Background: Child malnutrition persists globally with men and women playing distinct roles to support children’s nutrition. Women frequently carry the bulk of the workload related to food, care, and health, all of which are critical factors in child nutrition. For this reason, development efforts have emphasised women ignoring the potential role of men in supporting children’s nutrition. This study sought to understand the different roles that Malawian men and women play in children’s nutrition. Methods: This qualitative was conducted in rural Central Malawi as part of a baseline study in 2017 for the CARE Southern Africa Nutrition Initiative. Seventy-six participants were interviewed, including 19 men and 57 women, using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. We sought to understand the gender distribution of men’s and women’s roles and how these roles influence child nutrition. Results: We found that both men and women were involved in productive, reproductive, and community work. However, consistent with the literature, women carried a disproportionate workload in supporting child nutrition compared to men. Women’s heavier workloads often prevented them from being able to meet children’s food needs. Nevertheless, shifts in gender roles were observed in some of the sampled communities, with men taking up responsibilities that have been typically associated with women. These changes in gender roles, however, did not necessarily increase women’s power within the household. Conclusions: Traditional gender roles remain prevalent in the sampled communities. Women continue to be primarily responsible for the food, care, and health of the household. Women’s heavy workloads prevent them from providing optimal care and nutrition for children. While efforts to advance gender equality by encouraging men to participate in child care and other household responsibilities appear to have had marginal success, the extent to which these efforts have successfully encouraged men to share power remains unclear. Improving gender equality and child nutrition will require efforts to redistribute gendered work and encourage men to move towards shared power with women over household decision-making and control over income.

Most low-income Americans fail to meet physical activity recommendations. Inactivity and poor diet contribute to obesity, a risk factor for multiple chronic diseases. Health promotion activities have the potential to improve health outcomes for low-income populations. Measuring the effectiveness of these activities, however, can be challenging in community settings. A “Biking for Health” study tested the impact of a bicycling intervention on overweight or obese low-income Latino and African American adults to reduce barriers to cycling and increase physical activity and fitness. A randomized controlled trial was conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in summer 2015. A 12-week bicycling intervention was implemented at two sites with low-income, overweight, or obese Latino and African American adults. We found that randomized controlled trial methodology was suboptimal for use in this small pilot study and that it negatively affected participation. More discussion is needed about the effectiveness of using traditional research methods in community settings to assess the effectiveness of health promotion interventions. Modifications or alternative methods may yield better results. The aim of this article is to discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of using traditional research methods to assess health promotion interventions in community-based settings.

Since 2012, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) faculty from nursing and physical therapy (PT) have been working together towards a common goal: to meet the healthcare needs of vulnerable populations in Malawi and Milwaukee. Sharing valuable knowledge and understanding one another's professions have allowed us to develop interprofessional education (IPE) learning experiences for students to help identify how quality of life could be improved or enhanced for children and their families across two different geographic spaces, one in rural Malawi and the other in urban Milwaukee. IPE learning modules were implemented in UWM's community health-focused short-term study abroad programmes to Malawi. IPE learning modules were also piloted at one of UWM's nurse-managed community health centres, located in a low-income, African American community in the inner city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Based on survey data collected from 10 participating IPE students in Milwaukee, from nursing, occupational therapy, PT, and speech and language pathology, a pilot study yielded a statistically significant change in a positive direction for increased understanding of three interprofessional collaborative practice core competencies: values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, and teams and teamwork. In this article, we discuss the processes used to develop, implement, and evaluate IPE experiences for UWM students, which may enable other professionals to envision the various projects they can embark upon from an interprofessional perspective.

The purpose of this theoretical article is to analyze the utility of postcolonial and Indigenous feminist frameworks in informing nursing research and practice specific to addressing intimate partner violence (IPV) in the lives of Indigenous women. Prevailing feminist narratives of the 20th century focused overwhelmingly on patriarchy as the sole source of oppression against women and root cause of IPV. These narratives failed to consider the complex historical ways in which patriarchy intersected with colonialism and racism to produce violence, affecting the contemporary realities of Indigenous women. In contrast, postcolonial and Indigenous feminist frameworks consider the colonial history that has disempowered Indigenous women and their nations over centuries of settler occupation. Situating IPV within historical, legal, social, and political contexts can unmask how current research and health care discourses may continue to constrain, rather than improve, access, care, and services for Indigenous victims of IPV.