Preventive medicine
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The health and well-being of rapidly growing urban populations is a global health issue. Cities in the global north and south are faced with rising health inequities - or avoidable differences in health determinants and outcomes based on place, social status and ethnicity. This commentary suggests that focusing only on treatment interventions in cities is likely to fail because populations will be forced to go back into the urban living and working conditions that likely made them sick in the first place. City planning as preventive medicine includes taking a relational and systems approach to urban health, requiring health assessments for all urban policy making, promoting neighborhood health centers as engines of community economic development and gathering place-based health indicator data to track progress and adapt interventions over time as conditions change.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2015
Independent and joint associations of race/ethnicity and educational attainment with sleep-related symptoms in a population-based US sample.
Prior studies have documented disparities in short and long sleep duration, excessive daytime sleepiness, and insomnia by educational attainment and race/ethnicity separately. We examined both independent and interactive effects of these factors with a broader range of sleep indicators in a racially/ethnically diverse sample. ⋯ Our results demonstrate the importance of examining both educational attainment and race/ethnicity simultaneously to more fully understand disparities in sleep health. Increased understanding of the mechanisms linking sociodemographic factors to sleep health is needed to determine whether policies and programs to increase educational attainment may also reduce these disparities within an increasingly diverse population.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2015
Electronic health records to support obesity-related patient care: Results from a survey of United States physicians.
Obesity-related electronic health record functions increase the rates of measuring Body Mass Index, diagnosing obesity, and providing obesity services. This study describes the prevalence of obesity-related electronic health record functions in clinical practice and analyzes characteristics associated with increased obesity-related electronic health record sophistication. ⋯ Few electronic health records optimally supported physician's obesity-related clinical care. The low rates of obesity-related electronic health record functions currently in practice highlight areas to improve the clinical health information technology in primary care practice. More work can be done to develop, implement, and promote the effective utilization of obesity-related electronic health record functions to improve obesity treatment and prevention efforts.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2015
Observational StudyAssociation between exposure to household cigarette smoking behavior and cigarette smoking in Hispanic adults: Findings from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.
Cigarette smoking behavior is highly determined by social influences during childhood and adolescence. This phenomenon has not been fully evaluated in the Hispanic/Latino population. ⋯ Our data suggest that exposure to HCSB in Hispanics/Latinos living in the US is an independent predictor of adult cigarette smoking, and this association appears to be strongest in Cubans and Puerto Ricans.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2015
The Danish fat tax-Effects on consumption patterns and risk of ischaemic heart disease.
To examine the effects on consumption and risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) of the Danish fat tax, effective from October 2011 to January 2013. ⋯ The Danish fat tax had a marginal effect on population consumption of fat and risk of IHD. Fat taxes have to be carefully designed to prevent possible adverse effects from outweighing its beneficial effects on health outcomes. Policymakers must therefore be more ambitious in relation to food taxes, e.g. by implementing more comprehensive tax-subsidy schemes.