American journal of preventive medicine
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The 2010 Affordable Care Act required chain retail food establishments, including supermarkets, to post calorie information for prepared (i.e., ready to eat) foods. Implementation of calorie labeling could spur companies to reduce the calorie content of prepared foods, but few studies have explored this. This study evaluates the changes in the calorie content of prepared foods at 2 large U.S. supermarket chains after they implemented calorie labels in April 2017. ⋯ Implementing calorie labels could encourage product reformulation among some types of prepared supermarket foods. These supply-side changes could lead to reductions in caloric intake.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Optimizing Texting Interventions for Melanoma Prevention and Early Detection: A Latin Square Crossover RCT.
Text messaging is an effective way to reach large populations with health promotion support. This study aims to establish the optimal text messaging intervention to achieve behavior change in young adults at risk of skin cancer. ⋯ Regular text messaging interventions result in significantly increased sun protection and decreased sunburn in young adults.
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Greater availability of tobacco product retailers in an area may be associated with smoking behaviors, and the majority of people who smoke purchase their cigarettes at gas stations and convenience stores. This cross-sectional study investigates the associations of overall tobacco retailer density and gas/convenience density with adult smoking behaviors. ⋯ Tobacco retailer density, especially gas/convenience density, is correlated with daily smoking, the most harmful tobacco use behavior. Calculating tobacco retailer density using gas/convenience stores may be a feasible proxy for overall tobacco retailer density.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced telehealth to be the primary means through which patients interact with their providers. There is a concern that the pandemic will exacerbate the existing disparities in overall healthcare utilization and telehealth utilization. Few national studies have examined the changes in telehealth use during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic has affected telehealth utilization disproportionately on the basis of patient age and both the county-level poverty rate and urbanicity.
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The potential for Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination to mitigate COVID-19 severity and perhaps infection susceptibility has been hypothesized, attracting global attention given its off-target benefits shown in several respiratory viral infections. ⋯ Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccination received in childhood is associated with less severe COVID-19 pneumonia and milder liver function deficiency in addition to a lower death rate in Bacille Calmette-Guerin‒vaccinated patients than in nonvaccinated individuals.