Background: Lack of diversity in participants throughout the research process limits the generalizability of findings and may contribute to health disparities. There are unique challenges to recruitment of families to pediatric cancer research studies, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the most effective recruitment and retention strategies to optimize equitable recruitment of diverse participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Changes in health behaviors and weight are common during the early phases of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment, and may negatively impact treatment tolerability. Given that ALL is most prevalent in children, caregivers play an essential role in shaping health behaviors during treatment. This study presents a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with caregivers of youth in the early phases of ALL treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Prev Res (Phila)
December 2023
Despite the incredible progress that has been made against cancer over the last few decades, the demographic trends in the United States predict that we will see significant increases in cancer incidence and mortality by the year 2030. This, coupled with an aging cancer workforce, would suggest that we will have major challenges ahead in dealing with the increasing burden from cancer. Clearly a critical part of our strategy must be to focus on cancer prevention and control (CPC) efforts and not solely rely on treatment to mitigate this concerning trend.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Consistent family rules and routines promote positive adaptation to stress and may be protective to child emotional and behavioral functioning. Few studies have quantified family engagement in these behaviors during pediatric cancer treatment or examined associations with child emotional and behavioral health.
Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, 86 primary caregivers of youth ages 2-14 years (M = 7.
Introduction: The purpose of this study is to evaluate two recruitment strategies on schools and participant participation rates and representativeness (reach) within a pediatric obesity treatment trial tailored for families who live in rural areas.
Methods: Recruitment of schools was evaluated based on their progress toward enrolling participants. Recruitment and reach of participants were evaluated using (1) participation rates and (2) representativeness of demographics and weight status of participants compared to eligible participants (who did not consent and enroll) and all students (regardless of eligibility).
Background: Obesity, depression, and anxiety often co-occur, but research on weight change and mental health status is limited. This analysis examined how the mental component score (MCS-12) from the Short Form health survey changed over 24 months in weight loss trial participants with vs. without treatment seeking for affective symptoms (TxASx) and by weight change quintiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRural families are disproportionately affected by obesity. Obesity often runs in families and is impacted by hereditary components, the shared home environment, and parent modeling/child observational learning. Moreover, parent changes in weight predict child changes in weight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The transition to parenthood is associated with worsening health behaviors, yet the impact of parental status on successful weight loss has rarely been examined. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of parental status of minor children on weight loss and behavioral adherence in a rural community-based weight loss intervention.
Methods: Five hundred and twenty-eight adults (age 21-75 years, body mass index [BMI] 30-45 kg/m) were enrolled in a group-based weight loss intervention consisting of 16 weekly sessions delivered in face-to-face group sessions at Cooperative Extension Service (CES) offices.
To examine the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural parental stress and family behaviors, parents who participated in a 2-4 grade pediatric obesity intervention completed a survey in May 2020. Parents (N=77) experienced 7.8±2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe unique obesogenic environment may influence the ability to effectively maintain weight loss in rural areas. The aim of this study was to examine the contextual relationship of neighborhood disadvantage, distance to supermarkets and supercenters, and fast food, dollar store, and exercise facility environments on weight loss following a weight-loss intervention in the United States. This analysis (n = 1177) linked weight loss outcomes from a rural, primary care-based randomized controlled trial to contextual data collected from residential addresses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although frequentist paradigm has been the predominant approach to clinical studies for decades, some limitations associated with the frequentist null hypothesis significance testing have been recognized. Bayesian approaches can provide additional insights into data interpretation and inference by deriving posterior distributions of model parameters reflecting the clinical interest. In this article, we sought to demonstrate how Bayesian approaches can improve the data interpretation by reanalyzing the Rural Engagement in Primary Care for Optimizing Weight Reduction (REPOWER).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of this study was to report the results of five weight-loss interventions in primary care settings in underserved patients and to compare the level of pragmatism across the interventions using the Pragmatic Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary (PRECIS-2) tool.
Methods: Data from 54 primary care clinics (2,210 patients) were pooled from the Promoting Successful Weight Loss in Primary Care in Louisiana (PROPEL) and Rural Engagement in Primary Care for Optimizing Weight Reduction (REPOWER) cluster-randomized trials. Clinics were randomized to one of five comparators: PROPEL usual care, PROPEL combination of in-clinic and telephone visits, REPOWER in-clinic individual visits, REPOWER in-clinic group visits, or REPOWER telephone group visits.
Aerobic exercise reduces risk for breast cancer and recurrence and promotes visceral adipose tissue (VAT) loss in obesity. However, few breast cancer survivors achieve recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) without supervision. In a two-cohort study, feasibility of 12 weeks of partially supervised exercise was started concomitantly with caloric restriction and effects on body composition and systemic risk biomarkers were explored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe inflammation-resolving and insulin-sensitizing properties of eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) fatty acids have potential to augment effects of weight loss on breast cancer risk. In a feasibility study, 46 peri/postmenopausal women at increased risk for breast cancer with a body mass index (BMI) of 28 kg/m or greater were randomized to 3.25 g/day combined EPA and DHA (ω-3-FA) or placebo concomitantly with initiation of a weight-loss intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adults in rural areas have a higher prevalence of obesity and some mental health conditions. The degree to which mental health influences weight loss among rural residents remains unclear. This study evaluated changes in body weight, physical activity, diet, and program engagement outcomes in a cohort of participants with vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Obesity and chronic pain often co-occur and exert bidirectional influences on one another. How patients with obesity and chronic pain respond to weight loss treatments, however, remains unclear. This study evaluated body weight, physical activity, and diet outcomes in participants with and without chronic pain in a 2-year behavioral weight loss trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Rural populations have a higher prevalence of obesity and poor access to weight loss programs. Effective models for treating obesity in rural clinical practice are needed.
Objective: To compare the Medicare Intensive Behavioral Therapy for Obesity fee-for-service model with 2 alternatives: in-clinic group visits based on a patient-centered medical home model and telephone-based group visits based on a disease management model.
Background: Overweight men with prostate cancer are more likely to suffer from recurrence and death following prostatectomy compared with healthy weight men. This study tested the feasibility of delivering a comprehensive program to foster weight loss before and weight maintenance after surgery in overweight men with localized prostate cancer.
Methods: Twenty overweight men scheduled for prostatectomy elected either the intervention ( = 15) or the nonintervention ( = 5).
Background: In 2000, a landmark study showed that women who graduated from U.S. medical schools from 1979 through 1997 were less likely than their male counterparts to be promoted to upper faculty ranks in academic medical centers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Mens Health
October 2021
Men remain underrepresented in behavioral weight loss trials and are more difficult to recruit compared to women. We describe recruitment response of men and women into a mixed-gender behavioral weight loss trial conducted within 36 rural primary care clinics. Participants were recruited through primary care clinics via direct mailings ( = 15,076) and in-clinic referrals by their primary care provider (PCP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Obesity and poor diet quality (DQ) are associated with increased risk of morbidity/mortality among breast cancer survivors. This study explored DQ changes during a weight loss maintenance intervention in a cohort of rural female breast cancer survivors (n = 131) who lost ≥ 5% body weight in a weight loss intervention. Previous analyses demonstrated significant DQ improvements during weight loss.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Lifestyle interventions for obesity produce reductions in body weight that can decrease risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease but are limited by suboptimal maintenance of lost weight and inadequate dissemination in low-resource communities.
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of extended care programs for obesity management delivered remotely in rural communities through the US Cooperative Extension System.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was conducted from October 21, 2013, to December 21, 2018, in Cooperative Extension Service offices of 14 counties in Florida.