COVID-19 Pandemic Associations on Mental and Physical Health in African Americans Participating in a Behavioral Intervention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionate effects on communities of color, with higher death rates among African Americans (AA). The purpose of this study was to assess associations in African Americans' mental and physical health with the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for this study came from a larger nutrition intervention of AAs in the Southeastern United States, the Nutritious Eating with Soul study. Data collected before and after March 15, 2020 (the day when local South Carolina schools and businesses closed), were analyzed to assess the association of the pandemic on participants' stress, control of healthy eating, physical activity, and body mass index. Repeated measures analysis of covariance using full maximum likelihood estimation to handle missing data was used. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 150 participants were enrolled in the study (48.2 ± 10.6 years old, 79% female, 75% with college degree or higher). Participants' reporting of stress did not show statistically significant change over time. Cognitive control increased 1.43 points (F = 20.60, p < 0.0001) and body mass index increased 0.72 kg/m2 (F = 10.68, p = 0.001). Future longitudinal studies should investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges to understanding and improving health among African Americans. The study is registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT03354377.

The impact of summer programming on the obesogenic behaviors of children: behavioral outcomes from a quasi-experimental pilot trial.

BACKGROUND: Children from low-income families experience accelerated BMI gain and learning loss during summer. Healthy Summer Learners (HSL) addresses accelerated BMI gain and academic learning loss during summer by providing academic- and health-focused programming. This manuscript reports the effects of HSL on underlying obesogenic behaviors (i.e., physical activity, screen time, sleep, diet) that lead to accelerated summer BMI gain, a necessary first step to informing a future randomized controlled trial of HSL. METHODS: In the summer of 2018 and 2019 using a quasi-experimental study design, 180 children (90 per summer, 7.9 years [SD = 1.0], 94% non-Hispanic Black, 40% male) at two schools (i.e., one per summer) who were struggling academically (25-75% on a standardized reading test) were provided a free, school-based 6-week health- and academic-focused summer program (i.e., HSL, n = 60), a 4- to 6-week academic-focused summer program (i.e., 21st Century Summer Learning program (21C), n = 60), or no summer program (n = 60). Children wore the Fitbit Charge 2™ over a 10-week period during the summers (June-Aug) of 2018-2019. Differences within (within child days attend vs. not attend) and between (differences between groups attend vs. not attend) were evaluated using mixed effects linear regression. RESULTS: Regression estimates indicated that, on days attending, HSL children experienced a greater reduction in sedentary minutes (- 58.6 [95% CI = - 92.7, - 24.4]) and a greater increase in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) (36.2 [95% CI = 25.1, 47.3]) and steps (2799.2 [95% CI = 2114.2, 3484.2]) compared to 21C children. However, both HSL and 21C children were more active (i.e., greater MVPA, total steps) and less sedentary (i.e., less sedentary minutes and total screen time) and displayed better sleeping patterns (i.e., earlier and less variability in sleep onset and offset) on days they attended than children in the control. CONCLUSIONS: HSL produced greater changes in physical activity than 21C. However, attendance at either HSL or 21C leads to more healthy obesogenic behaviors. Based on the behavioral data in this pilot study, a larger trial may be warranted. These results must be considered along with the pending primary outcomes (i.e., academics and BMI z-score) of the HSL pilot to determine if a full-scale trial is warranted. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NIH-NCT03321071. Registered 25 October 2017.

Tasting profile affects adoption of caloric beverage reduction in a randomized weight loss intervention.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine differences in rates of non-caloric beverage adoption by participants classified as sweet likers (SLs) or sweet dislikers (measured using a behavioural tasting task). METHODS: Data are a sub-study from a 6-month, three-group, randomized weight loss trial (CHOICE) (body mass index 36.3 ± 5.8 kg m-2, 84% female, aged 42.2 ± 10.9 years, 53% African-American) comparing the replacement of caloric beverages with either non-caloric sweetened beverages (diet) or water (water) compared with a control group. This sub-study, which included participants within the water (n = 106) and diet (n = 103) groups only, examined whether SLs (n = 33 water; n = 37 diet) varied in their adherence to caloric beverage recommendations compared with sweet dislikers (n = 73 water; n = 76 diet) over the 6-month study. RESULTS: Diet intake and sweet-liking data collected on 190 (3 months) and 169 participants (6 months) were used for analysis. The interaction between SL status and beverage group (diet vs. water) approached significance (P = 0.06) at 3 months but not 6 months. Caloric beverage intake (% energy) at 3 months was significantly higher in SLs within the water group (9.7 ± 1.4%) compared with SLs in the diet group (5.4 ± 1.0%, P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that SL status may affect the rate in reduction of caloric beverages when water is the recommended substitution. Future studies should explore tailoring beverage recommendations to tasting profile.