Publications by authors named "Samantha J Lange"

Background: Pediatric primary healthcare providers are well-positioned to provide healthy lifestyle and weight management related counseling but many lack training in evidence-based messages and methods.

Objectives: We assessed the impact of a brief, easy-to-access training for pediatric healthcare providers, (the Strong4Life Provider Training), designed to introduce/review current evidence-based messages and methods and improve healthy weight-related assessment and counseling practices.

Methods: Following their well-child visit, a convenience sample of children 12-17 years and parents of children 6-11 years ( = 121) of randomly selected Strong4Life trained ( = 15) and untrained ( = 15) pediatricians were administered a survey designed to assess the frequency, content, and patient satisfaction with weight management-related counseling provided.

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Article Synopsis
  • Weight control programs for children use BMI z-scores to track changes, but it's unclear if this is the best measure for assessing BMI changes.
  • The study aimed to find the best BMI metric among six options based on short-term variability across different BMI levels.
  • The results indicated that the log %50 metric showed the least correlation with initial BMI values and had strong correlations with changes in other metrics, making it a more reliable option for assessing BMI change.
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Obesity is a serious health concern in the United States, affecting more than one in six children (1) and putting their long-term health and quality of life at risk.* During the COVID-19 pandemic, children and adolescents spent more time than usual away from structured school settings, and families who were already disproportionally affected by obesity risk factors might have had additional disruptions in income, food, and other social determinants of health. As a result, children and adolescents might have experienced circumstances that accelerated weight gain, including increased stress, irregular mealtimes, less access to nutritious foods, increased screen time, and fewer opportunities for physical activity (e.

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Obesity* is a recognized risk factor for severe COVID-19 (1,2), possibly related to chronic inflammation that disrupts immune and thrombogenic responses to pathogens (3) as well as to impaired lung function from excess weight (4). Obesity is a common metabolic disease, affecting 42.4% of U.

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Objective: The current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) body mass index (BMI) z-scores are inaccurate for BMIs of ≥97th percentile. We, therefore, considered 5 alternatives that can be used across the entire BMI distribution: modified BMI-for-age z-score (BMIz), BMI expressed as a percentage of the 95th percentile (%CDC95th percentile), extended BMIz, BMI expressed as a percentage of the median (%median), and %median adjusted for the dispersion of BMIs.

Study Design: We illustrate the behavior of the metrics among children of different ages and BMIs.

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Food policy councils (FPCs) are one form of community coalition that aims to address challenges to local food systems and enhance availability, accessibility, and affordability of healthy foods for local residents. We used data from the 2014 National Survey of Community-Based Policy and Environmental Supports for Healthy Eating and Active Living, a nationally representative survey of US municipalities ( = 2029), to examine the prevalence of FPCs and cross-sectional associations between FPCs and four types of supports for healthy food access (approaches to help food stores, practices to support farmers markets, transportation-related supports, and community planning documents). Overall, 7.

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According to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, persons should consume fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy eating pattern to reduce their risk for diet-related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and obesity.* A healthy diet is important for healthy growth in adolescence, especially because adolescent health behaviors might continue into adulthood (1). The U.

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This article describes a significant decline in emergency department visits for acute life-threatening conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that patients may be delaying or avoiding care or unable to access care during the pandemic.

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Article Synopsis
  • As of July 2020, the U.S. reported about 2.8 million COVID-19 cases and 130,000 related deaths, disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minorities as well as individuals experiencing homelessness.
  • Boston Medical Center treated 2,729 COVID-19 patients from March to May 2020, with a majority being managed as outpatients (56.5%), while 3.6% of patients died during this period.
  • The patient demographics revealed that 44.6% were non-Hispanic Black and 30.1% Hispanic, with higher hospitalization rates among Hispanic patients (46.5%) compared to Black (
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On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Subsequently, states enacted stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and reduce the burden on the U.S.

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Public health practitioners need quick and easy access to reliable surveillance data to monitor states' progress over time, compare benchmarks nationally or among states, and make strategic decisions about priorities and resources. Data, Trends, and Maps (DTM) at https://www.cdc.

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Objective: National public health organizations recommend that local governments improve access to healthy foods. One way is by offering incentives for food retailer development and operation, but little is known about incentive use nationwide. We aimed to describe the national prevalence of local government reported incentives to increase access to healthy food options in three major food retail settings (farmers' markets, supermarkets, and convenience or corner (smaller) stores) overall and by municipality characteristics.

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