Back in the Day: Nostalgia Frames Rural Residents' Perspectives on Diet and Physical Activity.

OBJECTIVE: To observe and interpret cultural influences on health behaviors in a rural area with a high prevalence of obesity. DESIGN: Descriptive, qualitative study. SETTING: Lenoir County, NC, US. PARTICIPANTS: Four focus groups (n = 33) were conducted. Participants were 76% African American and with an average of 25 years of county residence. PHENOMENON OF INTEREST: Diet, physical activity, environment ANALYSIS: Content analysis and thematic data analysis to identify key themes using qualitative analysis software. RESULTS: Participants frequently evoked nostalgia to frame recurrent themes including decreased opportunities for physical activity and changing food access and preparation in the community, contrasting with memories of enjoying local produce and safe outdoor recreation. They interpreted present health behaviors in the context of these past losses. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Nostalgia is an important element in our participants' cultural repertoires, revealing elements of place-based culture. Nostalgic narratives may foster a sense of reduced options for healthy eating and exercise by over-emphasizing loss. The incorporation of place-specific obesogenic cultural factors, including the way residents juxtapose past and present, may improve obesity interventions in rural settings.

The science of contemporary street protest: New efforts in the United States.

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, there has been substantial and ongoing protest against the Administration. Street demonstrations are some of the most visible forms of opposition to the Administration and its policies. This article reviews the two most central methods for studying street protest on a large scale: building comprehensive event databases and conducting field surveys of participants at demonstrations. After discussing the broader development of these methods, this article provides a detailed assessment of recent and ongoing projects studying the current wave of contention. Recommendations are offered to meet major challenges, including making data publicly available in near real time, increasing the validity and reliability of event data, expanding the scope of crowd surveys, and integrating ongoing projects in a meaningful way by building new research infrastructure.

The unbuilt environment: culture moderates the built environment for physical activity.

BACKGROUND: While research has demonstrated a link between the built environment and obesity, much variation remains unexplained. Physical features are necessary, but not sufficient, for physical activity: residents must choose to use these features in health-promoting ways. This article reveals a role for local culture in tempering the effect of the physical environment on physical activity behaviors. METHODS: We developed Systematic Cultural Observation (SCO) to observe place-based, health-related culture in Lenoir County, NC (population ~60,000). Photographs (N = 6450) were taken systematically from 150 most-used road segments and geocoded. Coders assessed physical activity (PA) opportunities (e.g., public or private activity spaces, pedestrian-friendly features) and presence of people in each photograph. RESULTS: 28.7% of photographs contained some PA feature. Most were private or pedestrian; 3.1% contained public PA space. Only 1.5% of photographs with any PA features (2% of those with public PA space, 0.7% of those with private) depicted people despite appropriate weather and daylight conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Even when PA opportunities existed in this rural county, they were rarely used. This may be the result of culture ("unbuilt environment") that disfavors physical activity even in the presence of features that allow it. Policies promoting built environments designed for healthy lifestyles should consider local culture (shared styles, skills, habits, and beliefs) to maximize positive outcomes.