Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2016
EditorialEditorial: 3rd Special Issue on behavior change, health, and health disparities.
This Special Issue of Preventive Medicine (PM) is the 3rd that we have organized on behavior change, health, and health disparities. This is a topic of critical importance to improving U. S. population health. ⋯ Thus, behavior change represents an essential step in curtailing health disparities, which receives special attention in this 3rd Special Issue. We also devote considerable space to the longstanding challenges of reducing cigarette smoking and use of other tobacco and nicotine delivery products in vulnerable populations, obesity, and for the first time food insecurity. Across each of these topics we include contributions from highly accomplished policymakers and scientists to acquaint readers with recent accomplishments as well as remaining knowledge gaps and challenges.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2016
A behavioral economic perspective on smoking persistence in serious mental illness.
Serious mental illness (SMI) is associated with disproportionately high rates of cigarette smoking. The identification of factors that contribute to persistent smoking in people with SMI may lead to the development and adoption of tobacco control policies and treatment approaches that help these smokers quit. This commentary examines factors underlying smoking persistence in people with SMI from the perspective of behavioral economics, a discipline that applies economic principles to understanding drug abuse and dependence. Studies, conducted in the Northeastern US within the past 30years, that compare the reinforcing effects of nicotine and the costs of smoking in smokers with and without schizophrenia and depression are discussed, and interventions that may reduce the reinforcing efficacy of nicotine and increase the costs of smoking in people with SMI are described.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2016
Trends in tobacco use among US adults with chronic health conditions: National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2005-2013.
Chronic conditions are among the most common and costly of all health problems. Addressing tobacco use among adults with chronic conditions is a public health priority due to high prevalence as well as greater potential harm from continued use. ⋯ These findings have tobacco control and regulatory implications for addressing higher tobacco use among adults with chronic conditions. Provider advice and cessation resources targeting tobacco use among those with chronic conditions are recommended.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2016
Characterizing the intersection of Co-occurring risk factors for illicit drug abuse and dependence in a U.S. nationally representative sample.
Few studies have attempted to characterize how co-occurring risk factors for substance use disorders intersect. A recent study examined this question regarding cigarette smoking and demonstrated that co-occurring risk factors generally act independently. The present study examines whether that same pattern of independent intersection of risk factors extends to illicit drug abuse/dependence using a U. ⋯ These results demonstrate that co-occurring risk factors for illicit drug/abuse dependence generally intersect in the same independent manner as risk factors for cigarette smoking, underscoring further fundamental commonalities across these different types of substance use disorders. These results also underscore the fundamental importance of differences in the presence of co-occurring risk factors when considering the often strikingly different prevalence rates of illicit drug abuse/dependence in U. S. population subgroups.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2016
Some current dimensions of the behavioral economics of health-related behavior change.
Health-related behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol and other substance use, poor diet and physical inactivity, and risky sexual practices are important targets for research and intervention. Health-related behaviors are especially pertinent targets in the United States, which lags behind most other developed nations on common markers of population health. ⋯ Behavioral economics (1) provides novel conceptual systems to inform scientific understanding of health behaviors, (2) translates scientific understanding into practical and effective behavior-change interventions, (3) leverages varied aspects of behavior change beyond increases or decreases in frequency, (4) recognizes and exploits trans-disease processes and interventions, and (5) leverages technology in efforts to maximize efficacy, cost effectiveness, and reach. These dimensions are overviewed and their implications for the future of the field discussed.