Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2023
Did mental and emotional health of SNAP families' children improve during the COVID-19 pandemic?
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected low-income households in the United States. As part of the government's response to the pandemic, households with children participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefited from several temporary provisions. This study examines whether the mental/emotional well-being of children in SNAP families was influenced by the SNAP temporary provisions, overall and across subpopulations by race/ethnicity and school meal programs (SMP) participation status of children. ⋯ Additionally, no differential results were found by race/ethnicity of children or SMP participation (p > 0.1). Results are robust to the use of different well-being measures. These results suggest that SNAP provisions may have been associated with the reduction of the adverse effects of the pandemic on children's well-being.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2023
Effects of community-based frailty-preventing intervention on all-cause and cause-specific functional disability in older adults living in rural Japan: A propensity score analysis.
Preventing frailty is crucial in aging societies. We examined the effectiveness of a community-based frailty-prevention program for delaying the onset of functional disability among community-dwelling older adults. From 2014 to 2019, 48 community-based frailty prevention classes (FPC, 60 min/session, once a week), comprising resistance exercise and nutritional or psychosocial programs, were established in Yabu City, Japan. ⋯ In age-stratified analysis, significant associations were observed only in the ≥75-year-old subgroup. In a cause-specific analysis, participation significantly and consistently reduced incident functional disability caused by dementia (IPTW 0.47, 0.25-0.86; PSM 0.45, 0.25-0.83). Community-based FPC may be effective for preventing functional disability, especially caused by dementia, in this population.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2023
Employment Insurance may mitigate impact of unemployment on food security: Analysis on a propensity-score matched sample from the Canadian Income Survey.
Food insecurity, the inadequate access to food due to financial constraints, affects one-sixth of Canadian households, with substantial health implications. We examine the impact of unemployment and the mitigating effect of Employment Insurance (EI) on household food insecurity in Canada. Using the Canadian Income Survey 2018-2019, we sampled 28,650 households with adult workers 18-64 years old. ⋯ EI receipt was associated with 23% (aOR 0.77, 95% CI 0.66-0.90; 4.02 percentage points) lower likelihood of food insecurity, but this association was only significant among households with lower income, full-time workers, and children under 18. The findings suggest a broad impact of unemployment on working adults' food insecurity and a substantial mitigating effect by EI on select unemployed workers. Making EI more generous and accessible for part-time workers may help alleviate food insecurity.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2023
From old pollutants to the regulation of bisphenol A: Lessons learned for health promotion and disease prevention.
Citizens deserve regulatory changes and policies more sensitive to the current needs of humans, the climate, and nature. In this work we draw on prior experiences of preventable human suffering and economic losses caused by delayed regulation of legacy and emerging pollutants. ⋯ Numerous lessons can be learned from science-to-policy processes built for "old pollutants" (as persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, tributyltin), as well as from current trends regarding the regulation of non-persistent chemicals, such as the prototypical endocrine disruptor bisphenol A. We end discussing relevant pieces of the puzzle to tackle the environmental and regulatory challenges faced by our societies.
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Preventive medicine · Apr 2023
The associations between place-based measures of walkability and physical activity across a range of diverse streetscapes.
Walkability relates to aspects of a physical environment that have the potential to influence walking in that environment. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency developed the National Walkability Index (NWI), an easily accessible, U. S. ⋯ Linear regression indicated Walk Score, employment/household occupancy mix, and employment mix were associated with walkers/h (p < .001) while only employment/household occupancy mix, and employment mix were associated with leisure PA/h (p < .001). The NWI did not account for a significant portion of the variance in PA outcomes. A place-based examination of PA and walkability indexes favors the use of Walk Score and a modified version of the NWI.