Levi Bonnell et al. on BMI and the built environment

Congratulations to Levi Bonnell, MPH, doctoral candidate in Clinical and Translational Science on the publication of his team's paper on how patterns of development relate to obesity.

Bonnell LN, Troy AR, Littenberg B. Nonlinear relationship between nonresidential destinations and body mass index across a wide range of development. Prev Med. 2021 Aug 23:106775. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106775. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34437875. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34437875/

Background: Destination accessibility is an important measure of the built environment that is associated with active transport and body mass index (BMI). In higher density settings, an inverse association has been consistently found, but in lower density settings, findings are limited. We previously found a positive relationship between the density of nonresidential destinations (NRD) and BMI in a low-density state. We sought to test the generalizability of this unexpected finding using data from six other states that include a broader range of settlement densities.

Methods: We obtained the address, height, and weight of 16.9 million residents with a driver's license or state identification cards, as well as the location of 3.8 million NRDs in Washington, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, and Maine from Dun & Bradstreet. We tested the association between NRDs∙ha^-1 within 1 km of the home address, and self-reported BMI (kg∙m^-2). Visualization by locally-weighted smoothing curves (LOWESS) revealed an inverted U-shape. A multivariable piecewise regression with a random intercept for state was used to assess the relationship.

Results: After accounting for age, sex, year of issue, and census tract social and economic variables, BMI correlated positively with NRDs in the low-to-mid density stratum (β = +0.005 kg∙m^-2/nonresidential building∙ha^-1; 95% CI: +0.004,+0.006) and negatively in the mid-to-high density stratum (β = -0.002; 95% CI: -0.004,-0.0003); a significant difference in slopes (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: BMI peaked in the middle density, with lower values in both the low and high-density extremes. These results suggest that the mechanisms by which NRDs are associated with obesity may differ by density level.

Jennifer Oshita receives full-time training grant from NIH

 Jen Oshita, PhD student in CTS, has received an F31 Award from the NIH- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.  This full-time training grant will offer her tuition and stipend for two years as she continues her research in Healthcare Outcomes and Accommodations for Persons with Communication Disabilities.

Congratulations Jen! You make us proud.

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Aug 19, 2021

 

Present:   Claudia Abbiati, Levi Bonnell, Nancy Gell, Juvena Hitt, Emily Houston, Ben Littenberg, Charlie MacLean, Jen Oshita, Liliane Savard, Adam Sprouse-Blum, Connie van Eeghen (11)

 1.                   Warm Up: Jen received notice from NIDCD that she will receive an F31 award – congratulations!

2.                   Jen O’s Aims and Figure 2: Review of Jen Oshita’s draft intro and methods of a manuscript titled “Healthcare Communication Support in Older Adult Patients with Silent Communication Difficulties”. Her questions are at the design level of the study:

a.       Do my aims and Figure 2 make sense (especially with the different sample populations for the different aims)?

                                                   i.      This is a descriptive piece on prevalence: numerator and denominator

                                                 ii.      Conditions are self-reported, labeled as “communication difficulties”: this works as long as the term is not used in other ways in the field and investigators in the field care about this

                                               iii.      Narrowed CD to “under reported CDs”

                                               iv.      Used different denominators, based on phase of study (see CONSORT diagram) as appropriate to the Aim; keep all numbers in the diagram as the denominators in the study

                                                 v.      Reconsider use of “under recognized” or “under reported” – explain how this became important in the introduction in explicit steps of how you got there. Exclude dementia as an obvious cause of CDs and then don’t come back to it.

1.       Note that some of the population in this study ARE recognized as having CD

2.       Worked on reorganizing the aims: all about community dwelling older adults

3.                   Next week:  TBD

Hitt leads team evaluating practice integration measure

Many congratulations to Juvena R. Hitt, MPH, Research Specialist, on her latest publication evaluating the validity of the Practice Integration Profile.

Hitt JR, Brennhofer SA, Martin MP, Macchi CR, Mullin D, van Eeghen C, Littenberg L, Kessler RS. Further Experience with the Practice Integration Profile A Measure of Behavioral Health and Primary Care Integration. J Clin Psychol Med Settings. 2021 Aug 9. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10880-021-09806-z