Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2020
Clustering of lifestyle risk factors for non-communicable diseases in 304,779 adolescents from 89 countries: A global perspective.
The precursors of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are often manifested during childhood and adolescence with little knowledge about co-occurrence of their related lifestyle risk factors. To address this deficit, we estimated the prevalence and clustering of six major NCD-risk factors in adolescents around the world. Data from the Global School-based Student Health Survey, collected between 2007 and 2016, were analysed in 304,779 adolescents aged 11-17 years (52.2% females) from 89 countries. ⋯ Globally, adolescents exhibit multiple modifiable risk factors for future development of NCDs. Early gender-specific prevention strategies targeting clusters of lifestyle risk factors should be prioritised to help mitigate future burden of NCDs globally. Periodical collection of behavioural risk factor data should be encouraged to facilitate a sustainable global surveillance.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2020
Gender differences in prescription opioid use and misuse: Implications for men's health and the opioid epidemic.
The majority of research on gender and the opioid epidemic focuses on women as patients, caregivers, or expectant mothers. However, little research approaches men as gendered subjects, despite their dramatically increased risk of opioid overdose. Accordingly, we examined gender differences in prescription opioid use and misuse with specific attention to implications for men using data from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. ⋯ Results are consistent with past work on the intersection of masculinity norms and health behaviors. Although gender-specific interventions are typically synonymous with interventions tailored to women, our results suggest that such interventions could alleviate the burden of the opioid epidemic for men as well. Further research studying possible mechanisms that explain men's increased vulnerability to the opioid epidemic is urgently needed to address this growing public health crisis.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2020
Comment LetterPredicting opioid misuse at the population level is different from identifying opioid misuse in individual patients.
Tumin and Bhalla mentioned challenges associated with the use of population-based survey and machine learning (ML) results on adolescent opioid misuse to clinical settings. In a clinical setting, medical providers do know patient's identity. So, it is not surprising that drug misuse is rarely identified through patient's self-report especially if it involves illicit drug. ⋯ Such interpretations may lead to ecological fallacy. Predicting opioid misuse at the population level is different from identifying opioid misuse in individual patients. Nonetheless, we believe that coordinated multisectoral collaborations that leverage the expertise and resources of both public health and clinical sectors would offer a promising model for addressing the opioid crisis.