European journal of public health
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To reduce the possibility of cigarette appearance misleading consumers about harm caused by the product, the European Commission's draft Tobacco Products Directive proposed banning cigarettes <7.5 mm in diameter. It appears however, following a plenary vote in the European Parliament, that this will not be part of the final Tobacco Products Directive. To reduce the appeal of cigarettes, the Australian Government banned the use of branding on cigarettes and stipulated a maximum cigarette length as part of the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act. We explored the role, if any, of cigarette appearance on perceptions of appeal and harm among adolescents. ⋯ This exploratory study provides some support that standardising cigarette appearance could reduce the appeal of cigarettes in adolescents and reduce the opportunity for stick design to mislead young smokers in terms of harm.
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Eur J Public Health · Jun 2014
An analysis of subject areas and country participation for all health-related projects in the EU's FP5 and FP6 programmes.
Previous analyses concerning health components of European Union (EU)-funded research have shown low project participation levels of the 12 newest member states (EU-12). Additionally, there has been a lack of subject-area analysis. In the Health Research for Europe project, we screened all projects of the EU's Framework Programmes for research FP5 and FP6 (1998-2006) to identify health research projects and describe participation by country and subject area. ⋯ Combining our findings with the associated literature, we comment on drivers determining distribution of participation and funds across countries and subject areas. Additionally, we discuss changes needed in the core EU projects database to provide greater transparency, data exploitation and return on investment in health research.
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Eur J Public Health · Apr 2014
Trends of overweight and obesity, physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Czech schoolchildren: HBSC study.
The decline of physical activity (PA) and the increased prevalence of overweight and obese children have been discussed worldwide. This study assessed the trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity, PA and sedentary behaviour in Czech school-aged children. ⋯ An increasing percentage of obese or overweight children, increased sedentary time and a decline or stagnation of the proportion of children meeting recommendations for PA were found among Czech schoolchildren. Future research should evaluate PA recommendations with respect to gender, age and effective intervention approach to reduce the obesity incidence in childhood.