Recruitment and Retention in the National Diabetes Prevention Program Lifestyle Change Program in Two Federally Qualified Health Centers in Rural Hawai'i.

Prediabetes disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority groups in Hawai'i. The National Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle change program (National DPP LCP) decreases the risk of developing diabetes. However, enrolling and retaining participants is a challenge for program providers.

Culturally Relevant Physical Activity in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in Hawai'i.

Introduction: Culturally relevant physical activity is a promising field for chronic disease prevention and management. Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders have higher rates of physical inactivity than other racial or ethnic groups and increased risk of chronic disease. The study objective was to provide population-level data from Hawai'i on lifetime experiences in the Native Hawaiian Indigenous practices of hula and outrigger canoe paddling across demographic and health factors to identify opportunities for public health intervention, engagement, and surveillance.

Racial and ethnic disparities in obesity prevalence among children, adolescents, and young adults receiving inpatient care in Hawai'i, 2015-2016.

The number of hospitalizations with an obesity diagnosis have increased among youth in the past two decades, yet remain understudied, particularly among racial/ethnic minority groups. The purpose of this study was to characterize obesity prevalence among children, adolescents, and young adults receiving inpatient care in Hawai'i acute care hospitals during 2015-2016. This study analyzed statewide administrative data from a racially and ethnically diverse population.

The Healthy Hawai'i Strategic Plan 2030: A Roadmap for Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease and Envisioning a Healthy and Equitable Future.

In June 2021, over 200 stakeholders, advocates, and visionaries gathered to launch the Healthy Hawai'i Strategic Plan 2030 (HHSP), a 10-year strategic plan for improving the health of Hawai'i residents by preventing and reducing chronic disease and advancing health equity. The HHSP is a guide to enable coordination across common risk factors, program areas, interventions, and strategies for chronic disease prevention and control. Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed major areas of susceptibility in our health system infrastructure and magnified existing disparities, the HHSP prioritizes health equity and strives to create sustainable change to transform communities, schools, health care and worksites to support the health of the people of Hawai'i.

Identifying best practices in adoption, implementation and enforcement of flavoured tobacco product restrictions and bans: lessons from experts.

Objective: To identify recommended components for adopting, implementing and enforcing bans or restrictions targeting flavoured tobacco products.

Methods: Between April and June 2019, semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 high-level experts across the USA and Canada with expertise in flavoured tobacco product policies. Participants included health department staff, researchers, legal professionals and local government officials.

Prevalence of Selected Chronic Conditions Among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults in Acute Care Settings in Hawai'i.

Introduction: Chronic disease prevalence among young people is understudied generally and specifically for Native Hawaiian, Filipino, and Pacific Islander youth who are at high risk for these conditions. We determined the statewide prevalence of chronic diseases in acute care for those aged 5 to 29 years, including Native Hawaiians, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders.

Methods: We used Hawai'i statewide inpatient and emergency department (ED) data across all payers from 2015-2016 to determine the presence of at least 1 of 5 chronic conditions (ie, asthma, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, stroke) from 13,514 inpatient stays by 9,467 unique individuals and 228,548 ED visits by 127,854 individuals.

Insights in Public Health: Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of the Prevent Diabetes, Hawai'i Campaign.

The campaign aimed to increase awareness of prediabetes by encouraging adults to take a Diabetes Risk Test and share the results with their doctors or healthcare providers. The campaign was developed based on social marketing principles, and focus groups were used to inform the marketing mix. Television, radio, digital, and print advertisements featured local actor and comedian Frank De Lima, and a website with an online Diabetes Risk Test and resources for patients and providers were promoted in all advertisements.

Insights in Public Health: Formative Factors for a Statewide Tobacco Control Advocacy Infrastructure: Insights from Hawai'i.

Hawai'i has comprehensive statewide tobacco control policies and was the first US state to raise the minimum age of sale, purchase, and possession of tobacco products to age 21 ("Tobacco 21") in a policy including not just cigarettes, but also electronic smoking devices and other tobacco products. This insights article provides strategic thinking about tobacco control advocacy planning. Specifically, we identify formative factors critical to building and sustaining our cross-sector, statewide advocacy infrastructure that has been able to address many ongoing challenges of tobacco-use prevention and control over time.

Incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma according to hepatitis B virus genotype in Alaska Native people.

Background & Aims: Most regions of the world have ≤3 co-circulating hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes, which limits direct comparisons of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk among HBV-infected persons by genotype. We evaluated HCC incidence by HBV genotype in a cohort of Alaska Native (AN) persons where five HBV genotypes (A, B, C, D, F) have been identified.

Methods: Our cohort comprised AN persons with chronic HBV infection identified during 1983-2012 who consented to participate in this study.

Insights in Public Health: For the Love of Data! The Hawai'i Health Data Warehouse.

Data form the framework around which important public health decisions are made. Public health data are essential for surveillance and evaluating change. In Hawai'i, public health data come from a multitude of sources and agencies.

Protection against tuberculosis with homologous or heterologous protein/vector vaccine approaches is not dependent on CD8+ T cells.

Considerable effort has been directed to develop Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccines to boost bacille Calmette-Guérin or for those who cannot be immunized with bacille Calmette-Guérin. We hypothesized that CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses with a heterologous prime/boost vaccine approach could induce long-lived vaccine efficacy against M. tuberculosis in C57BL/6 mice.

The importance of adjuvant formulation in the development of a tuberculosis vaccine.

An effective protein-based vaccine for tuberculosis will require a safe and effective adjuvant. There are few adjuvants in approved human vaccines, including alum and the oil-in-water-based emulsions MF59 (Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics), AS03 and AS04 (GlaxoSmithKline Biologics), AF03 (Sanofi), and liposomes (Crucell). When used with pure, defined proteins, both alum and emulsion adjuvants are effective at inducing primarily humoral responses.

Transcriptional profiling of TLR-4/7/8-stimulated guinea pig splenocytes and whole blood by bDNA assay.

Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists are currently being examined as adjuvants for vaccines, with several lead candidates now in licensed products or in late-stage clinical development. Guinea pigs are widely used for preclinical testing of drugs and vaccines; however, evaluation of TLR agonists in this model is hindered by the limited availability of immunological tools and reagents. In this study, we validated the use of a branched-chain DNA (bDNA) assay known as the QuantiGene Plex 2.

Alterations in the immunogenic properties of soluble trimeric human immunodeficiency virus type 1 envelope proteins induced by deletion or heterologous substitutions of the V1 loop.

HIV-1 gp140 envelope immunogens express conserved epitopes that are targeted by broadly cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies, but they fail to elicit similar antibodies upon immunization. The poor immunogenicity of conserved epitopes on gp140 could be linked to the high immunogenicity of variable Env regions on such constructs. Previous studies have shown that the first hypervariable region (V1 loop) is immunogenic on soluble gp140s but elicits type-specific antibodies.

Factors associated with the development of cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies during human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection.

The characterization of the cross-reactive, or heterologous, neutralizing antibody responses developed during human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection and the identification of factors associated with their generation are relevant to the development of an HIV vaccine. We report that in healthy HIV-positive, antiretroviral-naïve subjects, the breadth of plasma heterologous neutralizing antibody responses correlates with the time since infection, plasma viremia levels, and the binding avidity of anti-Env antibodies. Anti-CD4-binding site antibodies are responsible for the exceptionally broad cross-neutralizing antibody responses recorded only in rare plasma samples.

The first hypervariable region of the gp120 Env glycoprotein defines the neutralizing susceptibility of heterologous human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolates to neutralizing antibodies elicited by the SF162gp140 immunogen.

Current vaccine efforts to elicit cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) focus on the engineering of soluble mimetics of the trimeric HIV Env glycoprotein (commonly termed gp140 immunogens). Such immunogens are thought to be more effective than previously tested monomeric gp120 immunogens at eliciting cross-reactive NAbs. Still, the breadth of neutralizing antibody responses elicited by gp140 immunogens is narrow.