Posters
Exploring the Dietary Experiences of Tongan-Americans: Barriers and Facilitators to Healthy Dietary Behaviors View Digital Media
Poster Session Victor Kaufusi, Moniqueca Kaufusi
Over the past two decades, the quality of the Tongan-American diet has become of increasing concern to researchers, health professionals, and within the Tongan American communities. Obesity and non-communicable diseases have increased among this population in the last 20 years with obesity now being considered to be an epidemic among Tongan-Americans. Likewise, Tongans have the fifth highest percentage of obese people in the world. In addition, the prevalence of diabetes among Tongan-American adults is also twice as high (21%) as compared to the U.S. population (10%). These health disparities could be addressed by exploring the experiences with dietary behaviors among this population given the link between dietary behaviors and obesity and other chronic diseases such as diabetes. Thus, the purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand the dietary experiences and attitudes of Tongan Americans that contribute to the disproportionate rates of obesity and other chronic diseases in an effort to inform culturally tailored health strategies to address the high incidences. The findings indicate that there are complex behaviors involved with dietary behaviors. Thus, there were various nuances between the Tongan American dietary behaviors and the facilitators and barriers to adopting healthy dietary behaviors among Tongan American adults, including variables at the individual, environmental, sectoral, and socio-cultural levels, as the framework. Therefore, research efforts and intervention initiatives aimed at preventing chronic diseases among Tongan Americans should be adaptable, innovative, multi-component, and multi-faceted, and should be culturally tailored to promote a reconnection to their traditional Tongan dietary practices.
The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Eating Pattern of an HBCU Undergraduate Students View Digital Media
Poster Session Maryam Ganjavi, Joycelyn Peterson
Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a serious global human threat. It has increased stress levels, forced people to stay home and practice social distancing, which has changed individuals’ lifestyle and diet. There are limited number of studies available related to the effect of the pandemic on American college students’ diet. Specifically, there is no study available about the effect of the pandemic on the diet of Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU) students. In this study a validated survey containing 20 questions (10 pairs) was used. All questions are about an individual’s eating pattern before and during the pandemic. This survey was taken randomly from 102 Morgan State University undergraduate students from different majors. Paired Sample Wilcoxon test was used for assessing the students’ eating patterns before and during the pandemic. The statistical package SPSS version 25.0 was used for statistical analyses. The results of this research revealed that students significantly were eating out fewer times during the pandemic compared to the time before it (P-value=0.004). Moreover, it was found that during the pandemic the frequency of preparing food at home were significantly higher than before the pandemic (P-value=0.001). In addition, this study elucidates that during the pandemic students significantly paid more attention to the nutrition fact of the food labels (P-value=0.001) compared to the time before it. Revealing the positive effect of pandemic on eating habits of students may be helpful for picking strategies to help students keep these healthy habits to improve their diet in future.
The Impact of Spatial Characteristics of Underground Metro Stations on Humans’ Experience: A Case Study of Warsaw, Poland View Digital Media
Poster Session Katarzyna Jasińska
Underground space, which has the potential to relieve the city by reducing noise, improving air quality or providing higher efficiency of the land use, significantly contributes to the urban development of many contemporary metropolises. The subsurface location of the facilities characterized by high human activity brings, however, many concerns predominantly related to its users’ personal experience. Being underground may evoke fears and anxieties, disturb cognitive and physiological reactions, and affect personal safety. This paper examines to what extend spatial characteristics, specific to underground metro stations, influence users’ experience measured by the subjective indicators of comfort and safety. The research combines survey data collected among 1400 users with spatial data obtained from space syntax analyses and filed investigation of 28 underground metro stations located in Warsaw, Poland. Based on the results of multiple regression analysis it identifies a set of spatial features affecting users' comfort and safety. The results indicate that humans' experience is shaped by the number of architectural characteristics of metro stations as well as their accessibility, position in the city and in the neighborhood. The most influencing architectural features include configuration of public zone, followed by geometry of platform hall and use of art elements. Based on the results presented in the study, potential design strategies that could improve peoples’ experience are proposed and discussed. Recommended approaches provide important information for designers to enable improvement of existing and better design of new underground metro stations.
