ABSTRACT
Researchers assessed the possible moderating effects of school organizational characteristics (school climate, school health, and job satisfaction) on outcomes of a teacher health behavior change program. Thirty-two public schools were matched and randomly assigned either to treatment or control conditions. Organizational, dietary, and physiologic data were collected from third to fifth grade teachers over three years. Treatment schools received a teacher wellness program for two years. Psychometrics of most organizational scales achieved acceptable levels of reliability. Mixed model analyses were conducted to test for moderating effects. Treatment schools with high organizational climate and health scores reported higher fruit and juice and vegetable consumption at Year 2 compared with intervention schools with low scores. Treatment schools with high job satisfaction scores reported higher fruit and juice and lower-fat food consumption at Year 3 compared with intervention schools with low scores. These measures may be used as a tool to assess the environment in which school health promotion programs are presented. Future interventions may need to be tailored to the organizational characteristics of schools.
Subject(s)
Food Services , Health Promotion , Schools/organization & administration , Education , Georgia , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Organizational Culture , Psychometrics , School Health Services/organization & administration , Surveys and Questionnaires , TeachingSubject(s)
Diet/statistics & numerical data , Dietary Fats/administration & dosage , Fruit , Vegetables , Adult , Diet Records , Diet Surveys , Energy Intake , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess differences in children's consumption of fruit and vegetables (F&V) by day of the week and meal of the day. DESIGN: Baseline data from two school based nutrition education studies were combined for analysis. SUBJECTS/SETTING: 2984 third grade students from 48 participating elementary schools in three school districts in the metropolitan Atlanta area. MEASURES OF OUTCOME: The frequency of consumption of F&V abstracted by trained registered dietitians from prompted 7-day food records. STATISTICAL-ANALYSES PERFORMED: Mixed model analysis with meals and days as terms, controlling for the within school correlation, gender and ethnic group. RESULTS: F&V were most frequently consumed at weekday lunch, and second most frequently at dinner. Participation in school lunch accounted for a substantial proportion of F&Vs consumed at lunch. Few F&Vs were consumed at breakfast or snack. CONCLUSIONS: School lunch makes an important contribution to elementary school students' F&V consumption. Dietary change programs should target parents to increase F&V consumption at dinner, and target students for the meals over which they assert the most control: breakfast and snacks.
Subject(s)
Diet , Fruit , Vegetables , Adolescent , Child , Diet Surveys , Female , Humans , Male , Probability , Regression AnalysisABSTRACT
The authors develop and test a culturally sensitive, low-intensity smoking cessation intervention for low-socioeconomic African Americans. African American adult smokers were randomly assigned to receive either a multicomponent smoking cessation intervention comprising a printed guide, a video, and a telephone booster call or health education materials not directly addressing tobacco use. The results of the study were mixed. Although no significant effects were observed for the entire treatment cohort, the results of post hoc analyses suggest that culturally sensitive self-help smoking cessation materials plus a single phone contact can produce short-term cessation rates similar to those reported for majority populations. This conclusion should be tempered by the low completion rate for the booster call and several design limitations of the study.
Subject(s)
Black or African American/psychology , Self Care/psychology , Smoking Cessation/psychology , Urban Population , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Cohort Studies , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , New York City , Patient Compliance/psychology , Program Evaluation , Programmed Instructions as TopicSubject(s)
Diet Records , Eating , Fruit , Vegetables , Child , Cohort Studies , Humans , Mental Recall , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
To assess the smoking prevalence among adolescents in the USA and the USSR, students in Moscow and Minneapolis were surveyed by common protocol and identically trained staff. Smoking habits were measured by a self-report questionnaire and an expired air sample of carbon monoxide (CO). Significant gender differences were found between the two national groups. Among girls in the USA, there was a significantly higher rate of weekly smoking as compared to girls in the USSR. Among boys in the USSR as compared to those in the USA, there was a significantly higher rate of ever smokers and daily smokers, but also of ex-smokers. These gender differences may reflect cultural differences in smoking patterns between the two countries. Cigarette smoking is clearly a public health problem in both countries with its onset in adolescence.
Subject(s)
Smoking/epidemiology , Students/psychology , Adolescent , Age Factors , Female , Humans , Male , Minnesota/epidemiology , Moscow/epidemiology , Sampling Studies , Sex Factors , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Hostility as measured by the Cook-Medley Hostility (HO) Scale on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory has been suggested as a risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) and total mortality. This study tested the HO-CHD hypothesis in a sample of 1399 men who entered the University of Minnesota in 1953 and, as part of freshman orientation, completed the MMPI. Current health status was ascertained for 94% of the sample through telephone interviews 33 years later. Higher HO scores did not predict CHD mortality, CHD morbidity, or total mortality either before or after adjustment for baseline risk factors. Among the plausible explanations for these results are that (1) hostility is not a risk factor in all populations, (2) the HO scale at age 19 does not assess a stable psychological characteristic, or (3) the HO scale is not an adequate measure of hostility.
Subject(s)
Coronary Disease/psychology , Hostility , MMPI , Adult , Angina Pectoris/psychology , Cerebrovascular Disorders/psychology , Coronary Artery Bypass/psychology , Coronary Disease/mortality , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Minnesota , Myocardial Infarction/psychology , Psychometrics , Retrospective Studies , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
This study compares the long-term outcomes of a school-based program to an equivalent home-based program with 2250 third-grade students in 31 urban schools in Minnesota and North Dakota in order to detect changes in dietary fat and sodium consumption. The school-based program, The Adventures of Hearty Heart and Friends, involved 15 sessions over five weeks in the third-grade classrooms. The home-based program, the Hearty Heart Home Team, involved a five-week correspondence course with the third graders, where parental involvement was necessary in order to complete the activities. Outcome measures included anthropometric, psychosocial, and behavioral assessments at school, and dietary recall, food shelf inventories, and urinary sodium data collected in the students' homes. Participation rates for all aspects of the study were notably high. Eighty-six percent of the parents participated in the Home Team and 71% (almost 1000 families) completed the five-week course. Students in the home-based program reported more behavior change at posttest, had reduced the total fat, saturated fat, and monounsaturated fat in their diets and increased their complex carbohydrate consumption. The changes derived from the dietary recall data did not maintain after one year. The data converge to suggest the feasibility and importance of parental involvement for initiating health behavior changes with children of this age.
