Reducing Poverty-Related Disparities in Child Development and School Readiness: The Smart Beginnings Tiered Prevention Strategy that Combines Pediatric Primary Care with Home Visiting.

This paper describes the Smart Beginnings Integrated Model, an innovative, tiered approach for addressing school readiness disparities in low-income children from birth to age 3 in the United States through universal engagement of low-income families and primary prevention in pediatric primary care integrated with secondary/tertiary prevention in the home. We build on both public health considerations, in which engagement, cost and scalability are paramount, and a developmental psychopathology framework (Cicchetti & Toth, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines 50:16-25, 2009), in which the child is considered within the context of the proximal caregiving environment. Whereas existing early preventive models have shown promise in promoting children's school readiness, the Smart Beginnings model addresses three important barriers that have limited impacts at the individual and/or population level: (1) identification and engagement of vulnerable families; (2) the challenges of scalability at low cost within existing service systems; and (3) tailoring interventions to address the heterogeneity of risk among low-income families.

Interventions to improve adherence to pharmacological therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic lung condition characterised by persistent respiratory symptoms and limited lung airflow, dyspnoea and recurrent exacerbations. Suboptimal therapy or non-adherence may result in limited effectiveness of pharmacological treatments and subsequently poor health outcomes.

Objectives: To determine the efficacy and safety of interventions intended to improve adherence to single or combined pharmacological treatments compared with usual care or interventions that are not intended to improve adherence in people with COPD.

Preferences for Parenting Programs in Head Start: Using Conjoint Analysis to Understand Engagement in Parenting Health Promotion Programs.

The impact of evidence-based parenting health promotion programs is threatened by limited enrollment and attendance. We used a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to examine how Early Head Start and Head Start parents prioritized key attributes of parenting programs when considering potential participation. Utility values and importance scores indicate that parents placed the highest priority on a program that optimized child academic outcomes, and after that, on a program that offered incentives and logistical supports, and maximized potential effects on friendship skills, behavioral skills, and the parent-child relationship.

Experiences of Students, Teachers, and Parents Participating in an Inclusive, School-Based Informal Engineering Education Program.

Many youth on the autism spectrum possess interests and strengths for STEM-related postsecondary pathways, yet there are few research-based programs to support those interests and competencies including complex problem solving and social communication. This qualitative study explored the experiences and perceived outcomes of students, teachers, and parents participating in an inclusive, strength-based, extracurricular engineering design program entitled the IDEAS Maker Club. Twenty-six students, 13 parents, and nine teachers in the program completed interviews and program logs while researchers conducted classroom observations over 2 years.

Transitioning from hurting to healing: self-management after distal radius fracture.

Purpose: Chronic pain and disability after musculoskeletal trauma support the need for non-biomedical perspectives to frame experiences of recovery. Self-management is a specific holistic lens with implications for improving health outcomes. This qualitative study explored how adults made meaning of self-management after distal radius fracture (DRF).

Measuring Emerging Number Knowledge in Toddlers.

Recent evidence suggests that infants and toddlers may recognize counting as numerically relevant long before they are able to count or understand the cardinal meaning of number words. The Give-N task, which asks children to produce sets of objects in different quantities, is commonly used to test children's cardinal number knowledge and understanding of exact number words but does not capture children's preliminary understanding of number words and is difficult to administer remotely. Here, we asked whether toddlers correctly map number words to the referred quantities in a two-alternative forced choice Point-to-X task (e.

The use of wearable sensors to assess and treat the upper extremity after stroke: a scoping review.

Purpose: To address the gap in the literature and clarify the expanding role of wearable sensor data in stroke rehabilitation, we summarized the methods for upper extremity (UE) sensor-based assessment and sensor-based treatment.

Materials And Methods: The guideline outlined by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis extension for scoping reviews was used to complete this scoping review. Information pertaining to participant demographics, sensory information, data collection, data processing, data analysis, and study results were extracted from the studies for analysis and synthesis.

Breastfeeding and Responsive Parenting as Predictors of Infant Weight Change in the First Year.

Objective: To test breastfeeding duration and responsive parenting as independent predictors of infant weight change from birth to 12 months, and to test the moderating effect of a tiered parenting intervention on relations between breastfeeding and responsive parenting in relation to infant weight change.

Methods: Mother-infant dyads (N = 403) were participants in the ongoing Smart Beginnings (SB) randomized controlled trial testing the impact of the tiered SB parenting model that incorporates two evidence-based interventions: Video Interaction Project (VIP) and Family Check-Up (FCU). The sample was low income and predominantly Black and Latinx.

Including Medical Footage and Emotional Content in Organ Donation Educational Videos for Latinx Viewers.

We assessed whether videos with medical footage of organ preservation and transplantation plus sad, unresolved, or uplifting stories differentially affect deceased organ donor registration among clients in Latinx-owned barbershops and beauty salons. In a 2 × 3 randomized controlled trial, participants ( = 1,696, mean age 33 years, 67% female) viewed one of six videos. The control portrayed a mother who received a kidney (uplifting), excluding medical footage.

The Impact of 9/11 and the War on Terror on Arab and Muslim Children and Families.

Purpose Of Review: There is a growing body of work that documents the impact of 9/11 and the war on terror on Arab and Muslim children and families. This review is designed to provide a brief overview and suggest new ways to better understand this understudied population.

Recent Findings: Several studies show anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments at its highest levels since 9/11.

Area Characteristics and Consumer Nutrition Environments in Restaurants: an Examination of Hispanic Caribbean Restaurants in New York City.

Hispanics in the USA, particularly those of Caribbean descent, experience high levels of diet-related diseases and dietary risk factors. Restaurants are an increasingly important yet understudied source of food and may present opportunities to positively influence urban food environments. We sought to explore food environments further, by examining the association between neighborhood characteristics and restaurant consumer nutrition environments within New York City's Hispanic Caribbean (HC) restaurant environments.

Postural and Head Control Given Different Environmental Contexts.

Virtual reality allows for testing of multisensory integration for balance using portable Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). HMDs provide head kinematics data while showing a moving scene when participants are not. Are HMDs useful to investigate postural control? We used an HMD to investigate postural sway and head kinematics changes in response to auditory and visual perturbations and whether this response varies by context.

Substance Use Disorders and Diabetes Care: Lessons From New York Health Homes.

Background: Individuals that have both diabetes and substance use disorder (SUD) are more likely to have adverse health outcomes and are less likely to receive high quality diabetes care, compared with patients without coexisting SUD. Care management programs for patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and SUD, have been associated with improvements in the process and outcomes of care.

Objective: The aim was to assess the impact of having coexisting SUD on diabetes process of care metrics.

Estimating the Impact of In-Hospital Infant Formula Supplementation on Breastfeeding Success.

To assess whether in-hospital infant formula supplementation impacts later successful breastfeeding among healthy mother-infant dyads in the United States who are not intending to exclusively use infant formula. Using secondary analysis of a national longitudinal survey (Infant Feeding Practices Study II,  = 2,399), we estimated effects of in-hospital infant formula supplementation on later breastfeeding success by matching mothers whose infants received in-hospital formula supplementation with mothers whose infants did not. Estimates were compared across four matching methods.

Effects of School-Based Interventions on Reducing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption among Chinese Children and Adolescents.

We set up a series of school-based interventions on the basis of an ecological model targeting sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) reduction in Chinese elementary and middle schools and evaluated the effects. A total of 1046 students from Chinese elementary and middle schools were randomly recruited in an intervention group, as were 1156 counterparts in a control group. The interventions were conducted in the intervention schools for one year.

Grandparent Coresidence and Risk of Early Child Overweight and Obesity in Low-Income, Hispanic Families in New York City.

Objective: Children in low-income Hispanic families are at high risk of obesity and are more likely to live with grandparents than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. We aimed to determine if grandparent coresidence (prenatal through age 2 years) was associated with: 1) obesogenic feeding practices; and 2) child weight outcomes from birth to three years.

Methods: We analyzed data from 267 low-income, Hispanic mother-infant pairs in the control group of an obesity prevention trial in New York City.

Accidental Injuries in Preschoolers: Are We Missing an Opportunity for Early Assessment and Intervention?

Objective: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at risk for accidental injuries, but little is known about age-related changes in early childhood. We predicted that ADHD would be associated with greater frequency and volume of accidental injuries. We explored associations between ADHD and injury types and examined age-related changes within the preschool period.

Infant and Early Child Appetite Traits and Child Weight and Obesity Risk in Low-Income Hispanic Families.

Background: Child appetite traits (ATs) are associated with later child weight and obesity risk. Less research has focused on ATs in low-income Hispanic children or included longitudinal associations with infant weight.

Objective: To determine stability of ATs during infancy and childhood and their relationship with subsequent weight and obesity risk at age 3 years among low-income Hispanic children.

The importance of community and culture for the recruitment, engagement, and retention of Chinese American immigrants in health interventions.

Chinese Americans experience cancer health disparities throughout the entire cancer continuum. Yet, they remain underrepresented in health research in part due to barriers in recruitment, engagement, and retention. This paper describes the strategies that we devised, by drawing upon our experiences with conducting two culturally sensitive cancer intervention studies, to help researchers improve their recruitment and retention rates of Chinese Americans in health research and address the gap in knowledge on intervention research with this population.

Cardiovascular disease and cumulative incidence of cognitive impairment in the Health and Retirement Study.

Background: We sought to examine whether people with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) experienced a greater incidence of subsequent cognitive impairment (CI) compared to people without CVD, as suggested by prior studies, using a large longitudinal cohort.

Methods: We employed Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data collected biennially from 1998 to 2014 in 1305 U.S.

Factors associated with dynamic balance in people with Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD): a cross-sectional study using a virtual-reality Four Square Step Test.

Background: Persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) is a condition characterized by chronic subjective dizziness and exacerbated by visual stimuli or upright movement. Typical balance tests do not replicate the environments known to increase symptoms in people with PPPD-crowded places with moving objects. Using a virtual reality system, we quantified dynamic balance in people with PPPD and healthy controls in diverse visual conditions.

People with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness demonstrate altered postural strategies in complex visual and cognitive environments.

Background: People with PPPD report imbalance, increase in symptoms and impaired function within complex visual environments, but understanding of the mechanism for these behaviors is still lacking.

Objective: To investigate postural control in PPPD we compared changes in center of pressure (COP) and head kinematics of people with PPPD (N = 22) and healthy controls (N = 20) in response to different combinations of visual and cognitive perturbations during a challenging balance task.

Methods: Participants stood in a tandem position.

A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation as Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans.

Preliminary studies have demonstrated the efficacy of Transcendental Meditation (TM) for treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study extended previous research with a pilot trial of TM as a treatment for PTSD via a single-blinded, randomized controlled design. veterans with PTSD (N = 40) were assigned to a TM intervention or treatment-as-usual (TAU) control group.