Neighborhood environments underpin screen time intervention success in children: Evidence from a study of greenspace and community programming across 130 US communities.

The goal of this study was to understand how neighborhood greenspace access may support or hinder the effectiveness of community programs and policies (CPPs) aimed at reducing racial and ethnic inequities in screen time among 4598 US children. We found higher CPP intensity was significantly associated with fewer screen time behaviors in high greenspace neighborhoods, but not neighborhoods with low or moderate greenspace. Moreover, there were significant differences in greenspace access by neighborhood-level race and ethnicity.

Intake of Snacks and Sweets in a National Study of Built and Social Environments: the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke Study.

Background: Few national studies across the United States' rural-urban continuum examine neighborhood effects on snacks and sweets intake among adults.

Objectives: This study examines associations of urbanicity/rurality-tailored measures of food store availability and neighborhood socioeconomic status (NSES) with the intake of snacks and sweets in a national sample of middle and older age adults.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used food frequency questionnaire data collected in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study (N = 21,204).

Park Area and Physical Activity Among Children and Adolescents: Findings From the Healthy Communities Study.

Background: There is currently a nationwide effort to bring parks and green spaces within a 10-minute walk of the home. We examined the association between park area within 1 km of a child's residence and self-reported park-specific physical activity (PA) along with accelerometer-derived moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Methods: A subsample of K through eighth-grade youth (n = 493) from the Healthy Communities Study reported whether they engaged in park-specific PA during the last 24 hours and wore an accelerometer for up to 7 days.

Body Mass Index Trajectories among the Healthy Communities Study Children: Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Disparities in Childhood Obesity.

The purpose of this study is to identify statistically distinguishable trajectories of childhood body mass index (BMI), an important indicator of developmental status of children, and to provide a summary description of demographic characteristics of children based on these distinctive trajectories. Using data from the Healthy Communities Study (HCS), a large longitudinal dataset with oversamples of Hispanic and Black children across 130 communities in the USA, a group-based trajectory analysis approach was used to estimate trajectories of children based on their BMI-z scores. The three most distinguishable BMI trajectory groups identified for the HCS children show no marked increase or decrease in standardized BMI over an age range of 2 to 11.

A longitudinal examination of objective neighborhood walkability, body mass index, and waist circumference: the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke study.

Background: Studies have shown neighborhood walkability is associated with obesity. To advance this research, study designs involving longer follow-up, broader geographic regions, appropriate neighborhood characterization, assessment of exposure length and severity, and consideration of stayers and movers are needed. Using a cohort spanning the conterminous United States, this study examines the longitudinal relationship between a network buffer-derived, duration-weighted neighborhood walkability measure and two adiposity-related outcomes.

The role of the built environment, food prices and neighborhood poverty in fruit and vegetable consumption: An instrumental variable analysis of the moving to opportunity experiment.

The food environment has been associated with fruit and vegetable consumption, however many studies utilize cross-sectional research designs. This study examined 3,473 participants in the Moving to Opportunity experiment, who were randomized into groups that affected where they lived. The relationship between the built environment, food prices and neighborhood poverty, assessed over four to seven years, on fruit or vegetable consumption was examined using instrumental variable analysis.

Virtual audits of the urban streetscape: comparing the inter-rater reliability of GigaPan® to Google Street View.

Background: Although previous research has highlighted the association between the built environment and individual health, methodological challenges in assessing the built environment remain. In particular, many researchers have demonstrated the high inter-rater reliability of assessing large or objective built environment features and the low inter-rater reliability of assessing small or subjective built environment features using Google Street View. New methods for auditing the built environment must be evaluated to understand if there are alternative tools through which researchers can assess all types of built environment features with high agreement.

Built Environment Exposures of Adults in the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.

This paper describes environmental exposures of adult participants in the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing (MTO) experiment over a four to seven year period from baseline to the interim evaluation. The MTO experiment randomized participants living in public housing or private assisted housing at baseline into experimental and control groups and provided a housing voucher for experimental group participants to move to neighborhoods with less than 10 percent of the population below the poverty line. However, few studies have examined how this move affected exposures to health promoting environments.

Associations between body mass index, physical activity and the built environment in disadvantaged, minority neighborhoods: Predictive validity of GigaPan® imagery.

Background: The built environment has been shown to influence health in studies of disadvantaged populations using different measurement methods. This study determined whether environmental exposures derived from GigaPan® images could serve as valid predictors of body mass index (BMI), walking and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a longitudinal study of low-income adults living in two primarily African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. GigaPan® is a robotic system used to obtain high-resolution, panoramic images of environments.

Reliability and validity of environmental audits using GigaPan® technology in parks.

Park quality and features can contribute to more engaging places for play and recreation. However, assessing park characteristics remains a challenge. This study measured the reliability of GigaPan® as a method for assessing park characteristics as well as the validity of GigaPan® compared to Google Street View (GSV) and direct observation (DO).

Impact of Rental Assistance on Modifiable Health Risk Factors and Behaviors in Adults.

Objectives: Housing may influence health through various mechanisms and is recognized as a social determinant of health. This study investigated the influence of rental assistance on modifiable health risk factors and behaviors using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Participants receiving rental assistance were compared with participants not receiving rental assistance on body mass index (BMI), obesity, smoking, alcohol use and physical activity.

Validity of environmental audits using GigaPan and Google Earth Technology.

Background: Health behaviors are shaped by the context in which people live. However, documenting environmental context has remained a challenge. More specifically, direct observation techniques require large investments in time and resources and auditing the environment through web-based platforms has limited stability in spatio-temporal imagery.

Pathways to prevention: improving nonresident African American fathers' parenting skills and behaviors to reduce sons' aggression.

This study describes a test of the Fathers and Sons Program for increasing intentions to avoid violence and reducing aggressive behaviors in 8- to 12-year-old African American boys by enhancing the parenting skills satisfaction and parenting behaviors of their nonresident fathers. The study included 158 intervention and 129 comparison group families. Structural equation model results indicated that the intervention was effective for improving fathers' parenting skills satisfaction, which was positively associated with sons' satisfaction with paternal engagement.

Measurement of aggressive behaviors in dementia: comparison of the physical aggression subscales of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory and the Ryden Aggression Scale.

One of the central issues in the development of research-based interventions for aggressive behavior (AB) in late-stage dementia is the provision of precise measurement of the major dependent variable, in this case, AB levels. To advance the nursing goal of evidence-based practice, this article presents the characteristics of two research instruments: the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) aggressive behavior subscale (CMAI-ABS) and the Ryden Aggression Scale (RAS) physically aggressive behavior subscale (RAS-PABS). A total of 282 shower bath events (which are most associated with AB) were observed for 107 nursing home residents with dementia in nine randomly selected nursing homes.

Validity of self-rated hearing compared with audiometric measurement among construction workers.

Background: A valid assessment of hearing status is important to detect hearing loss early and prevent further loss in noise-exposed individuals or older adults. Self-report is used widely in research and is often the only possible measure to evaluate hearing ability.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to establish the level of validity of self-rated hearing by comparing it with the results of audiograms and to examine correlations and changes in self-rated and measured hearing status over time.

Elder women's decision-making in breast cancer care: An Israeli study.

Purpose: Much research has examined women's decision-making behaviour in breast cancer care. Patient age has shaped preferences, values, decision style and participation in treatment decisions. The aim of this study was to test the validity of the Michigan Assessment of Decision Style (MADS) (Pierce, 1995) in an older cohort and provide information on decision styles to identify areas of tailored decision support necessary for Israeli women.

Nurse dose: linking staffing variables to adverse patient outcomes.

Background: Inconsistent findings in more than 100 studies have made it difficult to explain how variation in nurse staffing affects patient outcomes. Nurse dose, defined as the level of nurses required to provide patient care in hospital settings, draws on variables used in staffing studies to describe the influence of many staffing variables on outcomes.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the construct validity of nurse dose by determining its association with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and reported patient falls on a sample of inpatient adult acute care units.

Estimates of crowding in long-term care: comparing two approaches.

Objective: Because studies of crowding in long-term care settings are lacking, the authors sought to: (1) generate initial estimates of crowding in nursing homes and assisted living facilities; and (2) evaluate two operational approaches to its measurement.

Background: Reactions to density and proximity are complex. Greater density intensifies people's reaction to a situation in the direction (positive or negative) that they would react if the situation were to occur under less dense conditions.

The relationship between hospital size and ICU type on select adverse patient outcomes.

The authors examined the relationships among hospital size and unit type, the prevalence of pressure ulcers, and rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia and catheter-related bloodstream infections in 25 intensive care units (ICUs) in 8 hospitals. Data came from the American Hospital Association survey, and nursing and infection control databases. Multiple regression was the main statistical technique.

The feasibility and utility of the aid to cardiac triage intervention to improve nurses' cardiac triage decisions.

Background: Despite the benefits of prompt treatment of myocardial infarction, gender disparities exist in emergency department (ED) nurses' cardiac triage decisions.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and utility of the aid to cardiac triage (ACT) intervention designed to improve ED nurses' cardiac triage decisions for women with myocardial infarction.

Methods: A prospective, exploratory design was used.

Wandering and the physical environment.

Background/rationale: Guided by the need-driven dementia-compromised behavior (NDB) model, this study examined influences of the physical environment on wandering behavior.

Methods: Using a descriptive, cross-sectional design, 122 wanderers from 28 long-term care (LTC) facilities were videotaped 10 to 12 times; data on wandering, light, sound, temperature and humidity levels, location, ambiance, and crowding were obtained. Associations between environmental variables and wandering were evaluated with chi-square and t tests; the model was evaluated using logistic regression.

Empirical derivation and validation of a wandering typology.

Objectives: To develop and validate a wandering typology.

Design: Cross-sectional, correlational descriptive design.

Setting: Twenty-two nursing homes and six assisted living facilities.

New parameters for daytime wandering.

This study aimed to describe wandering using new parameters and to evaluate parameters as a function of cognitive impairment and mobility. Forty-four wanderers in long-term care settings were videotaped 12 times. Rate and duration of wandering episodes were plotted and used to derive parameters from values above and below case medians, proportion of hours wandering, and time of day.

Intensive care units, communication between nurses and physicians, and patients' outcomes.

Background: Various factors in hospitals can adversely affect patients' outcomes, including faulty communication between nurses and physicians. Whether specific communication elements (timeliness, accuracy, openness, understanding) can influence adverse outcomes is unknown.

Objectives: To determine the relationships between patients' outcomes and (1) nurses' perceptions of elements of communication between nurses and physicians and (2) characteristics of the practice environment.

A comparison of walking versus stretching exercises to reduce the incidence of preeclampsia: a randomized clinical trial.

Objectives: To compare a walking exercise to a stretching exercise during pregnancy in high-risk women who were sedentary and had previously experienced preeclampsia.

Methods: A randomized clinical trial of the effects of the two types of physical exercises was conducted between November 2001 and July 2006 in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Both groups engaged in the assigned exercise five times a week until the end of pregnancy.