Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2022
Affordable housing through the low-income housing tax credit program and intimate partner violence-related homicide.
The most severe outcome of intimate partner violence (IPV) is IPV-related homicide. Access to affordable housing may both facilitate exit from abusive relationships and reduce financial stress in intimate relationships, potentially preventing IPV-related homicide. We examined the association of the availability of rental housing through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, a federal program providing tax incentives to support the development of affordable housing, with IPV-related homicide and assessed whether this association differed by eviction rates at the state-level. ⋯ The reduction in the rate of IPV-related homicide was slightly larger in state-years with higher eviction rates (≥3500 evictions per 100,000 renter population; RR = 0.83, 95% CI 0.74, 0.93) compared to state-years with lower eviction rates (<3500 evictions per 100,000 renter population; RR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.81, 1.03). Overall, at the state-level, increased availability of affordable housing through the LIHTC program was associated with lower rates of IPV-related homicide. Increasing the availability of affordable housing may be one tool for preventing IPV-related homicide.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2022
Elevated serious psychological distress, economic disruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic in the nonmetropolitan American West.
In this study we examined the psychological distress, self-rated health, COVID-19 exposure, and economic disruption of a sample of the nonmetropolitan western U. S. population and labor force one year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using novel primary survey data from non-metropolitan counties in the eleven contiguous western United States collected from February 28 until April 3, 2021 (n = 1203), we descriptively analyzed variables and estimated binomial and multinomial logit models of the association between economic disruption, COVID-19 exposure, self-rated health, and psychological distress. ⋯ We found economic disruption was associated with severe psychological distress, but exposure to infection was not. Comparatively, overall self-rated health was at similar levels as prior research and was not significantly associated with economic disruption or COVID-19 exposure. COVID-19, particularly its associated economic effects, had a significant relationship with serious psychological distress in this sample of adults in the nonmetropolitan western United States.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2022
Review Meta AnalysisThe association between adherence to cancer screening programs and health literacy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
The effectiveness of a cancer screening program relies on its adherence rate. Health literacy (HL) has been investigated among the factors that could influence such participation, but the findings are not always consistent. The aim of this meta-analysis was to summarize the evidence between having an adequate level of HL (AHL) and adherence to cancer screening programs. ⋯ The sensitivity analyses confirmed these results. Health literacy seems to be critical for an effective cancer prevention. Given the high prevalence of illiterate people across the world, a long-term action plan is needed.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2022
ReviewA scoping review of adherence to WHO health promoting school framework by school-based interventions to promote physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness among 6- to 10-year-old children.
Physical inactivity, a leading cause of mortality, tracks from childhood to adulthood. Effective interventions to promote physical activity (PA) at a young age are therefore needed. The aim of this scoping review was to provide an overview of school-based interventions for the promotion of PA, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and the reduction of sedentary behaviours (SB) among six- to ten-year-old school children, and map these interventions to the WHO Health Promoting Schools framework. ⋯ A higher percentage of effective interventions were found for theory-based interventions. Some single-feature interventions were found to be effective while no specific feature combination seemed to be associated with better intervention effectiveness. Theory-based single- as well as multi-feature interventions seem to have the potential to improve effectiveness with regard to PA, CRF, and SB outcomes.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2022
Randomized Controlled TrialEvaluation of the Swedish school-based program "tobacco-free DUO" in a cluster randomized controlled trial (TOPAS study). Results at 2-year follow-up.
Friends' and parents' tobacco use are strong predictors of tobacco uptake among adolescents, however the effectiveness of interventions based on public commitments and agreements to remain tobacco-free are not established. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness of the school-based Swedish program Tobacco-Free Duo (T-Duo) in preventing adolescents from initiating tobacco use (TOPAS study). T-Duo is a multi-component intervention witha formal agreement between a student and an adult partner to remain tobacco-free during the entire 3-year study period as core component. ⋯ Protocol: Galanti, M. R., Pulkki-Brännström, A.-M., Nilsson, M., 2020. Tobacco-free duo adult-child contract for prevention of tobacco use among adolescents and parents: protocol for a mixed-design evaluation. JMIR Res. Protoc. 9, e21100. doi:10.2196/21100.