Fruit and vegetable availability and selection: federal food package revisions, 2009.

Background: With nearly 49,000 authorized retailers nationwide, a policy change that added fruits and vegetables (FV) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages in 2009 had the potential to expand neighborhood FV availability.

Weight misperceptions and racial and ethnic disparities in adolescent female body mass index.

This paper investigated weight misperceptions as determinants of racial/ethnic disparities in body mass index (BMI) among adolescent females using data from the National Survey of Youth 1997. Compared to their white counterparts, higher proportions of black and Hispanic adolescent females underperceived their weight status; that is, they misperceived themselves to have lower weight status compared to their clinically defined weight status. Compared to their black counterparts, higher proportions of white and Hispanic adolescent females misperceived themselves to be heavier than their clinical weight status.

Ethnic disparities in adolescent body mass index in the United States: the role of parental socioeconomic status and economic contextual factors.

This paper examined the importance of household and economic contextual factors as determinants of ethnic disparities in adolescent body mass index (BMI). Individual-level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 for the years 1997 through 2000 were combined with economic contextual data on food prices, outlet density and median household income. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method was used to examine the factors that could help explain ethnic disparities in BMI.

Religion and intimate partner violence in Chile: macro- and micro-level influences.

The Catholic Church has had a strong influence on the Chilean legal and social landscape in ways that have adversely affected victims of intimate partner violence; e.g., it succeeded until just five years ago in blocking efforts to legalize divorce.