Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2020
ReviewThe mediating role of school connectedness in the associations between dating and sexual violence victimization and substance use among high school students.
Dating and sexual violence victimization affect a significant portion of teenagers and result in a wide array of negative health and behavioral outcomes, including increased alcohol and drug use. In some cases, students who have been victimized may develop feelings of being unsupported by or disconnected from peers and adults in their school community, placing them at even higher risk for negative health outcomes. ⋯ Furthermore, school connectedness was negatively associated with both forms of substance use at T1 and T2, and partially mediated the effects of DV and SV victimization on heavy drinking at T1, and marijuana use at T1 and T2. These findings elucidate the importance of addressing intermediary cognitive processes such as perceptions of school connectedness in order to improve health and functional outcomes among high school victims of dating and sexual violence.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2020
The link between LGBTQ-supportive communities, progressive political climate, and suicidality among sexual minority adolescents in Canada.
Despite supportive structural changes to reduce stigma towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) Canadian residents, sexual minority youth still face disparities compared to heterosexual peers. We aimed to characterize LGBTQ-supportive environments and political climates, and examine their links to suicidal behavior among sexual minority adolescents in western Canada. Data were from the 2013 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey, a cluster-stratified random cross-sectional survey of public school students in BC, Canada; We sampled 2678 self-identified LGB and mostly heterosexual students (69% girls) from 274 schools, representing an estimated provincial population of 24,624 sexual minority students in weighted models. ⋯ Further, progressive political climates predicted marginally significant lower suicidal ideation (aOR = 0.89, 95% CI [0.78, 1.02]) and significantly lower self-harm behaviors (aOR = 0.87, 95% CI [0.77, 0.99]). For sexual minority adolescent boys, no community-level variables were associated with suicidal behavior in adjusted models. Thus, LGBTQ-supportive communities and progressive political climates appear to be protective against suicidal behavior among sexual minority adolescent girls, but not sexual minority adolescent boys.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2020
Evaluation of rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalization in rural and urban census tracts over eight influenza seasons.
The burden of influenza in rural areas is largely unstudied. Rural populations may be vulnerable yet isolated from circulating virus. ⋯ Race, ethnicity, poverty, health insurance coverage, and distance from a hospital accounted for rate differences. Our interpretation is: 1) influenza regularly circulates in urban areas and inconsistently spreads to rural areas, 2) demographic and socioeconomic factors drive morbidity in exposed populations, and 3) public health interventions targeting high-risk urban census tracts may be beneficial.
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Accumulating evidence shows that a higher sense of purpose in life is associated with lower risk of chronic conditions and premature mortality. Health behaviors might partially explain these findings, however, the prospective association between sense of purpose and health behaviors is understudied. We tested whether a higher sense of purpose at baseline was associated with lower likelihood of developing unhealthy behaviors over time. ⋯ Further there was a marginal reduction in smoking relapse (HR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.41-1.03) and no association with heavy alcohol use (HR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.81-1.29). Findings for physical inactivity, sleep problems, and unhealthy BMI remained evident after further adjusting for baseline health status and depression. Our results, suggest that a sense of purpose in life might emerge (with further research) as a valuable target to consider for interventions aimed at helping older adults maintain some health behaviors.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2020
Short-term effects of the earned income tax credit on mental health and health behaviors.
Poverty has consistently been linked to poor mental health and risky health behaviors, yet few studies evaluate the effectiveness of programs and policies to address these outcomes by targeting poverty itself. We test the hypothesis that the earned income tax credit (EITC)-the largest U. S. poverty alleviation program-improves short-term mental health and health behaviors in the months immediately after income receipt. ⋯ The exception was an increase in smoking in PSID, although this finding was not robust to sensitivity analyses. While we found no short-term "check effect" of the EITC on mental health and health behaviors, others have found long-term effects on these outcomes. This may be because recipients anticipate EITC receipt and smooth their income accordingly.