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Food pantries are responsible for the direct distribution of food to low-income households. While food pantries may be concerned about the nutritional quality of the food they are serving, they may have limited resources to adopt and implement nutrition policies to support efforts to promote high nutritional quality of the food served. Guided by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness or Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework, this qualitative study explored the degree of implementation of nutrition policies at food pantries, as well as the barriers to implementation in those pantries that had not adopted a nutrition policy. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 food pantry directors: seven pantries with a formal nutrition policy and three with an informal nutrition policy. Using a thematic analysis method, results demonstrated themes from the interviews with policy-adopting pantries to be barriers, enforcement, delivery of the policy, unexpected consequences, and fidelity to the policy. A targeted intervention that builds on this research and focuses on building the capacity of food pantries to develop, adopt, and implement nutrition policies as well as helping to increase fidelity to the policy would be beneficial to continue to improve the food donated and distributed at food pantries. By supporting food pantries in the development, adoption, and implementation of nutrition policies, researchers can play an important role in improving the quality of food in the emergency food network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young peoples' acceptance and use of nontraditional, descriptive identity labels (e.g., pansexual, genderqueer) require nurses to consider moving beyond use of traditional terms (e.g., gay, transgender). This mixed methods study explores (a) labels used by sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) minority youth, (b) their expressed importance and meaning of these labels, and (c) differences in label usage. Sixty-six SOGI minority adolescents in British Columbia, Minnesota, and Massachusetts (mean age = 16.6) participated in "go-along" interviews; during interviews, 42 (63.6%) commented on labels. Chi-square and t tests were used to compare traditional versus nontraditional labels across participant demographic categories. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify representative themes. Approximately, 1/3 of participants used nontraditional sexual orientation identity labels; this finding was associated with a trans identity and nontraditional gender labels. Using terminology that is meaningful and representative to the youth themselves has potential to facilitate representative research and welcoming environments in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary care providers are well positioned to address the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of adolescents; however, gaps often exist in the delivery of quality SRH services in primary care. Our objective was to identify specific opportunities to improve the delivery of adolescent SRH services in primary care. We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 primary care providers from various disciplines across rural and urban areas of Minnesota and conducted thematic analysis of transcribed data. Participants identified salient opportunities in three areas: (1) training and resources for providers (e.g., related to minor consent laws or addressing sensitive subjects), (2) practices and procedures (e.g., time-alone procedures and policies for confidential screening and sharing test results), and (3) education for adolescents (e.g., knowing their rights and accessing confidential SRH services). Study findings provide actionable opportunities to improve delivery of adolescent SRH services in primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health disparities that warrant policy change to advance health equity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to elucidate primary activities and/or tangible characteristics that indicate that a policy advocacy campaign has an embedded health equity focus. Researchers interviewed policy advocacy experts (n = 13) and campaign leaders (n = 9), transcribed audio recordings of interviews, and conducted a thematic analysis to examine health-equity-related processes within policy campaigns. Based on experiences of policy advocacy experts and campaign leaders, mostly within the Voices for Healthy Kids initiative, several objective aspects and activities were identified that indicate that a policy campaign, and the coalition that conducts the campaign, has an embedded health equity focus. It should be stressed that these activities are not intended to represent the extent of all campaign activities, only the subset of activities and aspects of a campaign that indicate a health equity orientation. Broadly, aspects identified were related to what had the campaign done to engage with the community, who in the community was providing input about direction of the campaign, and how had that community input been used. Authentic Community engagement was seen as the foundation of a campaign's health equity focus. A model synthesizing these findings is included in the results. A major strength of this study is that factors associated with health equity in campaign functioning are not typically assessed. These findings support identification of associated constructs to inform measurement development, and can help guide organizations, campaigns, and researchers working to advance health equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]