American journal of preventive medicine
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The Preventive Medicine Residency Program collaborated with the Department of Family Medicine's Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities at Boston Medical Center to create a new rotation for preventive medicine residents starting in autumn 2012. Residents participated in integrative medicine group visits and consults, completed an online curriculum in dietary supplements, and participated in seminars all in the context of an urban safety net hospital. This collaboration was made possible by a federal Health Resources and Services Administration grant for integrative medicine in preventive medicine residencies and helped meet a need of the program to increase residents' exposure to clinical preventive medicine and integrative health clinical skills and principles. The collaboration has resulted in a required rotation for all residents that continues after the grant period and has fostered additional collaborations related to integrative medicine across the programs.
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Few studies have examined the longitudinal associations of fitness or changes in fitness on the risk of developing dyslipidemias. This study examined the associations of (1) baseline fitness with 25-year dyslipidemia incidence and (2) 20-year fitness change on dyslipidemia development in middle age in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study (CARDIA). ⋯ Our findings demonstrate the importance of cardiorespiratory fitness in young adulthood as a risk factor for developing dyslipidemias, particularly high triglycerides, during the transition to middle age.
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Targeted cancer screening refers to use of disease risk information to identify those most likely to benefit from screening. Researchers have begun to explore the possibility of refining screening regimens for average-risk individuals using genetic and non-genetic risk factors and previous screening experience. Average-risk individuals are those not known to be at substantially elevated risk, including those without known inherited predisposition, without comorbidities known to increase cancer risk, and without previous diagnosis of cancer or pre-cancer. ⋯ RCTs suggest that targeting certain ages and smoking histories reduces disease-specific cancer mortality, although some guidelines extend ages and smoking histories based on statistical modeling. Guidelines that are based on modestly elevated disease risk typically have either no or little evidence of an ability to affect a mortality benefit. In time, targeted cancer screening is likely to include genetic factors and past screening experience as well as non-genetic factors other than age, smoking, and race, but it is of utmost importance that clinical implementation be evidence-based.
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Smoking-related disparities continue to be a public health problem among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population groups and data documenting the health burden of smoking in this population are sparse. The purpose of this study was to assess mortality attributable to cigarette smoking among AI/AN adults relative to non-Hispanic white adults (whites) by calculating and comparing smoking-attributable fractions and mortality. ⋯ These findings underscore the need for comprehensive tobacco control and prevention efforts that can effectively reach and impact the AI/AN population to prevent and reduce smoking.