Changes in Capacity Building and Sustained Implementation Among a Statewide Coalition to Address Racial/Ethnic COVID-19 Disparities.

This article describes Arkansas Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities (CEAL) Coalition initiatives and changes in measures of organizational capacity and sustainability via two waves of surveys. The Arkansas CEAL Coalition used several initiatives to address racial/ethnic COVID-19 disparities by building the capacity of community-based organizations and businesses to increase COVID-19 protective behaviors among their clients. Our study can inform future strategies that use a community-engaged coalition structure to reduce disparities among communities that suffer disproportionately from COVID-19.

Social determinants of health and COVID-19: An evaluation of racial and ethnic disparities in attitudes, practices, and mental health.

Previous evaluations have reported racial minorities feel they are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, but that on average, they have better preventative practices, such as wearing face masks and avoiding large gatherings. In this study, we explored associations between social determinants of health (SDOH), race and ethnicity, COVID-19 practices and attitudes, and mental health outcomes during the pandemic. We examined associations between SDOHs and practices, attitudes, and mental health symptoms by race and ethnicity using multivariable linear and logistic regressions in 8582 Arkansan pulse poll respondents (September-December, 2020).

Food Insecurity in the Rural United States: An Examination of Struggles and Coping Mechanisms to Feed a Family among Households with a Low-Income.

Households with a low-income in rural places experience disproportionate levels of food insecurity. Further research is needed about the nuances in strategies that households with a low-income in rural areas apply to support food security nationally. This study aimed to understand the barriers and strategies that households with a low-income in rural areas experience to obtain a meal and support food security in the United States.

Clinical Nutrition Research and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the ASPEN COVID-19 Task Force on Nutrition Research.

The purpose of this scoping review by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Nutrition Task Force was to examine nutrition research applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapid pace of emerging scientific information has prompted this activity to discover research/knowledge gaps. This methodology adhered with recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Examining Rural Food-Insecure Families' Perceptions of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: A Qualitative Study.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a critical program that helps reduce the risk of food insecurity, yet little is known about how SNAP addresses the needs of rural, food-insecure residents in the United States (U.S.).

The Curated Food System: A Limiting Aspirational Vision of What Constitutes "Good" Food.

In an effort to elucidate an aspirational vision for the food system and explore whether the characteristics of such a system inadvertently set unattainable standards for low-wealth rural communities, we applied discourse analysis to the following qualitative datasets: (1) interviews with food experts and advocates, (2) scholarly and grey literature, (3) industry websites, and (4) email exchanges between food advocates. The analysis revealed eight aspirational food system discourses: production, distribution, and infrastructure; healthy, organic, local food; behavioral health and education; sustainability; finance and investment; hunger relief; demand-side preferences; romanticized, community led transformations. Study findings reveal that of eight discourses, only three encompass the experiences of low-wealth rural residents.

The WORD: Outcomes of a Behavioral Weight Loss Maintenance Effectiveness Trial in Rural Black Adults of Faith.

Objective: Rural black communities bear a disproportionate burden of obesity. To increase reach among underserved groups, community-based weight loss and maintenance interventions are crucial.

Methods: The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) was adapted for rural black adults of faith to create The Wholeness, Oneness, Righteousness, Deliverance (WORD) trial, a group-based, community health worker-delivered weight loss intervention.

A Tailored Dietary Sodium Intervention Using Technology and Psychosocial Support: A Pilot Study.

Background: In patients with heart failure (HF), high dietary sodium intake is common and associated with HF symptoms, poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and high hospitalization rates.

Purpose: The aims of this study were to examine the feasibility of a tailored dietary intervention with a practical tool (MyFitnessPal) and to obtain preliminary data about the effects on sodium intake, factors affecting sodium intake (knowledge, skills, experiences, confidence, perceived benefits and barriers, and depressive symptoms), HF symptoms, and HRQOL.

Methods: A 6-session intervention was delivered to 11 participants.

Reach and Adoption of a Randomized Weight Loss Maintenance Trial in Rural African Americans of Faith: The WORD (Wholeness, Oneness, Righteousness, Deliverance).

Purpose: There is minimal information regarding the Reach and Adoption of evidence-based weight loss maintenance interventions for African Americans of faith.

Design: The WORD (Wholeness, Oneness, Righteousness, Deliverance) was an 18-month, cluster randomized trial designed to reduce and maintain weight loss in African American adults of faith. Participants received the Diabetes Prevention Program adapted core weight loss program for 6 months, and churches were subsequently randomized to 12-month maintenance treatment or control.

Arguments Used in Public Comments to Support or Oppose the US Department of Agriculture's Minimum Stocking Requirements: A Content Analysis.

Background: In 2016, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Retailer Rule proposed several changes for SNAP-authorized retailers, including: requiring retailers to have at least 85% of their food sales come from items that are not cooked or heated on site before or after purchase; requiring stores to stock seven varieties of qualifying foods from four staple food groups; requiring stores to carry perishable foods in three of the four staple groups; requiring stores to carry six units of qualifying foods at all times (depth of stock); disqualifying multiple ingredient foods and accessory foods from counting toward depth of stock requirements.

Objectives: To better understand arguments used to support or oppose the USDA's proposed rule that all SNAP-authorized retailers carry more nutritious foods.

Design: We conducted a qualitative content analysis of a random sample of public comments posted to the US Federal Register (a publicly available database) in response to the USDA's proposed rule.

Do individual, online motivational interviewing chat sessions enhance weight loss in a group-based, online weight control program?

Objective: To examine whether the addition of online motivational interviewing (MI) chats to a Web-based, group behavioral obesity treatment program augments weight loss outcomes relative to the Web-based weight control program alone.

Methods: Healthy individuals (N = 398, 24% minority) with overweight/obesity were randomized to a 36-session group Internet behavioral weight control treatment (BT) or the same group Internet treatment plus six individual MI chat sessions (BT + MI). Both conditions received weekly synchronous online chat group sessions for 6 months followed by 12 monthly group chats.

Barriers and facilitators to senior centers participating in translational research.

Senior centers are ideal locations to deliver evidence-based health promotion programs to the rapidly growing population of older Americans to help them remain healthy and independent in the community. However, little reported research is conducted in partnership with senior centers; thus, not much is known about barriers and facilitators for senior centers serving as research sites. To fill this gap and potentially accelerate research within senior centers to enhance translation of evidence-based interventions into practice, the present study examined barriers and facilitators of senior centers invited to participate in a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

The WORD (Wholeness, Oneness, Righteousness, Deliverance): design of a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of an evidence-based weight loss and maintenance intervention translated for a faith-based, rural, African American population using a community-based participatory approach.

Background: The positive effects of weight loss on obesity-related risk factors diminish unless weight loss is maintained. Yet little work has focused on the translation of evidence-based weight loss interventions with the aim of sustaining weight loss in underserved populations. Using a community-based participatory approach (CBPR) that engages the strong faith-based social infrastructure characteristic of rural African American communities is a promising way to sustain weight loss in African Americans, who bear a disproportionate burden of the obesity epidemic.

Examination of costs for a lay health educator-delivered translation of the Diabetes Prevention Program in senior centers.

Objective: Older adults in the U.S. have high rates of obesity.

A randomized trial of a community-based cognitive intervention for obese senior adults.

Objective: To determine whether a cognitive intervention delivered by lay health educators (LHEs) in senior centers was effective in improving cognition in obese older adults.

Methods: This cluster randomized trial was conducted in 16 senior centers from which 228 senior adults were recruited. The centers were randomized to either the cognitive intervention or a control, weight-loss intervention.

Training of lay health educators to implement an evidence-based behavioral weight loss intervention in rural senior centers.

Purpose Of The Study: Lay health educators (LHEs) offer great promise for facilitating the translation of evidence-based health promotion programs to underserved areas; yet, there is little guidance on how to train LHEs to implement these programs, particularly in the crucial area of empirically validated obesity interventions.

Design And Methods: This article describes experiences in recruiting, training, and retaining 20 LHEs who delivered a 12-month evidence-based behavioral lifestyle intervention (based on the Diabetes Prevention Program) in senior centers across a rural state. A mixed method approach was used which incorporated collecting the folllowing: quantitative data on sociodemographic characteristics of LHEs; process data related to training, recruitment, intervention implementation, and retention of LHEs; and a quantitative program evaluation questionnaire, which was supplemented by a qualitative program evaluation questionnaire.

Stress management-augmented behavioral weight loss intervention for African American women: a pilot, randomized controlled trial.

The relationship between chronic stress and weight management efforts may be a concern for African American (AA) women, who have a high prevalence of obesity, high stress levels, and modest response to obesity treatment. This pilot study randomly assigned 44 overweight/obese AA women with moderate to high stress levels to either a 12-week adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Balance intervention augmented with stress management strategies (Lifestyle + Stress) or Lifestyle Alone. A trend toward greater percentage of baseline weight loss at 3-month data collection was observed in Lifestyle + Stress (-2.

Calculating reach of evidence-based weight loss and memory improvement interventions among older adults attending Arkansas senior centers, 2008-2011.

Introduction: Older adults could benefit from public health interventions that address the health conditions they face. However, translation of evidence-based interventions into the community has been slow. We implemented 2 evidence-based interventions delivered by lay health educators in Arkansas senior centers from 2008 to 2011: a behavioral weight loss intervention and a memory improvement intervention.

Academic partnerships and key leaders emerging from communities in the lower Mississippi Delta (LMD): a community-based participatory research model.

Collaboratively, the nutritional health problems of the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD) region were examined and opportunities identified for conducting research interventions. To combat the nutritional health problems in the LMD, community residents yielded to a more comprehensive and participatory approach known as community-based participatory research (CBPR). Community residents partnered with academic researchers and other organizational entities to improve the overall quality of diet and health in their respective communities using CBPR.

Feasibility of an evidence-based weight loss intervention for a faith-based, rural, African American population.

Background: African Americans and rural residents are disproportionately affected by obesity. Innovative approaches to address obesity that are sensitive to the issues of rural African Americans are needed. Faith-based and community-based participatory approaches show promise for engaging racial/ethnic minorities to change health outcomes, but few faith-based weight loss interventions have used a community-based participatory approach.

Lay health educators translate a weight-loss intervention in senior centers: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Older adults have high obesity rates and respond well to evidence-based weight-loss programs, such as the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) Lifestyle intervention. The goal of this study was to determine whether a translation of the DPP Lifestyle program delivered by lay health educators and conducted in senior centers is effective in promoting weight loss among older adults.

Design: An RCT with older adults nested within senior centers.

Offer of a weight management program to overweight and obese weight-concerned smokers improves tobacco dependence treatment outcomes.

Weight concern is a common and significant barrier to abstinence for many smokers. This quasi-experimental pilot study used multivariate logistic regression to examine the effects of offering a weight management treatment program on tobacco dependence treatment outcomes. Age, gender, ethnicity, educational level, nicotine dependence level, body mass index, and concern about weight gain were entered as factors/covariates to account for differences between groups.

Capacity building for health through community-based participatory nutrition intervention research in rural communities.

Since its inception, capacity building has been a stated goal of the Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative, a tri-state collaboration in the Lower Mississippi Delta to address high rates of chronic disease. Textual analysis of project documents identifies and describes strategies carried out to foster capacity building. Strategies to build community capacity include fostering participation, cultivating leadership opportunities, training community members as co-researchers, securing community resources, and implementing the intervention together.

Internet delivered behavioral obesity treatment.

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of an Internet behavioral weight loss program; and determine if adding periodic in-person sessions to an Internet intervention improves outcomes.

Methods: 481 healthy overweight adults (28% minority) were randomized to one of 3 delivery methods of a behavioral weight loss program with weekly meetings: Internet (n=161), InPerson (n=158), or Hybrid (Internet+InPerson, n=162). Outcome variables were weight at baseline and 6 months and percent of subjects achieving a 5 and 7% weight loss.

Obesity treatment tailored for a Catholic faith community: a feasibility study.

Most faith-based obesity intervention research has been conducted in African-American Protestant churches. However, Catholic communities might also benefit from a faith-tailored approach. Overweight Catholic individuals (n = 34, 71% female) were randomized to a Catholic-tailored or standard behavioral 16-week group weight control program.