American journal of preventive medicine
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Contemporary state-specific estimates of mortality caused by cigarette smoking are important for tobacco control advocacy and healthcare planning in the U.S., but are currently lacking. ⋯ Cigarette smoking continues to cause a substantial proportion of deaths in every state, with the highest population-attributable fractions in Nevada and the South. The continuing high burden in states with longstanding tobacco control, like California, highlights the need for enhanced tobacco control in all states.
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The purpose of this study is to extend prior research on barriers to use of a prescription drug monitoring program by examining psychosocial correlates of intended use among physicians and pharmacists. ⋯ Interventions that target normative beliefs surrounding prescription drug monitoring program use and how to use prescription drug monitoring programs effectively are likely to be more effective than those that target professional obligations or moralize to the medical community.
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Over the past 2 decades, drug-related deaths have grown to be a major U.S. public health problem. County-level differences in drug-related mortality rates are large. The relative contributions of social determinants of health to this variation, including the economic, social, and healthcare environments, are unknown. ⋯ Drug-related mortality rates are not randomly distributed across the U.S. Future research should consider the specific pathways through which economic, social, and healthcare environments are associated with drug-related mortality.
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The purpose of this study is to explore how the associations between importance of religion and recent suicide ideation, recent suicide attempt, and lifetime suicide attempt vary by sexual orientation. ⋯ Religion-based services for mental health and suicide prevention may not benefit gay/lesbian, bisexual, or questioning individuals. Religion-based service providers should actively assure their services are open and supportive of gay/lesbian, bisexual, or questioning individuals.
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Globalization via free trade and investment agreements is often implicated in the obesity pandemic. Concerns center on how free trade and investment agreements increase population exposure to unhealthy, high-calorie diets, but existing studies preclude causal conclusions. Few studies of free trade and investment agreements and diets isolated their impact from confounding changes, and none examined any effect on caloric intake, despite its critical role in the etiology of obesity. This study addresses these limitations by analyzing a unique natural experiment arising from the exceptional circumstances surrounding the implementation of the 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. ⋯ The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was associated with a substantial rise in calorie availability in Canada. U.S. free trade and investment agreements can contribute to rising obesity and related diseases by pushing up caloric intake.