PCD News Summary for December 22, 2016

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A Cooking Intervention to Increase Vegetable Consumption by Parents With Children Enrolled in an Early Head Start Home Visiting Program: A Pilot Study in Portland, Oregon, 2013–2014

Melissa Newton
mnewton@cdc.gov
404-718-6281

Parents who participated in a home cooking program had increased confidence in baking, roasting, or grilling vegetables and in the preparation of 6 of 10 selected vegetables. This study showed that a cooking intervention in parents’ homes may encourage low-income parents of young children to taste foods they had not tasted before. Evidence-based home visiting programs may be an effective way to engage low-income families with young children in cooking interventions to promote consumption of a wide range of vegetables.

U.S. Adults’ Perceptions of the Harmful Effects During Pregnancy of Using Electronic Vapor Products Versus Smoking Cigarettes, Styles Survey, 2015

Melissa Newton
mnewton@cdc.gov
404-718-6281

U.S. adults have varying perceptions about the harms of electronic vapor product (EVP) use versus cigarette smoking during pregnancy. Among adults surveyed, 11.1 percent believed using EVPs during pregnancy was less harmful than smoking conventional cigarettes, 51 percent believed it was equally harmful, 11.6 percent believed it was more harmful, and 26.2 percent did not know. Given evidence about the harmful effects of using any nicotine products during pregnancy, efforts are warranted to educate the public about the health risks of any form of tobacco use during pregnancy, including EVPs. Nicotine exposure during pregnancy can contribute to increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, low birthweight, preterm births, and adverse brain and lung development in fetuses and infants.

Nutrition Standards for Food Service Guidelines for Foods Served or Sold in Municipal Government Buildings or Worksites, United States, 2014

Melissa Newton
mnewton@cdc.gov
404-718-6281

In 2014, only 3 percent of U.S. municipalities reported having written nutrition standards and less than 1 percent reported having pricing incentives for healthier foods. Implementing nutrition standards as part of food service guidelines for foods sold or served by local governments is a strategy to make healthier foods and beverages available to municipal employees and local residents. Because the nearly 20,000 municipal governments across the U.S. employ more than 10 million people, this strategy has the potential to reach millions of Americans as well as aiding both the supply of and demand for healthier options.

Concordance Between Life Satisfaction and Six Elements of Well-Being Among Respondents to a Health Assessment Survey, HealthPartners Employees, Minnesota, 2011

Melissa Newton
mnewton@cdc.gov
404-718-6281

In a Minnesota life satisfaction survey, researchers found strong similarities between life satisfaction and well-being and that life satisfaction may be used as a population-level indicator of overall well-being. Researchers compared respondents’ answers to the question, “How satisfied are you with your life?” Although they found that more than 80 percent of respondents classified as having high well-being self-reported high levels of life satisfaction, the opposite was not true. Two-thirds of those who reported high life satisfaction did not meet the criteria for having high overall well-being. This suggests that they either accommodated to unfavorable life circumstances or that researchers failed to identify their sources of life satisfaction.

Designing a Text-Messaging Intervention to Improve Physical Activity Behavior Among Low-Income Latino Patients With Diabetes: A Discrete-Choice Experiment, Los Angeles, 2014–2015

Melissa Newton
mnewton@cdc.gov
404-718-6281

Researchers found that discrete-choice experiment is a feasible way to determine health-focused text messaging preferences of low-income Latinos with diabetes. A discrete-choice experiment is an innovative, efficient approach that can overcome the limitations of approaches traditionally used to investigate individual preferences for technology-based health self-management interventions. Discrete-choice experiments originated in marketing research but are increasingly used to elicit data on patient preferences for health service delivery. Automated text messaging can deliver self-management education to encourage self-care behaviors among people with diabetes.

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