Assessing the Performance of a Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire With a Low Socioeconomic Status Population Using Rasch Analysis.

Parents and preschool teachers play a key role in shaping children's dietary behaviors. Knowledge of nutrition and healthy dietary choices is a key component to improve dietary habits and reduce the prevalence of obesity and associated co-morbidities. Using valid and reliable instruments is necessary for accurate assessment of knowledge to tailor interventions and measure effectiveness specific to the population of interest.

Development of the Impact of a Preschool Obesity Prevention Intervention Enhanced With Positive Behavioral Supports for Mississippi Head Start Centers.

Objective: To describe the methodology of the Impact of a Preschool Obesity Prevention intervention enhanced with positive behavioral supports.

Design: The social ecological model serves as the conceptual framework for this study, which has a within- and between-subjects design with an intervention group and a delayed intervention control group. This 3-year project will use formative methods to pretest materials in Year 1, collect data pre- and postintervention with a follow-up at 4 months in Years 2 and 3, and conduct summative and process evaluation in Year 3.

Expenditure, Coping, and Academic Behaviors among Food-Insecure College Students at 10 Higher Education Institutes in the Appalachian and Southeastern Regions.

Background: A number of studies have measured college student food insecurity prevalence higher than the national average; however, no multicampus regional study among students at 4-y institutions has been undertaken in the Appalachian and Southeast regions of the United States.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of food insecurity among college students in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, and to determine the association between food-insecurity status and money expenditures, coping strategies, and academic performance among a regional sample of college students.

Methods: This regional, cross-sectional, online survey study included 13,642 college students at 10 public universities.

Barriers to Healthcare Seeking and Provision Among African American Adults in the Rural Mississippi Delta Region: Community and Provider Perspectives.

Barriers to health care access and utilization are likely to be perceived differently for receivers and providers of health care. This paper compares and contrasts perspectives of lay community members, volunteer community health advisors (CHA), and health care providers related to structural and interpersonal barriers to health care seeking and provision among African American adults experiencing health disparities in the rural Mississippi Delta. Sixty-four Delta residents (24 males, 40 females) participated in nine focus groups organized by role and gender.

Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living.

Background: Improving the diet of communities experiencing health inequities can be challenging given that multiple dietary components are low in quality. Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living was designed to test the comparative effectiveness of nutrition education using a single- versus multiple-message approach to improve the diet of adult residents in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Method: The single-message approach targeted discretionary calories while the multiple-message approach also targeted vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein.

Psychosocial constructs and postintervention changes in physical activity and dietary outcomes in a lifestyle intervention, HUB City Steps, 2010.

Introduction: Although modifications to dietary and physical activity (PA) behavior can reduce blood pressure, racial disparities in prevalence and control of hypertension persist. Psychosocial constructs (PSCs) of self-regulation, processes of change, and social support are associated with initiation and maintenance of PA in African Americans; which PSCs best predict lifestyle behavior changes is unclear. This study's objective was to examine relationships among PSC changes and postintervention changes in PA and dietary outcomes in a community-based, multicomponent lifestyle intervention.

Mississippi Communities for Healthy Living: Implementing a nutrition intervention effectiveness study in a rural health disparate region.

Background: Intervention research in rural, health disparate communities presents unique challenges for study design, implementation, and evaluation. Challenges include 1) culturally appropriate intervention components, 2) participant recruitment and retention, 3) treatment cross-contamination, 4) intervention delivery and data collection, and 5) potential measurement reactivity.

Purpose: The purposes of this paper are to 1) detail the methods of the MCHL study and 2) report baseline demographic characteristics of study participants.

Using the RE-AIM Framework in formative evaluation and program planning for a nutrition intervention in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Objective: Identification of prominent themes to be considered when planning a nutrition intervention using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework.

Design: Qualitative formative research.

Setting: Women's social and civic organizations in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Examining the diet of post-migrant Hispanic males using the precede-proceed model: predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling dietary factors.

Objective: To examine socio-environmental, behavioral, and predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling (PRE) factors contributing to post-migration dietary behavior change among a sample of traditional Hispanic males.

Design: In this descriptive study, semistructured interviews, a group interview, and photovoice, followed by group interviews, were used to examine dietary change and contributing factors. The behavioral, environmental, organizational, and educational assessment phases of the PRECEDE-PROCEED model guided the organization of dietary contributing factors for development of a nutrition intervention.

A simulation study of the potential effects of healthy food and beverage substitutions on diet quality and total energy intake in Lower Mississippi Delta adults.

The majority of adult diets in the United States, particularly the South, are of poor quality, putting these individuals at increased risk for chronic diseases. In this study, simulation modeling was used to determine the effects of substituting familiar, more healthful foods and beverages for less healthy ones on diet quality and total energy intake in Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) adults. Dietary data collected in 2000 for 1689 LMD adults who participated in the Foods of Our Delta Study were analyzed.

Simulated reductions in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages improves diet quality in Lower Mississippi Delta adults.

Background: Although the effects of replacing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) with water on energy intake and body weight have been reported, little is known about how these replacements affect diet quality.

Objective: To simulate the effects of replacing SSBs with tap water on diet quality and total energy intake of Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) adults.

Design: Retrospective analysis of cross-sectional dietary intake data using a representative sample of LMD adults (n=1,689).

Energy density, nutrient adequacy, and cost per serving can provide insight into food choices in the lower Mississippi Delta.

Objective: To compare differences across food groups for food cost, energy, and nutrient profiles of 100 items from a cross-sectional survey of 225 stores in 18 counties across the Lower Mississippi Delta of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Methods: Energy, nutrient, and cost profiles for food items were calculated by using Naturally Nutrient Rich methodology and converting price per 100 g edible portion to price per serving. Foods were grouped into 6 food groups.

Food and beverage choices contributing to dietary guidelines adherence in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Objectives: The objectives of the present study were to evaluate diet quality among Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) residents using the Healthy Eating Index-2005 (HEI-2005) and to identify the top five dietary sources contributing to HEI-2005 components. Demographic differences in HEI-2005 scores were also explored.

Design: Diet quality was evaluated using HEI-2005.

The use and perceptions of concept mapping as a learning tool by dietetic internship students and preceptors.

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are currently emphasis areas in the education of allied health professionals. Use of concept maps to teach these skills have been utilized primarily in nursing and medical education, but little has been published about their use in dietetics education. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential efficacy of concept mapping as a learning tool for nutrition assessment among dietetic interns and its acceptability by internship preceptors.

Poverty and food intake in rural America: diet quality is lower in food insecure adults in the Mississippi Delta.

Objective: To determine if measures of diet quality differ between food insecure and food secure adults in a rural high-risk population.

Design: Random digit dialing telephone survey of a cross-section of the population designed to collect data on food intake, household demographics, and food security status.

Setting: A representative sample of adults who live in 36 counties in the Lower Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Food supply adequacy in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Objective: To assess food supply adequacy within 3 food store types in the Lower Mississippi Delta.

Design: Regional food store survey to determine availability and quality of 102 food items in 62 supermarkets, 77 small/medium stores, and 86 convenience stores.

Setting: Lower Mississippi Delta region of the United States.

Fit for life steps: results of a community walking intervention in the rural Mississippi delta.

Background: A collaborative community--university--U.S. Department of Agriculture(USDA)/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) partnership developed and implemented a 6-month walking intervention whereby volunteer coaches were trained to lead community walking groups in a rural Mississippi Delta Community.

Conducting needs assessment using the comprehensive participatory planning and evaluation model to develop nutrition and physical activity interventions in a rural community in the Mississippi delta.

Background: Members of a Lower Mississippi Delta community and university partners used the Comprehensive Participatory Planning and Evaluation (CPPE) model to assess nutrition and health problems and develop a menu of interventions.

Objectives: We sought to identify and prioritize nutrition and physical activity problems in the community and to identify interventions to address the problems.

Methods: Community members and university partners used the CPPE process to identify and prioritize nutrition and physical activity problems.

Nutritional status and food insecurity in hemodialysis patients.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between nutrition status and food security of patients on hemodialysis (HD).

Design: A descriptive correlation study.

Setting: This study consisted of HD patients undergoing treatment at three northeast Louisiana dialysis centers.

Influences on fruit and vegetable consumption by low-income black American adolescents.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify personal, behavioral, and environmental factors influencing fruit and vegetable consumption among 10- to 13-year-old low-income black American youth in the lower Mississippi Delta region. Social Cognitive Theory, along with other theoretical constructs, guided focus group questions and analysis.

Design: A qualitative study using focus group methodology.

Children's experiences of food insecurity can assist in understanding its effect on their well-being.

An understanding of the experience of food insecurity by children is essential for better measurement and assessment of its effect on children's nutritional, physical, and mental health. Our qualitative study explored children's perceptions of household food insecurity to identify these perceptions and to use them to establish components of children's food insecurity experience. Children (n = 32; 11-16 y old) from after school programs and a middle school in low-income areas participated in individual semistructured in-depth interviews.

Food security of older children can be assessed using a standardized survey instrument.

Cognitive interviewing methods were used to adapt questions from the U.S. Food Security Survey Module for administration to children.