American journal of preventive medicine
-
Individuals with disabilities are disproportionately vulnerable in evacuation emergencies, and they face numerous challenges accessing resources for response and recovery. ⋯ Despite both greater vulnerability to disaster and numerous messages by governmental and nongovernmental organizations, households with special-needs members are not more likely to engage in time-consuming preparedness behaviors such as planning and buying. Understanding the motivations and behaviors of special-needs groups is critical to designing informed risk-communication messages and interventions to bolster the preparedness of the most vulnerable populations.
-
Social smoking is increasingly prevalent and poses a challenge to traditional cessation practices. Tobacco companies conducted extensive research on social smokers long before health authorities did and marketed products to promote this smoking behavior. ⋯ Previously considered a transient behavior, social smoking is also a stable consumption pattern. Focused clinical questions to detect social smoking are needed and may include, "Have you smoked any cigarettes or used any tobacco products in the past month?" as opposed to "Are you a smoker?" Clinicians should recognize that social smokers might be motivated to quit after education on the dangers of secondhand smoke rather than on personal health risks or with pharmacotherapy.
-
Mammography capacity in the U.S. reportedly is adequate, but has not been examined in nonmetropolitan areas. This study examined the relationships between in-county mammography facilities and rates of mammography screening and late-stage diagnosis of breast cancers. ⋯ Although mammography capacity in the U.S. may be adequate on average, the unequal distribution of facilities results in large rural areas without facilities. Screening rates in these areas are suboptimal and are associated with late-stage diagnosis of breast cancer.
-
Steps/day guidelines for children aged 12 years and under are 12,000 to 16,000. There are limited reports in the literature on how many steps/day adolescents need to meet the 60-minutes/day moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) recommendation. This study aimed to determine the steps/day that correctly classifies adolescents as meeting the 60-minute recommendation using objective measures. ⋯ Depending on the MVPA criteria used, these data suggest that overweight adolescents are likely to meet national MVPA recommendations if they accumulate between 10,000 and 11,700 steps per day.
-
Despite the acknowledged promise of developing a public health systems research (PHSR) agenda for emergency preparedness, there has been no systematic review of the literature in this area. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review in order to identify and characterize the PHSR literature produced in the U.S. in the past 11 years in the field of public health emergency preparedness. ⋯ Since 2001, the PHSR literature on PHEP issues has grown at about 33% per year. However, most studies lack a rigorous design, raising questions about the validity of the results.