Alignment of Consumers' Expected Brain Benefits from Food and Supplements with Measurable Cognitive Performance Tests.

Consumers often cite cognitive improvements as reasons for making dietary changes or using dietary supplements, a motivation that if leveraged could greatly enhance public health. However, rarely is it considered whether standardized cognitive tests that are used in nutrition research are aligned to outcomes of interest to the consumer. This knowledge gap presents a challenge to the scientific substantiation of nutrition-based cognitive health benefits. Here we combined focus group transcript review using reflexive thematic analysis and a multidisciplinary expert panel exercise to evaluate the applicability of cognitive performance tools/tasks for substantiating the specific cognitive benefits articulated by consumers with the objectives to (1) understand how consumers comprehend the potential benefits of nutrition for brain health, and (2) determine the alignment between consumers desired brain benefits and validated tests and tools. We derived a 'Consumer Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Health in Nutrition Research' which describes the cognitive and affective structure from the consumers perspective. Experts agreed that validated tests exist for some consumer benefits including focused attention, sustained attention, episodic memory, energy levels, and anxiety. Prospective memory, flow, and presence represented novel benefits that require the development and validation of new tests and tools. Closing the gap between science and consumers and fostering co-creative approaches to nutrition research are critical to the development of products and dietary recommendations that support realizable cognitive benefits that benefit public health.

Promoting Health Equity And Population Health: How Americans' Views Differ.

To increase understanding of what Americans think about personal and public health, a national survey of US adults was conducted in 2015-16 to develop a typology of values and beliefs. The survey was commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for its Culture of Health initiative. Six specific population groupings, or segments, were identified. Three segments included people who supported an active government role in health, two segments were characterized by people who were skeptical toward government, and one segment was characterized by people with conflicted attitudes toward government in health. One of the segments, labeled "supportive," included people who had broad concerns about equity and social solidarity and believed in health disparities and the importance of the social determinants of health. People in two of the other segments that supported an active government role in health shared some of these concerns. There is clearly the potential to mobilize all three of these segments in efforts to improve population health and health equity in the United States. For people whose beliefs put them in the more skeptical segments, a focus on building healthier communities at the local level may garner significant support as long as there is private-sector leadership for the effort.

Reliability of a retail food store survey and development of an accompanying retail scoring system to communicate survey findings and identify vendors for healthful food and marketing initiatives.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a retail grocery instrument with weighted scoring to be used as an indicator of the food environment. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: Twenty six retail food stores in low-income areas in California. INTERVENTION: Observational. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Inter-rater reliability for grocery store survey instrument. Description of store scoring methodology weighted to emphasize availability of healthful food. ANALYSIS: Type A intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) with absolute agreement definition or a κ test for measures using ranges as categories. RESULTS: Measures of availability and price of fruits and vegetables performed well in reliability testing (κ = 0.681-0.800). Items for vegetable quality were better than for fruit (ICC 0.708 vs 0.528). Kappa scores indicated low to moderate agreement (0.372-0.674) on external store marketing measures and higher scores for internal store marketing. "Next to" the checkout counter was more reliable than "within 6 feet." Health departments using the store scoring system reported it as the most useful communication of neighborhood findings. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: There was good reliability of the measures among the research pairs. The local store scores can show the need to bring in resources and to provide access to fruits and vegetables and other healthful food.

Using an opinion poll to build an obesity-prevention social marketing campaign for low-income Asian and Hispanic immigrants: report of findings.

OBJECTIVE: To gain opinions from low-income, limited-English-speaking Hispanic and Asian immigrants for formative research in a social marketing campaign. DESIGN: Nineteen questions on obesity prevention-related topics were embedded into a larger random digit-dial survey investigating the effects of language and cultural barriers on health care access. Participants were selected by ethnic encoding from consumer databases. SETTING: California's northern, southern, and Central Valley regions. PARTICIPANTS: Nine hundred and five adult Hispanic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, and Korean Californians from households < 130% of the Federal Poverty Level interviewed in 2005. VARIABLES MEASURED: Media usage, food stamp participation, health insurance, health problems, access and availability of fruits and vegetables (FVs) and physical activity, beliefs about overweight, and related regulation and policy change. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics and percentages for all questions. RESULTS: Latinos reported receiving most information from television; Hmong from radio. Hispanics, Koreans, and Vietnamese thought diabetes was the greatest health issue in California. Among Hmong, 83% thought FVs were too expensive, and 49% of Vietnamese thought good quality, affordable fresh FVs were too hard to find. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Identifying characteristics and opinions that distinguish these ethnic immigrant populations better enables the Network for a Healthy California to develop culturally relevant social marketing campaigns and materials.

Usage and recall of the Food Stamp Office Resource Kit (FSORK) by food stamp applicants in 4 California counties.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate recall and usage of the Food Stamp Office Resource Kit (FSORK), a set of nutrition education materials designed for use in food stamp offices. DESIGN: Client intercept exit surveys, an environmental scan, and individual observations of clients in the food stamp office. SETTING: Four food stamp offices in California. PARTICIPANTS: People applying for food stamps in community social service offices: exit survey (n = 419), environmental scan (n = 308), individual observations of video (n = 111). INTERVENTION: FSORK includes a video, poster, recipe cards, and brochures for the waiting room. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Aided and unaided recall of FSORK materials, self-efficacy, video attention (eyes on screen), and observations of materials usage. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics for recall, usage, and video attention. RESULTS: Nearly 70% of clients recalled, unaided, at least 1 FSORK element with the video recalled the most. In the observation study, of clients who initially engaged with the video, 40% of their viewing time was spent "watching" it. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Food stamp offices are a useful setting for nutrition education in offices that are willing and able to display the materials and show the video.

Using geographic information systems and local food store data in California's low-income neighborhoods to inform community initiatives and resources.

OBJECTIVES: We examined conditions in California low-income neighborhoods that affect obesity to inform program planning, nutrition education, community participation, investment of resources, and involvement of stakeholders. METHODS: Staff members in 18 local health departments were trained to use an online geographic information system (GIS) and conduct field surveys. GIS data were aggregated from 68 low-income neighborhoods of 1 or more census tracts. Data were collected in 2007 to 2009 from 473 grocery stores in 62 neighborhoods. RESULTS: Thirty-one percent of neighborhoods mapped had no supermarket within any of their census tract boundaries, but health department staff members estimated that 74.2% of residents had access to a large grocery store within 1 mile. Eighty-one percent of small markets sold produce, and 67.6% offered 4 or more types of fresh vegetables. CONCLUSIONS: Small markets and corner stores in California's low-income neighborhoods often have fresh produce available for sale. Stores providing healthy options in typically underserved areas can be part of community efforts to promote healthy eating behaviors.