Leveraging Faith Communities to Prevent Violence against Women: Lessons from the Implementation and Delivery of the Motivating Action through Empowerment (MATE) Program.

Gender-based violence is a human rights and public health issue, disproportionately affecting women. The Motivating Action Through Empowerment (MATE) bystander program aims to address violence against women by shifting focus from perpetrators and victims of violence to community responsibility for not accepting attitudes and behaviors that support or allow the violence to occur. Traditionally bystander programs have been delivered through institutions, most notably college campuses in the United States. The translation of bystander programs to community settings is not widely reported. This research aimed to understand whether a violence prevention program could be effectively delivered in a faith community setting; specifically, it focuses on the implementation of MATE in a Christian church network in the Gold Coast region of Queensland, Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten church-based trainers in the MATE pilot program. Theoretically informed analysis using the COM-B behavior model identified that environmental factors had a large bearing on opportunities to deliver MATE workshops. This research identified six key lessons for MATE and other programs wishing to leverage faith communities: (1) Provide religious context; (2) Accommodate diversity; (3) Build faith leader capacity; (4) Employ social marketing; (5) Undertake co-design; (6) Actively administer, measure and monitor.

Healthy-Canteen Displays: A Tactic to Encourage Community Sport Canteens to Provide Healthier Food and Beverage Options.

(1) Background: Community sport settings present a range of conflicting health behaviours, including the tension between being physically active and consuming discretionary foods. Therefore, community sport settings are considered a promising location for health promotion. The aim of this project was to evaluate perceptions, knowledge and the impact (e.g., barriers and outcomes) of a healthy-canteen (cafeteria) display, based on traffic light labeling (TLL), which was set up at an Australian Basketball Association Managers' Convention and Trade Show. (2) Methods: We set up a healthy 'canteen display and surveyed Basketball managers on their perceptions of the display before (Survey 1) and after (Survey 2) visiting the display. Three months later they were surveyed (Survey 3) on changes made to their community sport canteens. (3) Results: Eighty-eight, 76 and 22 participants completed Surveys 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Participants believed stocking healthy foods and beverages was important (mean 8.5/10). Food waste, lack of consumer interest and price were identified barriers to stocking healthy foods. After visiting the display, 75% were inspired to make changes and 50% were surprised by the differences between their perceptions of the healthfulness of foods and the TLL ratings. Post-convention, 41% and 70% made or had planned healthy changes to their community sport canteen. (4) Conclusions: A healthy-canteen display is a low-cost, easy-to-implement strategy that may be able to direct self-driven improvement in the healthfulness of foods stocked at community canteens and lead to improved nutritional intakes at these venues.

Citrus limonin lacks the antichemotherapeutic effect in human models of breast cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Chemicals that interfere with reactive oxygen species metabolism can act as potential candidates for the treatment of cancer. Some of the glucosides of citrus limonin inhibit the endogenously generated reactive oxygen species. The aim is to study the interactions of limonin with chemotherapy. METHODS: Breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 (p53 wild type) and MDA-MB-231 (p53 mutant) as well as the nontumorigenic epithelial cell line MCF-10 were used to screen the effect of limonin at 1-, 5- and 10-µM concentrations with camptothecin for apoptosis and NFĸB, p38 and ERK-MAPK signaling kinase assays. The effect of cyclophosphamide and limonin on MDA MB 231 xenografts was also studied. RESULTS: Our results indicate that limonin did not inhibit camptothecin-induced apoptosis in human breast cancer cells in vitro through noninterference of camptothecin-induced phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and ERK-MAPK. Using an in vivo model of human breast cancer, limonin in combination with cyclophosphamide was not found to inhibit the cyclophosphamide-induced tumor regression through a reduced mitotic index of tumor xenograft cells when compared to treatment with cyclophosphamide alone. CONCLUSION: Both in vitro and in vivo results suggest that limonin could be beneficial for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Do blood pressure and heart rate responses to perceived stress vary according to endogenous estrogen level in women?

The results of experimental studies suggest that estrogen may blunt blood pressure responses to stress, but increase heart rate responses. We investigated whether within-person associations of perceived stress with blood pressure and heart rate during normal working life in 26 premenopausal and 7 postmenopausal women varied according to endogenous estrogen level. Each woman measured her own blood pressure and heart rate and completed a diary reporting perceived stress levels on six occasions on each of 2 working days. Premenopausal women were assessed once between days 4 and 6 of their menstrual cycle (low estrogen) and again between days 11 and 13 (high estrogen), and urine samples were taken to verify expected variation in estrogen level. Results showed that perceived stress was significantly positively associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate in the group as a whole. This association did not differ according to menopausal status. There was no difference in the association of perceived stress with SBP or DBP in premenopausal women according to day of assessment, but heart rate reactivity to perceived stress was significantly higher on the high-estrogen day. Our findings thus provide evidence that heart rate responses to perceived stress during everyday working life vary according to estrogen level in premenopausal women, but no evidence that blood pressure responses to stress vary according to endogenous estrogen level in women.