Differences in home food availability of high- and low-fat foods after a behavioral weight control program are regional not racial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Few studies, if any, have examined the impact of a weight control program on the home food environment in a diverse sample of adults. Understanding and changing the availability of certain foods in the home and food storage practices may be important for creating healthier home food environments and supporting effective weight management.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Overweight adults (n = 90; 27% African American) enrolled in a 6-month behavioral weight loss program in Vermont and Arkansas. Participants were weighed and completed measures of household food availability and food storage practices at baseline and post-treatment. We examined baseline differences and changes in high-fat food availability, low-fat food availability and the storage of foods in easily visible locations, overall and by race (African American or white participants) and region (Arkansas or Vermont).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At post-treatment, the sample as a whole reported storing significantly fewer foods in visible locations around the house (-0.5 ± 2.3 foods), with no significant group differences. Both Arkansas African Americans (-1.8 ± 2.4 foods) and Arkansas white participants (-1.8 ± 2.6 foods) reported significantly greater reductions in the mean number of high-fat food items available in their homes post-treatment compared to Vermont white participants (-0.5 ± 1.3 foods), likely reflecting fewer high-fat foods reported in Vermont households at baseline. Arkansas African Americans lost significantly less weight (-3.6 ± 4.1 kg) than Vermont white participants (-8.3 ± 6.8 kg), while Arkansas white participants did not differ significantly from either group in weight loss (-6.2 ± 6.0 kg). However, home food environment changes were not associated with weight changes in this study.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Understanding the home food environment and how best to measure it may be useful for both obesity treatment and understanding patterns of obesity prevalence and health disparity.</p

An examination of health care utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic among women with early-stage hormone receptor-positive breast cancer

Background: Women undergoing treatment for breast cancer require frequent clinic visits for maintenance of therapy. With COVID-19 causing health care disruptions, it is important to learn about how this population’s access to health care has changed. This study compares self-reported health care utilization and changes in factors related to health care access among women treated at a cancer center in the mid-South US before and during the pandemic. Methods: Participants (N = 306) part of a longitudinal study to improve adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) adherence completed pre-intervention baseline surveys about their health care utilization prior to AET initiation. Questions about the impact of COVID-19 were added after the pandemic started assessing financial loss and factors related to care. Participants were categorized into three time periods based on the survey completion date: (1) pre-COVID (December 2018 to March 2020), (2) early COVID (April 2020 – December 2020), and later COVID (January 2021 to June 2021). Negative binomial regression analyses used to compare health care utilization at different phases of the pandemic controlling for patient characteristics. Results: Adjusted analyses indicated office visits declined from pre-COVID, with an adjusted average of 17.7 visits, to 12.1 visits during the early COVID period (p = 0.01) and 9.9 visits during the later COVID period (p < 0.01). Hospitalizations declined from an adjusted average 0.45 admissions during early COVID to 0.21 during later COVID, after vaccines became available (p = 0.05). Among COVID period participants, the proportion reporting changes/gaps in health insurance coverage increased from 9.5% participants during early-COVID to 14.8% in the later-COVID period (p = 0.05). The proportion reporting financial loss due to the pandemic was similar during both COVID periods (34.3% early- and 37.7% later-COVID, p = 0.72). The proportion of participants reporting delaying care or refilling prescriptions decreased from 15.2% in early-COVID to 4.9% in the later-COVID period (p = 0.04). Conclusion: COVID-19 caused disruptions to routine health care for women with breast cancer. Patients reported having fewer office visits at the start of the pandemic that continued to decrease even after vaccines were available. Fewer patients reported delaying in-person care as the pandemic progressed.National Cancer Institute ; Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute ; Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives, National Cancer Institute ; Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institut

Pandemic-Related Tenure Timeline Extensions in Higher Education in the United States: Prevalence and Associated Characteristics

Many universities implemented pandemic-related tenure timeline extensions in response to productivity disruptions. However, little is known about the availability, nature, or uptake of these extensions, including which faculty were most likely to extend their timeline. Tenure-track faculty in the United States (n = 385, 64.4% women, 35.3% identifying with a National Institutes of Health-designated racial/ethnic minority group, 73.0% with children, 33.8% with non-child caregiving) completed a survey about their personal/career/institution characteristics, their institution’s pandemic extension policy (if any), and whether they extended their timeline. Overall, 94.0% reported that their institutions provided either an extension, unless faculty opted out, or an extension that could be requested. Most respondents (60.0%) elected to extend their tenure timeline due to the pandemic. Significantly greater proportions of respondents taking an extension were men (77.2%), identified with a NIH-designated racial/ethnic minority group (75.7%), reported non-child caregiving (86.3%), and had previously taken at least one timeline extension (82.4%). Pandemic-related extensions in tenure and promotion dossiers will be common, though they may not fully account for more than a year of disruption and may exacerbate disparities. Consequently, effective preparation for evaluating dossiers and other mitigation strategies are needed, to prevent the loss of faculty members who offer great value to their institutions

Pandemic-Related Tenure Timeline Extensions in Higher Education in the United States: Prevalence and Associated Characteristics

Many universities implemented pandemic-related tenure timeline extensions in response to productivity disruptions. However, little is known about the availability, nature, or uptake of these extensions, including which faculty were most likely to extend their timeline. Tenure-track faculty in the United States (n = 385, 64.4% women, 35.3% identifying with a National Institutes of Health-designated racial/ethnic minority group, 73.0% with children, 33.8% with non-child caregiving) completed a survey about their personal/career/institution characteristics, their institution&rsquo;s pandemic extension policy (if any), and whether they extended their timeline. Overall, 94.0% reported that their institutions provided either an extension, unless faculty opted out, or an extension that could be requested. Most respondents (60.0%) elected to extend their tenure timeline due to the pandemic. Significantly greater proportions of respondents taking an extension were men (77.2%), identified with a NIH-designated racial/ethnic minority group (75.7%), reported non-child caregiving (86.3%), and had previously taken at least one timeline extension (82.4%). Pandemic-related extensions in tenure and promotion dossiers will be common, though they may not fully account for more than a year of disruption and may exacerbate disparities. Consequently, effective preparation for evaluating dossiers and other mitigation strategies are needed, to prevent the loss of faculty members who offer great value to their institutions

Impact of feedback generation and presentation on self-monitoring behaviors, dietary intake, physical activity, and weight: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Self-monitoring of dietary intake, physical activity, and weight is a key strategy in behavioral interventions, and some interventions provide self-monitoring feedback to facilitate goal setting and promote engagement. This systematic review aimed to evaluate whether feedback increases intervention effectiveness, and which forms of feedback presentation (e.g., personalized vs. not personalized) and generation (i.e., human vs. algorithm-generated) are most effective. To achieve this aim, 5 electronic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar) were searched in April 2022 and yielded 694 unique records, out of which 24 articles reporting on 19 studies were included (with a total of 3261 participants). Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts and then full texts and categorized articles as eligible or excluded according to the pre-registered criteria (i.e., availability of full text, peer reviewed manuscript in English; adult participants in a randomized controlled trial that included both self-monitoring and feedback; comparisons of different forms of feedback or comparisons of feedback vs. no feedback; primary outcomes of diet, physical activity, self-monitoring behavior, and/or weight). All included studies were assessed for methodological quality independently by two reviewers using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized studies (version 2). Ten studies compared feedback to no feedback, 5 compared human- vs. algorithm-generated feedback, and the remaining 4 studies compared formats of feedback presentation (e.g., frequency, richness). A random effects meta-analysis indicated that physical activity interventions with feedback provision were more effective than physical activity interventions without feedback (d=0.29, 95% CI [0.16;0.43]). No meta-analysis could be conducted for other comparisons due to heterogeneity of study designs and outcomes. There were mixed results regarding which form of feedback generation and presentation is superior. Limitations of the evidence included in this review were: lack of details about feedback provided, the brevity of most interventions, the exclusion of studies that did not isolate feedback when testing intervention packages, and the high risk of bias in many studies. This systematic review underlines the importance of including feedback in behavioral interventions; however, more research is needed to identify most effective forms of feedback generation and presentation to maximize intervention effectiveness. Trial registration (PROSPERO) CRD42022316206

The Relationship between Body Mass Index and Post-Cessation Weight Gain in the Year after Quitting Smoking: A Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION:There is wide variability in the amount of weight gained when quitting smoking, but little is known about key predictors of weight gain. We examined the impact of body mass index (BMI) category and sociodemographic variables on post-cessation weight gain. MATERIALS AND METHODS:We utilized National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from five consecutive cycles of data collection from 2003-2004 to 2011-2012 to estimate post-cessation weight gain by BMI category among recent quitters (n = 654). We analyzed data on their "current weight" and their "past year weight". We also compared the recent quitters with current smokers, in order to estimate the amount of weight that could be attributed to quitting smoking. RESULTS:Recent quitters gained 1.4 kg (95% CI: 0.8 to 2.0), while current smokers had a non-significant weight change (-0.01 kg (95% CI: -0.3 to 0.2). Weight gain was significant for those in the normal weight (3.1 kg, 95% CI: 2.3 to 3.9) and overweight BMI categories (2.2 kg, 95% CI: 1.1 to 3.2). CONCLUSIONS:BMI category is a key factor in the extent of post-cessation weight gain, with normal and overweight recent quitters gaining significant amounts of weight

Sexy, trashy, cool: Perceptions of electronic cigarette users across sociodemographic groups and E-cigarette use among United States Air Force Airmen

E-cigarette use has increased in recent years. Military personnel have higher rates of e-cigarette use than civilian populations, with 15.3% of Air Force recruits using e-cigarettes. The current study assessed associations between perceptions of e-cigarette users and current use of e-cigarettes, and differences in sociodemographic characteristics to determine if there were different beliefs among different groups to inform intervention development among these straight-to-work young adults. Participants (N = 17,314) were United States Air Force Airmen (60.7% White, 29.7% women) who completed a survey during their first week of Technical Training. Regression results indicated that identifying as a man (B = 0.22, SE = 0.02), identifying as Black (B = 0.06, SE = 0.02), reporting younger age (B = -0.15, SE = 0.02), having less education (B = -0.04, SE = 0.02), and current e-cigarette use (B = 0.62, SE = 0.02) were associated with endorsing more positive e-cigarette user perceptions. Identifying as a woman (B = -0.04, SE = 0.02) and being younger (B = -0.06, SE = 0.02) were associated with endorsing more negative perceptions of e-cigarette users. Current e-cigarette use was inversely associated with negative e-cigarette user perceptions (B = -0.59, SE = 0.02). Differences across groups were found for individual e-cigarette user characteristics. Future intervention strategies among Airmen may benefit from addressing e-cigarette user perceptions to change use behaviors, as these perceptions may result in stigmatized beliefs related to e-cigarette users

&ldquo;It Depends on Where You Are and What Job You Do&rdquo;: Differences in Tobacco Use across Career Fields in the United States Air Force

While tobacco use within the military is often discussed as being homogenously part of U.S. military culture, literature from civilian populations highlights that tobacco use varies by career field (e.g., &ldquo;white collar&rdquo; vs. &ldquo;blue collar&rdquo;). The objective of this qualitative study was to compare tobacco use by career fields in the U.S. Air Force. Airmen, Military Training Instructors, and Technical Training Instructors participated in 22 focus groups across five major Air Force Technical Training bases. Focus groups were conducted in-person using semi-structured interview guides and were audio-recorded. A conventional content-coding approach was used to code transcripts. Participants described substantial variation across the careers, which was attributed to social norms and the nature of jobs. Individuals in careers that spend most of their time outside were more likely to permit tobacco use. Conversely, tobacco use was seen as stigmatized in medical fields. Additionally, smokeless tobacco was identified as popular in certain careers because it could be used covertly on the job. Findings suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to reducing tobacco use through policies and programs may not reflect the realities of military tobacco use. These findings may provide insights into other branches of the U.S. military with similar career fields