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Examines children's books which highlighted multicultural issues, with the understanding that what is said about multiculturalism is as important, if not more so, than the simple fact that multiculuralism is discussed. Uses an adaptation of Mulvey's (1975) "gaze," to examine whiteness in seven multicultural children's books. Finds that the white privilege in these texts positions people of color as non-American commodities and objects of a white gaze. (SG)

Variation in the land use environment (LUE) impacts the continuum of walkability to car dependency, which has been shown to have effects on health outcomes. Existing objective measures of the LUE do not consider whether the measurement of the construct varies across different types of communities along the rural/urban spectrum. To help meet the goals of the Diabetes Location, Environmental Attributes, and Disparities (LEAD) Network, we developed a national, census tract‐level LUE measure which evaluates the road network and land development. We tested for measurement invariance by LEAD community type (higher density urban, lower density urban, suburban/small town, and rural) using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis. We determined that metric invariance does not exist; thus, measurement of the LUE does vary across community type with average block length, average block size, and percent developed land driving most shared variability in rural tracts and with intersection density, street connectivity, household density, and commercial establishment density driving most shared variability in higher density urban tracts. As a result, epidemiologic studies need to consider community type when assessing the LUE to minimize place‐based confounding. Plain Language Summary: A community's land use environment (LUE) describes its citizens ability to walk from place to place versus their reliance on vehicles for transportation. Some factors that might influence LUE include the street network, size of road blocks, density of walkable establishments (food stores, restaurants, schools, etc.), and the mixture of residential and commercial establishments. Existing objective measures of the LUE do not consider urbanicity, which can lead to differences due only to places being more or less rural. The Diabetes Location, Environmental Attributes, and Disparities (LEAD) Network created a national, census tract‐level LUE measure and assessed whether the LUE construct differed across LEAD community type groups (higher density urban, lower density urban, suburban/small town, and rural). We found that the LUE construct does vary across LEAD community type. Future epidemiologic studies examining the LUE need to consider urbanicity to account for these differences. Key Points: Variation in the land use environment (LUE) impacts the continuum of walkability to car dependency, which has effects on health outcomesWe assessed measurement invariance of a land use construct across levels of urbanicity using multiple group confirmatory factor analysisWe determined that measurement of the LUE does vary across urbanicity which can lead to place‐based confounding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We examined whether relative availability of fast-food restaurants and supermarkets mediates the association between worse neighborhood socioeconomic conditions and risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D).Research Design and Methods: As part of the Diabetes Location, Environmental Attributes, and Disparities Network, three academic institutions used harmonized environmental data sources and analytic methods in three distinct study samples: 1) the Veterans Administration Diabetes Risk (VADR) cohort, a national administrative cohort of 4.1 million diabetes-free veterans developed using electronic health records (EHRs); 2) Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS), a longitudinal, epidemiologic cohort with Stroke Belt region oversampling (N = 11,208); and 3) Geisinger/Johns Hopkins University (G/JHU), an EHR-based, nested case-control study of 15,888 patients with new-onset T2D and of matched control participants in Pennsylvania. A census tract-level measure of neighborhood socioeconomic environment (NSEE) was developed as a community type-specific z-score sum. Baseline food-environment mediators included percentages of 1) fast-food restaurants and 2) food retail establishments that are supermarkets. Natural direct and indirect mediating effects were modeled; results were stratified across four community types: higher-density urban, lower-density urban, suburban/small town, and rural.Results: Across studies, worse NSEE was associated with higher T2D risk. In VADR, relative availability of fast-food restaurants and supermarkets was positively and negatively associated with T2D, respectively, whereas associations in REGARDS and G/JHU geographies were mixed. Mediation results suggested that little to none of the NSEE-diabetes associations were mediated through food-environment pathways.Conclusions: Worse neighborhood socioeconomic conditions were associated with higher T2D risk, yet associations are likely not mediated through food-environment pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to examine children's books which highlighted multicultural issues, with the understanding that what is said about multiculturalism is as important, if not more so, than the simple fact that multiculturalism is discussed. We used an adaptation of Mulvey's (1975) 'gaze,' to examine whiteness in seven multicultural children's books, and found that the white privilege in these texts positions people of color as non-American commodities and objects of a white gaze. Keywords: children's literature, gaze, multiculturalism, white privilege, whiteness

Large-scale longitudinal studies evaluating influences of the built environment on risk for type 2 diabetes (T2D) are scarce, and findings have been inconsistent. To evaluate whether land use environment (LUE), a proxy of neighborhood walkability, is associated with T2D risk across different US community types, and to assess whether the association is modified by food environment. The Veteran's Administration Diabetes Risk (VADR) study is a retrospective cohort of diabetes-free US veteran patients enrolled in VA primary care facilities nationwide from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2016, and followed longitudinally through December 31, 2018. A total of 4,096,629 patients had baseline addresses available in electronic health records that were geocoded and assigned a census tract-level LUE score. LUE scores were divided into quartiles, where a higher score indicated higher neighborhood walkability levels. New diagnoses for T2D were identified using a published computable phenotype. Adjusted time-to-event analyses using piecewise exponential models were fit within four strata of community types (higher-density urban, lower-density urban, suburban/small town, and rural). We also evaluated effect modification by tract-level food environment measures within each stratum. In adjusted analyses, higher LUE had a protective effect on T2D risk in rural and suburban/small town communities (linear quartile trend test p-value <0.001). However, in lower density urban communities, higher LUE increased T2D risk (linear quartile trend test p-value <0.001) and no association was found in higher density urban communities (linear quartile trend test p-value = 0.317). Particularly strong protective effects were observed for veterans living in suburban/small towns with more supermarkets and more walkable spaces (p-interaction = 0.001). Among veterans, LUE may influence T2D risk, particularly in rural and suburban communities. Food environment may modify the association between LUE and T2D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]