Effectiveness of a Patient-Centered Dietary Educational Intervention.

Background: A healthy diet is an important component of preventive medicine. With the changing landscape of medicine, physicians are encountering more challenges in educating patients about a healthy diet, so finding innovative ways to educate patients is imperative. This study investigated the effectiveness of an innovative educational intervention based on the United States Department of Agriculture-recommended MyPlate diet. Methods: Based on the assessed need for dietary education, patients were exposed to an educational video and received a handout on the MyPlate diet. The educational video was created to be culturally relevant with patient-informed edits. The handout was taken from www.ChooseMyPlate.gov. The patients who received the intervention were compared to those who were not exposed to the intervention. Data were collected in a primary care clinic for an underserved population in fall 2018 and analyzed in spring 2019 through patient-completed surveys and physician reporting on patient interactions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t tests, chi-squared models, and repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: Among 320 patients, 169 patients were exposed to the educational intervention. Intervention patients had better knowledge of the MyPlate diet (P=0.009), felt it would be easier to change their diet (P=0.03), and were more motivated to have conversations about diet with their physician (P=0.04) compared to those who were not exposed. Patients also enjoyed the video overall. Conclusion: This study shows that using multiple modalities including a patient-centered video and handouts to educate patients about diet is enjoyable to patients and effective in teaching, motivating change, and encouraging communication between patients and physicians.

Young African Americans' Communication with Family Members About COVID-19: Impact on Vaccination Intention and Implications for Health Communication Interventions.

Communication with family members about the COVID-19 vaccine may play an important role in vaccination decisions, especially among young people. This study examined the association between family communication about the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination intention. Participants were Black/African Americans aged 18-30 years (N = 312) recruited through an online survey in June 2020. We assessed family communication, vaccine attitudes, perceived norms, outcome expectancies, and vaccination intention. More than half (62%) of the participants had talked to family members about the vaccine. Females were more likely than males to have engaged in family communication (63% vs. 59%) (p. > .05). Family communication, injunctive norms, and descriptive norms were significantly (p. < .01) associated with vaccination intention. Family communication was the strongest predictor of intention.Promoting discussions about vaccinations between young Black adults and their families may increase the likelihood of adopting positive vaccination beliefs and influencing vaccine decision-making.

Health Information Seeking as a Coping Strategy to Reduce Alzheimer's Caregivers' Stress.

Individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia (referred to as AD) deteriorate over time, and there will likely be a corresponding increase in levels of burden and stress for caregivers. Despite the significant contributions made by informal caregivers, there are no widely available mechanisms that meet the information needs of informal caregivers. Using a qualitative approach, the current study focuses on AD caregiver information seeking. The study involved conducting interviews to answer the following research questions: (1) What motivating factors lead informal caregivers of people with AD to seek out information?; (2) Is there a relationship between information seeking and resulting perceived stress levels?; and (3) Why do informal caregivers choose to utilize certain resources more than others during their information seeking process? Findings revealed that caregivers' largest motivation for seeking information is to learn how to better care for their loved one. Caregivers tend to rely on mediated resources that they find credible, and interpersonal resources such as people with similar experiences to their own. Many participants were satisfied with information available, but others felt that their interactions with healthcare professionals created more stress and emotional anguish than anticipated. This study offers an initial step in finding ways to meet the needs of those who seek to mitigate their stress through information seeking. By studying the information needs of the caregiving population, healthcare workers and communicators will be more knowledgeable about the relationship between information seeking and stress and coping.

Information-Seeking and Use of Primary Care Mental Health Services Among Gulf Coast Survivors of Natural Disasters.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to understand factors related to weather-related disaster survivors' health information and mental health-care-seeking behaviors. METHODS: In November 2017, we conducted a quantitative survey of 170 Gulf Coast residents who experienced weather-related disasters. The survey assessed how individual and psychosocial factors affect health-care-seeking behavior. RESULTS: Nearly 66% of participants reported a high frequency of depression and/or anxiety symptoms, yet only 39% saw a medical professional. Of participants who visited a medical professional, 76% sought information from nonmedical sources. Seeking medical care was strongly correlated with seeking information from nonmedical sources and previous healthcare experiences, but not with fear and stigma. CONCLUSIONS: Positive communication and strong support systems have the potential to mitigate the reluctance people have in seeking help for mental health problems. Although it is discouraging that few people seek professional care, it is promising that participants were not avoiding care due to fear of being stigmatized. Less opposition to mental health care by survivors offers opportunity for mental health professionals to treat the psychological problems survivors experience. Providing necessary information may make headway to mental health care where it is greatly needed.

Impact of tobacco-pack pictorial warnings on youth and young adults: A systematic review of experimental studies.

INTRODUCTION: We conducted a systematic review of the experimental literature on the impact of tobacco-pack pictorial warning labels (PWLs) on youth and young adults. METHODS: We systematically searched computerized databases and the reference lists of relevant articles. We included studies that used an experimental protocol to assess PWLs. Studies had to report findings for youth or young adult samples (aged <30 years). Thirty-one studies met the inclusion criteria, with a total sample size of 27506. Two coders independently coded all study characteristics and outcomes. RESULTS: Twenty-eight studies experimentally evaluated PWLs for cigarette packs while three studies evaluated PWLs for smokeless tobacco packs. Generally, PWLs led to higher attention, stronger cognitive and affective reactions, more negative pack attitudes and smoking attitudes, and increased intentions not to use tobacco products compared to text warnings. PWLs were perceived to be more effective than text warnings for both cigarette packs and smokeless tobacco packs. CONCLUSIONS: The systematic review showed that PWLs on tobacco products are effective across a wide range of tobacco-related outcomes among young people. Gaps in the literature include a lack of research on tobacco initiation and cessation and a dearth of literature on non-cigarette tobacco products.