A Novel Approach to Adolescent Obesity in Rural Appalachia of West Virginia: Educating Adolescents as Family Health Coaches and Research Investigators

Branch, Robert A.; Chester, Ann; Morton-McSwain, Cathy; Ayubi, Soleh Udin Al; Schelbert, Kavitha Bhat; Brimson, Philip.; Buch, Shama; Cannon, Yvonne; Groark, Steve; Hanks, Sara; Nukui, Tomoko; Pančoška, Petr; Parmanto, Bambang; Paulsen, Stephanie; Wahl, Elaine

doi:10.5772/23872

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Its leaders were confident that, given the opportunity, encouragement, and support, these students would excel in high school, post-secondary education, and their careers. This is supported by research (Marzano and Marzano, 2003;Newman et al, 1996;Schmoker, 2001) and underscored by 23 years of success realized by the program and its participants (Curtis et al, 2014;Branch and Chester, 2009;Bardwell et al, 2007;Branch et al, 2011;Branch et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Taking a Look at the Heath Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA):Student-Research Partnership Increases Survey Size, Hands-on STEM Learning, and Research-Community Connections

Siciliano

Hornbeck

Hanks

et al. 2018

JSTEM

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This paper explores the dynamics of a research partnership between a practicing clinician/research and 34 West Virginia high school students participating in a precollege STEM intervention program. The collaboration provided a more diverse study sample to the clinician for examining attitudes about knee osteoarthritis in adults over 40. It provided students the opportunity to collect data from adults in their community within a highly structured research project and explore a range of research questions using the resulting cross-state data set. Data collection far surpassed the researcher's expectations of 100 surveys; student researchers collected 1,129 unique surveys over nine months from difficult to reach Appalachian communities. This project illustrates the intervention program's ability to support partner research efforts while opening the STEM pipeline to under-served youth by introducing aspects of community-based participatory research (CBPR) pathways to them in their formative years. An Opportunity for Collaboration. Dr. Zbehlik was interested in finding ways to improve outcomes of OA care through increased activity and weight loss. Knee OA is a leading cause of mobility impairment in the United States, and its associated costs are staggering. In 2011, they reached $14.8 billion dollars, making OA the second-most expensive hospital-treated condition that year (Stranges et al., 2008). Our nation's aging population and rising obesity rates contribute to the increasing prevalence of knee OA, the disabling variant of arthritis examined in Dr. Zbehlik's research. Many adults with knee OA do not exercise, although data strongly supports exercise for pain relief in this population (Messier et al., 2013). Weight loss also decreases pain significantly and can prevent progression of disease (Felson et al., 1997). However, there is a perceived gap in understand

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%