American journal of preventive medicine
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Neighborhood environment can have a substantial influence on the level of physical activity among older adults. Yet, the moderating influence of various measures of SES on the association between perceived neighborhood safety and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) among older adults remains unknown. ⋯ SES, demographic characteristics, and functional limitations substantially attenuated the positive association between perceived neighborhood safety and LTPA; however, with the inclusion of self-rated health, the association was no longer present. This finding suggests that self-rated health may mediate this association. The lack of significance in the interaction between perceived neighborhood safety and SES suggests that prevention efforts to increase physical activity among older adults should consider perceptions of neighborhood safety as a potential barrier regardless of SES.
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The high prevalence of medication use increases the potential for medication overdoses, especially among children. ⋯ Medication overdoses among children, notably unsupervised ingestions, represent a substantial burden in terms of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. New efforts to prevent pediatric medication overdoses are needed.
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The widely recommended 5A's strategy for brief smoking cessation includes five tasks: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. Assessments of the 5A's have been limited to medical-record review and self-report. Using observational data, an instrument to assess the rate at which the 5A's are accomplished was developed. ⋯ Accounting for patient activity in smoking-cessation discussions is essential to accurately capture the degree to which the 5A's have been accomplished. The 5A-DOC can be applied to audio or transcript data to reliably assess which of the 5A's tasks have been accomplished. Clinician performance of the 5A's was modest, and findings suggest that clinician training should focus on Assess and the timing of this task, and alignment with patients' reported readiness.
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The details hidden within the recent increase (1999-2004) in unintentional injury mortality have not been studied. ⋯ Specific subgroups of whites have recently experienced the most marked increases in fatal unintentional injuries, including falls, poisoning, motor-vehicle crashes, suffocation, fire/burns, and drowning. These increases merit further attention from researchers and policymakers.
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Rock climbing is an increasingly popular sport in the U.S., with approximately nine million participants annually. The sport holds an inherent risk of falls and stress-related injuries. As indoor climbing facilities become more common, more people are participating in the sport. ⋯ Our results indicate that the most common rock climbing-related injuries are to the lower extremities and are fractures, sprains, and strains. More research is needed to determine how rock-climbers' characteristics, climbing setting, style of climbing, and use of safety equipment and training may affect their risk for certain injury patterns.