Objective: The aim of this empirical and theoretical review was to investigate how romantic partners influence their significant others’ weight- and diet-related behaviors and to identify effective and ineffective tactics used in romantic relationships to promote behavior changes. Methods: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to locate relevant studies, and a total of 11 peer-reviewed articles were included in this review based on the inclusion criteria. Results: Empirical findings indicated positive communication messages are effective in promoting partners’ health behaviors whereas negative tactics are not as effective. The negative messages may lead to harmful consequences including the development of disordered eating behaviors, body image dissatisfaction, and self-doubt. Social control, social support, confirmation, and social comparison theory emerged in this area of research. Conclusions: This review identifies romantic partners’ influence on their significant others’ weight- and diet-related behaviors and pinpoints the existing research gap in this area of study.

Before vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became available, a set of infection-prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine-learning analyses can identify correlates from a larger pool of candidate predictors. We used random forests to rank 115 candidate correlates of infection-prevention behavior in 56,072 participants across 28 countries, administered in March to May 2020. The machine-learning model predicted 52% of the variance in infection-prevention behavior in a separate test sample—exceeding the performance of psychological models of health behavior. Results indicated the two most important predictors related to individual-level injunctive norms. Illustrating how data-driven methods can complement theory, some of the most important predictors were not derived from theories of health behavior—and some theoretically derived predictors were relatively unimportant. / New York University Abu Dhabi / Revisión por pares

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine background and modifiable pregnancy health behavior factors predicting infant birthweight in an economically and educationally disadvantaged sample with low medical risk. Methods: Participants were recruited from a family practice center in rural Appalachia. Participants: Over 220, predominantly Caucasian and lower SES women with low risk pregnancies were included in the sample. Data were collected through systematic chart review. Half of the women smoked during pregnancy and over 10% gave birth to low birth weight (LBW; < 2500 g) babies. Results: Compared with those who gave birth to normal weight newborns, women with LBW babies had more miscarriages, but did not differ significantly on other background factors. Women who delivered LBW babies gained less weight during pregnancy and were more likely to smoke than remaining women. After control for background factors, modifiable pregnancy health behavior factors (weight gain, prenatal care, smoking, alcohol and substance use) accounted for over 11% of birth weight variance, with nearly 7% attributable solely to smoking. Conclusions: Pregnancy smoking was the strongest behavioral predictor of LBW in this economically and educationally disadvantaged rural sample, suggesting that efforts to reduce LBW in similar populations should include targeting pregnancy smoking.

The health status of people who live in the rural, coal-producing counties of southwest Virginia remains problematic despite an apparent high primary care provider-to-population threshold. This descriptive exploratory study surveyed 922 households representing 2,188 people, with regard to the availability, need, and access to health care services. Findings indicated a population who had a greater morbidity for chronic illnesses such as heart disease and hypertension than the rest of the state, a large number of people without health and prescription coverage, and an overall perception of fair-to-poor health status. Findings also indicated a substantial proportion of the population who were in need of dental and visual care and general preventive services and those who were dealing with depression at home without outside intervention. One disturbing finding was the large number of people who shared prescriptive medications with family and friends. The Community As Partner Model might be used by community health nurses in this region to help structure interventions. Overall findings suggest a need for interventions aimed at screening for depression, managing prescriptive medications, and identification of low-cost and free preventive, dental, and visual care services.

Obesity is one of the fastest growing health concerns impacting all racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups in the United States of America. More than one-third of the U.S. adult population is classified as being obese (Obesity Society, 2021). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in all races and genders within the US with African American women comprising a majority of those impacted by this chronic health condition. Obesity rates are well documented within the literature but what is lacking is the role spirituality may play in obese African American women and their health behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of obese African American women with attention and focus on weight, health behaviors, and spirituality. This study consisted of participant recruitment from various social organizations, beauty salons, and faith-based organizations. A naturalistic setting with a descriptive approach was taken to interview the participants and all recorded interviews were transcribed and utilized for data analysis. The analysis method for this study was the qualitative content analysis process. Upon completion of data analysis, the identification of three themes, who I am, the weight I bear, and power struggles, assisted with recognizing the gaps and concerns that supported the researcher in painting a picture of the lived experiences of obese African American women. Recommendations included diversifying healthcare providers, implementing community based interventions and research, and completing knowledge assessments before education.

Obesity is one of the fastest growing health concerns impacting all racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups in the United States of America. More than one-third of the U.S. adult population is classified as being obese (Obesity Society, 2021). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in all races and genders within the US with African American women comprising a majority of those impacted by this chronic health condition. Obesity rates are well documented within the literature but what is lacking is the role spirituality may play in obese African American women and their health behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of obese African American women with attention and focus on weight, health behaviors, and spirituality. This study consisted of participant recruitment from various social organizations, beauty salons, and faith-based organizations. A naturalistic setting with a descriptive approach was taken to interview the participants and all recorded interviews were transcribed and utilized for data analysis. The analysis method for this study was the qualitative content analysis process. Upon completion of data analysis, the identification of three themes, who I am, the weight I bear, and power struggles, assisted with recognizing the gaps and concerns that supported the researcher in painting a picture of the lived experiences of obese African American women. Recommendations included diversifying healthcare providers, implementing community based interventions and research, and completing knowledge assessments before education.

Scarce knowledge exists about the lifestyle of college students from heterogeneous racial/ethnic backgrounds and how race/ethnicity may influence their diet and physical activity behaviors. College students, especially those who are members of minority groups, are at risk for unhealthy lifestyles resulting in negative health outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the role of racial diversity on dietary and physical activity habits. The study was guided by social cognitive theory, and the research questions examined the relationship between race/ethnicity on diet and physical activity in a multiracial ethnic population. The study research design was a quantitative cross-sectional survey using a 34-item questionnaire on a convenience sample of 307 college students. Statistical analysis consisted of descriptive statistics to characterize the sample and logistic regression was used to examine the odds of race/ethnicity predicting meal consumption and physical activity behaviors as well as parental influence on meal consumption. The results indicated that only some race/ethnic groups (Hispanic/Latino, Caribbean) predicted frequency of breakfast meal consumption but all race/ethnic groups predicted dinner meal consumption. Race/ethnicity did not predict lunch meal consumption. Race/ethnicity did not predict physical activity. Parental influence did not have any of the race/ethnicity groups on their meal consumption. The positive social change implications from this study may help explain situational and sociocultural factors that affect lifestyle in this population to policy creators and health education specialists; these stakeholders, in turn, may create specific intervention programs for each race/ethnic group to increase healthy behaviors.

Research has been accumulating on the positive outcomes that people may experience following trauma. However, scholarly literature is deficient in the area of investigating the association among centrality of event (CE), posttraumatic growth (PTG), and health behaviors of women with histories of sexual trauma. The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to (a) determine the extent of the relationship between CE and PTG, (b) explore the relationship between PTG and health behaviors (i.e., drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, and physical activity), and (c) to determine whether general self-efficacy (SE) mediated these relationships. The theoretical frameworks used to inform this study were the theories of PTG and SE. A sample of 123 women with histories of sexual violence completed the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Centrality of Events Scale-SF, the New General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Drug Abuse Screening Test-10, and health behavior questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The majority of participants reported that their experiences were highly central. Simple regression analysis indicated a marginal relationship between CE and PTG as well as a significant relationship between PTG and SE. PTG was not directly related to the health behaviors in this study. However, a bootstrap mediation analysis indicated that SE significantly mediated the relationship between PTG and physical activity. This study contributes to positive social change by helping women understand how their cognitions influence their SE and behaviors. Likewise, this study can inform practitioners on developing interventions through a lens of positive psychology to promote beneficial health behaviors.

The study of men’s health behaviors has received a great deal of attention worldwide. Studies have been conducted to identify determinates related to men’s health care usage. Masculinity and spousal control are well accepted determinates of men’s health care seeking. However, the concept of masculine capital and how it factors into men’s health care seeking has been a relatively new topic of research. The researchers do not believe there has been a study to date that examines the social control wives place on their husbands, and how that social control may influence their spouses’ health, how masculinity plays into men’s health behaviors, and how men maintain masculine capital in the face of social control, if at all. Therefore, this study sought to examine how masculinity and the social control wives placed on their husbands intersected. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the study sought to gain a greater understanding of how wives exert social control over spousal health behaviors. Second, the study sought to examine how men maintain masculinity, specifically masculine capital in the face of social control that their wives placed on their health behaviors. Focus groups were conducted with married male participants in Cache County, Utah. Umberson’s 1987 model of social control was modified to analyze the data. The constructs of masculinity and masculine capital were added to Umberson’s original constructs of family relationships, social control, health behaviors, and physical health/mortality. In addition, the construct of social control was substituted for spousal social control. At the conclusion of the research study, the research team changed the unidirectional arrows leading from the concept of masculinity and masculine capital to bidirectional arrows to reflect the idea that masculinity and masculine capital not only affect the concept of family relationships, spousal social control, and health behaviors, but those elements in turn affect masculinity and masculine capital. The researchers found the updated proposed model to be accurate in that masculinity and masculine capital influence many realms of a man’s life and that spousal social control can have a great influence on a man’s health-related behaviors and physical health.

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