A Physical Activity Just-in-time Adaptive Intervention Designed in Partnership With a Predominantly Black Community: Virtual, Community-Based Participatory Design Approach.

Background: Black people are disproportionally impacted by hypertension. New approaches for encouraging healthy lifestyles are needed to reduce hypertension and promote health equity in Black communities.

Objective: In this report, we describe the early-stage, virtual design of a just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) to increase physical activity in partnership with members of a low-income, predominantly Black community.

College students' knowledge and attitudes toward clinical trials and their relationship with willingness to participate in COVID-19 trials or vaccines.

Objective: We examined clinical trial knowledge and attitudes, and their relationship with willingness to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials, and willingness to accept a COVID-19 vaccine among college students.

Participants: 331 undergraduates: mean age 25; 72% women; and 78% white.

Methods: We administered an online, anonymous survey to undergraduate students in July, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Process Evaluation of a Faith-Based Multicomponent Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Stroke Risk in Mexican Americans in a Catholic Church Setting: The SHARE (Stroke Health and Risk Education) Project.

Church-based stroke prevention programs for Hispanics are underutilized. The Stroke Health and Risk Education (SHARE) project, a multicomponent cluster-randomized trial, addressed key stroke risk factors among predominantly Mexican Americans in a Catholic Church setting. Process evaluation components (implementation, mechanisms of impact, and context) are described.

Reach out behavioral intervention for hypertension initiated in the emergency department connecting multiple health systems: study protocol for a randomized control trial.

Background: Hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality in the United States. The Emergency Department represents an underutilized opportunity to impact difficult-to-reach populations. There are 136 million visits to the Emergency Department each year and nearly all have at least one blood pressure measured and recorded.

Reach Out Emergency Department: Partnering With an Economically Disadvantaged Community in the Development of a Text-Messaging Intervention to Address High Blood Pressure.

Hypertension affects nearly 30% of the U.S. adult population.

Interprofessional Collaboration in Public Health.

Public health departments exemplify interprofessional collaboration. Nursing and public health education students are required to complete practicum hours or an internship respectively in community health, yet placements at health departments are limited and competitive. This study evaluated the effects of an interprofessional education intervention on community health nursing and health education students' current interprofessional awareness and understanding, and intent to collaborate interprofessionally.

Effectiveness of a short video-based educational intervention on factors related to clinical trial participation in adolescents and young adults: a pre-test/post-test design.

Background: Poor clinical trial enrollment continues to be pervasive and is especially problematic among young adults and youth, and among minorities. Efforts to address barriers to enrollment have been predominantly focused on adult diseased populations. Because older adults may already have established attitudes, it is imperative to identify strategies that target adolescents and young adults.

Reach Out Churches: A Community-Based Participatory Research Pilot Trial to Assess the Feasibility of a Mobile Health Technology Intervention to Reduce Blood Pressure Among African Americans.

Innovative strategies are needed to reduce the hypertension epidemic among African Americans. Reach Out was a faith-collaborative, mobile health, randomized, pilot intervention trial of four mobile health components to reduce high blood pressure (BP) compared to usual care. It was designed and tested within a community-based participatory research framework among African Americans recruited and randomized from churches in Flint, Michigan.

A Multicomponent Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Stroke Risk Factor Behaviors: The Stroke Health and Risk Education Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background And Purpose: The Stroke Health and Risk Education Project was a cluster-randomized, faith-based, culturally sensitive, theory-based multicomponent behavioral intervention trial to reduce key stroke risk factor behaviors in Hispanics/Latinos and European Americans.

Methods: Ten Catholic churches were randomized to intervention or control group. The intervention group received a 1-year multicomponent intervention (with poor adherence) that included self-help materials, tailored newsletters, and motivational interviewing counseling calls.

Hypertension induced by liquorice tea.

A 45-year-old woman presented to her general practitioner with a 4-month history of hot flushes, sweating and headaches. On examination, she was found to be hypertensive, and blood tests revealed mild hypokalaemia. While awaiting the results of further investigation into the cause of her elevated blood pressure, the patient conducted her own research and identified liquorice tea as the potential cause of her symptoms.

Adolescent knowledge and attitudes related to clinical trials.

Background Or Aims: Poor enrollment plagues most clinical trials. Furthermore, despite mandates to improve minority representation in clinical trial participation, little progress has been made. We investigated the knowledge and attitudes of adolescents related to clinical trials and made race/ethnicity comparisons in an attempt to identify a possible educational intervention target.

Stroke Health and Risk Education (SHARE): design, methods, and theoretical basis.

Background: Stroke is a disease with tremendous individual, family, and societal impact across all race/ethnic groups. Mexican Americans, the largest subgroup of Hispanic Americans, are at even higher risk of stroke than European Americans.

Aim: To test the effectiveness of a culturally sensitive, church-based, multi-component, motivational enhancement intervention for Mexican Americans and European Americans in reducing stroke risk factors.

Tailored program evaluation: Past, present, future.

This paper discusses measurement issues related to the evaluation of computer-tailored health behavior change programs. As the first generation of commercially available tailored products is utilized in health promotion programming, programmers and researchers are becoming aware of the unique challenges that the evaluation of these programs presents. A project is presented that used an online tailored health behavior assessment (HBA) in a worksite setting.

Application of a Web-based tailored health risk assessment in a work-site population.

This article presents an examination of the feasibility of implementing a Web-based tailored health risk assessment (HRA) as part of a University-based work-site health promotion program. Although the effectiveness of tailoring has been well established in the research literature, tailoring health messages for the purposes of health promotion and behavior change is only now starting to be used and evaluated in real-world settings. Key issues to be examined include the feasibility of delivery of a web-based tailored HRA, utility of data gathered for program planning, participation rates compared to traditional programming, usability, and participant satisfaction with the HRA.

IL-1 receptor-associated kinase 1 regulates susceptibility to organ-specific autoimmunity.

Infections often precede the development of autoimmunity. Correlation between infection with a specific pathogen and a particular autoimmune disease ranges from moderately strong to quite weak. This lack of correspondence suggests that autoimmunity may result from microbial activation of a generic, as opposed to pathogen-specific host-defense response.

CpG DNA induced IL-12 p40 gene activation is independent of STAT1 activation or production of interferon consensus sequence binding protein.

The host immune system responds to CpG motifs in bacterial DNA by rapidly producing proinflammatory cytokines. The host response to CpG DNA resembles, in many ways, the response to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). While both agents can induce a powerful inflammatory response, CpG DNA promotes Th1 and suppresses Th2 immunity.

Assessing quality of life in women living with HIV infection.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of demographic, clinical and psychosocial variables on health-related quality of life in women living with human immunodeficiency virus infection. Subjects included 82 women 18 years of age or older who were currently seeking treatment at an outpatient clinic. The Medical Outcomes Study-Short Form 20 (SF-20) assessment consisted of patient self-ratings on 20 items measuring six distinct health dimensions.

In vitro and in vivo macrophage function can occur independently of SLP-76.

Expression of SH2 domain-containing leukocyte-specific phosphoprotein of 76 kDa (SLP-76), a hematopoietic cell-specific adapter protein, is required to couple Syk family tyrosine kinase activation to downstream mediators such as phospholipase C (PLC)-gamma following TCR, platelet collagen receptor and mast cell Fc epsilon R stimulation. In addition to T cells, mast cells and platelets, SLP-76 is expressed in monocytes and macrophages. To determine the role of SLP-76 in Fc gamma R-stimulated signaling pathways in macrophages, we examined cultured bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) from SLP-76(-/-) and wild-type mice.

Differential regulation of the IL-12 p40 promoter and of p40 secretion by CpG DNA and lipopolysaccharide.

Challenge of macrophages with DNA containing an internal CpG motif results in IL-12 p40 secretion. In the presence of IFN-gamma, CpG DNA induces more p40 secretion than does LPS. In the RAW 264 macrophage cell line, both CpG DNA and LPS activate a p40 promoter-reporter construct, and the promoter response to either agent is augmented 2- to 5-fold by IFN-gamma.

Interleukin-10 functions in vitro and in vivo to inhibit bacterial DNA-induced secretion of interleukin-12.

Bacterial DNA (bDNA) has a number of biologic properties, including the ability to induce interleukin-12 (IL-12) production by macrophages. We studied the role of the regulatory cytokine IL-10 as a potential inhibitor of bDNA-induced IL-12 production. IL-10 concentrations as low as 0.

Self-reported depression and risk-taking behaviors among Hispanic adolescents.

In assessing the relationships between self-reported depression and certain key risk-taking behaviors among a national sample of Hispanic adolescents (N = 935, ages 12 to 19 years), girls who reported depression were significantly more likely to engage in these behaviors than girls who did not report depression. No significant differences were found among boys (n = 470), although they were more likely than girls (n = 465) to take risks regardless of depressive state. These results suggest that depressive symptoms may be a market for engagement in risk-taking behaviors among Hispanic girls.

Bacterial DNA-induced NK cell IFN-gamma production is dependent on macrophage secretion of IL-12.

Bacterial DNA (bDNA) activates B cells and macrophages and can augment inflammatory responses by inducing release of proinflammatory cytokines. We found that bDNA stimulation of mouse spleen cells induced NK cell IFN-gamma production that was dependent upon the presence of unmethylated CpG motifs, and oligonucleotides with internal CpG motifs could also induce splenocytes to secrete IFN-gamma. The bDNA-induced IFN-gamma response was strictly macrophages dependent.

Sociobehavioral influences on smoking initiation of Hispanic adolescents.

Purpose: To study the sociobehavioral influences on smoking initiation of Hispanic adolescents over a 3-year period using a national sample.

Methods: Hispanic adolescents (N = 385), ages 15-22 years, from the 1989 and 1993 Teenage Attitudes and Practices Surveys (TAPS I and II), were selected for analyses. Data collected included measures of smoking initiation and attitudes, beliefs toward smoking of the adolescent, and smoking status of family and peers.

Bacterial DNA induces NK cells to produce IFN-gamma in vivo and increases the toxicity of lipopolysaccharides.

Microbial products released during bacterial infection induce cytokine-mediated inflammatory responses that can be protective, but excessive release of inflammatory cytokines may promote development of the sepsis syndrome. We examined the ability of bacterial DNA to induce in vivo cytokine release and to potentiate the toxicity of LPS. Intravenous treatment of mice with Escherichia coli (EC) DNA, but not calf thymus (CT) DNA, induced a rapid (within 4 h) dose-dependent increase in serum IFN-gamma and splenic IFN-gamma-forming cells.

IFN-gamma promotes IL-6 and IgM secretion in response to CpG motifs in bacterial DNA and oligodeoxynucleotides.

Lymphocyte recognition of characteristic structural features in microbial DNA may contribute to immune defense by promoting protective immune responses. The dinucleotide CpG is significantly under-represented in vertebrate DNA and is usually methylated. In contrast, CpG dinucleotides are generally present at the expected frequency in bacterial DNA and are unmethylated.