Lesley A. Cottrell

The extended relationship between child cardiovascular risks and academic performance measures.

Objective: To examine the relationship between childrens overweight status and other cardiovascular risk fitness factors and academic performance among fifth‐grade students.

L.I.F.E.: A School-Based Heart-Health Screening and Intervention Program.

This article describes the development and growth of Lifestyle Improvements in the Family Environment (L.I.F.E.), a school-based heart-health screening and intervention program. The primary goals of L.I.F.E. through three rounds of grant funding remained constant: (a) to identify cardiovascular risk factors in students and their families and (b) to provide counseling, education, and opportunities to change lifestyle routines that contribute to those risk factors. The program began with direct ties to a university-based research program and grew with evidence-based successes and development of community partnerships. Waves of growth were influenced by capacity-building efforts, partnership development, and resource availability. School nurses managed the screening component and partnered with appropriate others in the intervention programming. School nurses are appropriately positioned to assist families as well as school and community partners in decreasing the incidence of obesity and promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Teens in the Twenty-First Century Still Prefer People over Machines: Importance of Intervention Delivery Style in Adolescent HIV/STD Prevention

ABSTRACT Purpose: To assess and compare youth satisfaction with two delivery approaches to a HIV/STD risk reduction intervention targeting adolescents: an on-site, face-to-face (FTF) approach versus a long distance interactive televised (DIT) approach. Methods: A convenience sample of 571 rural adolescents ages 12–16 years who participated in an HIV/STD risk reduction program were assessed by an anonymous, written, process evaluation questionnaire. Factor analysis and reliability testing evaluated psychometric properties. Students t tests evaluated differences between the two intervention approaches for individual items and the four factors. Results: Factor analysis identified four underlying factors: (1) Interventionist Leadership Characteristics, (2) Interventionist Warmth, (3) Connection, and (4) Programmatic Assessment/Clarity: Students t tests demonstrated that all four factors consistently favored the FTF over the DIT approach (p < .05). Conclusions: These findings indicate that participants randomized to the FTF conditions were significantly more satisfied than the DIT-based group. These findings highlight the need for research regarding program implementation that may alter acceptability of the adolescent HIV risk reduction intervention approach.

Pediatric metabolic outcome comparisons based on a spectrum of obesity and asthmatic symptoms

ABSTRACT Rationale: Asthma and obesity are 2 of the most prevalent public health issues for children in the U.S. Trajectories of both have roughly paralleled one another over the past several decades causing many to explore their connection to one another and to other associated health issues such as diabetes and dyslipidemia. Earlier models have commonly designated obesity as the central hub of these associations; however, more recent models have argued connections between pediatric asthma and other obesity-related metabolic conditions regardless of childrens obesity risk. Objectives: To examine the relationships between asthma, obesity, and abnormal metabolic indices. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 179 children ages 7 to 12 years recruited from a rural, Appalachian region. Our model controlled for childrens smoke exposure, body mass index percentile, and gender to examine the association between childrens asthma (based on pulmonary function tests, medical history, medications, and parent report of severity), lipids (fasting lipid profile), and measures of altered glucose metabolism (glycosylated hemoglobin and homeostatic model assessment 2-insulin resistance). Results: Our findings revealed a statistically significant model for low density lipids, high density lipids, log triglyceride, and homeostatic model assessment 2-insulin resistance; however, Asthma had a significant effect for the mean triglycerides. We also found an asthma–obesity interaction effect on childrens glycosylated hemoglobin with asthmatic obese children revealing significantly higher glycosylated hemoglobin values than non-asthmatic obese children. Conclusions: Our findings support a connection between asthma and childrens glycosylated hemoglobin values; however, this association remains entwined with obesity factors.

Constructing tailored parental monitoring strategy profiles to predict adolescent disclosure and risk involvement

Highlights • Many parents use multiple monitoring strategies in different combinations over time to monitor their adolescents.• Adolescents of parents who use multiple strategies reported greater risk involvement.• Parents who solicited information only from adolescents had greater knowledge and adolescent disclosure.