Association of Social Vulnerability and COVID-19 Mortality Rates in Texas between 15 March 2020, and 21 July 2022: An Ecological Analysis.

Background: Despite the key role of social vulnerability such as economic disadvantage in health outcomes, research is limited on the impact of social vulnerabilities on COVID-19-related deaths, especially at the state and county level in the USA.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional ecologic analysis of COVID-19 mortality by the county-level Minority Health Social Vulnerability Index (MH SVI) and each of its components in Texas. Negative binomial regression (NBR) analyses were used to estimate the association between the composite MH SVI (and its components) and COVID-19 mortality.

Discretizing continuous variables in nutrition and obesity research: a practice that needs to be cut short.

Background/objectives: Nutrition and obesity researchers often dichotomize or discretize continuous independent variables to conduct an analysis of variance to examine group differences. We describe consequences associated with dichotomizing and discretizing continuous variables using two cross-sectional studies related to nutrition.

Subjects/methods: Study 1 investigated the effects of health literacy and nutrition knowledge on nutrition label accuracy (n = 612).

The Commit to Be Fit framework: a community case study of a multi-level, holistic school-based wellness initiative in rural Virginia.

Background: Public health interventions that target children's physical, mental, and emotional health will enhance their ability to learn and grow. Although more complex, school initiatives that address multiple ecological levels and take a holistic view may be more effective and likely to lead to lasting change.

Aims: This article presents the framework of Commit to Be Fit (C2BF) as an example of how schools can integrate multi-level and holistic approaches for health.

Examining the impacts of public transit on healthy aging through a natural experiment: study protocols and lessons learned from the Active El Paso project.

This paper describes protocols and experiences from a seven-year natural-experiment study in El Paso, Texas, a border city of predominantly Latino/Hispanic population. The study focuses on how Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) impacts physical activity and thus plays a role in alleviating obesity and related chronic diseases that impact healthy aging. Our protocols describe a longitudinal and case-comparison study, which compared residents exposed to new BRT stations with those who were not.

Nutrition and Health Programming and Outreach in Grocery Retail Settings: A Community Coalition in Action.

Grocery stores can provide a conducive environment for interventions targeting healthy eating and access to health services, particularly in low-income communities. A wide array of organizations deliver nutrition and related programs in community settings, but rarely in a coordinated fashion. Collaboration of local health promotion organizations with grocery stores could increase consumers' access to and selection of healthy foods and related services.

Toward more rigorous and informative nutritional epidemiology: The rational space between dismissal and defense of the status quo.

To date, nutritional epidemiology has relied heavily on relatively weak methods including simple observational designs and substandard measurements. Despite low internal validity and other sources of bias, claims of causality are made commonly in this literature. Nutritional epidemiology investigations can be improved through greater scientific rigor and adherence to scientific reporting commensurate with research methods used.

Comparison of obstetrician-gynecologists and family physicians regarding weight-related attitudes, communication, and bias.

Objectives: To assess physician perceptions regarding weight-related communication, quality of care, and bias in obstetrics-gynecology (OBGYN) and family physician (FP) practices.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey study based on a convenient sampling of OBGYN and FP was conducted. Physicians completed a 40-question survey assessing perceived obesity management and weight bias in caring for female patients with body mass index ≥25kg/m.

Eat Well El Paso!: Lessons Learned From a Community-Level Restaurant Initiative to Increase Availability of Healthy Options While Celebrating Local Cuisine.

Purpose: Restaurants have the potential to improve nutrition and positively shape social norms. We describe lessons learned and recommended strategies from Eat Well El Paso! (EWEP), a local restaurant initiative.

Design: Descriptive case study.

Acceptance-based therapy: the potential to augment behavioral interventions in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes is a complex and multifactorial disease affecting more than 415 million people worldwide. Excess adiposity and modifiable lifestyle factors, such as unhealthy dietary patterns and physical inactivity, can play a significant role in the development of type 2 diabetes. Interventions that implement changes to lifestyle behaviors, in addition to pharmacological treatment, may attenuate the development and worsening of diabetes.

Using the C/C carbon isotope ratio to characterise the emission sources of airborne particulate matter: a review of literature.

Particulate matter (PM) from atmospheric aerosols contains carbons that are harmful for living organisms and the environment. PM can originate from vehicle emissions, wearing of vehicle components, and dust. Size and composition determine PM transport and penetration depth into the respiratory system.

Depletion and repletion of fruit and vegetable intake alters serum bone turnover markers: a 28-week single-arm experimental feeding intervention.

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of elevated fruit and vegetable intake on bone turnover markers. In all, twenty-nine subjects (nine male and twenty female, with a mean age of 32·1 (sem 2·5) years) participated in a 28-week single-arm experimental feeding intervention trial and consumed a prescribed low-fruit and vegetable diet for 6 weeks (depletion-1), a provided high-fruit and vegetable diet for 8 weeks (fruit: 360-560 g; vegetables: 450-705 g), another prescribed low-fruit and vegetable diet for 6 weeks (depletion-2) and then their usual diets for 8 weeks (repletion). Serum bone-related biomarkers were analysed with commercial ELISA kits.

Optical assessment of skin carotenoid status as a biomarker of vegetable and fruit intake.

Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) and reflection spectroscopy (RS) are optical methods applicable to the non-invasive detection of carotenoids in human skin. RRS is the older, more thoroughly validated method, whereas RS is newer and has several advantages. Since collective skin carotenoid levels serve as a biomarker for vegetable and fruit intake, both methods hold promise as convenient screening tools for assessment of dietary interventions and correlations between skin carotenoids and health and disease outcomes.

A diet high in carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruits favorably impacts inflammation status by increasing plasma concentrations of IFN-α2 and decreasing MIP-1β and TNF-α in healthy individuals during a controlled feeding trial.

The health benefits of vegetable and fruit (VF) intake include benefits for diseases that have an inflammatory component, although the relationship between VF intake and systemic inflammatory status is unclear due to the lack of comprehensive analysis of inflammatory markers in most studies. Therefore, our hypothesis was that the consumption of carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruits in the diet would have a beneficial effect on systemic inflammation status. In this study, we determined the association between varying doses of carotenoid-rich VF intake, plasma carotenoids, and a broad array of markers including 26 cytokines and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.

Immediate biofeedback for energy balance via expired breath δ(13)CO2.

Expired breath δ(13)CO2 measured in real time serves as a useful biomarker of altered macronutrient metabolism in response to changes in energy balance. Altered breath δ(13)CO2 is believed to be a result of changes in macronutrient oxidation and the kinetic isotope effect where enzymatic processes discriminate against metabolites naturally enriched with (13)C. Use of breath δ(13)CO2 as a rapid biofeedback of energy balance status will enhance an individual's ability to modify behavior during weight loss efforts.

Optical detection of carotenoids in living tissue as a measure of fruit and vegetable intake.

Circulating blood carotenoids have long been accepted as the most accurate biomarker of total fruit and vegetable intake. Recent technological developments have led to a novel optical detection method of carotenoids in living human tissue, allowing for a non-invasive and rapid method to assess fruit and vegetable intake. Future technological advances to increase sensitivity and molecular specificity, reduce cost, and detect other biomedically important compounds would expand use of this methodology.

Diet Quality of Items Advertised in Supermarket Sales Circulars Compared to Diets of the US Population, as Assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2010.

Background: Supermarkets use sales circulars to highlight specific foods, usually at reduced prices. Resulting purchases help form the set of available foods within households from which individuals and families make choices about what to eat.

Objective: The purposes of this study were to determine how closely foods featured in weekly supermarket sales circulars conform to dietary guidance and how diet quality compares with that of the US population's intakes.

Gestational carrier BMI and reproductive, fetal and neonatal outcomes: are the risks the same with increasing obesity?

Objective: Data suggest that female obesity impairs uterine receptivity and increases the risk of fetal and neonatal mortality. We analyzed the reproductive outcomes of gestational carriers (GCs) undergoing donated oocytes and assisted reproductive technology according to body mass index (BMI).

Design: A retrospective analysis of 163 GCs undergoing 226 in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo transfer cycles.

Excess Gestational Weight Gain in Low-Income Overweight and Obese Women: A Qualitative Study.

Objective: Examine factors implicated in gestational weight gain (GWG) in low-income overweight and obese women.

Design: Qualitative study.

Setting: Community-based perinatal center.

Clinical effectiveness and economic costs of group versus one-to-one education for short-chain fermentable carbohydrate restriction (low FODMAP diet) in the management of irritable bowel syndrome.

Background: Restriction of fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAPs) is an effective dietary treatment for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Patient dietary education is essential but labour intensive. Group FODMAP education may alleviate this somewhat but has not previously been investigated.

A mobile phone food record app to digitally capture dietary intake for adolescents in a free-living environment: usability study.

Background: Mobile technologies are emerging as valuable tools to collect and assess dietary intake. Adolescents readily accept and adopt new technologies; thus, a food record app (FRapp) may be a useful tool to better understand adolescents' dietary intake and eating patterns.

Objective: We sought to determine the amenability of adolescents, in a free-living environment with minimal parental input, to use the FRapp to record their dietary intake.