Determining Student Food Insecurity at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

PURPOSE: Our study compared the prevalence of food insecurity among 3 student groups attending Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN): International (INT), Canadian out-of-province (OOP), and Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). Factors associated with food insecurity were also investigated. METHODS: Data were collected via an online survey distributed to an estimated 10 400 returning MUN students registered at a campus in St. John's, NL. Respondents were recruited through e-mails, posters, and social media. Ten questions from the Canadian Household Food Security Survey Module adult scale were asked to assess food security. Logistic regression was used to compare rates of food insecurity between the three population subgroups. RESULTS: Of the 971 eligible student respondents, 39.9% were food insecure (moderate or severe). After controlling for program type, parental status, living arrangement, and primary income source, OOP and INT students were 1.63 (95% CI = 1.11-2.40) and 3.04 (95% CI = 1.89-4.88) times more likely, respectively, to be food insecure than NL students. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 40% of participating MUN students experienced food insecurity, a higher proportion than reported for the overall provincial population. Groups at high risk of food insecurity include INT students, students with children, and those relying on government funding as their primary income.

Case Study: Degree of Integration of Disability Rights Into Allied Health Professional Education.

Persons with disabilities are vulnerable to rights violations when accessing health care, including allied health care. However, the commitment of allied health professional education to disability rights has not been researched. This study is the first to investigate the extent to which disability rights principles are integrated into allied health competencies and education. Specifically, this paper explores the extent to which disability rights principles are integrated into the competencies and education of the six allied health professions taught by the University of Sydney's Faculty of Health Sciences. The study brings to light facilitators and barriers to professional curriculum renewal, and recommendations for future health professional education. This case study reveals that three allied health professions-exercise physiology, physiotherapy, and radiography-incorporate a rights-based approach to a lesser degree than the other three-speech pathology, occupational therapy, and rehabilitation counseling. We refer to this as an "allied health continuum." The paper concludes that there is considerable scope for the allied health professions to strengthen human rights-based education and care provision through ethical codes of conduct, competencies, curriculum renewal, accreditation, and registration requirements, with the aim of reducing rights violations experienced by persons with disabilities when accessing allied health care.

The effects of inhibitory control training on alcohol consumption, implicit alcohol-related cognitions and brain electrical activity.

This study aimed to replicate findings that alcohol consumption and positive implicit beer-related cognitions can be reduced using inhibitory control (IC) training, with the addition of an active training control. Frontal EEG asymmetry, an objective psychophysiological index of approach motivation, was used as a dependent measure to examine training outcomes. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two IC training conditions (Beer NoGo or Beer Go) or a Brief Alcohol Intervention (BAI) (i.e. the active training control). The IC training tasks consistently paired a stimulus that required a response with images of water (Beer NoGo) or images of beer (Beer Go). Alcohol consumption and implicit beer-related cognitions were measured at pre-training, post-training and at one week follow-up. Frontal EEG asymmetry was recorded during a passive image viewing task that presented neutral, healthy, and beer stimuli - at pre-training, post-training and follow-up. Participants in the Beer NoGo and BAI conditions consumed less beer in a taste test immediately after training than Beer Go participants, suggesting that IC training may be as effective as the already established BAI. The taste test findings were in line with the frontal EEG asymmetry data, which indicated that approach motivation for beer stimuli was altered in the expected directions. However, the positive correlation between post-training frontal EEG asymmetry data and taste test consumption was not significant. While there were no significant changes in implicit beer-related cognitions following training, a trending positive relationship between implicit beer-related cognitions at post-training and taste test consumption was reported. Further exploration addressing the limitations of the current study is required in order to clarify the implications of these findings.