Grocery List Research Articles

Living with Chronic Pain and Addiction.

Living with Chronic Pain and Addiction Ken Start I was living a nightmare. A non-stop nightmare that pulled me into a black vortex of a never-ending feeling of hopelessness. This was my life of addiction to opiates. My addiction began with a serious auto accident in 1991. That accident caused a broken back, and the beginning of years of exams, tests, surgeries and medications. Medications that I fell in love with. My first experience with Vicodin brought me an inner pleasure I could not compare to anything else in my life. I became addicted and went from Vicodin to stronger medications in a short period of time. I had a shopping list of opiates I depended on for my existence. My addiction had taken over my life [End Page 198] and I went from a working young father one day to a numb, obsessed addict the next. At 54 years old, I have had 18 back-related surgeries including having stainless steel hardware put into my spine, pain pumps, pain stimulators and several other back surgeries. I have been through eight drug and alcohol related rehabilitation centers all due to my deadly addiction to opiates, drugs and alcohol. Addiction and chronic pain took me to places that were dark, scary and hopeless. My addiction may have started due to the back injury, however I used more and more drugs due to my addiction than the need for pain relief. Opiates may have made the pain a bit better at first, but after a while it did not help much and I was just taking it for my own selfish reasons. After15 years of addiction, my life was saved by medical professionals who cared enough to walk beside me and care enough to hold me accountable for my own destructive behaviors and actions. A local doctor finally sat me down and told me I was an addict. He said that if I didn't make a change, I would not be alive much longer. His recommendation was for me to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to be evaluated for my back and addiction issues. I took the trip the following day and was blessed to be admitted for evaluations. I was seen, evaluated and placed in the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Out-Patient Clinic for four weeks. Attending PRC gave me the opportunity to meet others like myself. These were people who lived in chronic pain and had had no success in finding a cure. As I attended this program I learned new techniques on how to live with chronic pain. Techniques such as bio-feedback, relaxation, deep breathing, appropriate exercise, cognitive therapies, sleep hygiene, time control and moderation. I slowly learned how to utilize these techniques in my daily schedule and to depend on new ways to live with the pain. While at Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Clinic, it was decided that my medications would be decreased and my internal dilaudid pain pump would be turned off. As an addict, this was a terrifying thought. However, after speaking with the medical professionals I had built a trust with, I agreed to go through with their plan. Over the next few days and weeks they turned my pump down until it was completely off and decreased my oral medications to nearly none. This was unchartered ground for me and I began to go through withdrawals. I was very sick due to my body's dependence on these drugs. However, I began to come out of the cloud of withdrawal and feel better. This was the first time I had been nearly drug free in many years and I felt as though I might have a future worth living. Addiction to opiates had taken my life, my family, my friends, my faith, and my happiness. Instead I had been filled with depression, mental pain, suicidal thoughts and idealization, and a darkness I could not escape. Now for the first time in a very long time I had hope and was living life using the techniques I was taught at Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Clinic. After my four-week stay at PRC, I was referred to the Mayo...

The effect of strategic memory training in older adults: who benefits most?

In total, 44 older adults (60-83 years) participated in a strategic memory training. We examined memory training benefits by measuring changes in memory practiced (word list learning) and non-practiced tasks (grocery list and associative learning). In addition, a battery of cognitive measures was administered in order to assess crystallized and fluid abilities, short-term memory, working memory, and processing speed. Results confirmed the efficacy of the training in improving performance in both practiced and non-practiced memory tasks. For the practiced memory tasks, results showed that memory baseline performance and crystallized ability predicted training gains. For the non-practiced memory tasks, analyses showed that memory baseline performance was a significant predictor of gain in the grocery list learning task. For the associative learning task, the significant predictors were memory baseline performance, processing speed, and marginally the age. Our results indicate that older adults with a higher baseline memory capacity and with more efficient cognitive resources were those who tended to benefit most from the training. The present study provides new avenues in designing personalized intervention according to the older adults' cognitive profile.

Maternal Writing Support for Kindergartners With Cerebral Palsy and Its Relations to Early Literacy Skills

Twenty kindergartners (eight boys) with cerebral palsy (CP) and their mothers engaged in a writing activity that required dyads to compose a grocery list containing four items together. Maternal writing supports were observed, including graphophonemic mediation (i.e., support for letter–sound correspondence) and printing mediation (i.e., guidance on letter choice and form). Mothers described their home literacy practices, and children’s early literacy skills were assessed. Mothers reported engaging in many literacy activities with their children. They also provided variable levels of printing mediation, low levels of graphophonemic mediation, rarely corrected children’s writing errors, and frequently provided physical supports to children during the writing activity. Mothers’ reported literacy activities at home as well the ways in which they helped children choose letters were strongly related to children’s literacy skills. Findings suggest that mothers can bolster their children’s literacy skills through carefully orchestrated writing activities when children have CP.

Possibilities of using beacons in advertising

Beacon is a device, that broadcasts its identifier via Bluetooth Low Energy signal to nearby mobile devices, like smartphones or tablets. A special application installed on user’s device serves additional functionalities, that improves general user experience. This technology allows companies to develop advanced systems, that can enhance and support advertising campaigns of products and services. In this paper there is a description of the prototype of the system supporting selling special strategy for a large retail store. This strategy, called webrooming, is based on the assumption, that user is choosing the products via special webpage, and afterwards collects the order on-site, at the store. The mobile part of the system is supporting the user in creating shopping lists, showing the nearest products during shopping trip and by path optimization based on mobile agents’ signal. The impact of distance and Wi-Fi network on operation of application was tested.

A pilot evaluation of a computer-based psychometric test battery designed to detect impairment in patients with cirrhosis.

BackgroundPsychometric testing is used to identify patients with cirrhosis who have developed hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Most batteries consist of a series of paper-and-pencil tests, which are cumbersome for most clinicians. A modern, easy-to-use, computer-based battery would be a helpful clinical tool, given that in its minimal form, HE has an impact on both patients’ quality of life and the ability to drive and operate machinery (with societal consequences).AimWe compared the Cogstate™ computer battery testing with the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) tests, with a view to simplify the diagnosis.MethodsThis was a prospective study of 27 patients with histologically proven cirrhosis. An analysis of psychometric testing was performed using accuracy of task performance and speed of completion as primary variables to create a correlation matrix. A stepwise linear regression analysis was performed with backward elimination, using analysis of variance.ResultsStrong correlations were found between the international shopping list, international shopping list delayed recall of Cogstate and the PHES digit symbol test. The Shopping List Tasks were the only tasks that consistently had P values of <0.05 in the linear regression analysis.ConclusionSubtests of the Cogstate battery correlated very strongly with the digit symbol component of PHES in discriminating severity of HE. These findings would indicate that components of the current PHES battery with the international shopping list tasks of Cogstate would be discriminant and have the potential to be used easily in clinical practice.

Lost in the supermarket: Quantifying the cost of partitioning memory sets in hybrid search.

The items on a memorized grocery list are not relevant in every aisle; for example, it is useless to search for the cabbage in the cereal aisle. It might be beneficial if one could mentally partition the list so only the relevant subset was active, so that vegetables would be activated in the produce section. In four experiments, we explored observers' abilities to partition memory searches. For example, if observers held 16 items in memory, but only eight of the items were relevant, would response times resemble a search through eight or 16 items? In Experiments 1a and 1b, observers were not faster for the partition set; however, they suffered relatively small deficits when "lures" (items from the irrelevant subset) were presented, indicating that they were aware of the partition. In Experiment 2 the partitions were based on semantic distinctions, and again, observers were unable to restrict search to the relevant items. In Experiments 3a and 3b, observers attempted to remove items from the list one trial at a time but did not speed up over the course of a block, indicating that they also could not limit their memory searches. Finally, Experiments 4a, 4b, 4c, and 4d showed that observers were able to limit their memory searches when a subset was relevant for a run of trials. Overall, observers appear to be unable or unwilling to partition memory sets from trial to trial, yet they are capable of restricting search to a memory subset that remains relevant for several trials. This pattern is consistent with a cost to switching between currently relevant memory items.

Promoting Literacy With Self-Created Grocery Lists on Mobile Devices

Four middle school students with a developmental disability participated in a multiple probe design across students and replicated across conditions study to evaluate the effectiveness of constant time delay to teach them to create a grocery list on an iPad or iPod touch. The classroom teacher collected data on the percentage of items independently added to their electronic list and generalization measures to longer lists with novel items and using a different device. In addition, she administered a pre- and posttest on reading the list of items. Students learned to create their grocery list in seven to 16 sessions while generalization data varied. Reading scores increased from 45% to 56% points. Students expressed their device preference at the end of the study.

Using a Grocery List is Associated with Higher Diet Quality but not BMI in Parents of School-Aged Children

Define the association between grocery list use, diet quality and weight status among parents of school-aged children. Parents (n=356) of children participating in Fuel for Fun, a school-based culinary and physical activity intervention, completed online, tested surveys on BMI, socio-demographics and eating behaviors. A subset (n=83) completed ASA24 dietary assessment to obtain Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Participants who shopped with a grocery list “most of the time” or “almost always” were dichotomized versus those responding “sometimes/seldom/do not do”. Chi-square and independent samples t-tests compared differences in socio-demographics, eating behavior, HEI and BMI by grocery list use. Linear regression models measured the association between shopping with a list and HEI or BMI controlling for covariates. Parents (mean age 38.0 ± 6.5 y) were mostly white (90%), female (87%), and highly educated. BMI was overweight/obese for 42%. Total HEI (scored 0-100) ranged from 22.0 - 77.4, mean 55.4 ± 12.4 SD; grocery list users reported higher HEI (n=62, mean 57.8± 11.9 SD) relative to non-users (n=20, mean 48.0± 11.1 SD, p=0.002). No difference in mean BMI by use of grocery list was noted (p=0.10). Covariate-adjusted regression model indicated total HEI was higher among participants who consistently used a grocery list by 7.9 points (p=0.02), but use of a grocery list was not associated with BMI (p=0.79). Consistent use of a grocery list was associated with a higher dietary quality, but not BMI. Adopting routine use of grocery lists appears to be a feasible, low-tech, no-cost approach to higher dietary quality.

Estimating store choices with endogenous shopping bundles and price uncertainty

We develop a structural model of retail store choices for which household shopping plans and price beliefs are endogenously determined. In our model individual households make their store choices based on their expected basket costs, which are determined by their shopping plans and price beliefs. Previous studies use realized purchases as a proxy for unobserved shopping lists and also assume homogenous price expectation across all households over the entire sample period. Our approach improves the measures of expected basket costs by estimating intended shopping lists of households using a duration model and also by constructing household-, time-, store-, and goods-specific price expectations. In our empirical application using a scanner data set, we find that the store choices become significantly more elastic to prices when the correction is applied.

Captions and the Cooking Show

While the television cooking genre has evolved in numerous ways to withstand competition and become a constant feature in television programming (Collins and College), it has been argued that audience demand for televisual cooking has always been high because of the daily importance of cooking (Hamada, “Multimedia Integration”). Early cooking shows were characterised by an instructional discourse, before quickly embracing an entertainment focus; modern cooking shows take on a more competitive, out of the kitchen focus (Collins and College). The genre has continued to evolve, with celebrity chefs and ordinary people embracing transmedia affordances to return to the instructional focus of the early cooking shows. While the television cooking show is recognised for its broad cultural impacts related to gender (Ouellette and Hay), cultural capital (Ibrahim; Oren), television formatting (Oren), and even communication itself (Matwick and Matwick), its role in the widespread adoption of television captions is significantly underexplored. Even the fact that a cooking show was the first ever program captioned on American television is almost completely unremarked within cooking show histories and literature.

Using the Vape Shop Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (V-STARS) to Assess Product Availability, Price Promotions, and Messaging in New Hampshire Vape Shop Retailers.

This is the first statewide census of the product availability, price promotions, and product messaging of vape shops. A comprehensive list of New Hampshire vape shops was developed through a previously validated online search method. Store audits were conducted in 55 stores between January and February 2016 using the Vape Shop Standardized Tobacco Assessment for Retail Settings (V-STARS). Modifiable devices and cig-alikes were sold in 92.6% and 14.6% of stores, respectively. Cross-product promotions with tobacco products were rare, and messaging promoting e-cigarettes as effective cessation devices was found in 27.3% of all stores. Candy/fruit and menthol e-liquids were most commonly found in stores, and sampling of products was available in 83.6% of stores. Ten (18.2%) stores did not have a minimum age sign posted, and self-service sampling displays were available in about one-fifth of stores. Using V-STARS to conduct retail assessments of vape shops is feasible and is important for assessing the changing retail environment of vape shops. Vape shops distinguish themselves from traditional tobacco product retailers and offer a variety of products to customize a consumer's experience. Regulations and effective enforcement ensuring accurate health messages is essential.

Supermarket suggested shopping lists (SSSL), promotions and grocery purchases

This study examines the effect of providing or not providing millennial consumers with a supermarket suggested shopping list (SSSL). At the same time, it tests the effect of providing consumers with a large number of in-store promotions versus no promotions. The study also assesses the moderating effect of price concerns on both expenditure and the satisfaction attained after a shopping trip. The results of an experimental design with 240 subjects in a simulated supermarket setting show that SSSL users spend less, and that heavy supermarket promotions increase purchases. However, if an SSSL is provided while products are highly promoted, this decreases consumer satisfaction. Offering consumer promotions to millennials without providing an SSSL results in the highest level of store sales. Findings of this study will be of interest to retailers willing to offer a shopping list service to supermarket customers with the purpose of increasing loyalty.

Household food waste in Greece: A questionnaire survey

The challenge of reducing Food Waste (FW) is a complex social, economic and environmental problem. Fortunately, the realization of FWs huge negative impact on society has triggered –in the last five years-a positive turn of focus towards the development of a common understanding of the phenomenon, the identification of its root causes and the initiation of coordinated actions to increase citizen awareness and mitigate negative consequences of FW at all levels of the food supply chain. This paper focuses on the last downstream tier of the food supply chain, i.e. the households, which are reported in literature as being responsible for eight times the energy waste of post-harvest losses on average due to the energy consumed along the supply chain and in food preparation. This study attempts to investigate the effects of shopping habits, like promotional intensive shopping and using shopping lists and eating preferences, like cooking, eating out or ordering in, on food waste generation. In doing so, the results of a survey of 500 Greek households are presented, showing that indeed, household behaviours towards shopping and eating are important food waste determinants and should not be underestimated. Furthermore, the results of this study highlight the need for more research targeted in this area, with the objective to increase consumers' awareness and problem comprehension, enhance their commitment and create the necessary environment for triggering meaningful behavioral changes capable of creating long-term and sustainable results.

A Pilot Evaluation of a Computer-Based Psychometric Test Battery Designed to Detect Impairment in Patients With Cirrhosis

Background: Psychometric testing is used to identify patients with cirrhosis who have developed hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Most batteries consist of a series of paper-and-pencil tests, which are cumbersome for most clinicians. A modern, easy-to-use, computer-based battery would be a helpful clinical tool, given that in its minimal form, HE has an impact on both patients quality of life and the ability to drive and operate machinery (with societal consequences). Aim: We compared the Cogstate computer battery testing with the Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) tests, with a view to simplify the diagnosis. Methods: This was a prospective study of 27 patients with histologically proven cirrhosis. An analysis of psychometric testing was performed using accuracy of task performance and speed of completion as primary variables to create a correlation matrix. A stepwise linear regression analysis was performed with backward elimination, using analysis of variance. Results: Strong correlations were found between the international shopping list, international shopping list delayed recall of Cogstate and the PHES digit symbol test. The Shopping List Tasks were the only tasks that consistently had P values of <0.05 in the linear regression analysis. Conclusion: Subtests of the Cogstate battery correlated very strongly with the digit symbol component of PHES in discriminating severity of HE. These findings would indicate that components of the current PHES battery with the international shopping list tasks of Cogstate would be discriminant and have the potential to be used easily in clinical practice.

Development and Evaluation of a Nutritional Smartphone Application for Making Smart and Healthy Choices in Grocery Shopping

ObjectivesThis study developed a smartphone nutritional application (app) for making smart and healthy choices when purchasing food in grocery stores and tested its feasibility, usability, satisfaction and acceptability.Methods“MyNutriCart” was developed following the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model. The goals of the app were to improve food selection when purchasing foods in the grocery stores based on a pre-defined budget, to improve dietary patterns based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and to improve weight status. It was evaluated within a pilot randomized trial using a convenient sample of 26 overweight or obese adults aged 21–45 years for 8 weeks.ResultsThe developed app provided a grocery list of healthy foods to meet the individual requirements of all family members within a budget following the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The average use of the app was 75% on each purchase and only 37% of the recommended products were purchased. The main reasons for not purchasing the recommended items were that participants did not like these (28.5%) and that the item was unavailable in the supermarket (24.3%). Over 50% of participants considered the app as feasible, usable, satisfactory, and acceptable (p < 0.05).Conclusions“MyNutriCart” is the first available app for making smart and healthy choices when purchasing food in grocery stores. This app could be used as a tool to translate recommendations into a practical grocery list that meet the needs of a family within a budget.

Back to Hobbes?

Back to Hobbes?

Food-related behavior and intake of adult main meal preparers of 9–10 year-old children participating in iCook 4-H: A five-state childhood obesity prevention pilot study

It is important to understand adult outcomes in childhood obesity prevention programs as parents and caregivers have a significant influence on the eating and physical activity habits of youth. Grounded in the social cognitive theory, the iCook 4-H study was centered on a dyad model (9–10 year-olds and their primary meal preparers) to teach healthy cooking skills, shopping and meal habits, and being active as a family. The program took place in five states and dyads (n = 54) were recruited through flyers, e-mails, and in-person contact. The focus of this article is to provide findings from adult program participants. Demographics and self-reported food intake, procurement, preparation and safety practices, feeding relationships, mealtime routines, and height and weight were collected through surveys at baseline and program completion, which spanned 3 months. Descriptive statistics including two-related samples tests and paired samples t tests were used to assess pre- and post-program survey data responses at p < 0.05 significance level. Most had a bachelor's degree (31%) or some college (29%), about half were white, 66% were married, about 30% of households participated in assistance programs, and 82% were female. At program conclusion, participants significantly improved meal planning, prioritizing healthy meal choices, shopping with a grocery list, and reading Nutrition Facts Labels. There were also significant, positive differences noted in cooking skill confidence (p = 0.015), desire to cook more meals at home, and fewer fast food meals. Adult-youth feeding interactions also significantly improved. There were also significant increases in fruit juice (100%), vegetable soup, and whole grain consumption. Based on results, adults reported improvements in meal planning, cooking, and purchasing skills that were taught in classes.

The Effects of Benefit Timing and Income Fungibility on Food Purchasing Decisions among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the largest nutritional safety net in the United States. Prior research has found that participants have higher consumption shortly after receiving their benefits, followed by lower consumption towards the end of the benefit month. Known as the “SNAP benefit cycle,” this consumption pattern has been found to have negative effects on beneficiaries. We hypothesize two behavioral responses of SNAP participants may work in tandem to drive much of the cycle: (1) short‐run impatience—a higher preference to consume today, and (2) fungibility of income—the degree of substitutability between a SNAP dollar and a cash dollar. Using data from the National Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), a newly developed nationally representative survey of daily food acquisitions by SNAP households, we find evidence of both behavioral responses. However, the degree of short‐run impatience and fungibility of income is found to differ significantly across poverty levels and use of grocery lists to plan food purchases. SNAP households could gain from food purchase planning education.

Mobile app-etite: Consumer attitudes towards and use of mobile technology in the context of eating behaviour

Understanding how consumers use mobile devices and mobile applications to support their eating behaviour, such as creating grocery lists, gathering meal ideas and ordering food from restaurants, is important for business, marketing and health professionals who seek to reach consumers through mobile technology. This study identified segments of users and non-users of food-related technology and described differences in their demographic characteristics, food-related app use and interest in food-related app functionality. Results revealed that 22 per cent of participants were highly engaged with technology and food, while just 12 per cent were disengaged from both. The remaining two-thirds of participants were evenly split between those who were engaged with technology and food generally but were ambivalent about food-related apps, and those who were utilitarian in their approach to food and disengaged from food-related apps. There were segment differences based on age such that younger adults (ages 18–34) were more likely to be engaged with technology and food than older adults (ages 55+). Technology and food-engaged segments reported the highest levels of use of select food-related apps, but even well-known apps were not highly used, indicating room for market expansion. Findings are discussed in the context of app development, digital advertising and nutritional health interventions.

The rise and fall of hybrid visual and memory search

In hybrid search, observers search through arrays of visually presented items for any of a set of targets held in memory; think of looking on a store shelf for items on your grocery list, searching luggage x-rays for potential banned items, or chest x-rays for signs of cancer. As the size of the memory sets used in hybrid search increased, descriptions of the RT by set size function moved from linear (Shiffrin & Schneider, 1977) to logarithmic (Wolfe, 2012). In order to study hybrid search at larger set sizes, with greater resolution, and as a function of expertise, I utilized the Airport Scanner (Kedlin Co., www.airportscannergame.com) dataset (see Mitroff and Biggs 2014). Airport Scanner is a game for mobile devices, which simulates searching through baggage x-rays for threats under time constraints. Players move through five ranks as they acquire game expertise, from Trainee to Elite. Critically, new items are added to the list of potential threats as the game progresses. Eliminating trainees to reduce potential learning effects, I analyzed only trials (bags) with a single target. This left 3,491,664 trials from 18,595 players. Memory set size(potential threats) ranged from 3 to 155 items. Visual set size had no influence on performance. For set sizes from 6-12, the logarithmic relationship held. However, across the full range of set sizes, at all expertise levels, reaction time was best described as a quadratic, rather than logarithmic, function of set size. For the low expertise groups, the curve opened upward, while at high expertise, it opened downward. These data suggest that encoding and retrieval strategies in hybrid search change in a complex fashion as the size of the memory set increases, and as observers gain more expertise with the task. Models developed for small set sizes may not generalize to realistically large set sizes. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015. Language: en