger for the least skilled women and declines with skill. Throughout the paper, we reflect upon the implications of our analysis for welfare reform.

Reading, Writing and Raisinets: Are School Finances Contributing to Children's Obesity?

The proportion of adolescents in the United States who are obese has nearly tripled over the last two decades. At the same time, schools, often citing financial pressures, have given students greater access to "junk" foods, using proceeds from the sales to fund school programs. We examine whether schools under financial pressure are more likely to adopt potentially unhealthful food policies. We find that a 10 percentage point increase in the probability of access to junk food leads to about a one percent increase in students' body mass index (BMI). However, this average effect is entirely driven by adolescents who have an overweight parent, for whom the effect of such food policies is much larger (2.2%). This suggests that those adolescents who have a genetic or family susceptibility to obesity are most affected by the school food environment. A rough calculation suggests that the increase in availability of junk foods in schools can account for about one-fifth of the increase in average BMI among adolescents over the last decade.

Patient-Centered Education to Improve Health Outcomes of Adult Jamaicans with Diabetes

There is a 42% prevalence of diabetes among Jamaicans (Ministry of Health, Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey, 2018). The survey found that Jamaicans will continue to face challenges of diabetes and its complication as approximately four out of ten Jamaicans are unaware that they have diabetes, and thus delay receiving healthcare. Limited health literacy is predominant among the diabetic Jamaican population and negatively affects health outcomes (Singh & Aiken, 2017). Jamaicans were found to have poor knowledge of diabetes; in particular, they had difficulty identifying clinical signs of hyper/hypoglycemia, the importance of examining eyes and feet for abnormalities, normal fasting blood glucose levels, and complications of diabetes (Hartzler, Chen, Murphy & Rodewald, 2014). A literature review was conducted to identify research studies and systematic reviews that evaluated the effectiveness of patient-centered diabetic education that uses shared decision-making and cultural humility in improving health literacy, with Jamaicans with T2DM. The results of this review are critically appraised and summarized

Healthcare Provider Education: Adult Jamaicans with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract Problem: Worldwide prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among the Jamaican population is 11.9% (WHO, 2016). Jamaican patients and their families have experienced first-hand the debilitating complications of this deadly disease. Context: Jamaicans with diabetes who live in the US experience these same complications. Approximately 300,000 Jamaicans live in Florida (Peart, 2020). This change of practice project was conducted with healthcare providers employed in a family medicine clinic in Florida that treat Jamaicans with T2DM. Intervention: This change of practice project used an online evidence-based educational training (i.e., Jamaican culture, diet, and health beliefs and how to use a patient-centeredness and cultural humility approach to patient education) targeting healthcare providers Measures: The revised Diabetes Knowledge Test (MDKT2) was used to collect baseline data. Author-developed pre and post-training questionnaires and training evaluation questionnaires were used to measure project outcomes. Results: One hundred percent of participants reported the training was “useful” to “very useful” in (a) daily interaction with Jamaican patients, (b) willingness to include what they learned in their practice, and (c) in mentoring colleagues. One hundred percent of participants reported they were “comfortable” after the training to include their knowledge of Jamaican culture in planning and providing care. Conclusion: Educating health care providers who treat Jamaican patients with T2DM about (a) Jamaican culture and diet and (b) how to provide patient education that is patient-centered and uses cultural humility can improve knowledge and comfort level of those providers. Keywords: Diabetes, Jamaican, cardiovascular complications, positive outcomes, collaborate, adapt, educator, empowerment, patient-centered approach

A Return to Mechanical Solidarity : Panic Hoarding and Social Media in the Time of Pandemic

The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic brought many changes to daily life in Canada. One such behavior that surfaced was what could be defined as ‘panic hoarding,’ namely, the purchasing of items such as toilet paper, sanitizer and disinfectant in far greater quantities per person than other times, which risked the creation of shortages across communities. In order to understand such behavior, this article will use ideas from Émile Durkheim to analyze the relationship of social media and its impact on the behavior of panic hoarding. In particular, Durkheim’s concepts of collective consciousness show how social media provides enough impetus to make the case that this pandemic is better defined by mechanical than organic solidarity. We can see social media as the vehicle through which collective consciousness can be experienced, and more immediately so at this time, insofar as we see how it influences panic hoarding behavior. We can also see that social media’s use of memes can be likened to totems, and that they give clues to the values we hold at this time. &nbsp