San Diego State University

About: San Diego State University is a education organization based out in San Diego, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 12418 authors who have published 27950 publications receiving 1192375 citations. The organization is also known as: SDSU & San Diego State College.

Public Parks and Physical Activity Among Adolescent Girls

Abstract: OBJECTIVES.Physical activity may be constrained or facilitated by local environments. The availability of neighborhood facilities for physical activity may be particularly relevant for youth, who are unable to drive and whose activity is often limited to the immediate distance they are able to walk or bicycle. Several studies have shown that proximity to recreational facilities and parks is one of the most important predictors of physical activity. Because the United States already has an extensive infrastructure of parks, with 70% of adults indicating that they live within walking distance of a park or playground, parks may be a potential venue for increasing physical activity. This might be particularly important for adolescent girls, whose physical activity levels decline substantially as they go through puberty. The goal of this study was to examine the association between park proximity, park type, and park features and physical activity in adolescent girls. PATIENTS AND METHODS.This was a cross-sectional study using baseline data from the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls. It included 1556 grade 6 girls who were randomly selected from 6 middle schools in each of the following 6 field site areas: Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland; Columbia, South Carolina; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New Orleans, Louisiana; Tucson, Arizona; and San Diego, California. Girls wore accelerometers for 6 days to measure metabolic equivalent‐ weighted moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a measure accounting for the volume and intensity of activity. Metabolic equivalent‐weighted moderate-tovigorous physical activity was calculated for the hours outside of school time using 2 different cutpoints, activity levels 3.0 metabolic equivalents and 4.6 metabolic equivalents, the latter indicating activity at the intensity of a brisk walk or higher. We mapped all of the parks within 1 mile of each girl’s home. Trained staff used a checklist to document the presence of facilities and amenities at each park, including passive amenities, such as drinking fountains, restrooms, and areas with shade, as well as active amenities like basketball courts, multipurpose fields, playgrounds, and tennis courts.

What a Good Idea! Ideologies and Frames in Social Movement Research

Abstract: Frame theory is often credited with "bringing ideas back in" social movement studies, but frames are not the only useful ideational concepts. The older, more politicized concept of ideology needs to be used in its own right and not recast as a frame. Frame theory is rooted in linguistic studies of interaction, and points to the way shared assumptions and meanings shape the interpretation of events. Ideology is rooted in politics and the study of politics, and points to coherent systems of ideas which provide theories of society coupled with value commitments and normative implications for promoting or resisting social change. Ideologies can function as frames, they can embrace frames, but there is more to ideology than framing. Frame theory offers a relatively shallow conception of the transmission of political ideas as marketing and resonating, while a recognition of the complexity and depth of ideology points to the social construction processes of thinking, reasoning, educating, and socializing. Social...

Dietary acculturation: applications to nutrition research and dietetics.

Abstract: The US immigrant population is growing dramatically, making the health status of racial/ethnic minorities an increasingly important public health issue. Immigration to the United States is usually accompanied by environmental and lifestyle changes that can markedly increase chronic disease risk. In particular, adoption of US dietary patterns that tend to be high in fat and low in fruits and vegetables is of concern. The process by which immigrants adopt the dietary practices of the host country--called "dietary acculturation"--is multidimensional, dynamic, and complex; in addition, it varies considerably, depending on a variety of personal, cultural, and environmental attributes. Therefore, to intervene successfully on the negative aspects of dietary acculturation, it is important to understand the process and identify factors that predispose and enable it to occur. In this report, we give an overview of acculturation, define dietary acculturation and present a model for how it occurs, discuss measurement issues related to dietary acculturation, review the literature relating acculturation to eating patterns, and provide a case study illustrating how information on acculturation can be used to design dietary interventions in 2 markedly different immigrant groups. Finally, we give applications for nutrition researchers and dietetic practitioners. Studies investigating associations of acculturation with disease risk should identify and intervene on those steps in the acculturation process that are most strongly associated with unhealthful dietary changes. Practitioners working with immigrants should determine the degree to which dietary counseling should be focused on maintaining traditional eating habits, adopting the healthful aspects of eating in Western countries, or both.

Contract-Intensive Money: Contract Enforcement, Property Rights, and Economic Performance

Abstract: We introduce a new, easily accessed and objective measure of the enforceability of contracts and the security of property rights. This measure, called “contract-intensive money” or CIM, is based on citizens’ decisions regarding the form in which they choose to hold their financial assets. Country case studies show that CIM varies over time in response to political events in ways predicted by our arguments. We also show that CIM is positively related to investment and growth rates, and to the relative size of contract-dependent sectors of the economy.