Indoor air quality is a critical determinant of physical and mental health. Despite evidence linking poor indoor air quality to adverse health outcomes, this issue is understudied in the context of First Nations children and youth health and wellbeing. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize indoor air quality, housing conditions, and respiratory health of children living in the Kanesatake First Nation and (2) evaluate the feasibility of using remote community-based participatory methods in the context of First Nations health research. Community-assisted data collection occurred between June 2021 and February 2022 in the Kanesatake First Nation, Quebec. Indoor air data were collected from 31 randomly selected houses. Results showed elevated levels of contaminants, including particulate matter, benzene, toluene, and xylene, compared to the Canadian averages. Houses generally lacked adequate ventilation, and over one-quarter were reported to be in need of major repairs. We developed instruction tools for air sampling and house inspection to facilitate off-site data collection. High rates of participant completion (95%) and low attrition rates (5%) indicated the feasibility of remote community-based participatory research methods. Lessons learnt are summarized and important recommendations are made for adaptation to improve future data collection. This research served as a pilot project for a multi-year, cross-Nation study, as well as the first study to evaluate the indoor air environment in the Kanesatake First Nation.

Personal interviews exploring attitudes toward prescription drug abuse were completed by 17 residents over 18 years of age from Kentucky's Pike and Letcher counties. In respect to prescription drug abuse research nationwide, much research has been conducted in eastern Kentucky; however, there are seemingly few studies measuring the thoughts and feelings of community members toward the issue. Data gathered during these interviews were coded and themed for emergent content that revealed the prevalence of drug abuse in communities, the role of medical professionals in prescription drug abuse, and a lack of preventative measures to control the cyclic pattern of prescription drug abuse in eastern Kentucky communities. The thesis concludes by examining why the need for eliminating underlying social problems is most important in decreasing the amount of prescription drug abuse in the area.

Objective: Social support and religious commitment were examined in relation to antenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms in a prospective, longitudinal study to determine whether religious commitment explained variance in depression scores beyond that accounted for by social support. Background: Social support and religiosity are positively related to good mental/physical health, and depression is related to poor health outcomes in pregnancy and postpartum. It was hypothesised that social support and religious commitment would be inversely related to depressive symptoms, and that religious commitment would predict variance in depression scores over and above social support. Methods: In 106 mostly low SES Appalachian pregnant women, social support and religious commitment were measured during the first trimester. First and third trimester (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale – 10 item version), and 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) depression symptoms were measured. Hierarchical regression examined relative contributions of social support (Prenatal Psychosocial Profile) and religious commitment (Religious Surrender and Attendance Scale – 3 Item Version) to depressive symptoms at each time point while controlling for education and marital status. Results: Regression results indicated that social support and religious commitment explained 10–18% and 0–3% of the variability in depression scores, respectively. Conclusion: Both social support (all time points) and religious commitment (only at 6 months postpartum) were inversely related to depression. Pregnant women low in social support and postpartum women low in social support or religious commitment may be at increased risk for depression.

Religious Commitment is a construct known to be predictive of various health-related factors of importance to researchers. However, data collection efficiency and instrument brevity in healthcare settings are priorities regardless of the construct being measured. Brief, valid instruments are particularly valuable in health research and will be vital for testing mechanisms by which health may be improved or maintained. This series of studies aims to demonstrate that Religious Commitment can be validly measured with a very brief instrument, the Religious Surrender & Attendance Scale-3 (RSAS-3), which combines a 2-item measure of Surrender, a specific type of religious coping, with a 1-item measure of Attendance at religious services. Three studies are reported, two utilizing undergraduate university students (Ns = 964 and 466) and one utilizing a clinical-based pregnant population (N = 320), all in southern Appalachia. The original 12-item Surrender Scale, a 2-item subset of Surrender items, and Attendance were found to be highly positively correlated with each other and with Intrinsic Religiosity, an additional measure of Religious Commitment employed to demonstrate concurrent validity. Religiosity variables were found to be strongly negatively correlated with Anxiety and stress, which were the health outcomes of interest. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to confirm the similarity of Anxiety and stress prediction using the 12-item and 2-item Surrender measures and to confirm the superior stress prediction of the 3-item instrument RSAS-3. The RSAS-3 is recommended as a measure of Religious Commitment in future health research.

This study of 509 (340 female) undergraduate university students in southern Appalachia who completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), is the first phase in the development of a model to predict risk for stress-related health problems. Results indicate that high negative affect strongly predicted individuals with above average anxiety (OR = 3.7, 95% CI 2.43, 5.64), while high positive affect, effortful control, and sociability predicted that individuals would be low in reported anxiety (OR = .33 [95% CI .25, .44], .29 [95% CI .19, .45], and .69 [95% CI .56, .86], respectively).

No description available.

No description available.

Abstract available through the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Abstract available through the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

Negative health effects on an unborn fetus have been related to cigarette smoking during pregnancy. Very little research examines stress, self-esteem, depression, and disordered eating in pregnant women who smoke. A study, Tennessee Intervention for Pregnant Smokers (TIPS), recruited pregnant women from five prenatal practices to help them quit smoking before giving birth. Using an expanded 5A’s (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) model and motivational interviewing, the intervention was implemented by trained health educators over the course of 4 prenatal visits. Women in the study who successfully stopped smoking before delivery had significantly healthier infants than the women who did not. A subset of the sampled 1063 pregnant women with complete data on measures of interest will be analyzed for the current study. We hypothesize that the following factors will differ significantly among pregnant women who never smoked, women who smoked but quit prior to birth, and women who smoked and did not quit prior to birth: stress, as indicated by the stress subscale of the Prenatal Psychosocial Profile (PPP); self-esteem, as indicated by the self-esteem subscale of the PPP; depressive symptoms, as indicated by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10); and disordered eating, as indicated by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). Additionally, we hypothesize that the odds of pregnant women quitting smoking prior to birth will be predicted by stress, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and disordered eating. One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests will be conducted to compare scores on respective measures for the three groups based on smoking status. A logistic regression will be conducted to assess the degree to which aforementioned variables predict odds of smoking cessation in pregnant smokers. The implications of this research can be used to improve future intervention programs to reduce the adverse health effects of children born to mothers who smoke.