In Briefs

Abstract

Paul E. Terry	604	Editorial Crossing the Empathy Chasm: Unpacking a Knapsack full of Unearned Advantage As demand for diversity, equity and inclusion workshops has risen sharply this past year, I’m not the first to observe that the burden for finding solutions, ironically, gets inordinately placed at the feet of people of color. Ironic, of course, because changing the hearts and minds of Whites is a challenge that needs to be met by Whites. McIntosh’s White privilege scale has inspired a growing number of other scales that help us examine our unconscious bias, privilege and advantages from our lived experiences. Deepening empathy for people of color is a prerequisite to being of any use whatsoever in a profession committed to health equity. An obvious way to cross the empathy chasm is to be sure those who are accountable for finding solutions have a deep affinity with those who are most directly affected by the problems. In my continued work to cross the empathy chasm, the space I take needs to be as someone intent on listening to, learning from and supporting those with empathy to spare.
the Science of individual and collective Well-being
Bruce W. Sherman Rebecca K. Kelly Pamela Payne-Foster	609	Critical Issues and Trends Integrating Workforce Health into Employer Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts As organizations advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, they have an opportunity to integrate employee and family health and well-being as an organizational DEI objective. This commentary provides guidance for employers to expand their DEI initiatives to include employee and family health and well-being as a central outcome measure. As part of their DEI efforts, employers should ensure availability of equitable benefits offerings, including culturally relevant and accessible health promotion programs; acknowledge and account for the workplace as a significant determinant of health; and include race and ethnicity data in health benefits data analysis and reporting.
Carolina M. Bejarano Jordan A. Carlson Terry L. Conway Brian E. Saelens Karen Glanz Sarah C. Couch Kelli L. Cain James F. Sallis	613	Quantitative Research Physical Activity, Sedentary Time, and Diet as Mediators of the Association Between TV Time and BMI in Youth Children and adolescents frequently exceed recommendations for time limits spent watching television. Though this has consistently been related to higher weight status and negative implications for health, the mechanisms of this relationship have not been fully explored. This study examined eight dietary and physical activity variables as potential mediators of the relationship between TV time and BMIz. Among 6-12 year old boys, snacking/eating while watching TV partially explained the relationship between TV time and BMIz. Thus, snacking/eating while watching TV may be a possible reason TV time is consistently associated with obesity in youth. Targeting reductions in TV time along with snacking/eating while watching TV may help promote healthful lifestyles and decrease risk for weight-related health concerns.
Kim Pulvers John B. Correa Paul Krebs Omar El Shahawy Crystal Marez Neal Doran Mark Myers	624	Quantitative Research JUUL E-Cigarette Quit Attempts and Cessation Perceptions in College Student JUUL E-Cigarette Users The present study adds to the literature one of the first studies of JUUL e-cigarette (referred to as JUUL) cessation-related behaviors and perceptions among college students. JUUL delivers high dosages of nicotine in a compact, electronic device and is the most popular brand among young adults. In our southern California college student sample, nearly half of JUUL users reported a deliberate attempt to quit or reduce JUUL. Those who had previously tried quitting were more likely to perceive difficulty with cessation. Time to first JUUL use, a marker of dependence, was linked with greater perceived cessation difficulty and lower confidence in quitting. These findings suggest there is a need for cessation and relapse prevention support for college student JUUL users.
Shyama Sathianathan Lauren Jodi Van Scoy Surav Man Sakya Erin Miller Bethany Snyder Emily Wasserman Vernon M. Chinchilli John Garman Robert P. Lennon	633	Quantitative Research Knowledge, Perceptions, and Preferred Information Sources Related to COVID-19 Among Healthcare Workers: Results of a Cross Sectional Survey Healthcare workers who are not directly involved in making decisions about patient care (i.e., registered nurses, administrators, and non-clinical staff) play an important role in public health, from disseminating information about COVID-19 safety guidelines to influencing vaccine uptake. In this study, we demonstrate that these front-line workers do not have greater COVID-19 knowledge than the general public. This finding identifies a critical knowledge gap. It also provides an opportunity for targeted information campaigns in this subset of healthcare workers as a means to potentially improve adherence with public health recommendations as all healthcare workers (regardless of whether they make clinical decisions) have important roles to play in accurate knowledge dissemination about COVID-19.
Ying Huang Han Liu Muntasir Masum	637	Quantitative Research Adverse Childhood Experiences and Physical and Mental Health of Adults: Assessing the Mediating Role of Cumulative Life-course Poverty Severity and episode of ACEs were associated with increased risk of poor health and psychological distress. A small proportion of the impact of early adversities on health is attributable to the proportion of lifetime that individuals spent in poverty. Policies aimed at minimizing adverse childhood experience exposure among children may have important benefits in the form of reducing health burden and health disparities in the adult population.
Elizabeth Jiyoon Kim Brenna Ellison Melissa Pflugh Prescott Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr	648	Quantitative Research Consumer Comprehension of the Nutrition Facts Label: A Comparison of the Original and Updated Labels The Nutrition Facts (NF) label was recently updated for packaged foods and beverages. In this paper, we compare consumers’ overall label comprehension of the original NF label with the updated label using a sample of almost 1,000 U.S. adults. Our results show that improvements in comprehension were modest at best, and in some cases, there were no improvements at all. The results suggest that consumers may struggle to correctly utilize the new information on the modified NF label, specifically the presentation of total sugars and added sugars. Consumers may benefit from educational opportunities on using the new label.
David C. Colston Beomyoung Cho James F. Thrasher Andrea R. Titus Yanmei Xie Sherry Emery Michael R. Elliott Nancy L. Fleischer	658	Quantitative Research Anti-Smoking Media Campaigns and Disparities in Smoking Cessation in the United States, 2001-2015 This study highlights that greater exposure to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Tips From Former Smokers” campaign, in combination with state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertisements, is associated with an increased likelihood of making a quit attempt, and having successfully quit in the past 30 and 90 days. This is encouraging from a public health prospective, and underscores the importance of media campaigns in aiding in smoking cessation. We found that exposure to media campaigns did not differ in effectiveness by sex, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Because men, racial/ethnic minorities, and individuals of lower socioeconomic status are disproportionately affected by tobacco, additional efforts should be made to successfully intervene and aid in cessation for these groups.
Mats Hallgren Davy Vancampfort Thi-Thuy-Dung Nguyen Elin Ekblom-Bak Peter Wallin Gunnar Andersson Andreas Lundin	669	Quantitative Research (SAGE Choice) Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Alcohol Consumers Research has shown a positive association between alcohol consumption and physical activity levels in adults, but studies are needed measuring the full spectrum of physical activity, including sedentary behavior and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). In 2017-19, we collected health-related data, including alcohol consumption, from 47,559 Swedish adults aged 18-65 years. Compared to non-hazardous drinkers, high-hazardous drinkers (defined as AUDIT-C scores of ≥6 (women) and ≥7 (men)), were less physically active and more sedentary during leisure time. The relationship between alcohol use and CRF varied by sex and age and warrants further investigation. Our findings indicate that hazardous drinkers are a heterogeneous group in terms of their physical activity and drinking habits. Health promotion strategies should encourage high hazardous drinkers to increase their habitual physical activity levels and to minimize sedentary behavior during leisure.
Deena Zytnick Gayathri S. Kumar Sara C. Folta Kieran F. Reid David Tybor Virginia R. Chomitz	679	Quantitative Research Wearable Activity Monitor Use Is Associated With the Aerobic Physical Activity Guidelines and Walking Among Older Adults Wearable activity monitor (WAM) use may be a tool associated with physical activity (PA) among older adults, many of whom do not engage in sufficient aerobic physical activity. Data were analyzed from a national, cross-sectional survey of 1,317 older adults (age ≥60 years). Researchers determined demographic characteristics of WAM use among older adults and explored associations between WAM use and meeting national aerobic physical activity guidelines of ≥150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity (PAG) and walking. Results found current WAM use was associated with meeting the aerobic PAG and walking among older adults. WAM may be an underutilized tool for PA promotion among older adults.
Zhiyuan Wei Sayanti Mukherjee	688	Applied Research Brief Health-Behaviors Associated With the Growing Risk of Adolescent Suicide Attempts: A Data-Driven Cross-Sectional Study Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 10-34 years in the United States. Leveraging a Bayesian tree ensemble learning algorithm on a large dataset including 22,447 adolescents from the state of Montana, this study aimed to identify and examine the key health-behaviors associated with higher likelihood of suicide attempts among adolescents. Our findings show that health-behaviors e.g., persistent feelings of sadness/hopelessness, safety concerns at school, physical fighting, inhalant-usage, illegal drugs consumption at schools, current cigarette usage, and having first sex at an early age are the key indicators of adolescents’ vulnerability to suicide attempt. Given the strong positive association between adolescents’ undesirable behaviors (observed at schools) and their vulnerability to suicide attempt, our results suggest that school administration can play a major role in minimizing suicide risk by providing timely counseling and psycho-social support to vulnerable adolescents. Minority groups—American Indian/Alaska Natives, Hispanics/Latinos, females—are also found to be vulnerable to suicide attempts.
Lori Andersen Spruance Spencer Clason Jordyn Hansen Burton Leann Myers Keelia O’Malley Carolyn C. Johnson	694	Applied Research Brief Diet Quality Is Lower for Those Who Skip Lunch Among a Sample of Predominantly Black Adolescents Adolescence is an important time for developing healthy dietary habits, yet most adolescents are not meeting dietary guidelines. Additionally, many adolescents skip meals. This article compares the dietary quality of adolescents who skip lunch and those who eat lunch, in a primarily low-income Black sample. Using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to quantify diet, adolescents who skipped lunch had a significantly lower HEI score compared to those who ate lunch. Adolescents who skipped lunch had significantly lower sub-categorical scores of the HEI in whole fruit, total vegetable, total dairy, and total protein intake compared to those who ate lunch. The results from this study inform the importance of eating lunch in terms of improving dietary quality, and that overall diet quality among adolescents needs to improve in order to prevent chronic diseases.
Yuka Asada Andrea Pipito Sabira Taher Jamie F. Chriqui	698	Applied Research Brief Media Coverage and Framing of Oakland's Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax, 2016-2019 This study describes the media coverage and framing of Oakland, California’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax prior to adoption and through implementation (2016-2019). We analyzed news articles, editorials, and other media documents that we retrieved from ProQuest, NexusUni, EBSCO, and Google databases as well as through targeted searching in local Oakland news outlets. We found that half of documents were published prior to the November 2016 ballot vote for the tax, which was a critical period for influencing public opinion. During this period, media documents predominantly offered balanced tax perspectives (both pro and antitax arguments). Protax framing focused on associations between SSB consumption and chronic disease rates and countered antitax messaging; whereas, antitax framing focused on misinformation such as framing the Oakland tax as a “grocery tax.” This study provides important findings for policymakers, public health practitioners, and advocates who may be trying to adopt or implement SSB taxes in their jurisdictions; the media’s timing and protax framing during SSB tax campaigns can facilitate adoption and support implementation efforts.
Reed Mszar Sara Buscher Dervilla McCann Heidi L. Taylor	703	Applied Research Brief Self-Efficacy, Perceived Barriers to Care, and Health-Promoting Behaviors Among Franco-Americans Across Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), a genetic disorder characterized by elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and an increased risk of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) if left untreated, disproportionately affects certain founder populations including the well-studied French-Canadian subpopulation in the Province of Quebec, however, little is known regarding Franco-Americans as direct descendants of this high-risk demographic. Accordingly, we administered a multi-section questionnaire in the Northeastern United States to describe the prevalence and distribution of perceived barriers to medical care, cues to health action, and self-efficacy, factors that may contribute to the underdiagnosis and delayed treatment of FH. Among 170 Franco-Americans, 25% had both high cholesterol and family history of ASCVD. In this high-risk subgroup, 22% had low self-efficacy and only 15% had discussed FH with their physician. Individuals with both risk factors were significantly more likely to report a concern over a future diagnosis as a barrier to accessing health care services when compared with those with neither risk factor. Our findings strengthen the case for developing focused public health strategies to raise awareness for FH and promoting shared decision making among physicians and their patients, particularly among subpopulations with unmet cardiovascular needs.
En-Jung Shon Siyoung Choe Lena Lee Youn Ki	708	Literature Review Influenza Vaccination among U.S. College or University Students: A Systematic Review This study summarized major components that influence college/university students’ use of the vaccination using Ecological System Theory; and summarized racial differences in key predictors of influenza vaccination/intention. Multidimensional (socio-demographic, individual, micro levels, or meso levels) factors positively or negatively influenced university/college students’ influenza vaccination/intention. Tangible and realistic empirical suggestions were discussed (e.g., information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccination should be provided for students through reliable resources; family-to-student or peer-to-peer awareness campaigns could be considered).
Bashir Bello Ushotanefe Useh	720	Literature Review COVID–19: Are Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factors for Its Severity? To identify and describe the mechanism of lifestyle characteristics - obesity, DM, hypertension and physical inactivity – that may lead to the severity of illness amongst individuals with COVID-19. A scoping review was conducted by searching electronic databases of PubMed and Scopus from December 2019 to August 2020. NCDs were categorized according to type and hypothesis on mechanisms of infestation. The interplay between COVID – 19, type of NCDs and MOI leading to the severity of the disease was appraised. Twenty-four (24) studies were identified from 357 unique records. Eight studies postulated the mechanism of infestation and interaction between COVID 19 illness severity and Obesity, while 7 studies described COVID – 19 and DM. Five studies highlighted the interaction between COVID – 19 and hypertension with 4 studies showing how physical activity restriction suppresses immunity. The current review, identified and explicitly described the mechanisms of the lifestyle characteristics that may increase the severity of illness amongst people with COVID-19.

Sara S. Johnson	KWBW-730	Knowing Well Being Well: The Science of Teamwork The increased need for teamwork and the challenges associated with it amid the pandemic underscore the need for effective teams—particularly given that organizations will continue to navigate remote or hybrid work for the foreseeable future. The robust science of teamwork has important insights to share that will enable organizations to help teams flourish and thrive; embrace diverse multidisciplinary perspectives in multiple channels; and conduct ongoing evaluations to refine their approaches. While many lessons have been learned, additional and more inclusive research is needed to ensure that racially and culturally diverse teams are represented.
Rebecca Grossman Jack P. Miller	KWBW-732	Optimizing Team Effectiveness: Key Takeaways From the Science With a Focus on the Virtual Context While teams are relied upon to tackle many of the complex issues faced by organizations and broader societal systems in the modern day, they do not operate without issue. Teams face challenges, many of them unprecedented in our current times. Fortunately, there is a strong foundation of science that informs how team functioning and performance can be facilitated. This article highlights key takeaways for optimizing team effectiveness and identifying indicators of success across different points in a team’s trajectory, while giving consideration to an increasingly common situation—the need for teams to work together virtually.
Kim Christfort	KWBW-737	Business Chemistry: A Formula for Greater Empathy and Well-Being With so many people working virtually, organizations are actively looking for ways to create the sense of connection and rapport that are so essential to workplace well-being, effective teams, and strong business performance. Business Chemistry provides a structured, practical way for people to understand different working styles—Pioneers, Guardians, Drivers, and Integrators—and act on that knowledge to build powerful working relationships.
Allison M. Traylor Ethan Schweissing Claudia Di Bonaventura Eduardo Salas	KWBW-740	Training Transdisciplinary Health Promotion Teams: Opportunities and Challenges from Team Science In the health promotion profession, teamwork is essential in bringing together individuals from various backgrounds to promote health knowledge, skills, and behaviors in organizations. For decades, team scientists have looked to team training to improve team performance across a wide range of industries. This paper reviews the science of team training as it relates to health promotion teams. It reviews principles of effective team training across fields, outlines three potential challenges facing health promotion teams due to their multidisciplinary nature, and discusses teamwork behaviors to address these challenges in order to help health promotion professionals design relevant, effective teamwork training programs.
Liana Kreamer George Stock Steven Rogelberg	KWBW-744	Optimizing Virtual Team Meetings: Attendee and Leader Perspectives With the rise of virtual meetings, it is important to optimize these interactions. Surveying a diverse, international sample of over 250 employees, the authors identified key tactics for leading efficient and effective virtual meetings. The implementation of these tactics can enhance the experience of those attending and facilitating future virtual meetings.
Adam Hickman	KWBW-747	Managers Hold the Key to Team Performance Managing the complexity of a workplace has become more challenging in the face of remote and hybrid workforces. It is more critical than ever to increase the alignment between what science knows and basic management principles. This article presents key findings related to managing remote teams to maximize performance and engagement.