American journal of preventive medicine
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Along with public health and clinical professionals, employers are taking note of rising obesity rates among their employees, as obesity is strongly related to chronic health problems and concomitant increased healthcare costs. Contributors to the obesity epidemic are complex and numerous, and may include several work characteristics. ⋯ Work-related factors may contribute to the high prevalence of obesity in the U.S. working population. Public health professionals and employers should consider workplace interventions that target organization-level factors, such as scheduling and prevention of workplace hostility, along with individual-level factors such as diet and exercise.
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The U. S. has been reported as the only country experiencing a decline in incidence rates of colorectal cancer (CRC), despite increasing prevalence of CRC major risk factors, including the Western dietary pattern and obesity. This paper presents a hypothesis that improved folate status in the U. ⋯ S. Although this type of analysis precludes a definitive conclusion, available evidence suggests that the increase in CRC incidence rates in the later 1990s is unlikely due to folic acid fortification and, assuming a time lag of a decade or longer to see a benefit on CRC, folate appears to be one of the most promising factors that could explain the downward trend of CRC incidence rates in the U. S.
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Consumption of alcoholic beverages is one of the single most important known and modifiable risk factor for human cancer. Among women, breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Consumption of alcoholic beverages is causally associated with female breast cancer and the association shows a linear dose-response relationship. The role of heavy drinking has been long recognized and even a moderate intake is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer. The present review is an update of the current evidence on the association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk. The aim is to gain further insight into this association and to improve our current understanding of the effects of the major modifying factors. ⋯ Better standardization among experimental and epidemiologic designs in assessing alcohol intake and timing of exposure may improve our understanding of the heterogeneity observed across studies, possibly allowing the quantification of the effects of occasional heavy drinking and the identification of a window of higher susceptibility to breast cancer development.
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Obesity has been associated with breast cancer risk in the Caucasian population but the association remains unclear in the Hispanics. Previous studies conducted among Hispanics in the U.S. have shown inconsistent results. ⋯ These findings suggest that anthropometric factors may have different associations with breast cancer risk in Hispanic women than in Caucasian women. This study also shows the importance of considering the evolution of body shape throughout life.