American journal of preventive medicine
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Harnessing engagement in online searching and social media may provide complementary information for monitoring alcohol use, informing prevention and policy evaluation, and extending knowledge available from national surveys. ⋯ Strong associations were found among individual alcohol use and state-level alcohol-related searching/posting measures, which were moderated by the strength of state alcohol policies. Findings support using novel personally generated data to monitor alcohol use and possibly evaluate effects of alcohol control policies.
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Preconception and interconception health care are critical means of identifying, managing, and treating risk factors originating before pregnancy that can harm fetal development and maternal health. However, many women in the U.S. lack health insurance, limiting their ability to access such care. State-level variation in Medicaid eligibility, particularly before and after the 2014 Medicaid expansions, offers a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis that increasing healthcare coverage for low-income women can improve preconception and interconception healthcare access and utilization, chronic disease management, overall health, and health behaviors. ⋯ Expanded Medicaid coverage may improve access to and utilization of health care among women of reproductive age, which could ultimately improve preconception health.
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Various built environment factors might influence certain health behaviors and outcomes. Reliable, resource-efficient methods that are feasible for assessing built environment characteristics across large geographies are needed for larger, more robust studies. This paper reports the item response prevalence, reliability, and rating time of a new virtual neighborhood audit protocol, drop-and-spin auditing, developed for assessment of walkability and physical disorder characteristics across large geographic areas. ⋯ Compared with segment-based protocols, drop-and-spin virtual neighborhood auditing is quicker and similarly reliable for assessing built environment characteristics. Assessment of large geographies may be more feasible using drop-and-spin virtual auditing.
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Food insecurity during young adulthood affects physical health, mental health, and academic performance. However, little is known about parental and behavioral factors during childhood that may contribute to risk of food insecurity during young adulthood. ⋯ Spending time in food preparation during childhood and high parental nutritional knowledge each have a protective effect against food insecurity during young adulthood. Greater investment in teaching cooking skills during childhood may be beneficial, particularly for individuals at high risk for food insecurity.
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Sexual minorities are disproportionately more likely than heterosexuals to suffer from substance use disorders, but relatively little is known about differences in substance use disorders across diverse sexual minority subgroups. There is also limited understanding of how different social stressors account for sexual orientation disparities in substance use disorders. ⋯ Sexual minority subgroups have a greater prevalence of substance use disorders, mediated through both stressful life events and lesbian, gay, and bisexual discrimination. More research is needed to comprehensively assess the processes underlying sexual orientation substance use disparities.