Social Media Based STEM Enrichment Curriculum Positively Impacts Rural Adolescent Health Measures.

Some STEM outreach programs connect students to real-world problems and challenge them to work towards solutions. Research shows one-third of children between ages 5-17 in the U.S. are overweight. Socioeconomic status, race, and parental educational attainment all influence this issue as well as living in a rural or urban area. A rural high school STEM outreach program used a social media curriculum focused on healthy lifestyles and measured impact on the health of adolescents from these backgrounds. Health screenings and college mentors were provided to 134 adolescents from 26 counties in WV. The social media intervention lasted seven months with participants using near-peer and mentor support to achieve personal health goals set at the initial health screening. The results of pre- and post-intervention health screenings were compared for any changes in health measures by student goal and participation. BMI decreased significantly in the group of participants who selected a weight loss goal, while those choosing to improve their nutrition significantly increased healthy cholesterol levels. A positive impact was seen on adolescent health outcomes through linking a high school STEM outreach program with a higher education institution to deliver STEM enrichment curriculum through social media.

Feasibility of adolescents to conduct community-based participatory research on obesity and diabetes in rural Appalachia.

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has been advocated to translate advances in health care sciences to the community. We describe a novel approach applied to obesity management and diabetes prevention. This takes advantage of a network of science clubs organized by the Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) for extracurricular activity of disadvantaged high school students in rural Appalachia. Physician scientists and educators provided an intensive summer course on CBPR, ethics, and study design on obesity management and diabetes prevention. Ethical certification for CBPR investigation was obtained for 210 students and 18 mentors for a study on the prevalence of obesity and Type II diabetes within their community. Over a 6-month period, 989 had a collection of complete analyzable data, of which 103 had diabetes. The proportion with obesity (BMI > or = 30) was over 50%. The frequency of diabetes was related to increasing BMI. When BMI > or = 40, the frequency approached 50%, and exhibited a clear familial distribution. We conclude that trained adolescents can effectively conduct CBPR, and obesity and diabetes are more prevalent than previously reported in this community. This experience provides encouragement to conduct future studies to infl uence weight management from high-risk populations in this medically disadvantaged community.

Family networks of obesity and type 2 diabetes in rural Appalachia.

The prevalence of obesity and diabetes has been studied in adolescent and adult populations in poor, medically underserved rural Appalachia of West Virginia. A web-based questionnaire about obesity and diabetes was obtained in 989 family members of 210 Community Based Clinical Research (CBPR) trained adolescent members of a network of 18 science clubs, incorporating 142 families. After age-correction in < 20 years old, 50% of both adolescents and adults were obese. The frequency distribution of obesity was trimodal. In the overall population 10.4% had type 2 diabetes, while 24% of adult, obese subjects had type 2 diabetes. A new metric, the family diabetes risk potential, identified a trimodal distribution of risk potential. In the lowest most common distribution 43% of families had a diabetic family member. In the intermediate distribution, 69% had a diabetic family member, and in the distribution with highest scores all the families had a diabetic member. In conclusion, the poorest counties of rural Appalachia are at crisis level with the prevalence of obesity and diabetes. The distribution of age-corrected obesity and family diabetes risk potential are not normally distributed. We suggest that targeting individual family units at greatest risk offers the most efficient strategy for ameliorating this epidemic.