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The Indiana Daily Student

IU researcher present at public health conference

Setting family rules leads to healthier behavior in children.

This was just one finding presented by IU researchers, including faculty members and graduate students from the IU-Bloomington School of Public Health and the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis at the 142nd American Public Health Association annual meeting in New Orleans this week, according to an IU news release.

Family rules

Alyssa Lederer, doctoral candidate and associate instructor at the Bloomington School of Public Health, found setting family rules regarding healthy eating and being active leads to healthier practices in children.

The data Lederer analyzed was originally part of the data set used in evaluating the Wellborn Baptist Foundation’s HEROES (Healthy, Energetic, Ready, Outstanding, Enthusiastic Schools) program. The HEROES program is a K-12 school-based obesity prevention initiative in the ?Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois tri-state area.

“Childhood obesity has really become a health crisis, so as researchers we’re trying to see what we can do to lessen the toll,” Lederer said in the release.

The data came from a sample of about 3,000 participants in grades four through eight.

There was no direct correlation between family rules and weight found in the study, but there was a direct correlation found between weight and the healthy habits.

The study “Setting Rules to Improve Healthy Behavior: The Relationship Between Family Rules and Children’s Demographics, Dietary and Sedentary Activities and Weight Status” was co-authored by Mindy Hightower King, a research scientist at IU’s Center on Education and LifeLong Learning; Danielle Sovinski, a research associate at the same center; and Nayoung Kim, a d octoral candidate in public health.

Stress and depression

Researchers from IUPUI found cultural stress may, in part, explain the high depression and suicide rates observed in Hispanic youth.

The team of researchers was led by Silvia Bigatti, according to the University.

Hispanic teens in Indiana have a 65 percent higher rate of suicide attempts and a 24 percent higher rate of depression than white teens.

“When we saw the alarming disparity in suicide attempts and depression rates, we had to ask what could be going on,” said Katrina Conrad, community research and outreach coordinator at the school, in the release.

The study focused on acculturative stress, which can result from immigrants straddling two different cultural identities, and found it may be a contributing factor to these high rates.

Teen alcohol use

A study out of IUB reported teens’ alcohol use is driven more by their close friends than it is by their perceptions of their overall peer group, according to the University.

The study was authored by Jonathon Beckmeyer, an assistant professor at the IUB School of Public Health.

“We’ve known for a long time that friends and peers have an influence on individual alcohol use, but there are no common studies that distinguished between the broader peer group and the friend group’s influence on those decisions,” Beckmeyer said in the release.

The data used for the study came from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, ?according to the University.

Beckmeyer said in the release that people may too often focus on changing perceptions of the broader peer group when the close friend groups have much more influence on alcohol use.

Car crash survival

A study from IUPUI found being younger, male and driving a big vehicle increases car crash survival rates, according to the University.

The study was authored by a doctoral student in ?epidemiology.

Motor vehicle crashes are the biggest cause of unintentional loss of lives in the world, according to the University. Approximately 30,000 deaths occur annually in the United States in motor vehicle accidents.

Driving a newer vehicle, using a seatbelt and having the airbag deploy during the crash also increased the survival rate.

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