Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2017
Consolidated state political party control and the enactment of obesity-related policies in the United States.
States play a key role in addressing obesity and its risk factors through policymaking, but there is variation in state activity nationally. The goal of this study was to examine whether the presence of a consolidated Democratic or Republican "trifecta" - when a state's governorship and both houses of the legislature are dominated by the same political party - or divided government (i.e., without a trifecta) is associated with obesity-related policy content and enactment. In 2016 and 2017, we gathered state bills and laws utilizing the CDC Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System, and examined the association between state-level political party control and the enactment of state-level obesity-related policies in all states during 2009-2015. ⋯ Republican trifecta states enacted more laws related to physical activity, and in some states like Texas, Republican trifectas were exceptionally active in passing policies with a public health framework. States with Republican trifectas enacted a statistically similar amount of laws as states with divided governments. These findings suggest promise across states for obesity-related public health policymaking under a variety of political regimes.
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Preventive medicine · Dec 2017
LetterMen who have sex with men and women (MSMW), biphobia and the CDC: A bridge ignored?!
This is a letter to the editor on a Short Communication by a group of CDC researchers. It speaks of the importance of bisexual behavior in the transmission of HIV to heterosexual females. ⋯ Since more Blacks and Hispanics admit to bisexual behavior, the original CDC risk category classification has had a more serious adverse impact on minority communities. I argue that the CDC should change its risk category classification to include MSM only and MSMW as well as women who have sex with men only (WSM) and women who have sex with men and women (WSMW), even at this late stage.