Targeted Strategies for Recruitment and Engagement of Latinx Immigrants in Longitudinal Biobehavioral Research.

Introduction: Racial/ethnic minority communities are underrepresented in research. Medical mistrust and mistreatment, discrimination, and a lack of diverse research workforce may influence recruitment and engagement. Engaging Latinx immigrants for research presents unique recruitment challenges, especially for biobehavioral research which is not well explored. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of targeted strategies for recruiting young adult, Latinx immigrants. Methods: Recruitment occurred from 2018 to 2019 in an ongoing, longitudinal, community-engaged research study examining risk and resilience factors for health outcomes in Latinx immigrants. Strategies included active recruitment (e.g., community-based events and public events) and passive recruitment (e.g., word-of-mouth and radio and flyer advertisements). Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of type of recruitment on participant enrollment. Results: The study enrolled 391 participants of 701 interested individuals (55%). Greater odds of enrollment were among participants recruited through radio and flyer advertisements (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=2.90, 95%CI [1.59, 5.27], p=.001), word-of-mouth (AOR=2.50, 95% CI [1.55, 4.03], p<.000), or community-based organization events (AOR=1.68, 95% CI [1.19, 2.38], p=.003). Conclusions: Passive recruitment strategies through trusted sources increased the odds of enrollment of Latinx immigrants in biobehavioral research. Future recruitment efforts should leverage trusted sources to disseminate recruitment materials addressing barriers to recruiting Latinx participants for research.

Promoting Health Equity in the Latinx Community, Locally and Globally: The Duke University School of Nursing Model.

It is imperative that nurses are equipped to promote the health and well-being of diverse populations in United States, including the growing Latinx community, which experiences significant health disparities. This article summarizes the values, programs, and impact of the Duke University School of Nursing Latinx Engagement Health Equity Model. Collaborative partnerships with diverse community partners addressing Latinx populations across the life span were developed, spanning the education, research, and service missions of the university. Programs were rooted in cultural values and were delivered through diverse interprofessional teams and with support from the university. Programs included local and global immersion programs, volunteer work, courses in Medical Spanish, community engaged research projects, and leadership in coalitions. These models have resulted in favorable outcomes for learners, faculty and staff, and the Latinx community more broadly and can serve as a model for strategies to promote health equity at schools of nursing.

Cultural and linguistic adaptation of psychosocial measurements for latinx participants-Leveraging community-engaged research methods.

Predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinx individuals are underrepresented in research, and one primary barrier is the lack of infrastructure to effectively engage, among them, adequate cultural and linguistic adaptation of research measures. Capitalizing on existing recommendations for appropriate and ethical engagement of Latinx individuals in research, we present a comprehensive approach to cultural and linguistic adaptation, and describe the application of this approach in the context of an ongoing longitudinal, observational, community-engaged study that follows a cohort of young adult Latinx immigrants (ages 18-44) in the Southeastern region of the United States who were predominantly Spanish-speakers (N = 391). We describe barriers that researchers may face in their pursuit of cultural and linguistic adaptation and offset these challenges with tangible solutions. We discuss lessons learned through our application to a research study. This approach holds promise for reducing barriers to participation in research and health disparities in predominantly Spanish-speaking Latinx individuals, who represent a population that is growing in size in the United States yet is still underrepresented as research participants and in the research workforce.

A group 6 late embryogenesis abundant protein from common bean is a disordered protein with extended helical structure and oligomer-forming properties.

Late embryogenesis-abundant proteins accumulate to high levels in dry seeds. Some of them also accumulate in response to water deficit in vegetative tissues, which leads to a remarkable association between their presence and low water availability conditions. A major sub-group of these proteins, also known as typical LEA proteins, shows high hydrophilicity and a high percentage of glycine and other small amino acid residues, distinctive physicochemical properties that predict a high content of structural disorder. Although all typical LEA proteins share these characteristics, seven groups can be distinguished by sequence similarity, indicating structural and functional diversity among them. Some of these groups have been extensively studied; however, others require a more detailed analysis to advance in their functional understanding. In this work, we report the structural characterization of a group 6 LEA protein from a common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (PvLEA6) by circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance showing that it is a disordered protein in aqueous solution. Using the same techniques, we show that despite its unstructured nature, the addition of trifluoroethanol exhibited an intrinsic potential in this protein to gain helicity. This property was also promoted by high osmotic potentials or molecular crowding. Furthermore, we demonstrate that PvLEA6 protein is able to form soluble homo-oligomeric complexes that also show high levels of structural disorder. The association between PvLEA6 monomers to form dimers was shown to occur in plant cells by bimolecular fluorescence complementation, pointing to the in vivo functional relevance of this association.

Determinants of sexual abstinence and condom use among Central American adolescents.

UNLABELLED: Engaging in sexual intercourse early in life and without protection often leads to unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in teens. METHODS: A binary logistical regression analysis was used to identify the risk and protective factors associated with two preventive health behaviors: sexual abstinence and consistent condom use among 6,902 Central American teens receiving web-based adolescent health promotion education from 2004 to 2008. RESULTS: The average age was 15 years, with ages ranging between 10 and 20 years. Of these, 52% were girls and 48% boys. Personal competencies, social peer influences, and family factors were found to influence their sexual behavior patterns and were generally consistent with other studies worldwide. CONCLUSION: Information technology provides new avenues to assess individual health and provide individualized data collection in a confidential, sensitive, accessible, and engaging manner. Health promotion interventions must continue to address the development of personal knowledge, skills, and motivations to prevent and or reduce sexual risk-taking behaviors.

Proline-rich cell wall proteins accumulate in growing regions and phloem tissue in response to water deficit in common bean seedlings.

Plant cell walls undergo dynamic changes in response to different environmental stress conditions. In response to water deficit, two related proline-rich glycoproteins, called p33 and p36, accumulate in the soluble fraction of the cell walls in Phaseolus vulgaris (Covarrubias et al. in Plant Physiol 107:1119-1128, 1995). In this work, we show that p33 and p36 are able to form a 240 kDa oligomer, which is found in the cell wall soluble fraction. We present evidence indicating that the highest accumulation of these proteins in response to water deficit occurs in the growing regions of common bean seedlings, particularly in the phloem tissues. These proteins were detected in P. vulgaris cell suspension cultures, where the p33/p36 ratio was higher under hyperosmotic conditions than in bean seedlings subjected to the same treatment. The results support a role for these proteins during the plant cell response to changes in its water status, and suggest that cell wall modifications are induced in active growing cells of common bean in response to water limitation.

Reducing substance use and risky sexual behavior among young, low-income, Mexican-American women: comparison of two interventions.

A pre-posttest, randomized pilot study evaluated the effect of two selective prevention interventions on knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors to prevent and/or reduce substance use and risky sexual behaviors among 50 predominantly Mexican-American, low-income young women. Women were randomly assigned to either a risk and resilience workshop or a health information correspondence course. Comparison tests using t tests and chi-square analyses were conducted to determine the baseline equivalence and pre- and posttest effects of the interventions. Both interventions had consistently similar effects. Neither significantly decreased use of alcohol or cigarettes. Both interventions significantly improved attitude, sexual self-efficacy, and resilience scores. Contraceptive use increased among women in partnered relationships, and both condom use and contraceptive use increased among sexually active, single young women. Both interventions also had significant positive effects on reported ability to discuss precautions to prevent human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome with sexual partners. Study limitations and implications for clinical practice and future research are provided.