American journal of preventive medicine
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Clinical Trial
Increasing Use of a Healthy Food Incentive: A Waiting Room Intervention Among Low-Income Patients.
Diet-related disease is disproportionately concentrated in low-income communities where fruit and vegetable consumption is far below guidelines. To address financial barriers, Double Up Food Bucks (DUFB)-a statewide healthy food incentive-matches Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds spent at farmers markets. However, incentive use is limited. This study examined the impact of a brief waiting room-based intervention about DUFB on program utilization and produce consumption. ⋯ A brief clinic-based intervention was associated with a nearly fourfold increase in uptake of a SNAP incentive program, as well as clinically and statistically significant increases in produce consumption. Results suggested sustained behavior change even once the financial incentive was no longer available. Providing information about healthy food incentives is a low-cost, easily implemented intervention that may increase produce consumption among low-income patients.
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Adolescent use of hookah continues to increase in the U.S., even in states that have reported decreases in traditional cigarette use among youth. Hookah use typically involves smoking a moistened, loose, sweetened tobacco product with charcoal as the heat source. ⋯ The increase in hookah use among adolescents needs continuous monitoring given the recent increase after relatively stable patterns. Efforts are needed to reduce the appeal and use of hookah by young people.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Weight-Gain Reduction Among 2-Year College Students: The CHOICES RCT.
The young adult years have been recognized as an influential period for excess weight gain. Non-traditional students and those attending 2-year community colleges are at particularly high risk for a range of adverse weight-related outcomes. ⋯ The intervention was not successful in achieving BMI differences between treatment groups. However, an 8% reduction in the prevalence of overweight and obesity over time may have population-level significance.
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Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may help ease economic and time constraints of cooking, helping low-income households prepare healthier meals. Therefore, frequent cooking may be more strongly associated with improved dietary outcomes among SNAP recipients than among income-eligible non-recipients. Alternately, increased frequency of home-cooked meals among SNAP participants may be beneficial simply by replacing fast food intake. This study quantified the association between home cooking and fast food with diet intake and weight status among SNAP recipients. ⋯ Strategies to improve dietary intake among SNAP recipients should consider both increasing home cooking and reducing fast food intake.