Serious mental illness (SMI) and Latino ethnicity can produce a compounded health disparity, placing individuals at particularly high risk for excess morbidity and premature mortality. Culturally sensitive strategies are needed to improve health behaviors, including exercise and healthy eating within this population. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore facilitators, barriers, and preferences for health behavior change among Latinos with SMI. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 Latinos with SMI who were enrolled in a randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of a motivational health promotion intervention, In SHAPE. The interviews explored perceived facilitators and barriers to health behavior change, focusing on the role of family, and exercise preferences. The primary facilitator identified by participants was having someone (either professional or significant other) to hold them accountable for engaging in healthy behaviors. A major barrier to making lasting health behavior change was cultural influences on food. Participants preferred aerobic exercises set to music that kept their minds occupied in contrast to strenuous activities such as weight lifting. This exploratory research provides insight into the perspectives, experiences, and preferences of Latinos with SMI participating in a health promotion intervention. Findings will be used to inform future health promotion efforts adapted to meet the needs of an ethnically diverse, underserved community.

The objective of this study was to explore the perceived benefits of engaging in health behavior change from the viewpoint of overweight and obese Latinos with severe mental illness (SMI) enrolled in the U.S. Qualitative, semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 obese Latinos with SMI who were enrolled in a randomized trial evaluating the effectiveness of a motivational health promotion intervention adapted for persons with SMI. Overweight and obese Latino participants believed that engaging in health behavior change would have both physical and mental health benefits, including chronic disease management, changes in weight and body composition, and increased self-esteem. Interventions that explicitly link physical activity and healthy eating to improvements in mental health and well-being may motivate Latinos with SMI to adopt health behavior change.

Background DNA methylation (DNAm) is an epigenetic mark that can be used to understand interindividual variability in genomic regulation, and it is influenced by many genetic and environmental factors. Co-methylation between DNAm sites is a known phenomenon but the full architecture of relationships between the approximately 450,000 (450k) sites most commonly measured in epidemiological studies has not been described. We investigate whether the cis and trans interindividual co-methylation structure amongst the 450k sites changes across the lifecourse, whether it differs between UK-born White and Pakistani individuals, and how it may be related to genome regulation. Results We find stability across the life course (birth to adolescence), across cohorts, and between two ethnic groups. Highly correlated DNAm sites in close proximity are highly heritable, influenced by nearby genetic variants (cis mQTLs), and are enriched for transcription factor (TF) binding sites related to regulation of short RNAs essential for cellular function transcribed by RNA polymerase III. Highly correlated sites that are either distant, or on different chromosomes, are driven by both common and unique environmental factors, and methylation at these sites is less likely to be driven by genotype. They are enriched for a multitude of TF binding sites and for inter-chromosomal chromatin contact sites, suggesting that DNA co-methylation of distant sites may be related to long-range cooperative TF interactions. Conclusions We conclude that DNA co-methylation, especially in cis, has a stable structure from birth to adolescence and between white British and Pakistani individuals. We hypothesise that co-methylation may have roles in genome regulation in humans, including 3D chromatin architecture. The stable structure we have identified might have implications for the future design and interpretation of epigenetic studies.