American journal of preventive medicine
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U.S. residents had varying experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and social safety net policy in 2020. Past research has suggested that partisanship, ideology, racial attitudes, and personal experience may each influence policy attitudes. In this study, we explore whether variation in support for social safety net policy in 2020 is predicted by negative experiences of the pandemic when controlling for racial attitudes, partisanship, and ideology. ⋯ Despite the pandemic's consequences as well as the potential for social safety net policy to address these consequences, negative experiences of the pandemic failed to predict policy support, even as racial attitudes, partisanship, and ideology strongly predicted these preferences in 2020. Building public support for social safety net policy requires communication strategies that identify the shared benefits of these policies.
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Growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods is associated with poor adult health indicators. Consistent and supportive parenting plays a key role in life-long health, but it is not known whether positive parenting can mitigate the relationship between neighborhood adversity and poor health. This study examines parenting as a moderator of the links between childhood neighborhood characteristics and adult health indicators. ⋯ Interventions enhancing consistent and nurturing parenting may help to reduce the long-term associations of neighborhood disadvantage with poor health.
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This article reviews selected theoretical approaches explaining the social determinants of obesity. The significance of this topic for medicine, public health, and other areas of obesity-related research is the growing body of evidence showing that the social environment is often key to understanding the risk of obesity. ⋯ Because the social determinants of obesity often begin in childhood, life course theory and its concepts of cumulative advantage/disadvantage and cumulative inequality are initially reviewed, followed by a discussion of how fundamental cause theory, health lifestyle theory, and cultural capital theory can be applied to obesity research. The stress process model and the concepts of social networks and neighborhood disadvantage concerning obesity are also included.
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Black participants often lose less weight than White participants in response to behavioral weight-loss interventions. Many participants experience significant pretreatment weight fluctuations (between baseline measurement and treatment initiation), which have been associated with treatment outcomes. Pretreatment weight gain has been shown to be more prevalent among Black participants and may contribute to racial differences in treatment responses. The purpose of this study was to (1) examine the associations between pretreatment weight change and treatment outcomes and (2) examine racial differences in pretreatment weight change and weight loss among Black and White participants. ⋯ Pretreatment weight changes can impact weight outcomes after initial treatment, although no differences between Black and White participants were observed. Future studies should consider the influence of pretreatment weight change on long-term outcomes (e.g., weight loss maintenance) along with potential racial differences in these associations. This study is registered (retrospectively registered) at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02487121) on June 26, 2015.