A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of a Home-Delivered Food Box on Children's Diet Quality in the Chickasaw Nation Packed Promise Project.

Background: Poor diet quality among children can lead to poor health, development, and academic achievement. Child nutrition assistance programs aim to improve diet quality among children.

Objective: This study tested the impact of the Packed Promise intervention on diet quality among low-income children in Chickasaw Nation territory.

A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of a Home-Delivered Food Box on Food Security in Chickasaw Nation.

Background: The 2010 Child Nutrition reauthorization called for the independent evaluation of innovative strategies to reduce the risk of childhood hunger or improve the food security status of households with children.

Objective: The research question was whether the Packed Promise intervention reduces child food insecurity (FI-C) among low-income households with children.

Design: This study was a cluster randomized controlled trial of 40 school districts and 4,750 eligible, consented households within treatment and control schools.

Farm Animal Cognition-Linking Behavior, Welfare and Ethics.

Farm animal welfare is a major concern for society and food production. To more accurately evaluate animal farming in general and to avoid exposing farm animals to poor welfare situations, it is necessary to understand not only their behavioral but also their cognitive needs and capacities. Thus, general knowledge of how farm animals perceive and interact with their environment is of major importance for a range of stakeholders, from citizens to politicians to cognitive ethologists to philosophers.

Shetland ponies (Equus caballus) show quantity discrimination in a matching-to-sample design.

Numerical competence is one of the aspects of animal cognition with a long history of research interest, but few results are available for the horse. In the present study, we investigated the ability of three Shetland ponies to discriminate between different quantities of geometric symbols presented on a computer screen in a matching-to-sample arrangement. In Experiment 1, the ponies had to relate two similar quantities to another, paired in contrasts (1 vs.

Nutrition-education program improves preschoolers' at-home diet: a group randomized trial.

Objective: This study evaluated whether a nutrition-education program in child-care centers improved children's at-home daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, at-home use of low-fat/fat-free milk, and other at-home dietary behaviors.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-four child-care centers serving low-income families were matched by region, type, and size, and then randomly assigned to either an intervention or control condition. In the 12 intervention centers, registered dietitian nutritionists provided nutrition education to children and parents separately during a 6- to 10-week period.

Factors influencing inadequate and excessive weight gain in pregnancy: Colorado, 2000-2002.

Objectives: To identify the biological, psychosocial, and behavioral characteristics that are associated with inadequate and/or excessive weight gain in pregnancy.

Methods: Univariate, bivariate, and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted using data from Colorado's 2000-2002 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). Independent variables included biological risk factors (prepregnancy BMI, parity, preterm labor, maternal morbidity), psychosocial risk factors (pregnancy intention, WIC and Medicaid enrollment, area of residence, age, race/ethnicity, education, and stressors), and behavioral risk factors (smoking and drinking alcohol in the last trimester of pregnancy).