Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2016
Socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of food choices: Exploring the contributions of food expenditures.
Investigations of the contribution of food costs to socioeconomic inequalities in diet quality may have been limited by the use of estimated (vs. actual) food expenditures, not accounting for where individuals shop, and possible reverse mediation between food expenditures and healthiness of food choices. This study aimed to explore the extent to which food expenditure mediates socioeconomic inequalities in the healthiness of household food choices. Observational panel data on take-home food and beverage purchases, including expenditure, throughout 2010 were obtained for 24,879 UK households stratified by occupational social class. ⋯ However, reverse mediation analyses were also significant, suggesting that 10% of socioeconomic inequalities in expenditure were mediated by healthiness of choices. Findings suggest that lower food expenditure is likely to be a key contributor to less-healthy food choices among lower socioeconomic groups. However, the potential influence of cost may have been overestimated previously if studies did not account for supermarket choice or explore possible reverse mediation between expenditure and healthiness of choices.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2016
Cigarette package inserts can promote efficacy beliefs and sustained smoking cessation attempts: A longitudinal assessment of an innovative policy in Canada.
In June 2012, Canada implemented new pictorial warnings on cigarette packages, along with package inserts with messages to promote response efficacy (i.e., perceived quitting benefits) and self-efficacy (i.e., confidence to quit). This study assessed smokers' attention toward warnings and inserts and its relationship with efficacy beliefs, risk perceptions and cessation at follow-up. ⋯ More frequent reading of inserts was associated with self-efficacy to quit, quit attempts, and sustained quitting at follow-up, suggesting that inserts complement pictorial HWLs.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2016
ReviewA systematic review of interventions to improve adherence to melanoma preventive behaviors for individuals at elevated risk.
To examine the effectiveness of behavioral interventions for melanoma prevention targeted to individuals at elevated risk due to personal and/or family history. ⋯ Findings suggest that future interventions should aim to improve adherence across multiple preventive behaviors, over a longer time period (past 8months post-intervention), and target high-risk children. Studies should include adequate sample sizes to investigate moderators and mediators of intervention effectiveness. Interventions may be strengthened by new techniques, such as incorporating family members (e.g., to improve thoroughness of skin self-examinations) and eHealth technology.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2016
Randomized Controlled Trial Observational StudyVegetable protein intake is associated with lower gallbladder disease risk: Findings from the Women's Health Initiative prospective cohort.
This study aimed to measure associations between gallbladder disease and protein intake patterns, separated by quantity and type (vegetable vs. animal), among postmenopausal women. ⋯ Vegetable protein intake is inversely associated with gallbladder disease risk in our sample of postmenopausal women. In addition to weight management, healthcare providers could emphasize vegetable protein as an additional dietary modality to promote lower risk for gallbladder disease.
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Active travel (cycling, walking) is beneficial for the health due to increased physical activity (PA). However, active travel may increase the intake of air pollution, leading to negative health consequences. We examined the risk-benefit balance between active travel related PA and exposure to air pollution across a range of air pollution and PA scenarios. ⋯ If the counterfactual was driving, rather than staying at home, the benefits of PA would exceed harms from air pollution up to 3h 30min of cycling per day. The results were sensitive to dose-response function (DRF) assumptions for PM2.5 and PA. PA benefits of active travel outweighed the harm caused by air pollution in all but the most extreme air pollution concentrations.