<p> The emergency food system, including food banks, food pantries and shelves, and meal sites, is a critical part of the nutrition safety net. Age is an important factor that may impact the experiences of emergency food system shoppers. Despite this, there are a dearth of studies quantitatively comparing the experiences of households with and without the presence of an older adult in the household accessing this resource. We aim to fill this gap by describing differences between households that accessed food shelves in Minnesota that did or did not have someone aged 65 years or older. To do this, we used data from the 2022 Minnesota Food Shelf Survey ( <italic>n</italic> = 4,508). We modeled outcomes related to experiences, barriers, and trade-offs as a function of older adult household status adjusting for demographics using hierarchical logistic regression models with a random intercept for food shelf. Compared to non-older adult households, older adult households were more likely to have accessed the food shelf longer and more frequently, were less likely to report hours or transportation as barriers, and were less likely to have to choose between food and paying for utilities, transportation, housing, child care, and education. These findings expand our understanding of households with and without older adult members who receive emergency food and could be used to inform interventions in the emergency food system to better address inadequate food access. </p>

Objective: Assessed the availability of any form, fresh, frozen, canned, and dried fruits and vegetables (FVs), their associations with parent/child sodium and added sugar intakes across household incomes. Design: Cross-sectional data analysis. Setting and Participants: 960 parent/child dyads across 4 studies. Variables Measured: A home food inventory was used to assess FV availability in different forms. Parent/child sodium and added sugar intakes were evaluated. Analysis: Associations between the availability of different FV forms and sodium and added sugar intakes were examined using income-stratified correlation coefficients, based on free/reduced-price lunch eligibility as a proxy for income. Results: We saw no significant differences by income in the total number of vegetables in any form, fresh FVs, and canned fruits. Households with lower incomes had fewer frozen FVs than households with higher incomes. While homes with lower incomes had significantly more canned vegetables, there was no relationship between canned vegetables and sodium intake for parents or children in these households. Conclusions and Implications: Our results suggest that assumptions about differences and consequences of the food available in homes of families with low incomes need to be evaluated within the community of interest. This approach will more accurately assess community risk and help tailor effective interventions.

This research identified whether adolescent religiosity was associated with body satisfaction and disordered eating in adolescence and early adulthood and explored gender/sex differences in these associations. Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults) is a longitudinal cohort study following participants from adolescence into young adulthood. For this analysis (N = 1620), religiosity (importance of religion and frequency of religious service participation) during adolescence was examined as a correlate of body satisfaction and disordered eating (binge eating, maladaptive behaviors intended to lose or maintain weight, eating to cope, and dieting) at the same life stage (EAT-II, 2003–2004, Mage = 19.4&nbsp;years) and during young adulthood (EAT-IV, 2015–2016, Mage = 31.5&nbsp;years). Analyses used linear and logistic regression models adjusted for demographics and adolescent body mass index. During adolescence, females who placed greater importance on religion had higher body satisfaction, 22% higher odds of binge eating, and 19% greater odds of dieting in the past year, while more frequent attendance of religious services was associated with higher body satisfaction and 37% greater odds of dieting past year. Among males, only frequent attendance of religious services was associated with higher adolescent body satisfaction. Longitudinally, among females, only frequent attendance of religious services in adolescence predicted higher levels of body satisfaction in young adulthood. No significant longitudinal associations were observed among males. Our findings contribute to understanding the complex interplay between religiosity, gender, and body satisfaction. Further research should explore cultural factors influencing these associations and qualitative aspects of religious experiences to inform nuanced interventions. Level of evidence: Level III, cohort study.

PurposeTo understand the trade-offs, defined as compromises or decisions students must make to prioritize one important need over another, as a result of economic constraints, food insecure (FI) co...

Background: Growing evidence on the long-term deleterious impacts of emotional abuse highlights the need to further understand childhood emotional abuse and its context to strengthen prevention efforts. Objective: To describe emerging adults' experiences of emotional abuse in their childhoods and the household context surrounding that abuse. Participants and setting: Fifty-eight interviews were conducted with emerging adults, ages 18–25, recruited from four 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education. Methods: Thematic analysis was conducted to identify and describe patterns in the data. A cyclical approach to codebook development and data analysis was followed by a team of four coders. Results: Themes related to participants' experiences of emotional abuse included: inability to meet parent expectations; parent attacks on the child's character; parent negative comparisons to siblings and others; parent invalidation of the child's emotions and mental health needs; and evolution over time in the parent-child relationship. Aspects of childhood family environments contemporaneous with the childhood emotional abuse included: financial stress; parent mental illness; parent divorce, separation, or volatile relationship; parent adversity or trauma; physical abuse; and young parent age. Many participants identified these aspects of their family environment, most of which could potentially be improved with sufficient support, as playing causal roles in the emotional abuse they experienced. Conclusion: This descriptive qualitative study provides additional insight into child emotional abuse and its associated factors, providing invaluable insights that can enhance current measurement and intervention approaches.

Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One strategy for improving healthy food access has been to introduce community food stores, with the mission of increasing healthy food access; however, no study has explored the experiences of different initiatives and models in opening and sustaining healthy food stores. This study used a case study approach to understand the experiences of healthy food stores in low-income communities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methodology used and protocol followed. A case study approach was used to describe seven healthy food stores across urban settings in the U.S. Each site individually coded their cases, and meetings were held to discuss emerging and cross-cutting themes. A cross-case analysis approach was used to produce a series of papers detailing the results of each theme. Most case studies were on for-profit, full-service grocery stores, with store sizes ranging from 900 to 65,000 square feet. Healthy Food Availability scores across sites ranged from 11.6 (low) to 26.5 (high). The papers resulting from this study will detail the key findings of the case studies and will focus on the challenges, strategies, and experiences of retail food stores attempting to improve healthy food access for disadvantaged communities. The work presented in this special issue will help to advance research in the area of community food stores, and the recommendations can be used by aspiring, new, and current community food store owners.

Cardiovascular health is linked to sugar- and artificially-sweetened beverages (SSBs and ASBs). Prior studies document declines in SSB purchases. However, it is unclear if similar trends exist at convenience and other small food outlets, which often serve lower-income communities and where objective point-of-sales data are difficult to obtain. We examined trends (2014–2017) in observed SSB, ASB, and water purchases at convenience and other small stores as well as differences in purchasing by customer characteristics. We used observational purchase data collected annually (2014–2017) from 3010 adult customers at 147 randomly-sampled stores in Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA. SSB sub-types included any ready-to-drink sweetened soda, fruit, sport, energy, tea, or other drink, and ASBs included artificially-sweetened versions. Unsweetened water included ready-to-drink water. Mixed regression models examined trends over time and associations with customer characteristics, accounting for customers nested within stores and stores repeatedly measured over time. Nearly 50% of purchases included an SSB. Approximately 10% included an ASB. There was no evidence of change over time in SSB or ASB purchasing. Customer purchasing of unsweetened water significantly increased over time (5.7 to 8.4%; P for trend = 0.05). SSB purchasing was highest among men, young adults, customers with lower education/ income, and customers that shopped frequently. ASB purchasing was highest among women, those 40–59 years, non-Hispanic White, Hispanic, and customers with higher education/ income. Despite research suggesting previous declines in SSB consumption and purchasing in the US, we identified a persistent, high trend of SSB purchasing overtime at convenience and other small food stores. Consumption of SSBs and water are growing targets for public policy and health campaigns. Results demonstrate additional work is needed curb sweetened beverage purchasing and promote water purchasing at convenience and other small food stores, which are often prevalent in low-income and marginalized communities.

The North Carolina Healthy Food Small Retailer Program (NC HFSRP) was established through a policy passed by the state legislature to provide funding for small food retailers located in food deserts with the goal of increasing access to and sales of healthy foods and beverages among local residents. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine perceptions of the NC HFSRP among store customers. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 29 customers from five NC HFSRP stores in food deserts across eastern NC. Interview questions were related to shoppers’ food and beverage purchases at NC HFSRP stores, whether they had noticed any in-store efforts to promote healthier foods and beverages, their suggestions for promoting healthier foods and beverages, their familiarity with and support of the NC HFSRP, and how their shopping and consumption habits had changed since implementation of the NC HFSRP. A codebook was developed based on deductive (from the interview guide questions) and inductive (emerged from the data) codes and operational definitions. Verbatim transcripts were double-coded and a thematic analysis was conducted based on code frequency, and depth of participant responses for each code. Although very few participants were aware of the NC HFSRP legislation, they recognized changes within the store. Customers noted that the provision of healthier foods and beverages in the store had encouraged them to make healthier purchase and consumption choices. When a description of the NC HFSRP was provided to them, all participants were supportive of the state-funded program. Participants discussed program benefits including improving food access in low-income and/or rural areas and making healthy choices easier for youth and for those most at risk of diet-related chronic diseases. Findings can inform future healthy corner store initiatives in terms of framing a rationale for funding or policies by focusing on increased food access among vulnerable populations.

This review describes research addressing sexual orientation disparities in obesity and their sequelae, with a focus on new findings from the past year and areas for future work. Sexual minority people of color experience important health disparities related to obesity. Sexual minority women may be at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than their heterosexual counterparts, potentially because of obesity-related disparities. Bisexual men also appear to experience more obesity and potential greater risk for type 2 diabetes than heterosexual men. Stigma and discrimination are important emerging areas for additional research to better understand sexual orientation disparities in obesity-related health. There is a need for intersectional research and longitudinal research that connects existing sexual orientation disparities in obesity with subsequent chronic disease development. Additionally, upstream efforts to understand the impact of stigma and discrimination on the weight-related health of sexual minority groups are needed.