Browsing by Department "Health And Kinesiology"

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Announcement of Availability of Funds for Supporting and Enabling Early Innovation to Advance Adolescent Health and Prevent Teen Pregnancy (Tier 2A)
Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/407; DHHS-PHS-Office of Adolescent Health
BACKGROUND The Innovative Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs (iTP3) project was a five year (with one additional year for a No Cost Extension) initiative conducted by Texas A&M University and funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Population Affairs (OPA) Cooperative Agreement (TP2AH000046-02-00) that began July 1, 2015. This report provides a summary of key accomplishments that occurred during the iTP3 project. Texas A&M University was one of two organizations within the U.S. funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Population Affairs under Cooperative Agreement TP2AH000046. The purpose of this funding stream was to support and enable innovation to advance adolescent health and prevent teen pregnancy. OVERVIEW of the INNOVATIVE TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION PROGRAMS (iTP3) PROJECT Over the five year grant period, the iTP3 project has supported the development of fresh and progressive ideas that have the potential to transform the future of teen pregnancy prevention (TPP). Operating in a unique space that challenged public health program development norms, iTP3 provided exposure to new ways of thinking about innovation and program development. Funding was available annually through a competitive application process, and iTP3 welcomed programs across all intervention levels and implementation settings and at different stages of development, ranging from innovative ideas to programs preparing for rigorous evaluation. Selected innovators received capacity building assistance (CBA), infrastructure, and evaluation services to assist with the development of their program. Since 2015, iTP3 has worked with over 25 design teams across the U.S. in healthcare, community-based organization, national organization and health department settings to develop innovative programs.
Competitive Personal Responsibility Education Program - Juntos Podemos! (Together We Can!)
Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/407; DHHS-Administration for Children and Families
Objectives: The purpose of this program is to support projects that educate youth between 10 and 19 years of age and pregnant and parenting youth under age 21 on abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Funds will support the implementation of projects that replicate evidence-based, effective programs, or substantially incorporate elements of effective programs that have been proven, on the basis of rigorous scientific research to change behavior, which means delaying sexual activity, increasing condom or contraceptive use for sexually active youth, or reducing pregnancy among youth. Projects are further required to incorporate at least three of six adulthood preparation subjects, to include healthy life skills, adolescent development, parent-child communication, financial literacy, educational and career success, and healthy relationships. The overall goal of the Competitive PREP program is to educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and STIs, including HIV/AIDS. The following are objectives of the Competitive PREP program: 1. Replicate evidence-based effective programs or incorporate elements of effective programs that are proven to change behaviors, including delaying sexual activity, increasing condom and contraceptive use for sexually active youth, or reducing pregnancy among youth; 2. Implement curricula that includes medically accurate information (referenced in peer-reviewed publications by educational, scientific, governmental, or health organizations) and is age-appropriate, culturally appropriate, and inclusive; 3. Promote successful and healthy transition to adulthood through the implementation of at least three of six adulthood preparation subjects; and 4. Target prevention education to youth between the ages of 10 and 19, or pregnant and parenting youth under 21 years of age, who are at high-risk for becoming pregnant or who have special circumstances.
HPV and Cancer mHealth Prevention Education for HIV Positive Women Pilot Study
Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/425; DHHS-NIH-National Cancer Institute
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate is a research assistant professor with academic training in health promotion, education, and behavior, as well as postdoctoral training in HIV/AIDS prevention, health disparities, and health services research. She also has data management expertise and clinical immunology experience. The candidate has completed two pilot studies that examined HPV infection and cervical cancer prevention knowledge, beliefs and screening behaviors among women living with HIV (WLH). The candidate is seeking additional training needed to develop and implement effective cancer health (including mHealth) communication and community navigation strategies to improve WLH's timely use of cancer screening, diagnostic and treatment services and procedures. The candidate's long-term goal is to obtain extramural research funding for her independent research program focusing on the prevention and control of HPV-mediated cancers among WLH over the next 5-10 years. Promotion to associate professor (tenure- or research-track) is an intermediate goal that the candidate is striving to attain within the next five years. A combination of formal didactic trainig and experiential learning opportunities will be used to acquire cancer prevention and control research skills in the following areas: cancer health (including mHealth) communication, cancer epidemiology, HPV-mediated cancer biology, community navigation, advanced epidemiological research skills (e.g., social epidemiology, n- of-1 research study designs, and, multilevel modeling). The candidate will use the cancer prevention and control research and health communication knowledge and skills acquired through the proposed career development award to conduct formative research needed to inform intervention development in which she will examine cancer health information seeking and sharing among WLH as well as their non-clinical HIV service providers (e.g., HIV/STI risk reduction counselors). Non-clinical HIV service providers will be included because, in addition to the fact that these individuals are already promoting safe sexual practices among WLH, they are also able to reach marginalized groups of WLH such as those who are homeless. This includes sheltered and unsheltered homeless WLH. The candidate's mentors and co-mentors have scientific expertise and community-based participatory research experience that will increase the likelihood of the proposed specific aims being successfully completed. The candidate will first examine HPV-mediated cancer prevention knowledge, beliefs and behaviors, as well as cancer health communication seeking and sharing behaviors (including the use of technology to find health information) (Aim 1). These formative research data will then be used to inform the development (Aim 2) and subsequent pilot testing and evaluation (Aim 3) of an HPV- mediated cancer prevention mHealth education intervention aimed at training WLH who already serve as peer leaders and non-clinical HIV service providers to use mHealth tools and community navigation strategies to disseminate HPV-mediated cancer prevention education. As community navigators, these individuals will use cancer health (including mHealth) communication and community navigation strategies to increase awareness about HPV-mediated cancer risk. This will include promoting cancer risk reducing behaviors such as safe sexual practices and the timely use of recommended cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment services and procedures). Recall and reminder messages will be sent for screening and follow-up cancer care appointments. User-defined social support messages will also be sent to WLH who may be encountering access to cancer care barriers. The candidate will disseminate the scientific research findings to local, regional, national, and international audiences via presentations that she will give at scientific conferences and annual meetings as well as peer-reviewed publications that she will produce. Most relevant to the candidate's long-term goal of attaining research independence is increasing her number of peer-reviewed publications from her current publication rate of approximately three per year to four or more produced annually by the end of the 5-year training period and the submission of at least one grant proposal (e.g., R01-level funding) by the end of the 5-year training period. The proposed career development/training and research activities will enable the candidate to realize her long-term career goal of becoming an independent cancer researcher with expertise in using cancer health communication, community navigation, and mHealth technologies to address health system failures encountered by vulnerable, medically-underserved WLH along the cancer care continuum. Continued mentoring and opportunities for team science research collaborations will facilitate the candidate's successful progression to being an independent cancer researcher. WLH and non-clinical HIV service providers will be recruited from Ryan White funded clinics and AIDS-service organizations located in urban and rural geographical areas of South Carolina that represent a microcosm of disparities in HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other chronic illness that disproportionately burden medically underserved minority populations. Addressing health system failures that occur along the cancer care continuum that result in missed opportunities to prevent, detect, diagnose and treat HPV-mediated cancers will help to reduce the burden of cancer incidence and mortality among this high cancer risk, vulnerable group of WLH. The proposed HPV-mediated cancer mHealth prevention education intervention will be conducted in a community-based setting and builds upon an existing academic-community partnership between the candidate and a local AIDS-service organization. The candidate has a supportive, resource-intensive scientific environment for her cancer research training.
I-Corps: Adaptable Speed-Endurance Training Algorithm to Manage Aerobic and Anaerobic Capacity Development
Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/554; National Science Foundation
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to integrate novel and established wearable physiological sensors, machine learning and an adaptable exercise-training algorithm to optimize performance and minimize risk of injury or overtraining. Professional and collegiate teams face significant problems due to injuries, overexertion (rhabdomyolysis) and exertional heat illness (EHI). Nearly half of these issues are avoidable via proper management and training. In elite athletes, achieving the balance of over or undertraining remains difficult and elusive. Elite and professional athletes, and their coaches, sports scientists, and elite team trainers require the most precise assessment and management of training and performance and the cost of failure is much greater. With success in this population, this innovation can potentially be adaptable to fitness and wellness applications where precision is less important, and efficiency and motivation is more highly valued. For chronic disease management applications, precision, physiological monitoring, instant feedback, and exercise progression become vitally important. This I-Corps project seeks to enable real-time and continuous monitoring of physiological responses to exercise training using a custom sensor array, adaptable speed-endurance training algorithm and integrated machine learning to create an optimal, individualized exercise-training program for peak performance and minimize injury in elite and professional athletes. Currently, the primary way in which athletes manage this lacks integration and individualization of physiological data to workload in order to prevent overtraining during the exercise session. To date, there have been few standardized and progressive non-steady state training programs that can adjust a program to a specific individual. Using real-time novel and established physiological sensors with machine learning, the training algorithm has the capability to adapt a workout to an individual's specific physiological responses. A novel sensor developed for this project has proven effective in preliminary testing. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
Measuring stress in military connected adolescents
Health And Kinesiology; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/564; National Institutes of Health
Youth in military-connected families may be exposed to potentially deleterious stressors associated with family member deployment and/or family relocations. These stressors have been found to be associated with externalizing behaviors such as substance use and suicidality. We know that an optimal measurement of stress and stressful life events should include items that are behaviorally-specific, i.e., tailored to the concerns of the target population. Leading measures of adolescent stress do not assess the unique stressors of military connected youth - such as multiple moves, or worrying about a family member who is or may soon be deployed or given a dangerous assignment. Thus, the present study seeks to develop a military related measure of adolescent stress. The aims are to: 1) develop the Adolescent Military Stress Measure (AMSM) to assess level of stress across the deployment cycle (i.e., pre- deployment, deployment, and reintegration), and during transitions and relocations, 2) obtain test-retest reliability and validity assessments of the AMSM developed in Aim 1 via sub-aims 2a) conduct known groups validity assessment by comparing overall and specific types of stress experienced by military-connected youth compared to non- military connected youth and 2b) assess the association between responses to the AMSM and youth substance use, suicidality, and the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire as indicators of predictive and concurrent validity. There are nearly 1.2 million school-aged military-connected children. Few studies have attempted to describe how youth experience the different stressors within deployment cycles in the context of psychosocial transitions. Specifically, there is a dearth of empirical data on the impact of the unique interplay or combined impact of relocations and deployments on adolescent behavioral health. Therefore, there is a need for an empirically-reliable measurement tool to capture the experiences and impact of military- related stress among adolescents.