Preventive medicine
-
Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Using text messages to improve patient-doctor communication among racial and ethnic minority adults: an innovative solution to increase influenza vaccinations.
Despite the 2010 CDC recommendation that all adults receive influenza vaccinations, in the 2013-2014 influenza season, only 35% of Blacks and 37% of Hispanics were vaccinated, compared to 40% of Whites. This disparity could be due to poor patient-doctor communication, among other barriers. Doctors provide more health information to active communicators; unfortunately, they perceive minority patients to be poor communicators. ⋯ A text message campaign could be effective in providing vaccine education and prompting patients to converse with their doctors about influenza vaccinations. Text prompts could improve patient communication, thus increasing their likelihood of vaccination. This campaign could accomplish Healthy People 2020 goals: increase influenza vaccination, improve patient-doctor communication, increase use of mHealth, and reduce health disparities.
-
Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Comparative StudyBody mass index of children and youth with an intellectual disability by country economic status.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities are at higher risk for health disparities including overweight and obesity; however, little is known at the population level about the BMI status of children and youth with intellectual disabilities. This study is a secondary analysis of BMI status (underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese) in children and youth (8-<18years) participating in Special Olympics by country economic status. ⋯ The high levels of both underweight and overweight/obesity found in this population of children and youth participating in Special Olympics represents a double burden of health risk. More research is needed to understand why this population experiences such disparities in BMI status and to develop health promotion initiatives targeted at this population.
-
Preventive medicine · Dec 2014
Point-of-decision prompts for increasing park-based physical activity: a crowdsource analysis.
To examine the potential efficacy of using point-of-decision prompts to influence intentions to be active in a park setting. ⋯ Point-of-decision prompts are a relatively inexpensive, simple, sustainable, and scalable strategy for evoking behavior change in parks and further testing of diverse messages in actual park settings is warranted.
-
Preventive medicine · Nov 2014
ReviewReduced nicotine product standards for combustible tobacco: building an empirical basis for effective regulation.
Both the Tobacco Control Act in the U.S. and Article 9 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control enable governments to directly address the addictiveness of combustible tobacco by reducing nicotine through product standards. Although nicotine may have some harmful effects, the detrimental health effects of smoked tobacco are primarily due to non-nicotine constituents. Hence, the health effects of nicotine reduction would likely be determined by changes in behavior that result in changes in smoke exposure. ⋯ A coordinated effort must be made to provide the best possible scientific basis for regulatory decisions. The outcome of this effort may provide the foundation for a novel approach to tobacco control that dramatically reduces the devastating health consequences of smoked tobacco.