Obesity is a leading public health issue in the U.S. with more than 36% of the U.S. population falling into this category. However, the prevalence is even greater among African American women with 57% of female adults over age 20 obese (National Center for Health Statistics 2015). The desire to lose weight is obvious by the 60-billion-dollar weight loss industry in this country alone. It’s unfortunate though, that dieting rarely, if ever, results in sustained weight loss. There are many reasons for this among them is the generic, one-size-fits all nature of weight loss interventions that ignore the many factors that affect a person’s weight. For this activity: 1. Imagine you are given the task of developing a weight loss intervention for the people of your predominate cultural/ethnic heritage. Make a list of the specific factors you would have to take into consideration. 2. Group the factors on the list according to the Health Belief construct they might influence. For example, if in your culture being ‘big’ means you are healthy, this would fall under perceived severity – as it would contribute to the person’s perception of the seriousness of obesity. 3. Based on the results from above, suggest how the factors you identified might be used in a culturally appropriate weight loss intervention. Please refer to the article in your textbook at the end of Chapter 4 titled “Using the Health Belief Model to Develop Culturally Appropriate Weight-Management Materials for African-American Women” to guide your responses. References: National Center for Health Statistics. (2015). Prevalence of obesity among adults and youth: United States 2011-2014. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db219.pdf

BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Weight stigma reduction and genetic determinism.” to help guide your response.

1. What was the goal of the intervention described in the article?

2. What information was conveyed in Module 1, Module 2, and Module 3 of the intervention?

3. What was the purpose of the reflection task at the end of the intervention?

Consider causes that contribute to obesity, how stigmatization resulting from inaccurate controllability beliefs impacts health behavior, and how stigmatization around weight might be reduced.

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Don’t move – sit perfectly still without changing or adjusting your position, take note of how you are sitting. Are you slouching in your seat? Are your legs crossed? Are you hunched over? Are you holding your head up with your hands? Once you became aware of your position, what did you do? Congratulations, you just moved from pre-contemplation to contemplation using the process of consciousness raising.

Brainstorm how the processes of change could be used to move you from contemplation to action in adopting correct sitting body posture:

• Feet on the floor
• Uncrossed legs
• Buttocks touching back of chair
• Back upright

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Effect of ergonomics-based educational intervention based on transtheoretical model in adopting correct body posture among operating room nurses” to help guide your response.

(S) Nanirose888:

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Take a moment and think about your own skin cancer prevention behavior relative to sun exposure. Do you use sunscreen? Do you wear a hat to protect your face from the sun and clothing to protect other areas of your body? Do you avoid the sun between 10 – 2 when the rays are the strongest?

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Determinants of Skin Cancer Preventive Behaviors Among Rural Farmers in Iran: An Application of Protection Motivation Theory” to help guide your response.

1. Based on the Protection Motivation Construct of threat appraisal, explain why do you or don’t you use skin protective behaviors? That is, how do the processes of threat appraisal – perception of severity and vulnerability, affect your behavior?
   1. If you do not engage in skin protective behaviors, what are your intrinsic and extrinsic rewards?
2. How do the processes of coping appraisal (response appraisal, response self-efficacy, and response cost) contribute to your skin protection behavior?
3. Based on what you learned about your own skin protection behaviors, do you need to change those behaviors, and if so, what would get you to make the changes?

(S) Nanirose888:

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Think about your experiences with bullying. It could be your personal experiences or those of a friend, family member, neighbor or classmate.

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Reducing bullying: Application of social cognitive theory“ to help guide your response.

1. What are a few common characteristics of the bully?
2. Using Social Cognitive Theory explain the basis for bullying behavior.
3. Using the constructs of social cognitive theory, how is bullying behavior learned?
4. Brainstorm how social cognitive theory might be used as the basis of a prevention intervention.
5. How do your ideas for a prevention intervention compare with the suggestions in the article?

(S) Nanirose888:

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magine upon graduation, you are hired by a large urban hospital as part of a team responsible for implementing a new telemedicine program for low income, medically underserved African American and Latino communities in the hospital’s service area. Part of your job is to market the program to these communities.

Since ‘telemedicine’ is an innovative way to deliver specialty medical care to the underserved communities, you decide to base marketing materials on the Diffusion of Innovation, specifically the characteristics of an innovation.

Telemedicine at your hospital uses telecommunication equipment (video conferencing) and computer technology at specific telemedicine clinics throughout the community to provide specialty care without an in-person visit. The clinics are staffed by physicians’ assistants who examine the patients and identify the medical specialist needed to diagnose and treat the problem. The medical specialist is contacted via video conferencing and examinations are done using scopes with cameras, when appropriate.

1. What information would you include in your marketing materials the about:

• Relative advantage
• Complexity
• Trialability
• Compatibility
• Observability

2. Do you think it would be necessary to develop two sets of marketing materials, one for African-Americans and one for Latinos – why or why not?

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “How do low-income urban African-Americans and Latinos feel about telemedicine?: A diffusion of innovation analysis” to help guide your response.

In the African country of Zimbawae, the group most at risk of HIV are married couples or those in long term relationships. A situation not expected given that marriage or a stable long term relationship, is usually associated with safer sex behavior.

Based on your knowledge of HIV/AIDS risk reduction behaviors (safer sex) but not knowing anything else about the culture of this country:

1. Brainstorm possible factors at the personal, interpersonal and community level that may account for the high rates of HIV among those in long term relationships or married.
2. Brainstorm how these factors might be used to develop intervention to reduce the risk of HIV among married persons.
3. How did your brainstorming of factors associated with HIV risk among married persons compare with the content of the assigned reading (listed below)?

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled ” Understanding barriers to safer sex practice in Zimbabwean marriages: Implications for future HIV prevention interventions” to help guide your response.

Take a moment to think about all the relationships you have – those with your family and friends, teachers and classmates, sorority and fraternity sisters and brothers, church members, neighbors, health care providers, etc.

1. Make a list of as many of your ‘relationships’ as you can, and categorize them by the strength of the relationship – bonding, linking or bridging.
   1. Pick one or two from each category and discuss how each of the relationships came about – what allowed them to happen?
2. How do your relationships contribute to your health?
3. Thinking about your own relationships, what were the factors that hindered KidsFirst families from developing their own bridging social capital relationships?
4. In what ways did the KidsFirst program support development of bridging social capital for the families?

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Building social capital as a pathway to success: Community development practices of an early childhood intervention program in Canada” to help guide your response.

Why is self-esteem crucial for better health outcomes? Discuss this in further detail on this weeks’ discussion board post.

Please apply all five constructs of the Self-Esteem Enhancement Theory of health behavior change to promoting cancer risk reduction screenings (ie. mammograms, colonoscopies). The five constructs are outlined below.

1. Contextual opportunities that include an individual’s surrounding environment that supports development and sustenance of feelings of self-worth
2. Esteem formation and maintenance processes that include cognitive, affective, and behavioral attributes that enhance self-worth
3. Self-esteem, which is global as well as domain specific
4. Health and well-being, which include influences in cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social spheres
5. Modifying influences from developmental, individual, and sociocultural differences

There is growing concern over the misuse of antibiotics. Since their disbursement is by prescription only, the source of the problem lies squarely with health care professionals with prescription powers. Therefore, one way to address the issue is to persuade those individuals to prescribe methods other than antibiotics for the treatment of infections known to have causes other than bacterial, for example upper respiratory infections, ear infections, sore throats.

Although there is considerable research in the literature on the issue of antibiotic misuse in the treatment of these infections, the problem persists.

1. What are some possible reasons why health care professionals continue to prescribe antibiotic treatment for infections that do not warrant them?
2. Using the construct domain chart, identify a theory, construct/construct domain that might explain each of the reasons, and be useful as the basis for an intervention?
3. What steps did the authors take to develop their interventions? (answers below)
   1. Identified target behavior
   2. Selected the theory
   3. Conducted research to identify variables (consistent with the chosen theories) that predict the target behavior
   4. Used the research results to identify the variables to target for behavior change
   5. Matched (mapped) variables with behavior change techniques/methods
   6. Chose behavior change techniques/methods (Table A.2)
4. What were the similarities and differences between the results of your brainstorming in Q1 and Q2 and the results presented in the article?

Please refer to the assigned reading on BlackBoard and in your textbook titled “Developing the content of two behavioral interventions: Using theory-based interventions to promote GP management of upper respiratory tract infection without prescribing antibiotics” to help guide your response.