Preventive medicine
-
Preventive medicine · Nov 2020
Vermont's comprehensive public health framework for tobacco control and prevention.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the Best Practices Guide for Comprehensive Tobacco Control - 2014 it provided an opportunity for Vermont's Tobacco Control Program to create a new state plan. Bringing together partner agencies, advocates and health organizations, the workgroup faced a challenge: there wasn't consensus around focusing on e-cigarettes. There was concern that if too much emphasis was placed on addressing this emerging product, it would be at the cost of reducing combustible use. ⋯ The tobacco control and regulatory framework in Vermont has worked consistently at the state and local level on strategies involving youth engagement, coalition prevention activities, counter marketing and enforcement. Vermont's framework has evolved to recognize that no matter where a Vermonter is living or working, the protections and services provided by a tobacco program should be equitable. Future application of the public health framework includes exploring innovative policy approaches to curtail the vaping epidemic.
-
Preventive medicine · Nov 2020
EditorialBehavior change, health, and health disparities 2020: Some current challenges in tobacco control and regulatory science.
This Special Issue of Preventive Medicine (PM) is the 7th in a series on behavior change, health, and health disparities. This series focuses on personal behavior patterns, including substance use disorders, physical inactivity/obesity, and non-adherence with medical regimens, which are among the most important modifiable causes of chronic disease and premature death. This 7th issue includes 17 commentaries, reviews, and original empirical studies, 16 of which are devoted to current tobacco control and regulatory science research and policy, topics critically important to protecting the public health from the longstanding and devastating harms of tobacco use. ⋯ Continuing to give space in this series to the U. S. opioid epidemic, we also include an original empirical report on longitudinal trends of non-medical use of opioids from 2008 to 2020 in rural Appalachia, an epicenter in this epidemic. Across each of these topics we have recruited contributions from well-regarded investigators, clinicians, and policymakers to acquaint readers with recent advances and accomplishments while also noting knowledge gaps and unresolved challenges.
-
Preventive medicine · Nov 2020
Modeling smoking-attributable mortality among adults with major depression in the United States.
Tobacco-related health disparities disproportionately affect smokers with major depression (MD). Although tobacco simulation models have been applied to general populations, to date they have not considered populations with a comorbid mental health condition. We developed and calibrated a simulation model of smoking and MD comorbidity for the US adult population using the 2005-2018 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. ⋯ Ambitious tobacco control efforts could alter this trajectory. With aggressive public health efforts, up to 264,000 of those premature deaths could be avoided, translating into 7.5 million life years gained. This model can compare the relative health gains across different intervention strategies for smokers with MD.