Advocacy for Health Justice: An Innovative Pilot Course for MD and Master of Public Policy Students.

: U.S. medical schools are searching for ways to address issues of health justice in undergraduate medical education.

United for health to improve urban food environments across five underserved communities: a cross-sector coalition approach.

Background: Cross-sector coalitions can be a powerful vehicle to promote adoption and implementation of evidence-based programs and policies across diverse racial/ethnic communities with a high chronic disease burden. Few studies have examined coalition composition, function, or capacity to promote learning among members.

Methods: We used a mixed methods approach to examine the United for Health coalition's implementation of multiple food environment interventions across five low-income communities of color in Los Angeles, California (USA).

Use of research evidence in state health policymaking: Menu labeling policy in California.

Addressing the translational gap between research evidence and state health policy requires an understanding of the current use of research evidence in the state policymaking process. In this study, we explore the use of research evidence to inform the legislative debate about restaurant nutrition labeling policy in California. In 2008, California was the first state to enact a mandatory menu calorie labeling policy in the U.

Intrapersonal and Environmental Barriers to Physical Activity Among Blacks and Latinos.

Objective: To understand perceived barriers and facilitators to physical activity (PA) among at-risk African American and Hispanic adolescents and adults in a low-income community.

Design: Qualitative research was conducted in 2014-2015 using focus groups and a sociodemographic survey.

Setting: Three high schools in South Los Angeles, California.

Ending Cervical Cancer Screening in Low-Risk Women After Age 65: Understanding Barriers to Adherence With Evidence-Based Guidelines Among Primary Care Providers.

Background: Current evidence-based cervical cancer testing guidelines recommend that screening of low-risk women ceases after age 65. Despite this, research suggests that continued testing by primary care providers remains common and represents unnecessary patient discomfort, cost, and consumption of valuable primary care resources.

Objective: To understand why primary care providers might knowingly ignore consensus evidence-based screening guidelines for cervical cancer in low-risk women of this age-group and to identify barriers to adherence with best practice recommendations.

Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Healthy Eating and School Lunch Meals among Adolescents: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: We explored how perceived barriers and facilitators influence healthy eating and investigated the acceptability of changes to school lunch meals among adolescents after implementation of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.

Methods: We conducted 8 focus groups with adolescents (N = 64) at 3 South Los Angeles high schools. Data collection instruments included a semi-structured guide and questionnaire.

Catalyzing Implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions in Safety Net Settings: A Clinical-Community Partnership in South Los Angeles.

This study is a process evaluation of a clinical-community partnership that implemented evidence-based interventions in clinical safety net settings. Adoption and implementation of evidence-based interventions in these settings can help reduce health disparities by improving the quality of clinical preventive services in health care settings with underserved populations. A clinical-community partnership model is a possible avenue to catalyze adoption and implementation of interventions amid organizational barriers to change.

Advocacy coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate: Exploring coalition structure, policy beliefs, resources, and strategies.

Advocacy coalitions often play an important role in the state health policymaking process, yet little is known about their structure, composition, and behavior. In 2008, California became the first state to enact a menu labeling law. Using the advocacy coalition framework, we examine different facets of the coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate.

Discontent and Confusion: Primary Care Providers' Opinions and Understanding of Current Cervical Cancer Screening Recommendations.

Background: In 2012, new cervical cancer screening guidelines were published by three widely recognized entities which advocate delayed onset of testing, fewer screenings, selective use of human papilloma virus co-testing, and no further screening in women over age 65 years. Early observations report that these recommendations are not being followed and overscreening is common. This study seeks to understand why primary care providers might not adhere to these new 'best practice' health policy protocols.

Transforming the urban food desert from the grassroots up: a model for community change.

Confronted by continuing health disparities in vulnerable communities, Community Health Councils (CHC), a nonprofit community-based organization in South Los Angeles, worked with the African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Coalition and research partners to develop a community change model to address the root causes of health disparities within the community's African American population. This article discusses how the CHC Model's development and application led to public policy interventions in a "food desert." The CHC Model provided a systematic approach to engaging impacted communities in support of societal level reforms, with the goal to influence health outcomes.

Work group IV: Future directions for measures of the food and physical activity environments.

Much progress has been made in the past 5 to 10 years in measuring and understanding the impact of the food and physical activity environments on behavioral outcomes. Nevertheless, this research is in its infancy. A work group was convened to identify current evidence gaps and barriers in food and physical activity environments and policy research measures, and develop recommendations to guide future directions for measurement and methodologic research efforts.

Assessing resource environments to target prevention interventions in community chronic disease control.

The recent emphasis in public health and medicine on the environmental determinants of chronic illness has created the need for a more comprehensive way to assess barriers and facilitators of healthy living. This paper reports on the approach taken by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded project whose goal is to reduce disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Los Angeles' African American communities. Findings from this community-based participatory research project suggest that while location is an important variable in evaluating nutritional and physical activity resources, quality and price considerations are at least as useful.

Putting promotion into practice: the African Americans building a legacy of health organizational wellness program.

A Los Angeles REACH demonstration project led by Community Health Councils, Inc. adapted and implemented an organizational wellness intervention originally developed by the local health department, providing training in incorporating physical activity and healthy food choices into the routine "conduct of business" in 35 predominantly public and private, nonprofit-sector agencies. A total of 700 staff, members, or clients completed the 12-week or subsequently retooled 6-week curriculum.

African Americans' access to healthy food options in South Los Angeles restaurants.

Objectives: We examined availability and food options at restaurants in less affluent (target area) and more affluent (comparison area) areas of Los Angeles County to compare residents' access to healthy meals prepared and purchased away from home. We also considered environmental prompts that encourage the purchase of various foods.

Methods: We designed an instrument to assess the availability, quality, and preparation of food in restaurants.

Leading by example: a local health department-community collaboration to incorporate physical activity into organizational practice.

A multisectoral model promoting sociocultural environmental change to increase physical activity levels among African Americans in Los Angeles County, California, was developed and implemented. This model represents a true collaboration between a local health department and a community lead agency. Community organizations serving targeted areas of the county participated in one or more interventions incorporating physical activity into routine organizational practice, which centered around modeling the behaviors promoted ("walking the talk").

Improving the nutritional resource environment for healthy living through community-based participatory research.

Objectives: To build health promotion capacity among community residents through a community-based participatory model, and to apply this model to study the nutritional environment of an urban area to better understand the role of such resources in residents' efforts to live a healthy life.

Design: A multiphase collaborative study that inventoried selected markets in targeted areas of high African-American concentration in comparison with markets in a contrasting wealthier area with fewer African Americans.

Setting: A community study set in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.