Identifying Perspectives About Health to Orient Obesity Intervention Among Urban, Transitionally Housed Indigenous Children

Drawing from a socioecological framework of health, this community-based participatory research study examined key cultural health perspectives of transitionally housed, food insecure Indigenous children (aged 8-12 years) by utilizing talking circles and a 4-day photovoice (PV) curriculum. In total, 18 Indigenous children portrayed their health perceptions by taking photographs of their living environment and categorizing photos as healthy, unhealthy, or mixed. And, 10 of the 18 children completed pre- and post-evaluations, where data elucidated that urban Indigenous children experiencing food and housing insecurity demonstrate unique holistic and socioecological perceptions about health. Healthy themes included nutrition, gardening, interpersonal relationships, food sovereignty, water quality, and natural and built environments. Unhealthy themes included cumulative stress, food insecurity, access and cost, screen time, smoking, and violence. We found that implementing these robust insights into urban Indigenous obesity prevention interventions could significantly drive success. This approach may benefit children with similar socioecological strengths and vulnerabilities.

Rapidly expanding pigmented lesion of the buccal mucosa

A case of oral melanoacanthoma was presented. The differential diagnosis of pigmented lesions of the oral mucous membrane includes a wide variety of categories of disease including local and systemic manifestations of hereditary and developmental conditions, reactive and inflammatory lesions, neoplasms, and metabolic diseases. For some of these lesions the histopathological pattern is diagnostic; for others, the tissue structure and organization are nonspecific and intelligent evaluation requires clinicopathological correlation. This discussion of oral mucosal pigmented lesions emphasizes the importance of the clinical parameters in the differential diagnosis of this group of lesions.