Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2022
Relationship between communicative and critical health literacy, health information sources, and participation in health checkups among middle-aged Japanese community residents.
We assessed the relationship between health literacy and participation in health checkups among middle-aged Japanese community residents. Additionally, we explored the health information sources related to participation in health checkups among those with low, medium, and high health literacy. This mail survey using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted in 2020 and included 33,902 community residents with National Health Insurance (NHI), aged 40-64 years from five cities in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. ⋯ After adjusting for confounding factors, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratios for non-participation in health checkups were 1.20 (95% CI 1.01-1.43, p = 0.039) in the medium health literacy group and 1.47 (95% CI 1.20-1.80, p < 0.001) in the low health literacy group compared with the high health literacy group. Additionally, some health information sources were associated with participation in health checkups in the medium and high health literacy groups, whereas none of the health information sources were associated with participation in health checkups in the low health literacy group. We believe that it is important to develop materials and interventions aimed at low health literacy populations to promote participation in health checkups.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2022
Labor force status as a buffer against mortality risks associated with alcohol consumption: A study of adult U.S. women, 2001-2015.
The association between women's labor force participation, their alcohol consumption patterns, and mortality risk is unclear. This study assessed all-cause mortality risk among women in the United States, considering their labor force status and alcohol drinking. This study used discrete-time hazard models to examine this association using 2001-2015 National Health Interview Survey-Linked Mortality Files (NHIS-LMF) data (n = 147,714) for women aged 25 to 65 with 5725 deaths in this sample. ⋯ Women with higher psychological distress have a 26% higher risk of all-cause mortality when not in labor force. With the help of cross-sectional data, this study demonstrates that women not in labor force and unemployed women are more likely to be affected by their drinking habits, and their employment status is associated with lower mortality risk. Further research should be focused on cause-specific mortality, gender roles and norms, reasons for unemployment, and comorbidities using more recent data, causal modeling techniques, and an extended mortality follow-up period.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2022
Observational StudyDuration of varenicline prescription and efficacy of smoking cessation treatment: an observational study in Taiwan.
Although varenicline has had a significant effect on smoking cessation in randomized clinical trials, the dose-effect of varenicline treatment for smoking cessation in real-world settings remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the association between the duration of varenicline prescription and smoking cessation in Taiwan after adjusting for potential confounding effects and endogeneity bias. A total of 5106 Taiwanese participants received varenicline monotherapy for smoking cessation between March 2012 and September 2016. ⋯ Varenicline prescription duration was not associated with smoking cessation among smokers who visited smoking clinics once. The relationship between varenicline prescription duration and smoking cessation was modified by the frequency of smoking clinic visits and was dependent on quitting process patterns. Encouraging smokers to continue visiting the smoking cessation clinic and use medication will help smoking cessation efforts in Taiwan.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2022
Contextual and individual factors associated with depressive symptoms in Latin American residents from eleven cities: Multilevel analysis.
Depression is one of the most prevalent mental illnesses in the world. Its associated factors have been scarcely studied in the Latin American population. Our aim was to determine the contextual and individual factors associated with depressive symptoms (DS) in residents of 11 Latin American cities according to the 2019 CAF Survey (ECAF, acronym in Spanish). ⋯ Regarding contextual factors, higher contamination levels (OR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01-1.13) were associated with DS. Our study reports associations between individual and environmental factors and DS in residents of Latin America. These findings will allow the adoption of the necessary measures for decision-making and research to face this growing problem in developing countries.
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Preventive medicine · Aug 2022
Improving the wellbeing of LGBTQ+ employees: Do workplace diversity training and ally networks make a difference?
Despite growing recognition that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other minority (LGBTQ+) employees have lower levels of workplace wellbeing than cis-gender heterosexual employees, few studies have examined how different workplace interventions may mitigate these disparities. This study provides first-time evidence of associations between LGBTQ+ employee wellbeing and two types of initiatives that have received substantial public attention and employer uptake: workplace gender and sexuality diversity training and ally (or employee) networks. To accomplish this, the analyses leverage Australian data from a unique, national employer-employee survey of workplace inclusion (2020 Australian Workplace Equality Index Employee Survey; n = 31,277). ⋯ These findings have significant implications for health policy and practice. Specifically, they indicate that diversity training and ally networks may improve wellbeing amongst LGBTQ+ employees. This suggests that employer investments in diversity training and ally networks are effective interventions to enhance workplace culture, employee productivity and intergroup relations.