American journal of preventive medicine
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The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends against privatization of alcohol retail sales in settings with current government control of retail sales, based on strong evidence that privatization results in increased per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages, a well-established proxy for excessive consumption and related harms.
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Cross-sectional research has documented elevated prevalence of obesity in lesbian and bisexual women relative to heterosexual women, but little is known about disparities in longitudinal patterns in BMI change during adulthood. ⋯ Both lesbian and bisexual women were more likely than heterosexual women to experience adverse-weight-gain trajectories in adulthood. New research efforts are needed to understand and eliminate these pronounced disparities.
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Excessive alcohol consumption is the third-leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. This systematic review is one in a series exploring effectiveness of interventions to reduce alcohol-related harms. ⋯ According to Community Guide rules of evidence, there is strong evidence that privatization of retail alcohol sales leads to increases in excessive alcohol consumption.
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New recommendations about the use of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) for diagnosing diabetes have stimulated a debate about the optimal HbA1c cutoff to identify prediabetes for preventive intervention. ⋯ Lowering the HbA1c cutoff for prediabetes leads to less cost-effective preventive interventions. Assuming a conventional $50,000/QALY cost-effectiveness benchmark, the HbA1c cutoffs of 5.7% and higher were found to be cost effective. Lowering the cutoff from 5.7% to 5.6% also may be cost effective, however, if the costs of preventive interventions were to be lowered.
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Multivariable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk calculators, such as the Framingham risk equations, can be used to identify populations most likely to benefit from treatments to decrease risk. ⋯ EHR data can be used to classify CVD risk for most adults aged 30-74 years. In the population for the current study, CVD risk scores based on BMI could be used to identify those at low risk for CVD and potentially reduce unnecessary laboratory cholesterol testing.