Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Heterogeneity of risk within racial groups, a challenge for public health programs.
Targeting high-risk populations for public health interventions is a classic tool of public health promotion programs. This practice becomes thornier when racial groups are identified as the at-risk populations. I present the particular ethical and epistemic challenges that arise when there are low-risk subpopulations within racial groups that have been identified as high-risk for a particular health concern. ⋯ First, recognizing low-risk subpopulations would allow more efficient use of limited resources. Communicating this valuable information to the subpopulations would also promote truth-telling. Finally, presenting a more nuanced empirically-supported representation of which groups are at known risk of diseases (not focusing on mere racial categories) would combat harmful biological race essentialist views held by the public.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
The role of food culture and marketing activity in health disparities.
Marketing activities have attracted increased attention from scholars interested in racial disparities in obesity prevalence, as well as the prevalence of other preventable conditions. Although reducing the marketing of nutritionally poor foods to racial/ethnic communities would represent a significant step forward in eliminating racial disparities in health, we focus instead on a critical-related question. ⋯ We build on prior research that explores the socio-cultural context in which marketing efforts are perceived and interpreted. We discuss each element of the marketing mix to highlight the complex relationship between food culture, marketing activities, and health disparities.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
ReviewFinancial incentives for smoking cessation among pregnant and newly postpartum women.
Smoking during pregnancy is the leading preventable cause of poor pregnancy outcomes in the U.S., causing serious immediate and longer-term adverse effects for mothers and offspring. In this report we provide a narrative review of research on the use of financial incentives to promote abstinence from cigarette smoking during pregnancy, an intervention wherein women earn vouchers exchangeable for retail items contingent on biochemically-verified abstinence from recent smoking. ⋯ The systematic use of financial incentives has promise as an efficacious intervention for promoting smoking cessation among economically disadvantaged pregnant and recently postpartum women and improving birth outcomes. Additional trials in larger and more diverse samples are warranted to further evaluate the merits of this treatment approach.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Multicenter StudyImplementation and impact of anti-smoking interventions in three prisons in the absence of appropriate legislation.
To assess the acceptability and impact of anti-smoking policies in three prisons in Switzerland. ⋯ Reinforcement of non-smoking rules was possible in only one of the three prisons but had an impact on exposure to tobacco smoke and medical help to quit. Implementing anti-smoking policies in prisons is difficult in the absence of appropriate legislation.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
ReviewNeural systems underlying motivated behavior in adolescence: implications for preventive medicine.
Although a time of increased independence and autonomy, adolescence is also a time of vulnerabilities, through increased risk-taking and the emergence of psychopathology. Neurodevelopmental changes during this period may provide a neurobiological basis for this normative rise in deleterious behaviors. Thus, the objective of this review was to identify neurodevelopmental processes underlying the emergence of risk-taking and psychopathology in adolescence, and discuss implications of these findings for prevention. ⋯ Understanding developmental and contextual factors that influence functioning in motivational neural circuits can inform research on adolescent risk-taking, and may provide targets for novel preventions, for example through the use of incentives to reduce deleterious outcomes.