United States Long-Term Trends in Adult BMI (1959-2018): Unraveling the Roots of the Obesity Epidemic.

The escalating rates of obesity since the 1950s poses a critical public health challenge across all age groups in the United States. While numerous studies have examined cross-sectional disparities across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, there has been limited research on long-term trends. To address this gap, we analyzed average adult body mass index (BMI) trends from 1959 to 2018, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the National Health Examination Survey (NHES).

The intersectionality-based policy analysis framework: demonstrating utility through application to the pre-vaccine U.S. COVID-19 policy response.

Few guidelines exist for the development of socially responsible health policy, and frameworks that balance considerations of data, strategy, and equity are limited. The Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) framework utilizes a structured questioning process to consider problems and policies, while applying guiding principles of equity, social justice, power, intersectionality, and diversity of knowledge and input. We apply the IBPA framework's guiding principles and questions to the pre-vaccine U.

Action learning and public health pedagogy: Student reflections from an experiential public health course.

Introduction: Applied practice experiences are essential components of the Masters of Public Health (MPH) curriculum. The objective of this study was to examine students' perspectives on the skills and expertise they developed in an MPH course offering applied practice opportunities.

Methods: Of 236 students who took the course from 2008 to 2018, email addresses were obtained for 212 and 104 completed the consent form.

Using Health Care Professionals' Perspectives to Refine a Clinical Decision Support Implementation Strategy for Increasing the Prescribing of HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in Alabama.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is underused in the southern United States (US), a region with high HIV incidence. Clinical decision support (CDS) tools could increase PrEP prescriptions. We explored barriers to PrEP delivery and views of CDS tools to identify refinements for implementation strategies for PrEP prescribing and PrEP CDS tools.

The Importance of Sociocultural Context When Choosing to Eat Healthier.

Objective: To explore how working women in metropolitan Malaysia make food decisions.

Design: A grounded theory approach and semistructured interviews.

Setting: A large university in metropolitan Malaysia.

Are Household Expenditures on Food Groups Associated with Children's Future Heights in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam?

Household expenditure surveys, routinely conducted in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), usually include questions pertaining to recent household expenditures on key food groups. When child anthropometrics are also available, such expenditure data can provide insights into household food purchasing patterns that are associated with subsequent child growth measures. We used data from 6993 children, born around 2001, from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, from the Young Lives younger cohort.

Cross-Jurisdictional Resource Sharing in Local Health Departments: Implications for Services, Quality, and Cost.

Background: Forty one percent of local health departments in the U.S. serve jurisdictions with populations of 25,000 or less.

Does household access to improved water and sanitation in infancy and childhood predict better vocabulary test performance in Ethiopian, Indian, Peruvian and Vietnamese cohort studies?

Objective: Test associations between household water and sanitation (W&S) and children's concurrent and subsequent Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) scores.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Ethiopia, India, Peru, Vietnam.

Household food group expenditure patterns are associated with child anthropometry at ages 5, 8 and 12 years in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam.

Unlabelled: Population-level analysis of dietary influences on nutritional status is challenging in part due to limitations in dietary intake data. Household expenditure surveys, covering recent household expenditures and including key food groups, are routinely conducted in low- and middle-income countries. These data may help identify patterns of food expenditure that relate to child growth.

Children with access to improved sanitation but not improved water are at lower risk of stunting compared to children without access: a cohort study in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam.

Background: This study's purpose was to understand associations between water, sanitation, and child growth.

Methods: We estimated stunting (height-for-age Z score <-2 SD) and thinness (BMI-Z <-2 SD) risk ratios using data from 7,715 Ethiopian, Indian, Peruvian, and Vietnamese children from the Young Lives study.

Results: In unadjusted models, household access to improved water and toilets was often associated with reduced stunting risk.

Diabetes knowledge and self-efficacy among rural women in Gujarat, India.

Introduction: Type II diabetes has risen dramatically among rural women in India, specifically in the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Recent studies suggest that rural Indian women's low level of self-efficacy, or confidence in their ability to carry out tasks, such as managing diabetes, is a key reason for this increase. Therefore, this study utilizes the Health Belief Model to analyze whether increased awareness of diabetes leads to a positive increase in levels of self-efficacy among diabetic women in two rural villages of Gujarat.

Indigenous Food Systems and Climate Change: Impacts of Climatic Shifts on the Production and Processing of Native and Traditional Crops in the Bolivian Andes.

Inhabitants of the high-mountain Andes have already begun to experience changes in the timing, severity, and patterning of annual weather cycles. These changes have important implications for agriculture, for human health, and for the conservation of biodiversity in the region. This paper examines the implications of climate-driven changes for native and traditional crops in the municipality of Colomi, Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Effects of Economic Conditions and Organizational Structure on Local Health Jurisdiction Revenue Streams and Personnel Levels in Connecticut, 2005-2012.

Objective: We investigated whether or not changes in economic conditions during the 2008-2010 U.S. recession were associated with changes in Connecticut local health jurisdictions' (LHJs') revenue or personnel levels.

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Associations between Household Food Security and Child Anthropometry at Ages 5 and 8 Years in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam.

Background: Poor childhood nutritional status has lifetime effects and food insecurity is associated with dietary practices that can impair nutritional status.

Objectives: We assessed concurrent and subsequent associations between food insecurity and height-for-age z scores (HAZs) and body mass index-for-age z scores (BMI-Zs); evaluated associations with transitory and chronic food insecurity; and tested whether dietary diversity mediates associations between food insecurity and nutritional status.

Methods: We used data from the Young Lives younger cohort composed of children in Ethiopia (n = 1757), India (n = 1825), Peru (n = 1844), and Vietnam (n = 1828) recruited in 2002 (round 1) at ∼1 y old, with subsequent data collection at 5 y in 2006 (round 2) and 8 y in 2009 (round 3).

Resilience, stress, and life quality in older adults living with HIV/AIDS.

Objectives: This study tested the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between life stress and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older people, 50 years of age and older, living with HIV/AIDS (OPLWHA).

Method: Data from 299 OPLWHA were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to define a novel resilience construct (represented by coping self-efficacy, active coping, hope/optimism, and social support) and to assess mediating effects of resilience on the association between life stress and HRQoL (physical, emotional, and functional/global well-being).

Results: SEM analyses showed satisfactory model fit for both resilience and mediational models, with resilience mediating the associations between life stress and physical, emotional, and functional/global well-being.

Households across all income quintiles, especially the poorest, increased animal source food expenditures substantially during recent Peruvian economic growth.

Background: Relative to plant-based foods, animal source foods (ASFs) are richer in accessible protein, iron, zinc, calcium, vitamin B-12 and other nutrients. Because of their nutritional value, particularly for childhood growth and nutrition, it is important to identify factors influencing ASF consumption, especially for poorer households that generally consume less ASFs.

Objective: To estimate differential responsiveness of ASF consumption to changes in total household expenditures for households with different expenditures in a middle-income country with substantial recent income increases.

Boundary development in the field of international nutrition science.

Using a sociological approach that elaborates on key observations of institutional entrepreneurs in international nutrition, this paper explores institutional boundaries and boundary work in international nutrition. Sociological concepts of "boundary making" and "situated knowledge" are applied to the boundaries between the nutrition sciences and lay nutrition knowledge in nutrition intervention. These concepts allow an analysis of how nutrition science creates boundaries between its field and other sciences and between nutrition as a science and other nutrition practices, providing additional perspective on current challenges in global food security and malnutrition.

Assessing research activity and capacity of community-based organizations: development and pilot testing of an instrument.

Background: Although awareness of the importance of the research capacity of community-based organizations (CBOs) is growing, a uniform framework of the research capacity domains within CBOs has not yet been developed.

Objectives: To develop a framework and instrument (the Community REsearch Activity assessment Tool [CREAT]) for assessing the research activity and capacity of CBOs that incorporates awareness of the different data collection and analysis priorities of CBOs.

Methods: We conducted a review of existing tools for assessing research capacity to identify key capacity domains.

In vitro screening of compounds against laboratory and field isolates of human hookworm reveals quantitative differences in anthelmintic susceptibility.

A panel of 80 compounds was screened for anthelmintic activity against a laboratory strain of Ancylostoma ceylanicum and field isolates of hookworm obtained from school children in the Kintampo North District of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Although the laboratory strain of A. ceylanicum was more susceptible to the compounds tested than the field isolates of hookworm, a twofold increase in compound concentration resulted in comparable egg hatch percent inhibition for select compounds.

Exploring culture in the world of international nutrition and nutrition sciences.

This symposium was organized to bring insights from the social sciences into the awareness of nutrition scientists committed to developing and implementing effective nutrition interventions internationally. The symposium explored three different areas in the field where a more precise analysis of culture could enhance the effectiveness of nutrition science: 1) in the implementation of nutrition science research in the field; 2) in the collaboration of multiple stakeholders working to enhance nutrition in a national setting; and 3) in the language and discussions used to frame proposed changes in large scale food and nutrition security policy transnationally. Three social scientists, Monique Centrone Stefani, Lucy Jarosz, and David Pelletier were invited to share insights from their respective disciplines and respondents from within the field of nutrition provided initial reflections to better understand such perspectives.