Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jun 2023
Longitudinal associations between exclusive, dual, and polytobacco use and asthma among US youth.
Little is known about the respiratory health effects of dual (two products) and polytobacco (three or more products) use among youth in the United States. Thus, we followed a longitudinal cohort of youth into adulthood using data from Waves 1-5 (2013-2019) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, examining incident asthma at each follow-up (Waves 2-5). We classified past 30-day tobacco use as 1) no products (never/former use), 2) exclusive cigarettes, 3) exclusive electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), 4) exclusive other combustible (OC) tobacco products (cigars, hookah, pipe), 5) dual cigarettes/OC and ENDS, 6) dual cigarettes and OCs, and 7) polytobacco use (cigarettes, OCs, and ENDS). ⋯ In adjusted models, exclusive cigarette use (HR: 1.71, 95% CI: 1.11-2.64) and dual cigarette and OC use (HR: 2.78, 95% CI: 1.65-4.70) were associated with incident asthma compared to never/former use, while exclusive ENDS use (HR: 1.50, 95% CI: 0.92-2.44) and polytobacco use (HR: 1.95, 95% CI: 0.86-4.44) were not. To conclude, youth who use cigarettes with or without OCs had higher risk of incident asthma. Further longitudinal studies on the respiratory health effects of ENDS and dual/polytobacco use are needed as products continue to evolve.
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Preventive medicine · Jun 2023
Sexual violence in early adolescence is associated with subsequent teen pregnancy and parenthood.
Being a victim of sexual violence (SV) is associated with risk for teen pregnancy in cross-sectional research. However, longitudinal data are necessary to determine if SV victimization plays a causal role in early pregnancy. To address this gap in research, we test whether experiencing SV victimization in early adolescence is associated with pregnancy and having children by mid-adolescence. ⋯ The present findings indicate that girls victimized by SV are at risk of becoming pregnant and becoming teen parents. The combined sequelae of SV and teen pregnancy impair health, economic, and social functioning across the lifespan and carry forward into future generations. Future research should explore mechanisms through which victimization confers risk for pregnancy to inform prevention strategies.
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Preventive medicine · Jun 2023
Patterns of childhood adversity and health outcomes in early adolescence: Results from the generation XXI cohort.
This longitudinal population-based birth cohort study aims to identify childhood adversity patterns over the first 13 years of life and to examine its association with health-related behaviours and outcomes in early adolescence. Using data from the Portuguese birth cohort Generation XXI, we performed latent class analysis to explore the underlying patterns of adversity from birth to early adolescence, using 13 adversity items assessed in five time points. Health-related behaviours and outcomes were evaluated at 13 years. ⋯ Boys also revealed increased odds of low consumption of fruits/vegetables (AOR:1.67; CI:1.24-2.23). Childhood adversity patterns are associated with unhealthy behaviours and depressive symptoms in early adolescence. Public policies and early interventions targeting vulnerable children, families and communities can potentially reduce the detrimental effects of adversities on health and promote individual and community resilience.
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Preventive medicine · Jun 2023
Nicotine-related content in English language ENDS advertisements in the US: 2018-2020.
There is no standard way to communicate to consumers how much nicotine is present in electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). This study assessed the inclusion of nicotine-related content, including nicotine strength, in a sample of English language ENDS advertisements that appeared in consumer and business-to-business outlets in the US during 2018-2020. The sample, provided by a media surveillance company, included ads from television, radio, newspapers, magazines (consumer and business-to-business), online platforms, outdoor/billboards, and direct-to-consumer emails. ⋯ Across the sample of ads, 15% reported nicotine strength in mg or mg/ml (n = 444), and 9% reported nicotine strength in percent (n = 260). Most ENDS ads do not include nicotine-related content. There is substantial variation in presentation of nicotine strength, which may present challenges for consumer understanding of absolute and relative nicotine-related content.
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Preventive medicine · Jun 2023
Differences in influenza vaccination by gender identity and state-level gender equity policies: Behavioral risk factor surveillance system, 2015-2019.
It is estimated that there are one million transgender and over 340,000 gender non-conforming people in the United States, many of whom face significant health disparities including access to healthcare. Although previous studies have reported greater vaccine uptake in women compared to men, national-level estimates of influenza vaccine uptake among transgender and non-binary people are unknown. This study aims to characterize differences in influenza vaccine uptake by gender identity and examine associations between vaccination status and state-level gender equity policies. ⋯ Our results identified a disparity in influenza vaccine uptake among individuals across the gender spectrum. To improve vaccine equity, future research should explore barriers to and facilitators of vaccine uptake by gender identity, which could inform policies and health promotion interventions to improve uptake co-designed and implemented with the transgender and non-binary communities.