Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2024
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the delivery of preventive healthcare? An interrupted time series analysis of adults in English primary care from 2018 to 2022.
Offering advice and support for smoking, obesity, excess alcohol, and physical inactivity is an evidence-based component of primary care. The objective was to quantify the impact of the pandemic on the rate of advice or referral for these four risk factors. ⋯ Advice and support for smoking, and advice for weight, excess alcohol and physical inactivity have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Clinicians and policy makers should prioritise preventive care in COVID-19 recovery plans.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2024
Rural-urban differences in meeting of physical activity recommendations by sun exposure and protection behaviors in the United States.
To examine associations between sun protection behaviors and physical activity (PA) by rural and urban residence in the United States. ⋯ Meeting PA recommendations was associated with greater sun exposure in both rural and urban populations. Additional exercise location (indoors/outside) data is needed to inform PA and skin cancer prevention interventions to reduce unintended increases in sun exposure and reductions in PA, respectively, especially among rural populations.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2024
Reasons for contacting a crisis line and the initiation of emergency dispatches.
To better understand processes of mental health crisis line utilization by examining associations between reasons for contacting a crisis line with the initiation of emergency dispatches (i.e., activation of 911 or local emergency services) in a national sample. ⋯ Emergency dispatches are primarily used in response to imminent suicide risk but are also used in other potentially violent or lethal circumstances such as homicides, violence or abuse, and other crises. These findings highlight the role that crisis lines play in emergency service delivery, and the need to better understand how they are utilized under real world circumstances.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2024
Age at first drink and its influence on alcohol use behaviours in young adulthood: Evidence from an Australian household-based panel study.
Public health guidelines recommend delaying the initiation age for alcohol. However, the causal link between age-at-first-drink (AFD) and future alcohol use in young adulthood is uncertain. This study examined the association between AFD and alcohol-related outcomes at age 20 years using an Australian sample. ⋯ Study findings indicate an association between a higher AFD and consuming less alcohol in young adulthood, which could potentially support the scale-up of prevention programs to delay AFD among Australian adolescents.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2024
Maternal opioid use disorder and infant mortality in Wisconsin, United States, 2010-2018.
The difference in infant health outcomes by maternal opioid use disorder (OUD) status is understudied. We measured the association between maternal OUD during pregnancy and infant mortality and investigated whether this association differs by infant neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) or maternal receipt of medication for OUD (MOUD) during pregnancy. ⋯ Maternal OUD is associated with an elevated risk of infant mortality without evidence of modification by NOWS nor by maternal MOUD treatment. Future research should investigate potential mechanisms linking maternal OUD, NOWS, MOUD treatment, and infant mortality to better inform clinical intervention.