American journal of preventive medicine
-
The purpose of this study is to examine the associations between built environments and life expectancy across a gradient of urbanicity in the U.S. ⋯ After adjusting for key social characteristics, several built environment characteristics were salient risk factors for decreased life expectancy in the U.S., with some measures showing differential effects by urbanicity. Planning and policy efforts should be tailored to local contexts.
-
Adverse childhood experiences are associated with a host of negative outcomes; however, few have studied cumulative adverse childhood experiences in the context of pregnancy and infant health. This study examines state-level prevalence of adverse childhood experiences and associations with pregnancy- and infant health‒related indicators. ⋯ Adverse childhood experiences are associated with risk factors that impact pregnancy and infant health. Preventing and mitigating adverse childhood experiences is an important strategy to improve pregnancy- and infant health‒related indicators.
-
U.S. smoking prevalence varies greatly by race/ethnicity. However, little is known about how smoking initiation, cessation, and intensity vary by birth cohort and race/ethnicity. ⋯ There are important and persistent racial/ethnic differences in smoking prevalence, initiation, cessation, and intensity across U.S. birth cohorts. Targeted interventions should address widening smoking disparities by race/ethnicity, particularly for American Indian and Alaskan Native and non-Hispanic Black populations.
-
Little is known about how U.S. smoking patterns of initiation, cessation, and intensity vary by birth cohort across education levels or how these patterns may be driven by other demographic characteristics. ⋯ Although smoking is decreasing by cohort across all education groups, disparities in smoking behaviors by education have widened in recent cohorts. Demographic changes for the ≤8th-grade education group need special consideration in analyses of tobacco use by education.