Focus Area: Healthy Communities

Increasing Healthy Food Access for Low-Income Communities: Protocol of the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project

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Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One strategy for improving healthy food access has been to introduce community food stores, with the mission of increasing healthy food access; however, no study has explored the experiences of different initiatives and models in opening and sustaining healthy food stores. More

Food Outlet Density, Distance, and Food Quality Offered to Preschool-Aged Children at Family Child Care Homes

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This study aimed to examine how food environments around family child care homes (FCCHs) are associated with the healthfulness of foods served to children. The study included cross-sectional data from a mail survey of 132 Mississippi FCCHs. Rural FCCHs with higher counts of supermarkets, convenience stores, and produce stores had lower compliance with selected best More

A Scoping Review of the Use of Indigenous Food Sovereignty Principles for Intervention and Future Directions

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Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) represents a community-led movement with potential to reduce health inequities, but no scoping review of the impact of taking an IFS approach on intervention research has been conducted. This review sought to: 1) describe intervention studies that employ IFS principles, and 2) describe the impact of studies using IFS principles on More

Long-term impact of home-visiting on SSB intake & early childhood obesity, and effects of emergency COVID-19 water equity efforts on the Navajo Nation

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This research extends follow up on Native American children enrolled in the Prevention of Early Childhood Obesity 1 (PECO1) study 2017-2019 to determine whether positive impacts of the Family Spirit Nurture intervention on infant sugar sweetened beverage intake and infant growth are sustained through 5 years of age. It also examines point of use water More

Food Environment Near Schools and Body weight-A Systematic Review of Associations by race/ethnicity, Gender, Grade, and Socio-Economic Factors

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Previous research reported modest associations between food environments near schools and adiposity among children overall. The associations within sociodemographic subgroups have not been synthesized. This review assessed the evidence on the associations between food environments near schools and childhood obesity within different demographic and socio-economic subgroups. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched to identify studies More

Use of Electronic Health Record Data to Study the Association of Sugary Drink Consumption With Child Weight Status

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Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and, to some extent, fruit juice are modifiable risk factors for childhood obesity. Data on consumption have not been previously systematically collected in the electronic health record (EHR) in a way that could facilitate observational research and population health management. In 2017 to 2018, we used data from an EHR-based SSB and More

A Framework for Increasing Equity Impact in Obesity Prevention

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One of the most pressing unmet challenges for preventing and controlling epidemic obesity is ensuring that socially disadvantaged populations benefit from relevant public health interventions. Obesity levels are disproportionately high in ethnic minority, low-income, and other socially marginalized U.S. population groups. Current policy, systems, and environmental change interventions target obesity-promoting aspects of physical, economic, social, More

Interventions to Prevent Global Childhood Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review

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In this systematic review, investigators expand on previous reviews of obesity prevention interventions by including recent studies from all parts of the world. School-based interventions with combined diet and physical activity components and a home element had greatest effectiveness; evidence in support of the effect of preschool-based, community-based, and home-based interventions was limited by a More