All news from Social & Preventive Medicine / Community Medicine
Bad decision-making is a trait oftentimes associated with drug addicts and pathological gamblers, but what about people who excessively use social media? New research from Michigan State University shows a connection between social media use and impaired risky decision-making, which is commonly deficient in substance addiction. The findings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, are the first to examine the relationship between social media use and risky decision-making capabilities.
People riding free-floating bike share rentals in Seattle are wearing helmets infrequently, according to a new analysis conducted by University of Washington researchers. Only 20 percent of bike share riders wore helmets in the study, while more than 90 percent of cyclists wore helmets while riding their own bikes.
Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things to do, but studies have found that one strategy in particular can help many people: Start anti-smoking medication well before your intended quit date. Under traditional prescribing guidelines, people who plan to quit smoking with the help of a medication begin taking their anti-smoking drug about one week before their set quit date. But about 75 percent of people who try to quit go back to smoking within a year.
So what's the solution? Research done at the University at Buffalo, in New York, showed that simply starting the drugs four weeks in advance can increase the success rate. One study was done on bupropion, known by the brand name Zyban, and similar research has involved both nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline (Chantix).
The growing popularity of e-cigarettes among U.S. youth may be associated with increased use of potentially dangerous flavored tobacco products, a new study suggests. The proportion of students using any tobacco products declined from 17.3% in 2014 to 13.6% in 2017. But the picture looks different for flavored products.
Most public health guidelines including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not allow fat portions in excess. However, nutritionists and dieticians have agreed that they did not have all the fats in their diet. At present there is evidence to show that not all forms of fats are bad for the heart and some are indeed good for the heart .
Laboratory studies have shown that kids will request and prefer brands they have seen recently advertised on TV. A new naturalistic study bridges the gap between lab studies and a real world setting, demonstrating that kids who were exposed to TV ads for high-sugar cereals aired during the programs they watched were more likely to subsequently eat the brands of cereals they had seen advertised.
Many health care providers in remote locations around the world are actively using newer mobile technologies like text messaging and fingerprint identification to deliver important services and timely information to their patients.
In a critical first step in the process of eventually issuing a recommendation statement, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is reviewing evidence on ways to prevent prescription opioid abuse and opioid use disorder (OUD), the organization has announced.
Food insecurity stems from limited financial resources, yet paradoxically, it is associated with binge eating disorder (BED) and excess weight, new research shows.
If quitting smoking is one of your New Year's resolutions, you might want to consider cutting back on your drinking, too. New research has found that heavy drinkers who are trying to stop smoking may find that their alcohol use can also help them quit their daily smoking habit. Heavy drinkers' nicotine metabolite ratio-a biomarker that indicates how quickly a person's body metabolizes nicotine-reduced as they cut back on their drinking .
Children with unhealthy eating habits at a higher risk of becoming regular alcohol drinkers at too early an age, even in their early teens, a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition shows. The association with young teens 'drinking habits is stronger than with other factors, such as parents' education and income.
Physical activity is presumed to decline with the start of adolescence, however, new research shows that this decline begins earlier than previously thought.
