Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2023
Promoting health equity through poverty alleviation policy: Factors associated with receipt of the 2021 U.S. Child Tax Credit in a Nationwide sample.
The 2021 temporary expansion of the U.S. Child Tax Credit (CTC) was a potent policy that addressed poverty as a critical social determinant of health. Yet policies can only have their intended effects if they are implemented appropriately, and it is well known that not all who were eligible for the CTC received it. In this study, we investigated which individual- and state-level factors were correlated with receipt of the 2021 expanded CTC among eligible families. ⋯ As Congress debates whether to make the CTC expansion permanent, this study provides timely evidence to inform poverty alleviation programs to increase participation among eligible and marginalized groups and achieve health equity.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2023
Socio-economic distribution of modifiable risk factors for cardio-vascular diseases: An analysis of the national longitudinal ageing study in India.
The association of socioeconomic status (SES) with modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is unclear in developing nations. We studied SES variations in major risk factors and their percentage distribution for adults aged 45 years or above in India. Using individual records of 59,672 individuals aged 45 years or above from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India Wave 1 (cross-sectional study design), 2017-18, we chart age-and-sex-adjusted prevalence of clinical risk factors such as measured high blood pressure, hypertension, overweight, obesity, central adiposity and self-reported high blood glucose; and lifestyle risk factors such as excessive use of alcohol, current use of smoking and smokeless tobacco and physical inactivity across SES variables of education, quintiles of mean per capita expenditure and social caste. ⋯ However, no significant income gradient was noted for lifestyle risk factors except the use of smokeless tobacco. The income gradient was largest for central adiposity (waist-circumference) with a difference of 23.4 percentage points as it increased from 38.7% among the poorest to 62.1% among the richest. The major burden of CVDs risk factors among older adults aged 45+ years falls among high SES.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2023
Changes in physical activity and all-cause mortality in the oldest old population: Findings from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS).
Insufficient or decreasing physical activity is common in older adults. Most studies on physical activity changes and mortality were conducted in adults younger than 80 years old in developed countries. We aimed to investigate the relationship between changes in physical activity and longevity in the oldest old (80 years or older) population using the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. ⋯ Maintaining frequent physical activity or shifting from being physically inactive to active was consistently associated with longer survival time in the oldest old population. Our findings provide evidence for encouraging older adults to regularly engage in physical activity to gain longevity benefits.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2023
The association between social fragmentation and deaths attributable to alcohol, drug use, and suicide: Longitudinal evidence from a population-based sample of Canadian adults.
Social fragmentation has been theorized and empirically associated with suicide in prior research. However, less is known about whether social fragmentation is associated with deaths attributed to alcohol use or drug use. This research examined the association between social fragmentation and risk for deaths attributable to alcohol use, drug use, and suicide (collectively known as deaths of despair) among Canadian adults. ⋯ Social fragmentation is associated with an increased hazard of deaths of despair among Canadian adults. Efforts to improve social cohesion in areas that are highly socially fragmented need to be evaluated.
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Preventive medicine · Oct 2023
Association of four health behaviors in Life's Essential 8 with the incidence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus.
The association between health behaviors and the risk of developing hypertension and diabetes is not fully understood. We aimed to examine the association between four health behaviors involved in Life's Essential 8, the American Heart Association's key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health, and the incidence of hypertension and diabetes. ⋯ Factors that can be substituted for the four health behaviors involved in Life's Essential 8 can stratify the risk of hypertension and diabetes, and improving these health behaviors is useful in preventing hypertension and diabetes in general population.