JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Studies have demonstrated strong associations between the prone sleep position (on the stomach) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that infants be placed to sleep laterally (on their side) or supine (on their back) to reduce SIDS risk, and in 1994, the national public education campaign "Back to Sleep" was launched. ⋯ The prevalence of infants placed in the prone sleep position declined by 66% between 1992 and 1996. Although causality cannot be proved, SIDS rates declined approximately 38% during this period. To achieve further reduction in prone sleeping, efforts to promote the supine sleep position should be aimed at groups at high risk for prone placement.
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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are higher among ethnic minority women than among white women in the United States. However, because ethnic minority women are disproportionately poor, socioeconomic status (SES) may substantially explain these risk factor differences. ⋯ These findings provide the greatest evidence to date of higher CVD risk factors among black and Mexican American women than among white women of comparable SES. The striking differences by both ethnicity and SES underscore the critical need to improve screening, early detection, and treatment of CVD-related conditions for black and Mexican American women, as well as for women of lower SES in all ethnic groups.
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This study examined the impact of retracted articles on biomedical communication. ⋯ Retracted articles continue to be cited as valid work in the biomedical literature after publication of the retraction; these citations signal potential problems for biomedical science.
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Editorial management of articles on health economics may benefit from guidelines for peer review and revision. ⋯ Publication of the guidelines helped the BMJ editors improve the efficiency of the editorial process but had no impact on the quality of economics evaluations submitted or published.