Preventive medicine
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Several data sources exist for estimating U. S. smoking prevalence among pregnant women, yet each differs in ways that have the potential to impact the estimates. In the present study we used the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), the National Survey on Drug use and Health (NSDUH), and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), three common data sources, to evaluate the following questions about estimating U. ⋯ Among the factors examined, inclusion of younger or older women does not appear to meaningfully alter prevalence estimates. Focusing on only the third trimester likely underestimates smoking prevalence, while the influence of basing estimates on selected national subgroups of women (i.e., only women who delivered live born infants) rather than nationally representative surveys has little discernible influence. Going forward, this research area would benefit from greater consistency in explicitly discussing the sampling methods used and how these various methods may have influenced the estimates reported.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2020
Childhood predictors of adult obesity in the Chicago Longitudinal Study.
Despite obesity being a major concern for both children and adults in the United States today, there are few successful childhood interventions that curb obesity later in life. The objective of the current study is to identify childhood predictors of adult obesity at multiple levels in a large longitudinal sample of participants from an economically disadvantaged childhood cohort. 1065 participants (93% Black) from the Chicago Longitudinal Study were interviewed as part of a 30-year follow-up between 2012 and 2017. Parent involvement, school quality, neighborhood human capital, socioemotional learning skills, and achievement motivation assessed before age 12 years were examined as predictors of Body Mass Index (BMI) at age 35 years. ⋯ Being female and higher birthweight were associated with larger adult BMI. Socioemotional learning and neighborhood human capital in childhood consistently predict a decreased likelihood of being obese at age 35 in this predominately Black sample. Future obesity intervention/prevention programs should aim to bolster childhood socioemotional learning resources and neighborhood capital.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2020
Cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular fitness and mental health in older adolescents: A multi-level cross-sectional analysis.
Physical activity interventions that promote cardiorespiratory (CRF) and muscular fitness (MF) may improve mental health in young adolescents. However, less is known about the links between fitness and mental health in older adolescents, as they are an understudied population. In addition, the association between MF and adolescents' mental health is less clear than it is for CRF. ⋯ No interaction effects were observed for SES or weight status. Although cross-sectional, our findings provide further evidence of the potential benefits of CRF for adolescents' mental health (i.e., well-being and internalizing problems), particularly girls. However, MF may be less relevant for mental health among this population.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2020
The impact of computer use on myopia development in childhood: The Generation R study.
Environmental factors are important in the development of myopia. There is still limited evidence as to whether computer use is a risk factor. The aim of this study is to investigate the association between computer use and myopia in the context of other near work activities. ⋯ The effect of combined near work was decreased by outdoor exposure. The risks of digital devices on myopia and the protection by outdoor exposure should become widely known. Public campaigns are warranted.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2020
'Home is where the health is': Housing quality and adult health outcomes in the Survey of Income and Program Participation.
Nearly a quarter of the homes in the United States were considered unhealthy or inadequate, but whether these housing characteristics have direct effects on health or whether they are driven by other contextual housing and neighborhood characteristics remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to quantify the independent associations between poor housing quality and adult health outcomes, adjusting for socioeconomic factors (e.g. income to poverty ratio, food insecurity) and other contextual housing characteristics (e.g. rental status, number of people per household, unsafe neighborhood). Using in-person household interview data from wave 1 of the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a secondary analysis was performed using a series of logistic regression models. ⋯ Non-housing-related government assistance, food security, and safe neighborhoods only partially explained associations between housing quality and health outcomes. Evaluating current local, state, and federal policy on housing quality standards may help determine if these standards decrease the number of Americans residing in inadequate homes or result in improvements in health and reductions in healthcare costs. Simply put, the home is where [we suggest] the health is.