Objective To determine whether living in a food swamp (≥4 corner stores within 0·40 km (0·25 miles) of home) or a food desert (generally, no supermarket or access to healthy foods) is associated with consumption of snacks/desserts or fruits/vegetables, and if neighbourhood-level socio-economic status (SES) confounds relationships. Design Cross-sectional. Assessments included diet (Youth/Adolescent FFQ, skewed dietary variables normalized) and measured height/weight (BMI-for-age percentiles/Z-scores calculated). A geographic information system geocoded home addresses and mapped food deserts/food swamps. Associations examined using multiple linear regression (MLR) models adjusting for age and BMI-for-age Z-score. Setting Baltimore City, MD, USA. Subjects Early adolescent girls (6th/7th grade, n 634; mean age 12·1 years; 90·7 % African American; 52·4 % overweight/obese), recruited from twenty-two urban, low-income schools. Results Girls’ consumption of fruit, vegetables and snacks/desserts: 1·2, 1·7 and 3·4 servings/d, respectively. Girls’ food environment: 10·4 % food desert only, 19·1 % food swamp only, 16·1 % both food desert/swamp and 54·4 % neither food desert/swamp. Average median neighbourhood-level household income: $US 35 298. In MLR models, girls living in both food deserts/swamps consumed additional servings of snacks/desserts v. girls living in neither (β = 0·13, P = 0·029; 3·8 v. 3·2 servings/d). Specifically, girls living in food swamps consumed more snacks/desserts than girls who did not (β = 0·16, P = 0·003; 3·7 v. 3·1 servings/d), with no confounding effect of neighbourhood-level SES. No associations were identified with food deserts or consumption of fruits/vegetables. Conclusions Early adolescent girls living in food swamps consumed more snacks/desserts than girls not living in food swamps. Dietary interventions should consider the built environment/food access when addressing adolescent dietary behaviours.
Outcrossing rates in natural populations of Lupinus nanus Dougl. have been found to vary from nearly zero to nearly 100 percent (Harding and Horovitz, 1969; Harding, 1970). These studies were based primarily on a group of northern populations of subspecies apricus (Elliott, Harding, and Mankinen; paper VI). The purposes of this paper are (I) to report estimates of outcrossing for the other subspecies of L. nanus, (2) to report estimates of outcrossing for the closely related species, L. bicolor, L. affinis, L. polycarpus, and L. paehylobus, (3) to discuss the relationship between these estimates of outcrossing and autofertility, and (4) to discuss the relationship between outcrossing and phenotypic and genotypic variability maintained in populations. OUTCROSSINGRates of outcrossing have been estimated by progeny testing genetically recessive parents occurring in natural populations of Clarkia (Vasek, 1964(Vasek, , 1965(Vasek, , 1967, Avena (Jain and Marshall, 1967), and Lupinus (Harding and Horovitz, 1969; Harding, 1970). In Lupinus nanus rare flower color mutants (Harding and Mankinen, 1967) are convenient genetic recessives for the estimation of outcrossing. These recessives are also found in the other species of the Nanus Group.The expected frequency of genetically dominant outcrosses arising in progeny of recessives is a(l-q) where a is defined as the frequency of out-* Supported in part by NIH training grant GM 701. -The editor gratefully acknowledges partial financial support towards publication.
Introduction: In the context of poverty and HIV and AIDS, peer education is thought to be capable of providing vulnerable youth with psychosocial support as well as information and decision-making skills otherwise limited by scarce social and material resources. As a preventative education intervention method, peer education is a strategy aimed at norms and peer group influences that affect health behaviours and attitudes. However, too few evaluations of peer-led programmes are available, and they frequently fail to reflect real differences between those who have been recipients of peer education and those who have not. This article reports on an evaluation of a pilot peer-led intervention, entitled Vhutshilo, implemented on principles agreed upon through a collaborative effort in South Africa by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centre for the Support of Peer Education (the Rutanang collaboration). Vhutshilo targeted vulnerable adolescents aged 14 -16 years living in some of South Africa's under-resourced communities. Methodology: The research design was a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative), longitudinal, quasi-experimental evaluation. Tools used included a quantitative survey questionnaire (n ¼ 183) and semi-structured interviews (n ¼ 32) with beneficiaries of peer education. Surveys were administered twice for beneficiaries of peer education (n ¼ 73), immediately after completion of the programme (post-test) and 4 months later (delayed post-test), and once for control group members (n ¼ 110). The three main methodological limitations in this study were the use of a once-off control group assessment as the baseline for comparison, without a pre-test, due to timing and resource constraints; a small sample size (n ¼ 183), which reduced the statistical power of the evaluation; and the unavailability of existing tested survey questions to measure the impact of peer education and its role in behaviour change. Findings: This article reports on the difficulties of designing a comprehensive evaluation within time and financial constraints, critically evaluates survey design with multi-item indicators, and discusses six statistically significant changes observed in Vhutshilo participants out of a 92-point survey. Youth struggling with poor quality education and living in economically fraught contexts with little social support, nonetheless, showed evidence of having greater knowledge of support networks and an expanded emotional repertoire by the end of the Vhutshilo programme, and 4 months later. At both individual and group level, many with low socio-economic status showed great improvement with regard to programme indicator scores. Conclusion: For the poorest adolescents, especially those living in the rural parts of South Africa, peer education has the potential to change future orientation, attitudes and knowledge regarding HIV and AIDS, including an intolerance for multiple concurrent partnerships. When well organised and properly supported, peer education programmes (and the Vhutshilo ...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.