Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Comparative StudyBody mass index of children and youth with an intellectual disability by country economic status.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities are at higher risk for health disparities including overweight and obesity; however, little is known at the population level about the BMI status of children and youth with intellectual disabilities. This study is a secondary analysis of BMI status (underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese) in children and youth (8-<18years) participating in Special Olympics by country economic status. ⋯ The high levels of both underweight and overweight/obesity found in this population of children and youth participating in Special Olympics represents a double burden of health risk. More research is needed to understand why this population experiences such disparities in BMI status and to develop health promotion initiatives targeted at this population.
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Routine screening of hospital patients for secondhand tobacco smoke exposure: a feasibility study.
Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure causes over 40,000 deaths per year, but healthcare systems rarely address this risk factor. In September 2012, Massachusetts General Hospital initiated routine inpatient screening for SHS exposure by adding a question to the nurses' computerized admission assessment form ("Is smoking allowed in your home or car?"). We measured the implementation of this screening question over 1year. ⋯ Routine screening of SHS among hospitalized patients by nurses is feasible. Doing so offers hospitals an opportunity to intervene and to promote smoke-free policies in patients' homes and cars.
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Changes in success rates of smoking cessation treatment associated with take up of a national evidencebased training programme.
The English 'stop smoking services' provide behavioural support to some 700,000 smokers annually. Success rates of the services varied considerably before 2010 and had been in slight decline so, to improve performance, a national programme of evidence-based practitioner training was developed to improve knowledge and skills-based competences. This study evaluated whether uptake of the training was associated with improvements in success rates of services. ⋯ English stop smoking services that have greater uptake of a national evidence-based training programme showed greater improvements in success rates.