scholarly journals State-level estimates of childhood obesity prevalence in the United States corrected for report bias

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 1523-1528 ◽  
Author(s):  
M W Long ◽  
Z J Ward ◽  
S C Resch ◽  
A L Cradock ◽  
Y C Wang ◽  
...  
Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 141 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Granato ◽  
Nicole Zhang ◽  
Mike Hughes

Intro: Obesity is well established as a cause of multiple diseases that put excessive strain on healthcare resources. This is particularly true in the United States where obesity levels are among the highest in the world. However, forecasting future trends in obesity prevalence can be problematic given the difficulty associated with accurately quantifying the effect of the many risk factors that have been documented for obesity. In this study, a model is presented to forecast future adult obesity prevalence based on the current childhood obesity prevalence and the conditional probability of adult obesity given childhood obesity. Hypothesis: Adult obesity prevalence can be forecast based on current childhood obesity and the likelihood of the former given the latter. Methods: The annual change in historical (1975-2016) childhood (ages 5-19) obesity was calculated to ascertain a gender-specific trend. To forecast the prevalence of adult obesity (ages 20-59) in coming decades the model relied upon published age-specific probabilities of adult obesity given childhood obesity. To forecast the annual change in ten-year age-groups of obese adults these probabilities were then applied to the annual change figures derived from the historical childhood obesity data. The model used the linear regression of childhood obesity, from 1996-2016, to extend the forecast and determine a year in which the annual change in adult obesity became negative. Such a forecast provided an age-and gender-specific year in which the obesity epidemic in adult Americans comes to an end and prevalence begins to decrease. Results: By using historical childhood obesity data and the probability of adult obesity associated with childhood obesity the model forecasts the American obesity epidemic in males ages 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50-59 to stop increasing and begin decreasing in 2048, 2054, 2059, and 2064 respectively. Likewise, the model estimated obesity prevalence will cease to rise in adult American females about a decade earlier with forecasts for ages 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50-59 to be 2037, 2043, 2048, and 2053 respectively. Conclusions: In conclusion, adult obesity in the United States, like most documented disease epidemics will reach a point, beyond which the prevalence is expected to fall. The model was built to handle the difficulty associated with quantifying the effect of the multiple risk factors and the well documented period effects linked to obesity. The proposed model successfully used historical childhood obesity data and the correlation between childhood and adult obesity to forecast when obesity in the United States will cease to grow and start to decline.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoyan Sun ◽  
Henna Budhwani

BACKGROUND Though public health systems are responding rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic, outcomes from publicly available, crowd-sourced big data may assist in helping to identify hot spots, prioritize equipment allocation and staffing, while also informing health policy related to “shelter in place” and social distancing recommendations. OBJECTIVE To assess if the rising state-level prevalence of COVID-19 related posts on Twitter (tweets) is predictive of state-level cumulative COVID-19 incidence after controlling for socio-economic characteristics. METHODS We identified extracted COVID-19 related tweets from January 21st to March 7th (2020) across all 50 states (N = 7,427,057). Tweets were combined with state-level characteristics and confirmed COVID-19 cases to determine the association between public commentary and cumulative incidence. RESULTS The cumulative incidence of COVID-19 cases varied significantly across states. Ratio of tweet increase (p=0.03), number of physicians per 1,000 population (p=0.01), education attainment (p=0.006), income per capita (p = 0.002), and percentage of adult population (p=0.003) were positively associated with cumulative incidence. Ratio of tweet increase was significantly associated with the logarithmic of cumulative incidence (p=0.06) with a coefficient of 0.26. CONCLUSIONS An increase in the prevalence of state-level tweets was predictive of an increase in COVID-19 diagnoses, providing evidence that Twitter can be a valuable surveillance tool for public health.


Author(s):  
Katherine Carté Engel

The very term ‘Dissenter’ became problematic in the United States, following the passing of the First Amendment. The formal separation of Church and state embodied in the First Amendment was followed by the ending of state-level tax support for churches. None of the states established after 1792 had formal religious establishments. Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists accounted for the majority of the American population both at the beginning and end of this period, but this simple fact masks an important compositional shift. While the denominations of Old Dissent declined relatively, Methodism grew quickly, representing a third of the population by 1850. Dissenters thus faced several different challenges. Primary among these were how to understand the idea of ‘denomination’ and also the more general role of institutional religion in a post-establishment society. Concerns about missions, and the positions of women and African Americans are best understood within this context.


The Oxford Handbook of Preservice Music Teacher Education in the United States aims to work from within the profession of music teacher education to push the boundaries of P-12 music education. In this book, we will provide all of those working in music teacher education—music education faculty and administrators, music researchers, graduate students, department of education faculty and administrators, and state-level certification agencies—with research and promising practices for all areas of traditional preservice music teacher preparation. We define the areas of music teacher education as encompassing the more traditional structures, such as band, jazz band, marching band, orchestra, choir, musical theater, and elementary and secondary general music, as well as less common or newer areas: alternative string ensembles, guitar and song-writing, vernacular and popular music, early childhood music, and adult learners


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Padek ◽  
Stephanie Mazzucca ◽  
Peg Allen ◽  
Emily Rodriguez Weno ◽  
Edward Tsai ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Much of the disease burden in the United States is preventable through application of existing knowledge. State-level public health practitioners are in ideal positions to affect programs and policies related to chronic disease, but the extent to which mis-implementation occurring with these programs is largely unknown. Mis-implementation refers to ending effective programs and policies prematurely or continuing ineffective ones. Methods A 2018 comprehensive survey assessing the extent of mis-implementation and multi-level influences on mis-implementation was reported by state health departments (SHDs). Questions were developed from previous literature. Surveys were emailed to randomly selected SHD employees across the Unites States. Spearman’s correlation and multinomial logistic regression were used to assess factors in mis-implementation. Results Half (50.7%) of respondents were chronic disease program managers or unit directors. Forty nine percent reported that programs their SHD oversees sometimes, often or always continued ineffective programs. Over 50% also reported that their SHD sometimes or often ended effective programs. The data suggest the strongest correlates and predictors of mis-implementation were at the organizational level. For example, the number of organizational layers impeded decision-making was significant for both continuing ineffective programs (OR=4.70; 95% CI=2.20, 10.04) and ending effective programs (OR=3.23; 95% CI=1.61, 7.40). Conclusion The data suggest that changing certain agency practices may help in minimizing the occurrence of mis-implementation. Further research should focus on adding context to these issues and helping agencies engage in appropriate decision-making. Greater attention to mis-implementation should lead to greater use of effective interventions and more efficient expenditure of resources, ultimately to improve health outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 790-804 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Macdonald

The United States has become increasingly unequal. Income inequality has risen dramatically since the 1970s, yet public opinion toward redistribution has remained largely unchanged. This is puzzling, given Americans’ professed concern regarding, and knowledge of, rising inequality. I argue that trust in government can help to reconcile this. I combine data on state-level income inequality with survey data from the Cumulative American National Election Studies (CANES) from 1984 to 2016. I find that trust in government conditions the relationship between inequality and redistribution, with higher inequality prompting demand for government redistribution, but only among politically trustful individuals. This holds among conservatives and non-conservatives and among the affluent and non-affluent. These findings underscore the relevance of political trust in shaping attitudes toward inequality and economic redistribution and contribute to our understanding of why American public opinion has not turned in favor of redistribution during an era of rising income inequality.


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