Community-Based Participatory Obesity Prevention Interventions in Rural Communities: A Scoping Review.

Child obesity is a worldwide public health concern. In America, children from rural areas have greater odds of obesity in comparison to those from urban areas. Community-engaged research is important for all communities, particularly under-represented communities. This paper reports the results of a scoping review investigating community-engaged research in obesity prevention programs tested with school-aged children in rural America. A literature search of Medline Ovid was conducted to identify interventions reporting the results of obesity prevention interventions that promoted a healthy diet or physical activity (PA) behaviors to school-age children in rural communities of the United States (US). After title and abstract review, potentially relevant citations were further examined by assessing the full text. Each stage of review was conducted by two independent reviewers. Twelve studies met the inclusionary criteria and are included in this review. Most of the studies focused on elementary school participants (n = 7) and improving both diet and PA (n = 9). Out of the twelve studies, only five included the target audience in intervention development or implementation. The most popular type of community engagement was community participation (n = 4). This review revealed that community-engaged research is under-utilized in obesity prevention interventions tested with school-aged children in rural US communities.

Mediterranean Diet Information on TikTok and Implications for Digital Health Promotion Research: Social Media Content Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The Mediterranean diet has been linked to reduced risk for several cardiometabolic diseases. The lack of a clear definition of the Mediterranean diet in the scientific literature and the documented proliferation of nutrition misinformation on the internet suggest the potential for confusion among consumers seeking web-based Mediterranean diet information. OBJECTIVE: We conducted a social media content analysis of information about the Mediterranean diet on the influential social media platform, TikTok, to examine public discourse about the diet and identify potential areas of misinformation. We then analyzed these findings in the context of health promotion to identify potential challenges and opportunities for the use of TikTok in promoting the Mediterranean diet for healthy living. METHODS: The first-appearing 202 TikTok posts that resulted from a search of the hashtag #mediterraneandiet were downloaded and qualitatively examined. Post features and characteristics, poster information, and engagement metrics were extracted and synthesized across posts. Posts were categorized as those created by health professionals and those created by nonhealth professionals based on poster-reported credentials. In addition to descriptive statistics of the entire sample, we compared posts created by professionals and nonprofessionals for content using chi-square tests. RESULTS: TikTok posts varied in content, but posts that were developed by health professionals versus nonprofessionals were more likely to offer a definition of the Mediterranean diet (16/106, 15.1% vs 2/96, 2.1%; P=.001), use scientific citations to support claims (26/106, 24.5% vs 0/96, 0%; P<.001), and discuss specific nutrients (33/106, 31.1% vs 6/96, 6.3%; P<.001) and diseases related to the diet (27/106, 25.5% vs 5/96, 5.2%; P<.001) compared to posts created by nonhealth professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Social media holds promise as a venue to promote the Mediterranean diet, but the variability in information found in this study highlights the need to create clear definitions about the diet and its components when developing Mediterranean diet interventions that use new media structures.

Enhancing NSCLC recurrence prediction with PET/CT habitat imaging, ctDNA, and integrative radiogenomics-blood insights.

While we recognize the prognostic importance of clinicopathological measures and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), the independent contribution of quantitative image markers to prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains underexplored. In our multi-institutional study of 394 NSCLC patients, we utilize pre-treatment computed tomography (CT) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to establish a habitat imaging framework for assessing regional heterogeneity within individual tumors. This framework identifies three PET/CT subtypes, which maintain prognostic value after adjusting for clinicopathologic risk factors including tumor volume. Additionally, these subtypes complement ctDNA in predicting disease recurrence. Radiogenomics analysis unveil the molecular underpinnings of these imaging subtypes, highlighting downregulation in interferon alpha and gamma pathways in the high-risk subtype. In summary, our study demonstrates that these habitat imaging subtypes effectively stratify NSCLC patients based on their risk levels for disease recurrence after initial curative surgery or radiotherapy, providing valuable insights for personalized treatment approaches.

Promoting Health Equity: Identifying Parent and Child Reactions to a Culturally-Grounded Obesity Prevention Program Specifically Designed for Black Girls Using Community-Engaged Research.

The Butterfly Girls (BFG) Study is a culturally and developmentally appropriate online obesity prevention program for 8-10-year-old Black girls designed with key stakeholders in the Black community. This multi-methods investigation, conducted with parent-child dyads who participated in an outcome evaluation of the intervention, aimed to understand parent and child reactions to the program. We were particularly interested in understanding perceptions regarding its cultural and developmental appropriateness, relevance and acceptability. Program participation and survey data (demographics, parent and child write-in comments on process evaluation surveys) were analyzed. Participation data demonstrated high adherence in treatment and comparison groups. Descriptive statistics were calculated for survey data and highlighted the socioeconomic diversity of the sample. Post intervention surveys included two fill-in-the-blank questions for parents (n = 184 for question 1, n = 65 for question 2) and one for children (n = 32). Comments were analyzed using structured thematic analysis. The majority of the feedback from child participants was complimentary and many found the program relatable. Among the parent responses, the majority found the program to be beneficial in its educational nature and in promoting behavior change. This multi-methods analysis suggests that the BFG program was perceived as beneficial by parents while being culturally and developmentally appropriate and engaging for young Black girls, highlighting the importance of co-collaboration in program development.

Fire Blight Resistance in Wild Accessions of Malus sieversii.

Fire blight (Erwinia amylovora) is a devastating bacterial disease in apple that results in severe economic losses. Epidemics are becoming more common as susceptible cultivars and rootstocks are being planted, and control is becoming more difficult as antibiotic-resistant strains develop. Resistant germplasm currently being utilized by breeding programs tend to have small fruit size and poor flavor characteristics. Malus sieversii, a progenitor species of domestic apple, is notable for its relatively large, palatable fruit and some accessions have been reported to be resistant to fire blight. In this study, nearly 200 accessions of M. sieversii and appropriate controls were inoculated with E. amylovora in both Washington and West Virginia to identify fire blight resistant accessions. Twelve accessions were identified with resistance comparable to highly resistant and resistant controls. Several accessions exhibited a unique resistance response, not previously reported in domestic apple (M. × domestica), characterized by low incidence of infection but high severity once infection was initiated. Several of these M. sieversii accessions will be used as parents in future crosses in the Washington State University apple breeding program.