-
Addiction (Abingdon, England) Apr 2020Washington Initiative 1183 (I-1183), a 2012 law that privatized liquor retail sales and distribution in Washington State, USA, has had two opposing effects on liquor...
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Washington Initiative 1183 (I-1183), a 2012 law that privatized liquor retail sales and distribution in Washington State, USA, has had two opposing effects on liquor purchases: it has increased access to liquor and imposed new fees on retailers and distributors. This study aimed to estimate the effect of I-1183 on monthly alcohol purchases during the post-I-1183 period (June 2012-December 2014) compared with the pre-I-1183 period (January 2010-May 2012).
DESIGN
DIFFERENCES-IN-DIFFERENCES STUDY: Setting and participants The study included households participating in the Nielsen Consumer Panel Dataset living in metropolitan and surrounding areas in Washington State and 10 control states. Measurements Outcomes were alcohol purchases by type (ounces of liquor, wine, beer and total alcohol or ethanol). Findings I-1183 was associated with a 6.34-ounce (P < 0.001) and a 2.01-ounce (P < 0.001) increase in monthly liquor and ethanol purchases, respectively, per household in the post-policy period spanning 31 months compared with monthly purchases in control states. In a longitudinal subgroup analysis, low and moderate alcohol purchasers increased monthly purchases of ethanol and high purchasers decreased purchases of ethanol. Conclusions Enacting 'Washington Initiative 1183', a law that privatized sale and distribution of liquor and imposed new fees on retailers and distributors, appears to have been associated with an approximate 82% increase in monthly liquor purchases and 26% increase in monthly ethanol purchases by households in metropolitan and surrounding areas in Washington State, USA.
Topics: Alcoholic Beverages; Commerce; Consumer Behavior; Family Characteristics; Humans; Privatization; Washington
PubMed: 31670853
DOI: 10.1111/add.14875 -
Journal of Nutrition Education and... Mar 2020To assess sugar content and child-oriented promotional features on packaging among cereals manufactured by companies with varying Children's Food and Beverage... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
OBJECTIVE
To assess sugar content and child-oriented promotional features on packaging among cereals manufactured by companies with varying Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) participation.
DESIGN
Ready-to-eat dry cereals (n = 159) were purchased from southeastern US grocery stores in September 2018. Content analysis of 159 ready-to-eat dry cereal boxes, coded for sugar content and presence of 8 child-oriented features.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Frequencies of each promotional feature and number of features per box, level of participation in CFBAI, and sugar content by serving and ounce.
ANALYSIS
Chi-square tests of independence analyzed correspondence between measures of sugar content. Extent of features per box based on sugar content and CFBAI participation were assessed with analyses of variance (ANOVAs).
RESULTS
Most cereals (81%) contained <13 g of sugar per serving, meeting the sugar content requirement for child-directed advertising. Cereals' sugar content classifications varied between sugar per serving and sugar per ounce metrics (P < .001). Among low-sugar per serving cereals, 28% were classified as moderate-sugar per ounce, whereas 55% of moderate-sugar per serving cereals had high-sugar per ounce. Games/activities and trade characters were especially common (62% and 49%, respectively), particularly on high-sugar per ounce cereals (P < .001, respectively). Child-oriented features were rare on low-sugar cereals and highest on cereals with higher sugar content per ounce produced by CFBAI-participating companies (F8,158 = 12.33, P < .001).
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Variable cereal-suggested serving sizes may contribute to consumers' misunderstanding of sugar content. CFBAI manufacturers continue to market cereals with high sugar to children. Food and beverage regulatory policy could be strengthened if CFBAI companies apply marketing pledges to brand mascots, adopt standardized metrics for sugar content, and limit added sugar content to the recommended <6 g/serving target used by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program.
Topics: Advertising; Child; Child, Preschool; Edible Grain; Food Industry; Humans; Marketing; Nutritive Value; Sugars; United States
PubMed: 32146975
DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2020.01.005 -
American Journal of Preventive Medicine Mar 2022Although interest in beverage taxes has increased in recent years, industry opposition and other challenges have limited their spread in the U.S. Because beverage tax...
INTRODUCTION
Although interest in beverage taxes has increased in recent years, industry opposition and other challenges have limited their spread in the U.S. Because beverage tax proposals are often unsuccessful, there is limited empirical evidence to inform advocacy efforts. Philadelphia's 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages provides an opportunity to understand how public testimony for and against the tax was framed in a city that ultimately passed the policy.
METHODS
A content analysis of all public testimony about the beverage tax presented to the Philadelphia City Council in 2016 was conducted. Testimonies were coded for policy stance (protax or antitax), speaker type, and specific protax or antitax arguments. Quantitative data were analyzed in 2018-2019 using chi-square tests.
RESULTS
A total of 177 unique testimonies were identified, which included 40 protax arguments (grouped into 11 themes) and 31 antitax arguments (grouped into 10 themes). Most testimonies were delivered orally, and most speakers argued in favor of the tax (58%). Among tax supporters, funding early childhood education was the most common argument (71%), whereas tax opponents most frequently argued that sugar-sweetened beverages were the wrong target for the tax (50%).
CONCLUSIONS
This analysis of public testimony revealed that protax advocacy efforts highlighted the revenue benefits for early childhood education and community infrastructure rather than the tax's potential to reduce sweetened beverage consumption and improve health. By contrast, antitax arguments centered on the unfairness of targeting a single industry, potential negative economic impacts, and the perceived lack of evidence that the tax would influence consumer behavior.
Topics: Beverages; Child, Preschool; Consumer Behavior; Humans; Philadelphia; Sugar-Sweetened Beverages; Taxes
PubMed: 34753646
DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2021.08.023 -
The New England Journal of Medicine Dec 2020
Topics: BNT162 Vaccine; COVID-19; COVID-19 Vaccines; Humans; RNA, Messenger; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination; Viral Vaccines
PubMed: 33301245
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe2034717 -
Netherlands Heart Journal : Monthly... Jan 2024
PubMed: 38085508
DOI: 10.1007/s12471-023-01839-3 -
JMIR Research Protocols Feb 2023Social and behavioral determinants of health are increasingly recognized as central to effective person-centered intervention in clinical practice, disease management,...
BACKGROUND
Social and behavioral determinants of health are increasingly recognized as central to effective person-centered intervention in clinical practice, disease management, and public health. Accordingly, social prescribing (SP) has received increased attention in recent times. The rampant global prevalence of obesity indicates that the customary, reductionistic, and disease-oriented biomedical approach to health service delivery is inadequate/ineffective at arresting the spread and mitigating the damaging consequences of the condition. There is an urgent need to shift the focus from reactive downstream disease-based treatments to more proactive, upstream, preventive action. In essence, this requires more effort to affect the paradigm shift from the traditional "biomedical approach of care" to a "biopsychosocial model" required to arrest the increasing prevalence of obesity. To this end, an SP approach, anchored in systems thinking, could be an effective means of moderating prevalence and consequences of obesity at a community level.
OBJECTIVE
The proposed SP intervention has the following three key objectives: (1) build a sustainable program for Circular Head based on SP, peer education, and health screening to minimize the incidence of obesity and related lifestyle diseases; (2) increase service and workforce connectivity and collaboration and initiate the introduction of new services and activities for obesity prevention and community health promotion; and (3) enhance health and well-being and minimize preventable adverse health outcomes of obesity and related lifestyle diseases through enhancement of food literacy and better nutrition, enhancement of physical literacy and habitual personal activity levels, and improvement of mental health, community connectedness, and reduction of social isolation.
METHODS
This paper describes a prospective SP strategy aimed at obesity prevention in Circular Head, a local government area in Northwest (NW) Tasmania. SP is a prominent strategy used in the Critical Age Periods Impacting the Trajectory of Obesogenic Lifestyles Project, which is an initiative based in NW Tasmania focused on assessing obesity prevention capacity. A social prescription model that facilitates the linkage of primary health screening with essential health care, education, and community resources through a dedicated "navigator" will be implemented. Four interlinked work packages will be implemented as part of the initial plan with each either building on existing resources or developing new initiatives.
RESULTS
A multimethod approach to triangulate insights from quantitative and qualitative research that enables the assessment of impact on individuals, community groups, and the health care system will be implemented within the initial pilot phase of the project.
CONCLUSIONS
Literature is replete with rhetoric advocating complex system approaches to curtail obesity. However, real-life examples of whole-of-systems interventions operationalized in ways that generate relevant evidence or effective policies are rare. The diverse approach for primary prevention of obesity-related lifestyle diseases and strategies for improvement of health and well-being described in this instance will contribute toward closing this evidence gap.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)
PRR1-10.2196/41280.
PubMed: 36800232
DOI: 10.2196/41280 -
Maturitas Mar 2022We examined the association between birthweight and objectively measured hearing loss in older men and women.
OBJECTIVES
We examined the association between birthweight and objectively measured hearing loss in older men and women.
STUDY DESIGN
893 community-dwelling participants aged 50+ years with pure-tone audiometry data and self-reported birthweight were included for cross-sectional analysis. Participants were asked how much they weighed at birth either in pounds and ounces or in kilograms and grams.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The pure-tone average of frequencies 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 kHz (PTA) >25 dB HL in the better ear established the presence of hearing loss.
RESULTS
Around 31.9% and 50.0% of participants who self-reported low (<2.5 kg) and high birthweight (>4.5 kg), respectively, had hearing loss. The odds of experiencing any level of hearing loss (>25 dB HL) after multivariate adjustment was: OR 2.00 (95% CI 1.13-3.56) for low birthweight and OR 2.43 (95% CI 1.23-4.82) for high birthweight, compared with participants in the reference group who self-reported normal birthweight (3.1-4.0 kg). Additionally, participants with high birthweight had 2.4-fold greater odds of having mild hearing loss (25-40 dB HL), while participants with low birthweight had 2.6-fold greater odds of moderate to severe hearing loss.
CONCLUSIONS
We observed an independent U-shaped association between birthweight and age-related hearing loss, that is, persons born with low or high birthweight had a greater likelihood of experiencing any level of hearing loss in older age. These findings provide further evidence to address an important gap in the literature regarding the influence of foetal growth on the auditory system in later life.
Topics: Aged; Audiometry, Pure-Tone; Birth Weight; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Hearing Loss; Humans; Male; Self Report
PubMed: 35120673
DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2021.11.008 -
JACC. Clinical Electrophysiology Oct 2020
Topics: Atrial Fibrillation; Catheter Ablation; Humans; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Risk Factors
PubMed: 33092756
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacep.2020.06.029 -
Acta Odontologica Scandinavica Nov 2023Cryotherapy using ice chips has been successfully used to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. Although effective, concerns have been raised that the low...
BACKGROUND
Cryotherapy using ice chips has been successfully used to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. Although effective, concerns have been raised that the low temperatures that are obtained in the oral mucosa during cooling may be potentially harmful to taste and smell perception. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether intraoral cooling permanently affects taste and smell perception.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Twenty subjects inserted an ounce of ice chips and moved the ice around in the mouth to cool as large a part of the oral mucosa as possible. Cooling continued for 60 min. At baseline (T0 - minutes), and following 15, 30, 45, and 60 min of cooling, taste and smell perception were registered, using the Numeric Rating Scale. The same procedures were repeated 15 min (T75 - minutes) after completion of cooling. Taste and smell were evaluated using four different solutions and a fragrance, respectively.
RESULTS
A statistically significant difference was seen for taste perception with Sodium chloride, Sucrose, and Quinine at all the follow-up time points tested as compared to baseline ( < .05). Citric acid and smell perception proved to be significantly different from baseline following 30 min of cooling. When the same assessments were carried out 15 min following completion of cooling, i.e. T75, all taste and smell perceptions had recovered to some extent. For taste perception, however, a statistically significant difference was still seen for all solutions tested as compared to baseline ( < .01).
CONCLUSION
In healthy individuals, intraoral cooling with IC leads to a temporary reduction in taste and smell perception, with a tendency to return to baseline values.
PubMed: 37339460
DOI: 10.1080/00016357.2023.2223643 -
Early Childhood Research QuarterlyEven with rapid and widespread expansion of states' quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS)-tiered frameworks that assess, communicate, and improve early childhood...
Even with rapid and widespread expansion of states' quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS)-tiered frameworks that assess, communicate, and improve early childhood education (ECE) quality-there exists no population-level information regarding which providers choose to participate in these primarily voluntary systems. We use a nationally representative survey of ECE centers to examine how the characteristics of ECE centers and the communities in which they are located predict participation in QRIS to understand the scope of QRIS policy implementation and the extent to which QRIS may be equity enhancing. We find that approximately one-third of centers nationwide participated in QRIS in 2012. Selection model results reveal that participation is more likely among centers that blend multiple funding sources and who are NAEYC accredited, and in communities with high poverty rates. However, QRIS participation is less likely in communities with relatively higher proportions of Black residents. Findings raise questions about how QRISs can equitably engage programs in all communities.
PubMed: 33041498
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.09.005