Systematic Review of Interventions for Racial/Ethnic-Minority Pregnant Smokers.

INTRODUCTION: Large disparities exist in smoking rates during pregnancy by racial/ethnic status. AIMS: The current review examined controlled studies that predominantly included racial/ethnic-minority pregnant smokers for providing smoking cessation treatment. METHODS: Two authors independently conducted the literature searches in the standard databases using a combination of the keywords with minority, pregnancy, smoking, and cessation identifiers. RESULTS: The searches identified nine articles that met the inclusion criteria. Only two studies exclusively targeted specific minority groups. Most of them provided some form of brief smoking cessation counseling, with two combining with incentives and one combining with pharmacotherapy. Two studies provided intensive cognitive interventions. Pregnant smokers of American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic subgroups, and Asian or Pacific Islander are under-studied. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies to treat minority pregnant smokers could target under-studied minority groups and may need to directly and intensely target smoking behavior, address cultural and psychosocial issues in an individualized and comprehensive manner, and analyze cost-benefit of an intervention.

Characteristics of Low-income Racial/Ethnic Minority Pregnant Women Screening Positive for Alcohol Risk.

The current study examined the prevalence and characteristics associated with alcohol risk among low-income, predominantly racial/ethnic minority pregnant women in an urban area. We surveyed 225 pregnant women receiving nutritional care. Twenty-six percent screened positive for alcohol risk. Current smoking status (AOR 2.9, p = 0.018, 95 % CI [1.2, 7.0]) and a history of marijuana use (AOR 3.1, p = 0.001, 95 % CI [1.6, 6.2]) were the strongest predictors of alcohol risk status. This study underscores the need for screening for alcohol risk, smoking, and illicit drug use among low-income, racial/ethnic minority pregnant women and highlights the usefulness of the TWEAK in identifying alcohol risk in WIC settings.

THE GOOD NUTRITION GAME: Extending the Good Behavior Game to Promote Fruit and Vegetable Intake.

BACKGROUND: Consumption of diverse and nutritious food is challenging for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. OBJECTIVE: We created the Good Nutrition Game and implemented the intervention among students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at a therapeutic after-school socialization program. METHOD: We divided students into two teams in each session. The team earned one point per bite of fruit or vegetables by a teammate. The winning team congratulated each other for winning and was given the privilege to choose a small prize item as reinforcement. LESSONS LEARNED: The approach showed promising findings to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a classroom setting. While the approach needs to be implemented with more students in a longer term trial, other challenges include objectively measuring the number of bites instead of self-report by team members and addressing different eating habits among students.

A review of guidelines on home drug testing web sites for parents.

OBJECTIVES: To update and extend prior work reviewing Web sites that discuss home drug testing for parents, and assess the quality of information that the Web sites provide, to assist them in deciding when and how to use home drug testing. METHODS: We conducted a worldwide Web search that identified 8 Web sites providing information for parents on home drug testing. We assessed the information on the sites using a checklist developed with field experts in adolescent substance abuse and psychosocial interventions that focus on urine testing. RESULTS: None of the Web sites covered all the items on the 24-item checklist, and only 3 covered at least half of the items (12, 14, and 21 items, respectively). The remaining 5 Web sites covered less than half of the checklist items. The mean number of items covered by the Web sites was 11. CONCLUSIONS: Among the Web sites that we reviewed, few provided thorough information to parents regarding empirically supported strategies to effectively use drug testing to intervene on adolescent substance use. Furthermore, most Web sites did not provide thorough information regarding the risks and benefits to inform parents' decision to use home drug testing. Empirical evidence regarding efficacy, benefits, risks, and limitations of home drug testing is needed.