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Implementing interventions that manipulate food store environments are one potential strategy for improving dietary behaviors. The present study evaluated intervention effects, from the El Valor de Nuestra Salud (The Value of Our Health) study, on in-store environmental changes within Latino/Hispanic-focused food stores (tiendas). Sixteen tiendas were randomly assigned to either: a six-month structural and social food store intervention or a wait-list control condition. Store-level environmental measures of product availability, placement, and promotion were assessed monthly from baseline through six-months post-baseline using store audits. Linear mixed effects models tested for condition-by-time interactions in store-level environmental measures. Results demonstrated that the intervention was successful at increasing the total number of fruit and vegetable (FV) promotions (p < 0.001) and the number of FV promotions outside the produce department (p < 0.001) among tiendas in the intervention versus control condition. No changes in product availability or placement were observed. Results suggests changing the marketing mix element of promotions within small stores is measurable and feasible in an in-store intervention. Difficulties in capturing changes in product availability and placement may be due to intervention implementation methods chosen by tiendas. It is important to build upon the lessons learned from these types of interventions to disseminate evidence-based in-store interventions.

Retail food environments have received attention for their influence on dietary behaviors and for their nutrition intervention potential. To improve diet-related behaviors, such as fruit and vegetable (FV) purchasing, it is important to examine its relationship with in-store environmental characteristics. This study used baseline data from the "El Valor de Nuestra Salud" study to examine how in-store environmental characteristics, such as product availability, placement and promotion, were associated with FV purchasing among Hispanic customers in San Diego County. Mixed linear regression models indicated that greater availability of fresh FVs was associated with a $0.36 increase in FV purchasing (p = 0.01). Placement variables, specifically each additional square foot of display space dedicated to FVs (p = 0.01) and each additional fresh FV display (p = 0.01), were associated with a $0.02 increase and $0.29 decrease, respectively, in FV purchasing. Introducing FV promotions in the final model was not related to FV purchasing. Exploratory analyses indicated that men reported spending $3.69 fewer dollars on FVs compared to women, controlling for covariates (p = 0.02). These results can help inform interventions targeting in-store environmental characteristics to encourage FV purchasing among Hispanics.

PurposeMethodsResultsConclusionsThe objective of this cross-sectional survey-based study was to assess factors associated with patient satisfaction with physical therapy (PT) services received at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the United States (US) located near the US-Mexico border.Patients > 18 years of age, English or Spanish speakers, referred to PT were invited to complete an online survey. Factors that may influence PT satisfaction were examined for patients who attended PT. Variables associated with PT satisfaction from bivariate analyses (p < .15) were included in three separate ordinal logistic regression models.Patients (N = 231) who reported more confidence that PT could help relieve their pain were more likely to have higher levels of satisfaction with PT communication, treatment, and outcomes than those who reported low confidence (p < .05). Patients who reported having more support from family and friends were more likely to have higher levels of satisfaction with PT communication and treatment than those with less support (p < .01). Patients with occasional or frequent pain after ending PT treatment were more likely to have lower satisfaction with PT outcomes than those reporting no pain (p < .05).Findings suggest that addressing confidence in PT and promoting health support from family and friends may be important for satisfaction with PT. Additionally, PTs may consider addressing gaps between expected and achieved outcomes to improve PT satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite policy efforts to increase adolescent happiness, their impact has been unsatisfactory. Their limited impact may be rooted from a discrepancy between values that adolescents pursued and those that the policies were based on. To provide policy implications, our study aims to identify prevailing values for South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese adolescents and to examine the relationship between the values and self-rated happiness (SRH). A cross-sectional study was conducted using survey data collected on approximately 2000 middle and high school students (7th to 12th school grade) from each country in 2008. Firstly, an explanatory factor analysis was conducted to identify salient adolescent values from each country. Subsequently, a multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted for each population group to examine the relationship between the identified values and adolescent SRH after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. We found that benevolence and altruism were positively associated with adolescent SRH in all three population groups. Patriarchy was associated with SRH positively in Chinese yet inversely in Japanese. Success pursuit was inversely associated with SRH in Korean. Policy efforts based on values of communities or social harmony may benefit adolescents' SRH in these three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objectives: No studies have focused on socioeconomic disparities in obesity within and between cohorts. Our objectives were to examine income gradients in obesity between birth‐cohorts (inter‐cohort variations) and within each birth‐cohort (intra‐cohort variations) by gender and race/ethnicity. Methods: Our sample includes 56,820 white and black adults from pooled, cross‐sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1971–2012). We fit a series of logistic hierarchical Age‐Period‐Cohort models to control for the effects of age and period, simultaneously. Predicted probabilities of obesity by poverty‐to‐income ratio were estimated and graphed for 5‐year cohort groups from 1901–1990. We also stratified this relationship for four gender and racial/ethnic subgroups. Results: Obesity disparities due to income were weaker for post‐World War I and II generations, specifically the mid‐1920s and the mid‐1940s to 1950s cohorts, than for other cohorts. In contrast, we found greater income gradients in obesity among cohorts from the 1930s to mid‐1940s and mid‐1960s to 1970s. Moreover, obesity disparities due to income across cohorts vary markedly by gender and race/ethnicity. White women with higher income consistently exhibited a lower likelihood of obesity than those with lower income since early 1900s cohorts; whereas, black men with higher income exhibited higher risks of obesity than those with lower income in most cohorts. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that strategies that address race and/or gender inequalities in obesity should be cognizant of significant historical factors that may be unique to cohorts. Period‐based approaches that ignore life‐course experiences captured in significant cohort‐based experiences may limit the utility of policies and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While strength and balance training (SBT) programs are effective in preventing falls, older adults rarely participate. A cross-sectional study design was used to explore factors that influence their decisions to attend SBT programs. Questionnaires were collected that measured theory of planned behavior constructs from 221 community-dwelling Taiwanese older women between the age of 55 and 94. Results suggest that (a) benefits of SBT programs such as increasing independence in daily life, (b) participation approval and involvement from the older adults’ family members, and (c) SBT programs conducted in familiar places strengthened potential participants’ positive attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, respectively. Health care professionals should consider incorporating these factors in the recruitment materials or the actual design of SBT programs to enhance older adults’ decision to attend and increase the recruitment rate of such programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of chronic administration of alcohol on the olfactory bulbectomy (OBX)-induced mouse-killing behavior (MKB), an animal model for screening antidepressants. The rats were divided into three groups, which were given alcohol (0, 0.5, or 1 g/kg/day) orally for 28 days. MKB was analyzed before and at the end of each week of the alcohol treatment. The results showed that chronic alcohol treatment produced a significant increase in the latency of MKB, implying that alcohol may have an antidepressant-like activity. This suggests that alcohol dependence or abuse in depressed patients may result from "self-medication". Since it has been reported that OBX causes a decrease in the density of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brain and that alcohol is a potent and selective inhibitor of NMDA receptors, the possible role of NMDA receptors in this effect is discussed.