Provide responses to each classmate post using a minimum of 100 words. In your peer replies, you are encouraged to challenge responses to promote critical thinking on all sides of a discussion.
Classmate Post #1
Hello everyone,
I really enjoyed the discussion post topic for this week. The environmental justice profile I chose for my discussion was the Healthy Food, Healthy School, and Healthy Communities: Project CAFÉ. This was an important topic for me because I am studying nutrition science, so that I can become a nutritionist, and anything health food related is a huge interest to me. In this project, it is clear that the workers are trying to prevent health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity though the power of healthy eating. The workers are aiming their efforts towards residents in communities that can not afford healthy food. CAFÉ aims to facilitate community driven changes in nutrition environments in low income Latino Los Angeles communities, who are suffering from diet related health conditions (“National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,” 2015). They also work to help schools, so that children do not become obese at an early stage in life. The earlier the workers can educate people in their lives about the importance of nutrition and healthy living, the better. I think it is great that CAFÉ works to help people in low income families, because I think everyone should have a fair opportunity at healthy living and nutrient-rich foods.
In this project there were both outputs and outcomes. Some of the outputs came with survey work and investigating why so many people were eating unhealthy food options. 90 stores and 5 schools were surveyed, and it turned out that healthy options were just out of the price range for consumers (“National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,” 2005). Their research showed that convenience stores and liquor stores were the most prevalent food establishments in the targeted city in LA. This means that more people were enticed to eat at cheap fast food or convenience stores, rather than buying healthy food in super markets. The outputs of Project CAFÉ were that the workers were able to train around 100 community members about the importance of food decisions, and they were able to reach more than 5,000 community members (“National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,” 2005). Policies were also set in place for stricter nutrition standards for children in schools. This provides children with healthier options during their school time meals, even if they do not get the proper nutrition at home. CAFÉ is also working on providing healthy food trucks to come to the LA area, so that residents have more options for healthy fast food.
A few steps that I would suggest for the investigators if they continue Project CAFÉ, would be to start a campaign to raise money for the low-income families, that could be used to purchase health food from local super markets, and start a healthy food bank for the community. The could even accept donations from stores, or other community members, that can help provide nutrient-rich foods to lower income families. Another suggestion I have is for Project CAFÉ to help provide transportation to local markets that sell health food. Some people in low-income areas might not have cars or a way to get out of their town to purchase the right foods that their body needs. If CAFÉ provided a bus to the market, they might be more willing to shop at the grocery store, rather than only go to convenience stores. Since supermarkets are lacking in the Latino LA area, they could look into building more super markets, instead of constantly building more fast food restaurants and liquor stores. I think there are a number of suggestions that could be made to help improve this project, and have people in low income households, and children in school systems get the right nutrition they need. There should be no excuse as to why people are not allowed to fuel their body with the proper nutrition.
-Shannon Harris
References:
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (July 2015). Advancing Environmental Justice. Retrieved from https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/trans…
Turnock, B. J. (2016). Essentials of public health (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Classmate Post #2
Hello Professor and Classmates,
The environmental justice profile that I chose to write about for this week’s discussion is “Asthma and Demolition in Chicago Public Housing”. The disease that the project investigators work to address is asthma that is associated with air pollutants due to airborne matter from the demolition of public housing. For this environmental justice profile the investigators targeted audience are low income, residents in urban areas that live in public housing and African Americans. Some of the outputs from this study were getting the word out about the poor air quality as a result of the demolition, more help in order to suppress the dust and the research from the study being published. There were three different outcomes from this study which included more participation from the public in the research, primarily those who were affected by the demolition. The other two outcomes were improved demolition methods and increased investigator took classes to get more experience in air pollution monitoring. I believe a next great step in this study would be in finding or creating material that you can use to build buildings that would not cause this type of air pollution when and if they had to be demolition. Solving the problem of polluting the air with the large particles or any air pollution that triggers asthma symptoms.
-Turquiose Johnson
Environmental Health Coalition. Who We Are., Environmental Health Coalition ., (2011) www.environmentalhealth.org/index.php/en/who-we-are.
Classmate Post #3
The independent sample t-test is a member of the t-test family, which consists of tests that compare mean values of continuous-level, interval or ratio data, normally distributed data. The independent sample t-test compares two means. It assumes a model where the variables in the analysis are split into independent and dependent variables. The model assumes that a difference in the mean score of the dependent variable is found because of the influence of the independent variable. Thus, the independent sample t-test is an analysis of dependence. It is one of the most widely used statistical tests, and is sometimes erroneously called the independent variable t-test.
-Lynette Magee
Reference:
Leni, J. (2016). Conduct and Interpret an Independent Sample T-test. Statistics Solutions. Retrieved from http://www.statisticssolutions.com/independent-sample-t-test/
Classmate Post #4
Homogeneity of Variance mean the same thing as equality of variances and usually in statistics the terms are used for one in the same. Variance represents the average squared deviations between a group of observations and their respective mean. It’s a measure of spread and an example would be the sum of the differences between an observation and it’s mean squared divided by the number of observations minus one. In statistics the variance is a better estimate of the population variance when you use (n-1) rather than (N). That is the formula for variance and if you use the square root of variance then you should get the standard deviation which is represented by an “S” or “SD.” Homogeneity of Variance is important because it’s a common assumption across several statistical analyses including the t-test and ANOVA. It’s also useful for testing meaningful hypotheses as well. Homogeneity of Variance mean the variance in the groups are of the same nature or that the two groups have the same kind of variability. The variances do not have to be exactly equal, but they must be close in relation. Variances are tested for qualification through the Levene’s test which will show the equality of variance. Levene’s test will test whether variances of two samples are approximately equal. The Levene’s test should be nonsignificant that is the assumption of the independent sample t-test. In SPSS the Levene’s test is conducted automatically anytime you do an independent samples t-test. The significance should not be greater than .05 to be assumed.
Antonio Ellison
Reference
Michael E., O., & Ky L., M. (2002). Levene Tests of Homogeneity of Variance for General Block and Treatment Designs. Biometrics, (1), 216.
Urban, T. C. (2011). Statistics in Plain English, Third Edition. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781136967573/cfi/6/24[;vnd.vst.idref=BODY12]