JAMA network open
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Millions of Americans use electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). A growing number of state and local governments have started to draft and implement laws regarding the sale, marketing, and use of e-cigarettes. The association of US state regulations regarding e-cigarettes with e-cigarette use remains unknown. ⋯ These findings suggest that several state regulations regarding e-cigarettes may be associated with reduced e-cigarette use among US adults.
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Racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care may result from discrimination. ⋯ In this study, black and Hispanic patients were more likely to be offered an appointment, but they were asked more frequently about their insurance status than white callers. Black and Hispanic callers experienced longer wait times than white patients, indicating a barrier to timely access to primary care.
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Access to reproductive health services is a public health goal. It is unknown how geographic and health plan network availability of Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals may be associated with access to reproductive health services in the United States. ⋯ In this national study, 35.3% of counties had high or dominant Catholic hospital market share serving an estimated 38.7% of US women of reproductive age. Marketplace health insurance plans' hospital networks included a lower share of Catholic hospitals than the counties they serve.
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The Smart Snacks in School standards (hereafter, Smart Snacks) were issued in 2013 with the aim of improving students' dietary intake behaviors. Goals of Smart Snacks included reducing total energy intake, consumption of solid fats and added sugars, and sodium intake. Smart Snacks standards were required to be implemented by the start of the 2014 to 2015 school year at all US schools participating in federal child nutrition programs. ⋯ These findings suggest that students in states with laws requiring schools to implement Smart Snacks had better dietary intake than students in states without laws, consuming a mean of 53.9 fewer kilocalories from solid fats and added sugars per day, after adjusting for covariates. State-level policy mechanisms may support schools' implementation of federal standards in ways that are associated with healthier diets among children and adolescents.