Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2023
ReviewThe effectiveness of financial incentives for COVID-19 vaccination: A systematic review.
Financial incentives are a controversial strategy for increasing vaccination. In this systematic review, we evaluated: 1) the effects of incentives on COVID-19 vaccinations; 2) whether effects differed based on study outcome, study design, incentive type and timing, or sample sociodemographic characteristics; and 3) the cost of incentives per additional vaccine administered. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Econlit up to March 2022 for terms related to COVID, vaccines, and financial incentives, and identified 38 peer-reviewed, quantitative studies. ⋯ Financial incentives likely increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. While these increases appear to be small, they may be meaningful across populations. Registration: PROSPERO, CRD42022316086 (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022316086).
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2023
Randomized Controlled TrialComplex intervention to promote human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake in school settings: A cluster-randomized trial.
Using a cluster-randomized trial design, we aimed to evaluate a complex intervention to increase uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in schools. The study was undertaken in high schools in Western Australia and South Australia between 2013 and 2015 with adolescents aged 12-13 years. Interventions included education, shared decision-making, and logistical strategies. ⋯ Contact for the HPV.edu study group: Cristyn. Davies@sydney.edu.au or Rachel. Skinner@sydney.edu.au.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2023
Political variations in pandemic lifestyles and COVID-19 vaccination by age cohort in the United States.
While recent scholarship suggests that political affiliation is a robust predictor of pandemic behaviors and COVID-19 vaccination status, research has yet to examine whether the impact of political affiliation on these outcomes vary by age. Drawing on health lifestyles theory, we contribute to the social epidemiology of infectious disease behaviors by testing whether the impact of political affiliation on risky pandemic health lifestyles and COVID vaccination varies by age cohort. We employ data collected from the 2021 Crime, Health, and Politics Survey (CHAPS), a national study of adults from the United States, to formally assess this understudied association. ⋯ Further, the impact of political affiliation on vaccination status varied by age cohort, such that the impact of political affiliation was stronger among the oldest adults in our sample. Our analyses contribute to the growing study of politics and health lifestyles by challenging theoretical perspectives and cultural narratives that claim that older adults are less swayed by political influence when it comes to healthcare decisions. Our results help better our understanding of the ways in which political discourse shapes adopting public health recommendations.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2023
Impact of delaying high school start times on weight and related behaviors - the START study.
In the US, few adolescents get adequate school night sleep, largely due to early school start times. In the START study we aimed to test the following hypothesis: That following the implementation of later high school start times students have lesser longitudinal increases in body mass index (BMI) and shift to more healthful weight-related behaviors relative to students attending schools that retain early start times. The study enrolled a cohort of students (n = 2426) in five high schools in the Twin Cities, MN metro. ⋯ Students' BMIs increased in parallel in both policy change and comparison schools over time. However relative to changes in comparison schools after the start time shift, students in policy change schools had a modestly more healthful profile of weight-related behaviors - for instance they had a relatively greater probability of eating breakfast, having supper with their family, getting more activity, eating fast food less frequently, and eating vegetables daily. Later start times could be a durable, population-wide strategy that promotes healthful weight behaviors.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2023
Do age-based discontinuation recommendations influence cervical cancer screening rates? Evidence from the United States' Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2016 and 2018.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that women with adequate prior screening and average cervical cancer risk discontinue routine cervical cancer screening after age 65. This study's objective was to estimate how the USPSTF recommendation affects Papanicolaou (Pap) test rates among women at age 66 in the United States. We used nationally representative 2016 and 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data for women ages 56-76 (n = 226,031) and a regression discontinuity design to estimate changes in annual Pap test rates at age 66. ⋯ The decline was larger for women who graduated college (-9.0 p.p.; 95% CI: -12.0, -5.9) than for women without a college degree and for women who were never married (-9.4 p.p., 95% CI: -17.3, -1.5) than for women who were married/partnered or divorced/separated. The USPSTF recommendation to discontinue cervical cancer screening after age 65 leads to a sharp decline in Pap test rates at age 66 but disparately affects women based on race, education and marital status. Further study is needed to assess the consequences of these changes.