Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2024
Cervical cancer screening activity in the Capital Region of Denmark before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Denmark went through various COVID-19 pandemic restrictions including periodic lockdowns from March 2020 to January 2022. All cancer screening programs were kept operational, yet access to clinicians for cervical screening was at times limited. We assessed the impact of the pandemic on cervical cancer screening activity in the Capital Region of Denmark. ⋯ The activity of cervical cancer screening was initially affected by the pandemic lockdowns, but increased activity during summer 2020 partly compensated this effect. Regular screening activity decreased 8.4% in 2020 and returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. During 2022 restrictions were removed and the decrease in activity was recorded to be 2.3%. Opportunistic screening activity was reduced by 14.3% in 2020 and 12.6% in 2021. A continued post-pandemic opportunistic screening activity reduction of 18.5% was observed, possibly related to changed patterns of primary health care use introduced during the pandemic. Screening by HPV self-sampling increased from 17.1% in the pre-pandemic period to 21.2% during the pandemic. Significantly more acceptance was recorded amongst older women (p < 0.0001). This increase mirrors the decrease in total clinician collected sample activity during the pandemic, where an increased reduction by age was observed. Post-pandemic HPV self-sampling participation decreased to 12.8%, possible reflecting a temporarily changed composition and motivation in the group of women invited for self-sampling.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2024
Identifying overlaps and disconnects between media reports and official records of nonfatal firearm injuries in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2021-2022.
Open-source data systems, largely drawn from media sources, are commonly used by scholars due to the lack of a comprehensive national data system. It is unclear if these data provide an accurate and complete representation of firearm injuries and their context. The study objectives were to compare firearm injuries in official police records with media reports to better identify the characteristics associated with media reporting. ⋯ Findings suggest that relying on media reports of firearm injuries alone may misrepresent the numbers and contexts of shootings. Public health interventions that educate journalists about these important issues may be an impactful firearm violence prevention strategy. Also, it is critical to link data systems at the local level to ensure interventions are designed and evaluated using accurate data.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 2024
Trends in prevalence of overweight and obesity, self-perceived overweight or obesity, and weight loss efforts among older adults in South Korea, 2005-2021.
We assessed trends in prevalence of overweight and obesity, self-perceived overweight or obesity, and efforts to lose weight among Korean older adults from 2005 to 2021. ⋯ There were increasing trends in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in older Korean men, self-perceived overweight or obesity, and weight loss efforts in older Korean men and women.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2024
Disease incidence and not case fatality drives the rural disadvantage in myocardial-infarction-related mortality in Germany.
Demographic and infrastructural developments might compromise medical care provision in rural regions, particularly for acute health conditions. Studying the case of myocardial infarction (MI), we investigated how MI-related mortality at ages 65+ varies between rural and urban regions in Germany and to what extent differences are driven by varying case fatality and disease incidence. ⋯ MI incidence and not case fatality drives the rural disadvantage in MI-related mortality in Germany. Higher MI incidence points towards potential regional variation in the effectiveness of disease prevention. The findings highlight that improving disease prevention at the patient level carries larger opportunities for reducing regional MI-related mortality inequalities in Germany.
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Preventive medicine · Feb 2024
Review Meta AnalysisAssociation of sedentary time with risk of cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.
Given the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), we meta-analysed CVD relative risk (RR) in relation to high vs. low categories of self-reported and objectively assessed sedentary behaviours from cohort studies; in a sub-sample (n = 4 studies), the theoretical substitution of one hour spent sedentary with the same amount of time spent in light-intense physical activity was evaluated. Based on 19 studies (60,526 fatal and non-fatal CVD, 1,473,354 individuals and 13,559,139 persons-year) we estimated a 30% increased CVD risk for high vs. low categories of sedentary behaviour (RR = 1.29, confidence interval (CI) = 1.22;1.37). ⋯ Substituting one hour spent sedentary with physical activity of light intensity reduced the risk of fatal and non-fatal CVD events by one-fifth (RR =0.84, CI = 0.73;0.97). In meta-regression analysis, potential influential factors such as age, sex, and medical condition did not essentially alter the results.