American journal of preventive medicine
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Although most Medicaid programs have some coverage for tobacco-cessation treatments, little is known about how well the covered treatments are utilized among Medicaid enrollees. ⋯ Medicaid coverage alone may have limited sustained effect on increasing utilization of the covered tobacco-cessation treatments among Medicaid enrollees.
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To evaluate the utility of a competency mapping process for assessing the integration of clinical and public health skills in a newly developed Community Health Center (CHC) rotation at the University of Michigan School of Public Health Preventive Medicine residency. ⋯ Utilizing competency mapping to assess clinical-public health integration in a new CHC rotation proved to be feasible and useful. Clinical preventive medicine learning objectives for a CHC rotation can also address public health competencies.
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Few studies have addressed the potential influence of neighborhood characteristics on adolescent obesity risk, and findings have been inconsistent. ⋯ The mix of neighborhood-level barriers and facilitators of weight-related health behaviors leads to difficulties disentangling their associations with adolescent obesity; however, statistical approaches including factor and latent class analysis may provide useful means for addressing this complexity.
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The focus of the PhenX (Phenotypes and eXposures) Toolkit is to provide researchers whose expertise lies outside a particular area with key measures identified by experts for uniform use in large-scale genetic studies and other extensive epidemiologic efforts going forward. The current paper specifically addresses the PhenX Toolkit research domain of physical activity and physical fitness (PA/PF), which are often associated with health outcomes. A Working Group (WG) of content experts completed a 6-month consensus process in which they identified a set of 14 high-priority, low-burden, and scientifically supported measures. ⋯ Measures from the PA/PF domain and 20 other domains are publicly available and found at the PhenX Toolkit website, www.phenxtoolkit.org. The use of common measures and protocols across large studies enhances the capacity to combine or compare data across studies, benefiting both PA/PF experts and non-experts. Use of these common measures by the research community should increase statistical power and enhance the ability to answer scientific questions that previously might have gone unanswered.