American journal of preventive medicine
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Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages including nondiet sodas, sport drinks, and energy drinks has been linked with obesity. Recent state and local efforts to tax these beverages have been unsuccessful. Enactment will be unlikely without public support, yet little research is available to assess how to effectively make the case for such taxes. ⋯ Without bolstering public support for existing pro-tax messages or developing alternative pro-tax messages, enacting such policies will be difficult. Message-framing studies could be useful in identifying promising strategies for persuading Americans that taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are warranted.
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The field of behavioral economics combines psychology and economics to investigate how individuals actually behave as opposed to how they would behave if they were being perfectly rational (as in the sense of maximizing their utility). Although initial applications focused on consumer behavior, such as explaining why people failed to save adequately for retirement, the field has moved increasingly into the area of explaining health behaviors as well as the design of lifestyle interventions, such as weight loss and smoking-cessation programs. This article provides an overview of several important behavioral economics concepts of relevance to public health and health behavior change.
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Prospective studies report associations between indicators of time spent sitting and obesity risk. Most studies use a single indicator of sedentary behavior and are unable to clearly identify whether sedentary behavior is a cause or a consequence of obesity. ⋯ Sitting time was not associated with obesity cross-sectionally or prospectively. Prior obesity was prospectively associated with time spent watching TV per week but not other types of sitting.
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Recently, suicide exceeded motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of injury death in the U.S. However, details of this change in suicide methods and the relationship to individual demographics, such as age and societal influences, have not been reported. ⋯ Substantial increases in suicide by hanging/suffocation and poisoning merit attention from policymakers and call for innovations and changes in suicide prevention approaches.
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Child abuse is highly prevalent and associated with increased risk for a range of health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, psychiatric disorders, and other health problems. Little is currently known about the mechanism by which early adversity confers risk for health problems later in life. ⋯ Although replication is required, this study suggests that epigenetic mechanisms may be associated with risk for health problems later in life in maltreated children. This study lays the groundwork for future studies examining health and methylation measures to further characterize the role of epigenetic mechanisms in conferring risk for medical problems in individuals with histories of early adversity.