American journal of preventive medicine
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Minimum price laws, which set a price below which a product cannot be sold, are a promising but understudied strategy for reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. New York City has implemented a minimum price law for tobacco products and could consider this policy for sugar-sweetened beverages. This study projects the impacts of a sugar-sweetened beverage minimum price law among New York City adults, with effects of a sugar-sweetened beverage excise tax examined for comparison. ⋯ Excise taxes and minimum price laws for sugar-sweetened beverages could both reduce New York City adults' sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and obesity prevalence and narrow sociodemographic disparities in obesity.
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The U.S. has a higher adolescent pregnancy rate than other industrialized countries. School-based health centers can improve access to contraceptives among youth, which can prevent unplanned pregnancies. This cross-sectional study examines the characteristics and predictors of contraceptive provision at school-based health centers in 2016-2017 and changes in and barriers to provision between 2001 and 2017. ⋯ School-based health centers are an evidence-based model for providing contraceptives to adolescents but not enough are providing direct access. Understanding the predictors, characteristics, and barriers influencing the provision of contraceptives at school-based health centers may help to expand the number doing so.
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Child Access Prevention Negligent Storage (CAP-NS) laws seek to reduce pediatric firearm injury by imposing sanctions on gun owners if children gain access to unlocked guns. Whether these laws affect the storage behavior they aim to encourage is not known because historical panel data on firearm storage do not exist. As a result, assessing how much, if at all, firearm storage changed because of CAP-NS laws requires an indirect approach. ⋯ CAP-NS laws have at best modest effects on firearm storage. If the storage effect is as small as this study indicates, the mortality benefits previously attributed to CAP-NS laws are overstated. As such, developing interventions that effectively reduce firearm mortality by reducing access to firearms remains an urgent clinical and public policy priority.
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Adverse childhood experiences confer an increased risk for physical and mental health problems across the population, prompting calls for routine clinical screening based on reported adverse childhood experience exposure. However, recent longitudinal research has questioned whether adverse childhood experiences can accurately identify ill health at an individual level. ⋯ These findings suggest that screening based on the adverse childhood experience score does not accurately identify those individuals at high risk of health problems. This can lead to both allocation of unnecessary interventions and lack of provision of necessary support.
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Parental vaccine hesitancy can be a barrier to routine childhood immunization and contribute to greater risk for vaccine-preventable diseases. This study examines the impact of parental vaccine hesitancy on childhood vaccination rates. ⋯ Parental vaccine hesitancy may contribute up to 25% of undervaccination among children aged 19-35 months. Implementation of strategies to address parental vaccine hesitancy is needed to improve vaccination coverage for children and minimize their risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.