Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialHealthy Habits, Happy Homes: methods and baseline data of a randomized controlled trial to improve household routines for obesity prevention.
To develop a home-based intervention for parents of 2-5 year old children to promote household routines to prevent overweight/obesity. ⋯ Household routines that increase obesity risk were prevalent among low-income families in this study. If proven to be effective, promotion of household routines related to family meals, sleep, and screen time may prevent young children from becoming overweight/obese.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Childhood sexual abuse and risk for initiating injection drug use: a prospective cohort study.
This study examined whether childhood sexual abuse predicts initiation of injection drug use in a prospective cohort of youth. ⋯ Childhood sexual abuse places drug users at risk for initiating injection. Addiction treatment programs should incorporate services for survivors of childhood maltreatment.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Heterogeneity of risk within racial groups, a challenge for public health programs.
Targeting high-risk populations for public health interventions is a classic tool of public health promotion programs. This practice becomes thornier when racial groups are identified as the at-risk populations. I present the particular ethical and epistemic challenges that arise when there are low-risk subpopulations within racial groups that have been identified as high-risk for a particular health concern. ⋯ First, recognizing low-risk subpopulations would allow more efficient use of limited resources. Communicating this valuable information to the subpopulations would also promote truth-telling. Finally, presenting a more nuanced empirically-supported representation of which groups are at known risk of diseases (not focusing on mere racial categories) would combat harmful biological race essentialist views held by the public.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
The role of food culture and marketing activity in health disparities.
Marketing activities have attracted increased attention from scholars interested in racial disparities in obesity prevalence, as well as the prevalence of other preventable conditions. Although reducing the marketing of nutritionally poor foods to racial/ethnic communities would represent a significant step forward in eliminating racial disparities in health, we focus instead on a critical-related question. ⋯ We build on prior research that explores the socio-cultural context in which marketing efforts are perceived and interpreted. We discuss each element of the marketing mix to highlight the complex relationship between food culture, marketing activities, and health disparities.