Scoping Conceptions of Equity: Reviewing a Decade of Physical Activity Research.

Lee and Cubbin's (2009) call for a "socially just" Ecological Model of Physical Activity (EMPA) prompted an inquiry into physical activity (PA), active living (AL) research that advances social justice framed as a set of equity-centered principles for research. In response to the call, we conducted a scoping review to explore how PAAL research has operationalized equity to advance a socially-just EMPA. We searched for original research, published between 2010 and 2020, using key terms for 'physical activity' and 'equity' that produced 5,152 non-duplicated records.

From the national to the local: Issues of trust and a model for community-academic-engagement.

Inequities in health and health care in the United States have persisted for decades, and the impacts on equity from the COVID-19 pandemic were no exception. In addition to the disproportionate burden of the disease across various populations, the pandemic posed several challenges, which exacerbated these existing inequities. This has undoubtedly contributed to deeply rooted public mistrust in medical research and healthcare delivery, particularly among historically and structurally oppressed populations.

Healthy Community Design, Anti-displacement, and Equity Strategies in the USA: A Scoping Review.

Recent investments in built environment infrastructure to create healthy communities have highlighted the need for equity and environmental justice. Although the benefits of healthy community design (e.g.

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.

Appalachia: Putting the "Critical" in Race and Crowdsourcing a Pathway Model on Institutional Racism.

As the website explains, we are seeking assistance in refining a pathway model that elucidates institutional racism from the unique standpoint of Appalachia. We think that Appalachia has a distinctive cultural toolkit that shapes its orientation on issues. Our goal is to use crowdsourcing to harness this unique Appalachian ethos to refine the Pathway model on Institutional Racism based on comments, edits, questions, and ideas left on the website.

Disparities in dietary practices during the COVID-19 pandemic by food security status.

Little is known about the differences in dietary practices among food secure and food insecure populations during the early COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in dietary practices the early COVID-19 pandemic restrictions between adults reporting food security versus food insecurity. An online cross-sectional survey using validated measures was administered between April and September 2020 to explore both dietary patterns and practices and food security status among persons residing in five U.

Examining the relationship between physical activity and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic across five U.S. States.

The objectives of this paper are to investigate: 1) how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced both physical activity practices and mental health status, and 2) to assess the relationship between the two. Our mixed-methods study draws on 4,026 online survey responses collected between April - September 2020 across five states (Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon and West Virginia). Logistic regression models were run for two outcome variables (physical activity and mental health status (measured using the Kessler Psychological Distress scale)).

Place Effects and Chronic Disease Rates in a Rural State: Evidence from a Triangulation of Methods.

High rates of chronic diseases and increasing nutritional polarization between different income groups in the United States are issues of concern to policymakers and public health officials. Spatial differences in access to food are mainly blamed as the cause for these nutritional inequalities. This study first detected hot and cold spots of food providers in West Virginia and then used those places in a quasi-experimental method (entropy balancing) to study the effects of those places on diabetes and obesity rates.

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.

Addressing power dynamics in community-engaged research partnerships.

Background: Successful community-engaged research depends on the quality of the collaborative partnerships between community -members and academic researchers and may take several forms depending on the purpose which dictates the degree to which power dynamics are handled within the collaborative arrangement.

Methods: To understand the power dynamics and related concepts within community-engaged research arrangements, a secondary analysis of an existing qualitative data set was undertaken. Two models of community-engaged research, a review of literature, and the applied experiences of researchers familiar with community engagement practices confirmed the power dynamics concepts used to carry out the analysis of the qualitative data set according to the principles of directed content analysis.

Shifting the gaze of the physician from the body to the body in a place: A qualitative analysis of a community-based photovoice approach to teaching place-health concepts to medical students.

Medical practitioners, trained to isolate health within and upon the body of the individual, are now challenged to negotiate research and population health theories that link health status to geographic location as evidence suggests a connection between place and health. This paper builds an integrated place-health model and structural competency analytical framework with nine domains and four levels of proficiency that is utilized to assess a community-based photovoice project's ability to shift the practice of medicine by medical students from the surface of the body to the body within a place. Analysis of the medical student's photovoice data demonstrated that the students achieved structural competency level 1 proficiency and came to understand how health might be connected to place represented by six of the nine domains of the structural competency framework.

West Virginia's Sugary Drink Tax Examining Print Media Frames in Local News Sources.

Introduction: Framing is an important aspect of the policy process that helps the public and decision makers sort through and resolve highly charged claims about an issue. Through slight changes in the presentation of issues, a framing effect may alter public support. The way a proposed sugary drink tax is discussed in public discourse and by the media significantly influences policy acceptance.

Fitting a square peg into a round hole: Perceptions of Appalachian physicians on the incorporation of chronic disease prevention into their practice.

This study used a focus group in August 2017 (n = 9) to explore the perceptions of rural physicians to a state request to incorporate diabetes prevention screening into their West Virginia medical practice. Analysis of the data revealed that the participants did not think private physicians were equipped to incorporate diabetes prevention programming into their practice. Three categories emerged from the data analysis to explain the reasoning of the health practitioners on the incorporation of pre-diabetes screening and management into their practice.

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.

Juggling the five dimensions of food access: Perceptions of rural low income residents.

Using focus groups (n = 6) from six West Virginia counties we assessed how low income, rural women (n = 30) enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program perceived the food environment and the ability to access healthy food. For WIC clients who are at risk for nutrition problems and live at or below 185% of poverty, challenges with food access threaten the positive aspects and impacts of the WIC program. We undertook a qualitative analysis by coding the focus group data on rural food access, into three themes.