Ellisa Lisako Mckyer

• Ph.D., MPH, FAAHB
• Professor (Full) at Texas A&M University

Background: Syndemics or synergies of cooccurring epidemics are widely studied across health and social sciences in recent years. Methods: We conducted a meta-knowledge analysis of articles published between 2001 to 2020 in this growing field of academic scholarship. Results: We found a total of 830 articles authored by 3025 authors, mostly from hi...

Background Stakeholders from multiple sectors are increasingly aware of the critical need for identifying sustainable interventions that promote healthy lifestyle behaviors. Activity-friendly communities (AFCs) have been known to provide opportunities for engaging in physical activity (PA) across the life course, which is a key to healthy living an...

Students who are parents in higher education (HE) in the United States encounter competing demands and challenges while navigating multiple roles as parents, students, and employees. These challenges are multi-faceted and can hinder their degree attainment. Using the socio-ecological model, we systematically summarised existing literature published...

Malnutrition is a major public health concern in Niger. The stunting rate in children in Niger is over 50%, one of the highest in the world. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine children's dietary diversity (CDD) and the maternal factors that impact CDD. A total of 1265 mother-child pairs were analyzed. Descriptive analysis was...

Syndemics or synergies of cooccurring epidemics are widely studies across health and social sciences in recent years. We conducted a meta-knowledge analysis of articles published between 2001 to 2020 in this growing field of academic scholarship. We found a total of 830 articles authored by 3025 authors, mostly from high-income countries. Publicati...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted biopsychosocial health and wellbeing globally. Pre-pandemic studies suggest a high prevalence of common mental disorders, including anxiety and depression in South Asian countries, which may aggravate during this pandemic. This systematic meta-analytic review was conducted to estimate the pooled preva...

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted biopsychosocial health and wellbeing globally. Pre-pandemic studies suggest a high prevalence of common mental disorders, including anxiety and depression in South Asian countries, which may aggravate during this pandemic. This systematic meta-analytic review was conducted to estimate the pooled prev...

Background A growing burden of mental health problems has become a global concern amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Sleep disorders are major mental health problems associated with increased psychosocial stressors; however, no research synthesis is available on the epidemiology of it. In this systematic scoping review, we aimed to a...

Introduction: Forced-response in Internet-based surveys is one solution to item nonresponse in population science research, but forced-response can inflate dropout rate and introduce bias. As a result, forced-response has been described as a trade-off between data quantity and data quality. Studies have examined the effect of forced-response in sub...

Background: The purpose of the Texas!Grow!Eat!Go! (TGEG) study was to assess individual and combined effects of school-based gardening and physical activity (PA) interventions on children's eating and PA behaviors and obesity status. Methods: Using a 2 × 2 design, 28 low-income schools in Texas were randomized to 1 of 4 conditions: (1) School Gard...

COVID-19 pandemic is affecting mental health and wellbeing across populations. The continued burden of psychosocial stressors in different contexts necessitates multipronged interventions that address mental health problems and associated disparities. Global evidence suggests that social capital plays a critical role in determining mental health ou...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected health systems globally with a growing need for hospital beds and other institutional resources. Older adults are highly vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and associated adverse outcomes, whereas they often experience chronic diseases requiring institutional care. Hospital at home (HAH) is a s...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted mental health globally. It is essential to deploy advanced research methodologies that may use complex data to draw meaningful inferences facilitating mental health research and policymaking during this pandemic. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies offer a wide range of opportunities to...

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic affecting health and wellbeing globally. In addition to the physical health, economic, and social implications, the psychological impacts of this pandemic are increasingly being reported in the scientific literature. This narrative review reflected on scholarly articles on the epid...

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted health and wellbeing globally. To strengthen preventive and clinical care amid this pandemic, technological innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly used in different contexts. This bibliometric study aimed to assess the current scholarly development and prominent...

Introduction: Health literacy (HL) has been identified as a significant predictor of outcomes across the health continuum, including cancer care. As a result it is recommended that all health professionals receive health literacy training. Some institutions have begun integrating health literacy into training programs, but there is a dearth of reli...

Background Homelessness is a major problem that critically impacts the mental health and well-being of the affected individuals. This umbrella review aimed to evaluate the current evidence on the prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people from evidence-based systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Methods We followed the Preferred Reportin...

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a pandemic affecting health and wellbeing globally. In addition to the physical health, economic, and social implications, the psychological impacts of this pandemic are increasingly being reported in the scientific literature. This narrative review reflected on scholarly articles on the epidemiol...

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is impacting human health globally. In addition to physical health problems, a growing burden of mental health problems has become a global concern amid this pandemic. Sleep disorders are major mental health problems associated with increased psychosocial stressors; however, no research synthesis is av...

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is critically impacting health and wellbeing around the world. In addition to physical health problems, COVID-19 is increasingly reported to be associated with mental health problems across populations. Evidence from the current pandemic and earlier infectious disease outbreaks suggests that several...

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has impacted not only physical health but also mental health and wellbeing globally. These impacts can be critically higher among marginalized individuals and populations like farmers in India. While most of them live in poor socioeconomic conditions, recent psychosocial challenges due to the COVID-19 lockdown had...

p> Introduction: Loneliness is a critical psychosocial problem that affects mental health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities. This systematic review synthesized the current evidence on the prevalence and correlates of loneliness from empirical studies conducted in India. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemati...

Introduction: Loneliness is a critical psychosocial problem that affects mental health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities. This systematic review synthesized the current evidence on the prevalence and correlates of loneliness from empirical studies conducted in India. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Revi...

p>With ever-increasing prevalence of various mental disorders worldwide, a comprehensive evaluation of the prevalence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is needed to strengthen the knowledge base. This umbrella review aims to summarize the current evidence on the prevalence of comorbid psychi...

Mental disorders are highly prevalent in eight South Asian countries, yet there is a gap of a synthesized overview of the prevalence of mental disorders in this region. This umbrella review aims to summarize the prevalence of mental disorders from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of South Asian studies. A systematic search of 11 major databases...

With ever-increasing prevalence of various mental disorders worldwide, a comprehensive evaluation of the prevalence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is needed to strengthen the knowledge base. This umbrella review aims to summarize the current evidence on the prevalence of comorbid psychiat...

Introduction: Homelessness is a major problem that critically impacts the mental health and wellbeing of the affected individuals. This umbrella review aimed to evaluate the current evidence on the prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people from evidence-based systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Methods: We followed the Preferred Report...

Objectives: Mental disorders are highly prevalent in eight South Asian countries, yet there is a gap of a synthesized overview of the prevalence of mental disorders in this region. This umbrella review aims to summarize the prevalence of mental disorders from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of South Asian studies. Materials and methods: A syst...

p> Introduction: Loneliness is a psychosocial problem that affects mental health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities. This systematic review synthesized the current evidence on the status and correlates of loneliness from empirical studies conducted in India. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and...

p> Introduction: Loneliness is a psychosocial problem that affects mental health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the current evidence on the status and correlates of loneliness from empirical studies conducted in India. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Revi...

With ever-increasing prevalence of various mental disorders worldwide, a comprehensive evaluation of the prevalence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is needed to strengthen the knowledge base. This umbrella review aims to summarize the current evidence on the prevalence of comorbid psychiat...

p>With ever-increasing prevalence of various mental disorders worldwide, a comprehensive evaluation of the prevalence of co-occurring psychiatric disorders among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is needed to strengthen the knowledge base. This umbrella review aims to summarize the current evidence on the prevalence of comorbid psychi...

Poverty status influences obesity and dietary quality, and dietary quality influences obesity. How these relationships differ by sex is unclear. The current study aims were to 1) determine whether dietary quality mediates the relation between income-to-poverty ratio (IPR) and overweight/obesity (OV/OB) among men and women, separately, and 2) determ...

Background Patient reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is low in low- and middle-income countries, in part because of poor awareness to report. With the increase in mobile subscription, mobile phones can be used as a platform to disseminate information on ADRs. The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the potential of using mobile p...

This study assessed the prevalence of verbally being put down by others and intrapersonal and normative factors associated with being put down by others among middle and high school students. Students ( N = 1,027) completed the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Survey. Over 16% of participants reported being put down at school. Students who identifie...

Sharing of physical activity spaces is supported by the American Heart Association and other leading public health authorities as one strategy to increase access to physical activity. The purpose of this study was to identify facilities within Pasadena, TX, that currently provide opportunities for active recreation, sport, and other forms of physic...

Background Mobile health (m-Health) involves public health initiatives that are increasingly being used as a part of public health interventions; including promoting physical activity. However, little attention has been given to measuring the effect of a m-Health intervention programs on body weight, body mass index (BMI) and the specific lifestyle...

Background and Purpose. The American Heart Association recommends community-based research on shared use of physical activity (PA) spaces. Pasadena, a community in southeast Houston, Texas with lower socioeconomic status and racial/ethnic diversity, was the setting for our study. Efforts to increase access to PA in Pasadena include building the evi...

BACKGROUND About one third of youth in the United States are overweight or obese and African American youth are at an increased risk for pediatric overweight and obesity as well as their complications. Physical activity has been identified as one determinant of overweight and obesity, and school bullying has been found to be associated with decreas...

Objective The purpose of this review is to uncover some best practices for increasing access to physical activity opportunities by examining efforts used within low income and diverse communities. The theoretical lens used is from the Active Living by Design (ALbD) Community Action Model, with a focus on the 6 essential practices (health equity foc...

For health behavior researchers, using a health equity lens requires us to more expressly consider multiple contexts in understanding and intervening to improve health-related behaviors and reduce disparities in outcomes. The results of such studies are critical to advancing our knowledge base, and for making meaningful progress toward optimal heal...

Introduction. Limited health literacy challenges health care and perpetuates health disparities. Health agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization, have recommended health literacy training for all health professionals, but little is known about the health literacy competence of health educa...

Background: Rates of human papillomavirus virus (HPV) and HPV-related cancers are higher among immigrants, especially those from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Limited health literacy is also more prevalent among immigrant groups. While education is central to HPV prevention and reduction, there is a dearth of research on health educator...

BACKGROUND Although the influence of organizational culture has been examined on a variety of student outcomes, few studies consider the influence that culture may have on school‐based obesity prevention interventions. We present a systematic review of the literature to examine how elements of organizational culture may affect the adoption, impleme...

Background: Limited English proficiency compounds the problem of low health literacy, making certain population groups in the United States especially vulnerable to health disparities. Objective: This study clarified the mechanisms underlying low health literacy among people with limited English proficiency using a modified theory-based health l...

Objective Due to the disproportionately high rates of obesity within the US Hispanic community, there is a critical need to address this health disparity issue. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between parents’ socio-demographic characteristics and their children’s food consumption. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Partic...

Introduction As physical performance may be more difficult for overweight children than for their non-overweight peers, understanding how weight impacts student performance in the physical education (P.E.) classroom could inform school-based obesity prevention programming. Materials and methods This qualitative case study examined one elementary p...

Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the nutritional adequacy and dietary composition among women residing in Zinder and Maradi of Niger, and the factors that affect the variety of their dietary intake. Methods Data from 3360 women of ages 15–49 were used in the analysis. The variable of interest was the Women Dietary Diversity Score...

Background: Scientists have established that social networks influence adolescents' substance use behavior, an influence that varies by gender. However, the role of gender in this mechanism of influence remains poorly understood. Particularly, the role an adolescent's gender, alongside the gender composition of his/her network, plays in facilitati...

Meaningful youth engagement produces benefits both to youth and to the community in which they live. This paper discusses a day-long youth summit held for 289 middle school students. Youth attended a combination of mass and break-out sessions based on America’s Promise Five Promises. Planners and evaluators assessed proximal student outcomes throug...

While health literacy research has experienced tremendous growth in the last two decades, the field still struggles to devise interventions that lead to lasting change. Most health literacy interventions are at the individual level and focus on resolving clinician?patient communication difficulties. As a result, the interventions use a deficit mode...

Background Coordinated, multi-component school-based interventions can improve health behaviors in children, as well as parents, and impact the weight status of students. By leveraging a unique collaboration between Texas AgriLife Extension (a federal, state and county funded educational outreach organization) and the University of Texas School of...

ABSTRACT Background: Parents and teachers are important models in children’s lives, but linking nutrition and health education across home and school remains a challenge. With the high prevalence of obesity in children, school stakeholders should be engaged in the process of assessment to assist in identifying possible solutions. Methods: This stud...

INTRODUCTION: Food-preparation literacy is characterized as an individual’s ability to plan, manage, prepare and consume tasty foods. There are complex and simple food preparation. At the simple level, processed and fast foods are often consumed compare to complex that uses raw ingredients to produce a complete food product or meal. Food-preparatio...

Background: The TEXAS! GROW! EAT! GO! (TGEG) randomized, control trial is a 5-year study to measure the impact of a nutrition and gardening intervention and/or physical activity (PA) intervention on the weight status of third-grade students. This article describes the results of the pilot study to test the feasibility of two interventions and test...

Background: African-American Men experience higher rates of serious complications of diabetes, due in part to poor disease management. Yet it is unclear to what extent research been devoted to type 2 diabetes management in this population. Purpose: A need exists to clarify the extant literature on self-care management (SCM) practices of African-Ame...

Background: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was implemented to improve the health of pregnant women and children of low socioeconomic status. In 2009, the program was revised to provide a wider variety of healthy food choices (eg, fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain items). Objectives: The...

Hispanic and Black children have significantly higher rates of obesity than their White peers. Low fruit and vegetable consumption and high sugary food intake are primary risk factors for childhood overweight and obesity. However, children innately prefer sweet tasting foods to vegetables. The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding o...

Background Genetic predisposition is a risk factor for many chronic diseases, yet little is known about the frequency in which college students seek out their family health history or with whom they communicate relevant information. Purpose This study examines motivations and barriers associated with obtaining one’s family health history and discu...

Objectives: Examine risk perceptions among overweight and obese adolescents for developing Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) compared to their peers, in adulthood and in their lifetime. Methods: Participants (N = 319) were overweight/obese college-aged students. Multiple linear regression analyses examined the predictive relationship of the independent variabl...

Objective: To examine Indiana middle and high school students' use of 17 licit and illicit substances using item response theory to produce theta scores to identify sociodemographics, psychological factors, and normative beliefs associated with life-time drug use. Methods: Cross-sectional data from 1233 students were examined. Theta scores were cal...

Objectives: This study used an ecological approach to understand the relationship between PA environment and PA behavior among rural/low-income children. Methods: Parents (N = 298) of 4th-graders completed questionnaires about their child's PA behaviors and school environment. Descriptive, bivariate, and regression analyses were conducted. Results:...

Objectives: This study investigates dietary behaviors of Asian preschoolers on Texas WIC using Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Methods: Sixty-eight Asian caregivers completed the Texas Food and Nutrition Questionnaire about themselves and their child, assessing demographics, food intake, and SCT variables. Results: Most children consumed juices, fru...

This investigation sought to identify micro-level built and sociocultural characteristics of a home food environment that have been theoretically linked with fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption. We examined rural families (n = 298) from the southeastern United States. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses determined the association between th...

Numerous studies have explored dietary practices among children, but there are limited studies on children of Asian background in the US. This review had three aims: (a) review literature regarding Asian-American youth's dietary behaviors, (b) critically evaluate the methodological quality of such research, and (c) provide recommendations for futur...

Childhood obesity has become an epidemic across all racial/ ethnic groups in the U.S., including Asian Americans. With different cultures, beliefs, and lifestyles, Asian Americans may face unique sets of risk factors for childhood obesity. This review critically assesses and summarizes the literature on risk factors for childhood obesity among Asia...

Active commuting to school (ACS) can promote children's physical activity and may help prevent childhood obesity. Previous researchers in various disciplines, e.g., health, urban planning, and transportation, have identified various predictors of ACS. However, little research has been carried out into investigating the effect of self-efficacy on AC...

Purpose: To investigate African-American fathers’ (AAF) perceptions regarding the applicability and need for their involvement as a health connection for their children and describe how participating fathers’ behavior was affected by their attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of their influence on their children’s health. Methods: This exploratory...

Adolescent health-endangering behaviors are often explained in relation to psychosocial factors. The present study examined how differing psychosocial factors affect smoking by comparing American and Japanese adolescents. Participants in this study were 844 American (374 boys, 401 girls, and 69 undefined) and 734 Japanese (426 boys, 297 girls, and...

Purpose: To explore, understand and describe the lived experience of African-American men (AA men) living with type 2 diabetes, with emphasis on capturing perceptions of challenges, facilitators and perceived barriers associated with self-care management. Materials and Methods: Participants ( n = 19) were AA men ages 35-69 years, who were diagnosed...

Background. Sedentary behavior and parenting factors are two factors that influence this trend toward obesity. However, even less is known about how the intersection of parenting influences affects child sedentary behaviors in rural communities. This study examines the relationship between parenting factors and child sedentary behaviors within the...

Background: Self-efficacy (SE) has been identified as a consistent predictor of child’s physical activity. However, the role of SE in child’s active commuting to school (ACS) remains unclear. The purposes of this study were to: 1) determine how the interplay of child SE, social factors, and environmental constraints influence child’s ACS, and 2) in...

Background: Schools are encouraged to engage parents in promoting children’s health, but the effectiveness of the relationship between the home and school is still obscure. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school take-home assignments related to physical activity and parental rules for screen time. Methods: Partic...

Objective: To test a modified integrative model (IM) in explaining parents' intention toward active commuting to school (ACS) and children's ACS. Methods: Parents of fourth graders (N = 857) completed a survey assessing factors associated with ACS. A modified IM was developed and tested using structural equation modeling. Results: The IM demonstrat...

Objectives: The overall goal of the research was to analyze health disparities and minority health academic preparation for individuals (n=90) employed within an urban health clinic. Demographic information was collected about respondents’ race, age, highest level of education and diversity training engagement. Methods: This quantitative case study...

Adolescent tobacco use is influenced by intrapersonal (e.g., impulse control) and external factors, such as behaviors of friends and peers. The relationships of these factors to smokeless tobacco (ST) use are not yet fully understood. This is especially true as it pertains to the simultaneous examination of psychological and normative perceptions....

Active commuting to school (ACS) can help increase children's physical activity level and may contribute to curbing the epidemic of childhood obesity. However, most ACS studies conducted in the United States were in White-dominated urban areas. It remains unclear what factors promote or prevent children from using ACS in minority-predominant rural...

The continued high incidence and prevalence of childhood obesity across all racial and ethnic groups in the US is a major public health issue. Although the Asian American population is perceived to be at low risk for many health issues, studies have shown that they are not immune to the obesity epidemic. As the largest subgroup within the Asian Ame...

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Objective: To identify differences in food-shopping environments of Texas WIC vendors using a culturally adapted instrument. Methods: A survey tool was developed for measuring food availability, accessibility, and affordability in 111 WIC vendors in Texas. Two-tailed t-tests and Mann-Whitney tests were used for rural/urban and Texas-Mexico border/n...

Purpose/Objectives The purpose of this study was to describe a school district's experience of implementing its School Wellness Policy (SWP) and examine school personnel's knowledge and perceptions of the SWP implementation. Methods Thirty-one school personnel from five elementary schools in a school district in Texas were recruited, including four...

The School Wellness Policy (SWP) mandate marks one of the first innovative and extensive efforts of the US government to address the child obesity epidemic and the influence of the school environment on child health. However, no systematic review has been conducted to examine the implementation of the mandate. The study examines the literature on S...

Despite myriad preventive efforts, childhood obesity rates continue to increase and disproportionately affect Mexican American children. Mothers can be very influential in preventing childhood obesity especially within the home. Home is where children first learn normative behaviors, including dietary and physical activities. Three focus groups wit...

Background: Federal guidelines recommend that children participate in > 60 minutes of physical activity (PA) every day. However, children in the US are not meeting recommendations. Children from rural/low-income communities report lower PA levels than the national average due to specific barriers (e.g., few resources, facilities). While Physical Ed...

Racial and ethnic minority health data from a national perspective indicates there is much to learn in the public health workforce about the ongoing health disparities crisis. This suggests a level of urgency to assist our public health professionals in obtaining specific skills sets that will assist them in working better with vulnerable populatio...

Purpose: Peer and social norm influences are significant health determinants of adolescent sexual activity, yet little is known about the way adolescents perceive sexual activity rates of their friends relative to peers their own age. The objectives of this study were to: (1) examine differences in perceived sexual activity rates based on proximity...