The Collaborative Scholarship Intensive: A Research-Intensive Course to Improve Faculty Scholarship.

Background And Objectives: Learning to balance the clinical, educational, and scholarly elements of an academic career is challenging for faculty. To increase research output amongst family medicine faculty with limited to no publications, we developed the Collaborative Scholarship Intensive (CSI) to provide participants with intensive instruction in research methodology coupled with structured writing support and protected time for writing.

Methods: The CSI was developed by the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health as a six-session faculty development program that enrolled 23 participants in its first three classes.

Provider-Selected Training Needs and Associations With Related Practices in Childcare Settings in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Background: Early care and education settings (ECE) are potential venues for young children to develop healthy lifestyle habits. The study assesses training needs and associations with relevant practices of licensed ECE providers across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Methods: A random sample of 823 providers completed a 97-item survey assessing nutrition and physical activity (PA) practices and training needs.

Do High School Students Participate in Second Chance Breakfast Programs?

Background: Breakfast consumption often decreases as youth get older. The School Breakfast Program (SBP) provides an opportunity to intervene and increase breakfast consumption, especially among high school students.

Methods: Project breakFAST implemented an expanded breakfast service at 12 high schools.

Breakfast Is Brain Food? The Effect on Grade Point Average of a Rural Group Randomized Program to Promote School Breakfast.

Background: Adolescents frequently miss breakfast which may impact cognitive, academic, and health outcomes. This analysis describes the effect of a trial to assess school level changes to increase breakfast consumption on grade point average (GPA).

Methods: Sixteen rural Minnesota high schools were randomized to a policy and environmental change intervention or delayed intervention (control) group.

An Economic Analysis of Updating and Expanding School Breakfast Program Offerings in High Schools.

Background: School breakfast is an important nutritional component of a student's day. Many schools operate a school breakfast program, but high schools have low rates of participation. This study aimed to investigate the economic impact on school food service, of expanding the school breakfast program to increase participation in high schools.

The Economic Benefits of Reducing Racial Disparities in Health: The Case of Minnesota.

This paper estimates the benefits of eliminating racial disparities in mortality rates and work weeks lost due to illness. Using data from the American Community Survey (2005⁻2007) and Minnesota vital statistics (2011⁻2015), we explore economic methodologies for estimating the costs of health disparities. The data reveal large racial disparities in both mortality and labor market non-participation arising from preventable diseases and illnesses.

A Group Randomized Intervention Trial Increases Participation in the School Breakfast Program in 16 Rural High Schools in Minnesota.

Background: Breakfast consumption is associated with better diet quality and healthier weights, yet many adolescents miss breakfast. Nationally, 17.1% of students participate in the School Breakfast Program (SBP).

Using Theory to Evaluate the Implementation and Integration of an Expanded School Breakfast Program in Rural Midwestern High Schools.

Objective: Use Normalization Process Theory to evaluate the implementation and integration of the expanded School Breakfast Program (SBP).

Design: Interviews were conducted during the 2014-2015 school year. Normalization Process Theory guided the interview questions.

Staff Training Interests, Barriers, and Preferences in Rural and Urban Child Care Programs in Minnesota.

Objectives: To describe any rural-urban differences in child care providers' (1) past training on the facilitation of child healthy eating and physical activity and (2) views relevant to the design of trainings.

Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2016 Healthy Start, Healthy State survey of Minnesota child care providers (rural, n = 232; urban, n = 386). Licensed family home-based care providers and providers working at licensed centers responded online or by mail to measures of desired training content, barriers, and delivery mode preferences.

State Agency Support of Weight-Related School Policy Implementation.

Background: In this study, we describe state agency strategies to support weight-related policy implementation in schools, and examine the association among state support, obesity prevalence, and strength of state policies governing school nutrition and physical education.

Methods: The 2012 School Health Policies and Practices Study describes prevalence of implementation support state agencies provided to schools/districts. Implementation support items were analyzed by weight-related policy area (eg, advertising, wellness policy) and by type of support (eg, technical assistance).

Provider Adherence to Nutrition and Physical Activity Best Practices Within Early Care and Education Settings in Minnesota, Helping to Reduce Early Childhood Health Disparities.

Licensed child care providers, and the early care and education settings in which they operate, are uniquely situated to influence children's healthy eating and physical activity through practices, attitudes, and supportive physical and social environments. However, preliminary research indicates that child-, family-, and provider-level characteristics affect adherence to best practices across early care and education settings. The current article used survey data ( n = 618) to characterize differences in child care providers' adherence to nutrition, physical activity, and mealtime best practices, based on child-, family- and provider-level characteristics, and to describe secular trends in adherence to nutrition and physical activity best practices between 2010 and 2016.

Change in the implementation of healthy nutrition and physical activity best practices in Minnesota early care settings: A longitudinal cohort study (2010-2016).

The goal of the 'Healthy Start, Healthy State' study was to describe changes in the implementation of healthy nutrition and physical activity (PA) best practices in early child care and education (ECE) settings from 2010 to 2016. A cohort of 215 Minnesota licensed center- and family/home-based providers completed a survey describing 15 nutrition and 8 PA best practices that they "already do" in 2010 and again in 2016 were analyzed in 2016. There was a significant net implementation rate increase for 15 best practices (10 nutrition, 5 PA) in centers and 12 best practices (8 nutrition, 4 PA) in family/home-based programs.

Refining and implementing the Food Assortment Scoring Tool (FAST) in food pantries.

Objective: Hunger relief agencies have a limited capacity to monitor the nutritional quality of their food. Validated measures of food environments, such as the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), are challenging to use due to their time intensity and requirement for precise nutrient information. A previous study used out-of-sample predictions to demonstrate that an alternative measure correlated well with the HEI-2010.

A comparison of the vending environment among three rural subtypes of secondary schools.

The purpose of this study was to further explore the rural school food environment. This study assessed trends in prevalence of vending machines and vending items within and between Minnesota schools located in 3 rural subtypes: town/rural fringe, town/rural distant, and remote rural. Generalized estimating equation models were employed to analyze data from the 2006 through 2012 School Health Profiles Principal's Surveys (Profiles).

The Mastery Matrix for Integration Praxis: The development of a rubric for integration practice in addressing weight-related public health problems.

In response to the limitations of siloed weight-related intervention approaches, scholars have called for greater integration that is intentional, strategic, and thoughtful between researchers, health care clinicians, community members, and policy makers as a way to more effectively address weight and weight-related (e.g., obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer) public health problems.

Increasing Inequality in Physical Activity Among Minnesota Secondary Schools, 2001-2010.

Background: Two Healthy People 2020 goals are to increase physical activity (PA) and to reduce disparities in PA. We explored whether PA at the school level changed over time in Minnesota schools and whether differences existed by demographic and socioeconomic factors.

Methods: We examine self-reported PA (n = 276,089 students; N = 276 schools) for 2001-2010 from the Minnesota Student Survey linked to school demographic data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes.

Altering the School Breakfast Environment Reduces Barriers to School Breakfast Participation Among Diverse Rural Youth.

Background: The purpose is to determine if altering school breakfast policies and the school breakfast environment will positively impact adolescent beliefs of the barriers and benefits of eating breakfast.

Methods: There were 904 adolescents from 16 rural high schools, Minnesota, in the BreakFAST Study who reported eating breakfast fewer than 4 times per week at baseline. Schools were randomized to intervention (N = 8 schools) or delayed intervention (N = 8) condition.

A Low-Cost, Grab-and-Go Breakfast Intervention for Rural High School Students: Changes in School Breakfast Program Participation Among At-Risk Students in Minnesota.

Objective: Evaluate the impact of a grab-and-go component embedded within a larger intervention designed to promote School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation.

Design: Secondary data analysis.

Setting: Rural Minnesota high schools.

School Breakfast Program Participation and Rural Adolescents' Purchasing Behaviors in Food Stores and Restaurants.

Background: Little is known about adolescents' food purchasing behaviors in rural areas. This study examined whether purchasing food at stores/restaurants around schools was related to adolescents' participation in school breakfast programs and overall diet in rural Minnesota.

Methods: Breakfast-skippers enrolled in a group-randomized intervention in 2014 to 2015 (N = 404 from 8 schools) completed 24-hour dietary recalls and pre/post surveys assessing food establishment purchase frequency.

Using Obesity Research to Shape Obesity Policy in Minnesota: Stakeholder Insights and Feasibility of Recommendations.

Objective: Preventing childhood obesity requires innovative, evidence-based policy approaches. This study examines the use of research evidence by obesity policy stakeholders in Minnesota and develops pilot tools for communicating timely evidence to policymakers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From November 2012 to January 2013, semistructured interviews were conducted with 51 Minnesota stakeholders in childhood obesity prevention.

What Can Be Learned from Existing Investigations of Weight-Related Practices and Policies with the Potential to Impact Disparities in US Child-Care Settings? A Narrative Review and Call for Surveillance and Evaluation Efforts.

Child-care settings and the combination of policies and regulations under which they operate may reduce or perpetuate disparities in weight-related health, depending on the environmental supports they provide for healthy eating and activity. The objectives of this review are to summarize research on state and local policies germane to weight-related health equity among young children in the United States and on how federal policies and regulations may provide supports for child-care providers serving families with the most limited resources. In addition, a third objective is to comprehensively review studies of whether there are differences in practices and policies within US child-care facilities according to the location or demographics of providers and children.

Healthy Eating and Activity Across the Lifespan (HEAL): A call to action to integrate research, clinical practice, policy, and community resources to address weight-related health disparities.

Despite intense nationwide efforts to improve healthy eating and physical activity across the lifespan, progress has plateaued. Moreover, health inequities remain. Frameworks that integrate research, clinical practice, policy, and community resources to address weight-related behaviors are needed.

Increasing Social Support for Breakfast: Project BreakFAST.

Unlabelled: High school students in the United States are known to be frequent skippers of breakfast. Social support is one key element needed to encourage adolescents to consume school breakfast. This article presents an analysis of the influence of a school policy and environment change intervention on the social support of adolescents to eat breakfast.

Results of a Pilot Intervention in Food Shelves to Improve Healthy Eating and Cooking Skills Among Adults Experiencing Food Insecurity.

Since the start of the 2007 economic downturn, reliance on emergency food assistance suppliers (e.g., food pantries, also known as food shelves) has increased.

Evidence-based policies on school nutrition and physical education: Associations with state-level collaboration, obesity, and socio-economic indicators.

Despite calls for more cross-sector collaboration on obesity prevention, little is known about the role of collaborative partnerships, or groups of organizations from different sectors working together toward a shared goal, in state policy activities. This study examined associations between competitive food/beverage and physical education policies and state-level collaboration and state characteristics (obesity, socioeconomic indicators, public health funding levels) for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, USA, in 2012. We examined cross-sectional associations between evidence-based competitive food/beverage and physical education policies from the Classification of Laws Associated with School Students and state characteristics from the School Health Policies and Practices Study and other national data sources using prevalence ratios and generalized linear models.