American journal of preventive medicine
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Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), known collectively as venous thromboembolism (VTE), affect an estimated 900,000 people in the U. S. each year, resulting in several hundred thousand hospitalizations and about 300,000 deaths. Despite this substantial public health burden, no systematic collection of VTE-related morbidity and mortality data exists in the U. ⋯ The workshop also focused on the advisability and feasibility of establishing systematic surveillance for VTE and included preliminary discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. The workshop concluded that (1) improved utilization in clinical practice of existing, proven-effective preventive measures is critical to reducing the disease burden from VTE; (2) systematic surveillance of DVT and PE is needed to provide nationally representative data on the prevalence and annual incidence of DVT and PE in the U. S.; (3) tracking and documenting changes in the incidence of DVT and PE through systematic surveillance will be important to enhance prevention efforts; and (4) the CDC should convene a second group of experts to advise the agency in detail on the strengths, weaknesses, and feasibility of possible approaches to systematic surveillance for DVT and PE.
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There is a paucity of population-based data describing health status and use of health services among children with sickle cell disease (SCD). ⋯ The health burden for children with SCD and their families is profound and may be exacerbated by barriers to accessing comprehensive medical care. Additional study of the extent of unmet needs for U.S. children with SCD is warranted.
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The number of individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) in the U.S. is unknown. Determination of burden of disease, healthcare issues, and policies is best served by representative estimations of the SCD population. ⋯ The number of individuals with SCD in the U.S. may approach 100,000, even when accounting for the effect of early mortality on estimations. A paucity of high-quality data limits appropriate estimation. State-to-state variability may preclude application of state-specific information to other states or to the nation as a whole. Standardized collection and centralized reporting, a surveillance system, will be necessary to assess the size and composition of the U.S. SCD population.
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Americans of Mexican origin are at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease. ⋯ Social influence may play an important role in motivating individuals to engage in screenings. Network-based intervention involving older individuals to provide encouragement to younger network members should be explored as a means to increase motivation to screen among this population.
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Studies of the built environment and physical activity have implicitly assumed that a substantial amount of activity occurs near home, but in fact the location is unknown. ⋯ Findings are consistent with studies showing that certain attributes of the built environment around homes are positively related to physical activity, but in this case only when the outcome was location-based. Simultaneous accelerometer-GPS monitoring shows promise as a method to improve understanding of how the built environment influences physical activity behaviors by allowing activity to be quantified in a range of physical contexts and thereby provide a more explicit link between physical activity outcomes and built environment exposures.