Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2004
Comparative StudyChanges in health-related behaviours and cardiovascular risk factors in young adults: associations with living with a partner.
To examine changes in cardiovascular risk factors and health-related behaviours in young Australian adults at a stage of transition from the family environment. ⋯ Encouragement of a healthy lifestyle, particularly physical activity, should be a priority in this age group, particularly among newly cohabiting couples and in young mothers.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2004
What's in store for medical students? Awareness and utilization of expert nutrition guidelines among medical school preceptors.
Instruction of physicians and other health professionals in medical nutrition sciences is among the expert recommendations to promote population health and reduce risks for cancer and other major causes of morbidity and mortality in the population. However, formal training in nutrition in United States medical schools is still lacking compared to the gains in basic and applied medical nutrition sciences. We sought to understand the awareness and current utilization of expert nutrition recommendations and practice guidelines among medical student faculty preceptors. ⋯ Our findings suggest gaps in faculty awareness and utilization of expert nutrition recommendations and practice guidelines relating to cancer and other chronic disease-risk reduction and population health promotion, underscoring the need for improvements in faculty and medical student training in basic and applied medical nutrition sciences.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2004
"Bulletproof skeptics in life's jungle": which self-exempting beliefs about smoking most predict lack of progression towards quitting?
To determine the prevalence, correlates, and predictive value for intention to quit of 18 commonly expressed self-exempting beliefs about smoking among smokers and recent quitters, some 20 years after intensive tobacco control commenced in Australia. ⋯ Some self-exempting beliefs seem to act as a shield for smokers, giving them false reassurance and allowing them to avoid thinking deeply about the importance of quitting. This is particularly true of "worth it" beliefs. The prevalence of such beliefs may suggest confusion about smoking being a risk rather than a probable cause of illness. Creative approaches to increasing the saliency of the costs of smoking may be fruitful.