Southwest Harvest for Health: Adapting a mentored vegetable gardening intervention for cancer survivors in the southwest

Few diet and physical activity evidence-based interventions have been routinely used in community settings to achieve population health outcomes. Adapting interventions to fit the implementation context is important to achieve the desired results. Harvest for Health is a home-based vegetable gardening intervention that pairs cancer survivors with certified Master Gardeners from the Cooperative Extension Service with the ultimate goal of increasing vegetable consumption and physical activity, and improving physical functioning and health-related quality-of-life. Harvest for Health has potential for widespread dissemination since Master Gardener Programs exist throughout the United States. However, state- and population-specific adaptations may be needed to improve intervention adoption by other Master Gardener Programs. Our primary objective was to adapt this evidence-informed intervention that was initially incepted in Alabama, for the drastically different climate and growing conditions of New Mexico using a recommended adaptation framework. Our secondary objective was to develop a study protocol to support a pilot test of the adapted intervention, Southwest Harvest for Health. The adaptation phase is a critical first step towards widespread dissemination, implementation, and scale-out of an evidence-based intervention. This paper describes the adaptation process and outcomes, and the resulting protocol for the ongoing pilot study that is currently following 30 cancer survivors and their paired Extension Master Gardener mentors.

Effects of intermittent and continuous subchronic administration of raclopride on motor activity, dopamine turnover and receptor occupancy in the rat

With the purpose of finding means to circumvent the marked pharmacokinetic differences of raclopride between rats and man, the effects of intermittent and continuous administration of raclopride were compared in rats. Intermittent administration of raclopride via subcutaneous injections resulted in a prompt increase of dopamine (DA) turnover and decrease of motor activity but these effects were of short duration, probably due to rapidly decreasing raclopride DA D2 receptor occupancy. In contrast, but similar to schizophrenic patients on raclopride treatment, stable plasma raclopride levels and a steady DA D2 receptor occupancy above 70% were produced in the caudate-putamen and nucleus accumbens/olfactory tubercle, when raclopride was administered continuously via minipumps at daily doses above 2 mg/kg. Tolerance to the acute effects of raclopride on DA turnover and locomotion was found with both routes of administration but it was more marked with continuous administration. At continuous raclopride administration, tolerance to the effects of raclopride on DA turnover and spontaneous motor activity as well as supersensitivity to amphetamine-induced motor activity occurred when 70% or more of DA D2 receptor sites were occupied, i.e. the same degree of receptor occupancy as found in patients given therapeutic doses of raclopride.