Bmc Public Health
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There has been a recent proliferation in the development of smartphone applications (apps) aimed at modifying various health behaviours. While interventions that incorporate behaviour change techniques (BCTs) have been associated with greater effectiveness, it is not clear to what extent smartphone apps incorporate such techniques. The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of BCTs in physical activity and dietary apps and determine how reliably the taxonomy checklist can be used to identify BCTs in smartphone apps. ⋯ Presence of BCTs varied by app type and price; however, BCTs associated with increased intervention effectiveness were in general more common in paid apps. The taxonomy checklist can be used by independent raters to reliably identify BCTs in physical activity and dietary behaviour smartphone apps.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
A Web-based computer-tailored game to reduce binge drinking among 16 to 18 year old Dutch adolescents: development and study protocol.
In The Netherlands, excessive alcohol use (e.g., binge drinking) is prevalent among adolescents. Alcohol use in general and binge drinking in particular comes with various immediate and long term health risks. Thus, reducing binge drinking among this target group is very important. This article describes a two-arm Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (CRCT) of an intervention aimed at reducing binge drinking in this target group. ⋯ The study described in this article gives insight into the effectiveness of a possible solution for a prominent public health issue in The Netherlands, which is binge drinking among 16 to 18 year old adolescents.
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Access to medicines is a universal right. Low availability and low affordability of medicines are issues that deny this right to a significant proportion of the world population. The objective of this study was to determine the availability, price and affordability of essential medicines prescribed to treat non communicable diseases in Sri Lanka. ⋯ The availability of selected essential medicines was fairly high in both public and private sectors in Sri Lanka. Most medicines are affordable to the lowest income earners in the community. There were many generic brands and generics available for most of the medicines in private and semi government community pharmacies increasing both availability and affordability.
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Chronic pain is a major public health problem. The impact of stages of chronic pain adjusted for disease load on societal burden has not been assessed in population surveys. ⋯ Chronic pain stages, but also disease load and societal inequalities contributed to societal burden. Pain measurements in epidemiology research of chronic pain should include chronic pain grades and disease load.
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Graphic warning labels are a tobacco control best practice that is mandated in the US for cigarettes under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. However, smokeless tobacco products are not required to carry graphic warning labels, and as of September 2014, electronic cigarettes in the US carry no warning labels and are aggressively marketed, including with "reduced harm" or "FDA Approved" messages. ⋯ Regulatory agencies should not allow "lower risk" warning labels, which have similar effects to the "FDA Approved" label, which is prohibited, and should consider implementing graphic warning labels for smokeless tobacco products and e-cigarettes.