Student learning interactions and a sense of belonging are imperative to academic success within distance education settings. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, students who intended to be educated through in-person learning environments had to shift to remote learning suddenly. In public health, a field that emphasizes experiential and interactive learning, instructors and graduate students enrolled in residential in-person programs transitioned to remote learning with limited knowledge of how this transition would impact student learning interactions and a sense of belonging. To address these gaps, we examined how remote learning impacted Master of Public Health students’ learning interactions with peers, instructors, course content, as well as their sense of belonging in an overall sample and stratified by program year. We found that students perceived challenges interacting with peers, content, and instructors, such as a lack of community and an inability to interact with instructors during course discussions. Students reported not feeling a sense of belonging when engaging with peers and instructors. Findings from this study shed light on the challenges that emerged after students transitioned to remote learning, namely disrupted student learning interactions and a decreased sense of belonging. The study provides recommendations for future remote teaching, which may be of utility to university instructors and administrators tasked with creating and implementing an interactive remote learning curriculum that provides students with a community to foster learning.

Background Maternal diet during gestation has been linked to infant sleep; whether associations persist through adolescence is unknown. Objective We explored associations between trimester-specific maternal diet patterns with measures of sleep health among adolescent offspring from a Mexico City birth cohort. Methods Data from 310 mother-adolescent dyads were analyzed. Maternal diet patterns were identified by principal component analysis derived from food frequency questionnaires collected during each trimester of pregnancy. Sleep duration, midpoint, and fragmentation were obtained from seven-day actigraphy data when adolescents were between 12-20 years old. Unstratified and sex-stratified association analyses were conducted using linear regression models, adjusted for potential confounders. Results Mean (SD) age of offspring was 15.1 (1.9) years, and 52.3% of the sample was female. Three diet patterns were identified during each trimester of pregnancy: the Prudent Diet (PD), high in lean proteins and vegetables; the Transitioning Mexican Diet (TMD) high in Mexican and “Westernized” foods; and the High Meat & Fat Diet (HMFD), high in meats and high-fat dairy products. Mean (SD) sleep duration was 8.5 (1.5) h/night. Most associations were found in the third trimester. Specifically, PD maternal adherence was associated with shorter sleep duration among offspring (0.57 h [95% CI: -0.98, -0.16 h] in highest tertile vs lowest) and earlier sleep midpoint among females (0.77 h ([95% CI: -1.3, -0.26 h]). Adherence to HMFD and TMD was non-linearly associated with less fragmented sleep, with the latter only evident among females. Conclusions Findings indicate that maternal dietary patterns, especially during the third trimester of pregnancy, may have long-term impacts on offspring sleep.

No abstract

Objectives Maternal diet during gestation has been linked to sex-specific differences in infant sleep; however, the impact on sleep into adolescence is unknown. We sought to examine the relationship between maternal diet patterns and sex-stratified offspring sleep health during adolescence among a Mexico City cohort. Methods Data from 309 mother-adolescent dyads were analyzed. Prenatal diet patterns were formed by principal component analysis derived from a food frequency questionnaire collected over the third trimester. Sleep variables were derived from 7-day actigraphy data from adolescents aged 9–17 years. Linear regression was employed to examine sex-stratified associations between tertiles of the diet patterns with adolescent sleep, adjusting for confounding factors. Results Three diet patterns included: the Prudent Diet (PD), high in lean proteins and vegetables; the Transitioning Mexican Diet (TMD) high in Mexican and “Westernized” foods; and the High Meat & Fat Diet (HMFD), high in meats and high-fat dairy products. The mean (SD) offspring age was 15.1 (1.9) years, and 52.4% of the sample was female. The mean (SD) sleep duration was 8.4 (1.4) h/night. Adjusted analyses showed an association between PD adherence and earlier sleep midpoint among female offspring, the offspring of mothers in the highest tertile of PD had a 0.70 h (95% CI: −1.2, −0.20; p = 0.01) earlier sleep midpoint (p, trend = 0.01). Additional associations were detected between TMD prenatal adherence with shorter sleep duration and earlier sleep midpoint among both sexes. For example, female and male offspring of mothers in the highest tertile of TMD had 0.80 h (95% CI: −85.0, −10.6; p = 0.01) (p, trend = 0.0043) and 0.54 h (95% CI: −66.1, 1.3) (p, trend = 0.03) shorter sleep duration, respectively. HMFD prenatal adherence was associated with less fragmented sleep in a non-linear manner among females and was non-linearly associated with an earlier sleep midpoint among males. Conclusions Sex-stratified analyses demonstrated that findings were more robust between multiple diet patterns and shorter sleep, earlier sleep timing, and less fragmented sleep among female offspring, thus indicating that maternal diet during pregnancy may impact female offspring's sleep health in adolescence. Funding Sources US EPA, NIEHS, NHLBI, and the National Institute of Public Health/Ministry of Health of Mexico.

Maternal diet during pregnancy has been associated with obesity among offspring. The extent to which trimester-specific dietary patterns are associated with markers of adiposity during adolescence remains unclear. We examined associations between prenatal diet patterns with adolescent offspring measures of adiposity and adipokines in 384 mother–adolescent dyads from the Mexico City ELEMENT cohort. Trimester-specific diet patterns were derived from principal component analysis of food frequency questionnaire data. Adolescent anthropometry and serum leptin and adiponectin were measured at 10–17 years. Three maternal diet patterns were identified: Prudent Diet (PD), high in fish and vegetables, the High Meat and Fat Diet (HMFD), high in pork and processed meats, and the Transitioning Mexican Diet (TMD), high in corn tortillas and sugar-sweetened beverages. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate sex-stratified associations among quartiles of diet patterns with adiposity and adipokines, adjusting for maternal marital status, education, and parity. First trimester TMD was associated with greater anthropometric measures and higher leptin in females, while third trimester HMFD was associated higher body fat percentage, triceps thickness, waist circumference, and leptin, but lower adiponectin among males. Contrary to expectation, there were positive associations between the trimester 1 PD pattern and anthropometric measurements in females, and for trimester 2 HMFD and TMD patterns with adipokines among males. Findings suggest maternal diet patterns may influence offspring adiposity markers during adolescence in a sex-specific manner.