Journal of public health
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Journal of public health · Mar 2011
Comparative StudySweet and salty: nutritional content and analysis of baby and toddler foods.
To critically examine baby and toddler food products sold in Canada for their sugar and sodium content, and to assess these in light of current recommendations. ⋯ Baby and toddler foods are currently overlooked in the public, and public policy, discussions pertaining to dietary sodium and sugar. Yet these products are clearly of concern and should be closely monitored, since they promote a taste for 'sweet' and 'salty' in our youngest consumers.
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Journal of public health · Mar 2011
Estimating the future healthcare costs of an aging population in the UK: expansion of morbidity and the need for preventative care.
The healthcare costs of an aging population have major consequences for healthcare organizations and have major implication for strategic planning of services. An impending freeze in budgets in the UK makes these consequences especially significant. ⋯ The importance of being able to accurately predict demand and costs of health care within the NHS cannot be underestimated. Making over simplistic assumptions and not using well-established principles in these models leads to greatly different outcomes that have the potential to have massive organizational consequences in terms of short-to-medium term strategic planning.
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Journal of public health · Dec 2010
Tackling childhood obesity: the importance of understanding the context.
Recommendations to tackle major health problems such as childhood obesity may not be appropriate if they fail to take account of the prevailing socio-political, cultural and economic context. We describe the development and application of a qualitative risk analysis approach to identify non-scientific considerations framing the policy response to obesity in Denmark and Latvia. ⋯ Better recognition of the exogenous factors affecting policy-making may lead to a more adequate policy response. The development and use of a qualitative risk analysis model enabled a better understanding of the contextual factors and processes influencing the response to childhood obesity in each country.
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Journal of public health · Sep 2010
Responding to the economic crisis: a primer for public health professionals.
Does the current economic crisis require the deep cuts in public spending announced in the June 2010 emergency budget, with potential implications for public health? The arguments for and against such cuts in response to economic recession are complex, but if public health professionals are to engage in debates about future public spending, they should be informed by relevant evidence. In this perspective, we note that opinions among politicians and economists about how to respond to economic downturns are divided, while other EU countries, many with greater levels of debt than the UK, are protecting public expenditure unless required to do so by the International Monetary Fund. Current UK debt may in fact be viewed as sustainable given current information about interest rates, inflation and economic growth. Before accepting large cuts in public spending, it is important to contrast the lack of evidence for such short-term fixes with potentially dire repercussions for population health and welfare.