Implementing a stakeholder-driven community diffusion-informed intervention to create healthier, more equitable systems: a community case study in Greenville County, South Carolina.

This case study describes the application of a theory-informed, stakeholder-driven intervention with a group of 19 multi-sector stakeholders from an existing coalition to promote whole-of-community change that supports childhood obesity prevention. The intervention applied community-based system dynamics to design and implement activities that promoted insights into the systems driving childhood obesity prevalence and helped participants prioritize actions to influence those systems. This led to three new priority areas for the coalition: addressing food insecurity; building power among historically marginalized voices within the community; and supporting advocacy efforts to promote community-wide change beyond the coalition's previous focus on organizational-level policy, systems and environment change. The intervention spurred the application of community-based system dynamics to other health issues and in partner organizations, which demonstrates paradigm shifts about how to address complex public health issues in the community.

Tracing coalition changes in knowledge in and engagement with childhood obesity prevention to improve intervention implementation.

BACKGROUND: While most coalition research focuses on studying the effects of peer relationship structure, this study examines the coevolution of coalition structure and behavior across three communities in the U.S. with the goal of identifying coalition dynamics that impact a childhood obesity prevention intervention.  METHODS: Over two years (2018-2020), three communities within the U.S. participated in a childhood obesity prevention intervention at different times. This intervention was guided by the Stakeholder-Driven Community Diffusion theory, which describes an empirically testable mechanism for promoting community change. Measures are part of the Stakeholder-driven Community Diffusion (SDCD) survey with demonstrated reliability, which include knowledge of and engagement with childhood obesity prevention and social networks. Data from three coalition-committees and their respective networks were used to build three different stochastic actor-oriented models. These models were used to examine the coevolution of coalition structure with coalition behavior (defined a priori as knowledge of and engagement with obesity prevention) among coalition-committee members and their nominated alters (Network A) and coalition-committee members only (Network B).  RESULTS: Overall, coalitions decrease in size and their structure becomes less dense over time. Both Network A and B show a consistent preference to form and sustain ties with those who have more ties. In Network B, there was a trend for those who have higher knowledge scores to increase their number of ties over time. The same trend appeared in Network A but varied based on their peers' knowledge in and engagement with childhood obesity prevention. Across models, engagement with childhood obesity prevention research was not a significant driver of changes in either coalition network structure or knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: The trends in coalition Network A and B's coevolution models may point to context-specific features (e.g., ties among stakeholders) that can be leveraged for better intervention implementation. To that end, examining tie density, average path length, network diameter, and the dynamics of each behavior outcome (i.e., knowledge in and engagement with childhood obesity prevention) may help tailor whole-of-community interventions. Future research should attend to additional behavioral variables (e.g., group efficacy) that can capture other aspects of coalition development and that influence implementation, and to testing the efficacy of network interventions after trends have been identified.

An agent-based model of child sugar-sweetened beverage consumption: implications for policies and practices.

BACKGROUND: A strong body of evidence links young children's intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) with myriad negative outcomes. OBJECTIVES: Our research provides insight into whether and to what extent potential intervention strategies can reduce young children's consumption of SSBs. METHODS: We built an agent-based model (ABM) of SSB consumption representing participants in the Project Viva longitudinal study between ages 2 and 7 y. In addition to extensive data from Project Viva, our model used nationally representative data as well as recent, high-quality literature. We tested the explanatory power of the model through comparison to consumption patterns observed in the Project Viva cohort. Then, we applied the model to simulate the potential impact of interventions that would reduce SSB availability in 1 or more settings or affect how families receive and respond to pediatrician advice. RESULTS: Our model produced age-stratified trends in beverage consumption that closely match those observed in Project Viva cohort data. Among the potential interventions we simulated, reducing availability in the home-where young children spend the greatest amount of time-resulted in the largest consumption decrease. Removing access to all SSBs in the home resulted in them consuming 1.23 (95% CI: 1.21, 1.24) fewer servings of SSBs per week on average between the ages of 2 and 7 y, a reduction of ∼60%. By comparison, removing all SSB availability outside of the home (i.e., in schools and childcare) had a smaller impact (0.77; CI: 0.75, 0.78), a reduction of ∼40%. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that interventions reducing SSB availability in the home would have the strongest effects on SSB consumption.

Leveraging Complex Systems Science to Advance Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Health Research and Equity.

Over the past two decades, sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth health inequities have remained the same or widened, highlighting the need for new approaches to foster health equity. Complex systems science (CSS) techniques must be added to our armamentarium because of the following: CSS techniques can model cyclical feedback loops inherent in the relationships between SGM youth health outcomes and their multilevel causes, thereby enhancing the integration of real-world complexity in scientific models; and CSS can simulate multiple hypothetical interventions, thereby identifying future interventions with great potential impact. We describe four promising CSS techniques for advancing SGM youth health equity.

Language, Culture, and Collectivism: Uniting Coalition Partners and Promoting Holistic Health in the Menominee Nation.

Recent perspectives on Indigenous health have recognized language, culture, and values as central to well-being and recovery from historical trauma. Health coalitions, which identify community health concerns and mobilize members to implement strategies for change, have begun to shift their focus from programs to policy, systems, and environmental change but have been slower to recognize the possibilities of centering Indigenous ways of being in their work. This article details a case study of the Menominee Wellness Initiative, an Indigenous health coalition that has increasingly made language, culture, and collective values the focus of their health promotion work, and often due to the participation and influence of community organizers in the coalition. The study is presented as a collaborative writing effort between coalition members and academic partners. Qualitative data were gathered through observations of coalition meetings; in-depth, semistructured interviews with coalition members; and interactive data analysis discussions within the collaborative writing team. In the results, we describe how the shift in the coalition's framework came to be and the influence this shift has had on the coalition, its activities, and its community impacts. These findings illustrate and extend understanding of several principles of Collaborating for Equity and Justice and supports literature and practice related to health promotion through the centering of Indigenous ways.