American journal of preventive medicine
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Nutrition labeling of menus has been promoted as a means for helping consumers make healthier food choices at restaurants. As part of national health reform, chain restaurants will be required to post nutrition information at point-of-purchase, but more evidence regarding the impact of these regulations, particularly in children, is needed. ⋯ A restaurant menu-labeling regulation increased parents' nutrition information awareness but did not decrease calories purchased for either children or parents.
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Integrating public health into medical curricula poses a substantial challenge to educators. However, the needs of trainees and the population requirements of accrediting bodies provide a compelling call to action to improve how tomorrow's medical practitioners are prepared to incorporate public health into their practices. This article provides insights about the nature of the challenges, and it identifies opportunities and practical approaches to integrating public health content into medical school curricula. The paper incorporates authors' opinions with a synthesis of the discussions from a workshop at the 2010 "Patients and Populations: Public Health in Medical Education" conference.
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Field tests measuring the same construct, in this case, aerobic capacity, use different scales, which makes fitness assessment of children and youth potentially confusing. The Primary Field Test Centered Equating Method has been developed to set tests on the same scale, as illustrated by the conversion of Progressive Aerobic Capacity Endurance Run (PACER) scores to 1-mile run/walk times to estimate VO(2)max. ⋯ The Primary Field Test Centered Equating Method performs as well or better in estimating VO(2)max as several other models using PACER scores, especially for boys, and thus may be successfully used in practice. More research is needed to understand the relatively low prediction and classification accuracy in girls.
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This is one of six short papers that describe additional innovations to help integrate public health into medical education; these were featured in the "Patients and Populations: Public Health in Medical Education" conference. They represent relatively new endeavors or curricular components that had not been explored in prior publications. Although evaluation data are lacking, it was felt that sharing a description of the public health, prevention, population health, and policy (P4) curriculum at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Phoenix (UACOM-P), would be of value to medical educators.
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The dramatic increase in pediatric obesity has renewed interest in accurate methods and screening indexes for identifying at-risk children and youth. Whether age-specific standards are needed is a factor that remains uncertain. ⋯ The results demonstrate a strong relationship between chronic disease risk factors and percent fat in children and youth that varies by age in boys and girls.