Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2019
Preventing unintentional injuries in US early care and education: Are state regulations sufficient?
Unintentional injuries are currently the leading cause of death among US children older than one. As many children spend significant time in non-parental child care, these injuries often occur outside of the home. This study examined US state early care and education (ECE) regulations related to injury prevention. ⋯ However, few states (5 for centers, 3 for homes) required providers to take corrective action after an injury. Although most states had some injury prevention regulations, they varied greatly across states. More states should require corrective action after an injury to help prevent future injuries from occurring.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2019
The effects of community pharmacy-delivered public health interventions on population health and health inequalities: A review of reviews.
Community pharmacies have great potential to deliver services aimed at promoting health and preventing disease, and are well placed in deprived communities. This review of reviews aimed to assess the effectiveness of community pharmacy-delivered public health services and assess how they impact on inequalities in health using PROGRESS-Plus characteristics. Twenty databases were searched from their start date until January 2018. ⋯ At present, little is known how community pharmacy-delivered public health interventions impact on health inequalities. It would be prudent for future studies to address this by explicitly reporting outcomes according to the PROGRESS-Plus framework. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017056264.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2019
Chronic sleep disturbance, not chronic sleep deprivation, is associated with self-rated health in adolescents.
Improving our understanding of the cumulative effects of persistent sleep problems on adolescent health has been identified as an important area of research. This prospective study aimed to ascertain prospectively gender-specific associations between quantity and quality of sleep and self-reported health. Data from a cohort of 3104 adolescents (13-18 y) with repeated measures of sleep deprivation and sleep disturbance (2011 fall, 2012 spring, 2012 fall), and self-reported health (SRH) (2011 fall, 2012 fall) were analysed with multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for confounders. ⋯ Young women reporting chronic exposure to sleep disturbance had over twice the odds of reporting sub-optimal health at follow-up (OR 2.18 [CI95: 1.13, 4.22]), compared to those with no history. Similar results were found in chronically sleep disturbed young men (OR 2.41 [1.05, 5.51]). These findings suggest that chronic exposure to impaired quality of sleep, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, is related to adolescent self-reported health and thus may be an important determinant of young people's wellbeing.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2019
Oral cancer examinations and lesion discovery as reported by U.S. general dentists: Findings from the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network.
General dentists (GDs) have the opportunity to examine their patients for oral premalignancy/malignancy. We estimated the annualized per dentist number of oral lesions suspicious for premalignancy/malignancy discovered by United States (U. S.) general dentists and the annualized per dentist number of histologically-confirmed cancers subsequently diagnosed. ⋯ Crude and adjusted mean numbers of histologically-confirmed oral cancers were both 0.4 cancers/dentist/year. Our findings suggest that many U. S. general dentists are actively identifying oral lesions suspicious for premalignancy/malignancy, thereby aiding in the discovery of oral malignancies and representing an important component in the frontline against cancer.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 2019
Stigmatizing language in news media coverage of the opioid epidemic: Implications for public health.
Public stigma toward people who use illicit drugs impedes advancement of public health solutions to the opioid epidemic and reduces willingness to seek addiction treatment. Experimental studies show that use of certain terms, such as "addict" and "substance abuser," exacerbate stigma while alternative terms, such as "person with a substance use disorder," are less stigmatizing. We examine the frequency with which stigmatizing terms and less-stigmatizing alternatives are used in U. ⋯ S. news media coverage of the opioid epidemic may contribute to and reinforce widespread public stigma toward people with opioid use disorders. This stigma may be a barrier to implementation of evidence-based interventions to prevent opioid overdose deaths. Establishing journalistic standards to de-stigmatize the language of addiction is a public health priority.