Children's Exposure to Television Advertising: Implications for Childhood Obesity

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra M. Desrochers ◽  
Debra J. Holt

In 2005, the Institute of Medicine declared that the prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States ranks as a major health concern. Although the role of television advertising as a possible contributor has received considerable research attention, most previous studies have not included a detailed analysis of children's exposure on all programming or made comparisons with earlier estimates. Therefore, the Bureau of Economics staff at the Federal Trade Commission undertook a comprehensive analysis of television advertising to determine how many and what types of advertisements children are exposed to today and how the findings compare with their exposure before the rise in obesity. This article presents the major findings of the Federal Trade Commission's report and discusses several other issues that help inform the obesity debate. The article's insights will be useful to policy makers, researchers, marketers, and other constituencies involved in developing solutions to the obesity problem.

Author(s):  
Abigail A. Fagan ◽  
Kristen M. Benedini

This chapter reviews the degree to which empirical evidence demonstrates that families influence youth delinquency. Because they are most likely to be emphasized in life-course theories, this chapter focuses on parenting practices such as parental warmth and involvement, supervision and discipline of children, and child maltreatment. It also summarizes literature examining the role of children's exposure to parental violence, family criminality, and young (teenage) parents in affecting delinquency. Because life-course theories are ideally tested using longitudinal data, which allow examination of, in this case, the impact of parenting practices on children's subsequent behaviors, this chapter focuses on evidence generated from prospective studies conducted in the United States and other countries. It also discusses findings from experimental studies designed to reduce youth substance use and delinquency by improving the family environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Emma Zohner ◽  
Jeffrey S. Morris

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major health and socio-economic disruptions worldwide. Accurate investigation of emerging data is crucial to inform policy makers as they construct viral mitigation strategies. Complications such as variable testing rates and time lags in counting cases, hospitalizations and deaths make it challenging to accurately track and identify true infectious surges from available data, and requires a multi-modal approach that simultaneously considers testing, incidence, hospitalizations, and deaths. Although many websites and applications report a subset of these data, none of them provide graphical displays capable of comparing different states or countries on all these measures as well as various useful quantities derived from them. Here we introduce a freely available dynamic representation tool, COVID-TRACK, that allows the user to simultaneously assess time trends in these measures and compare various states or countries, equipping them with a tool to investigate the potential effects of the different mitigation strategies and timelines used by various jurisdictions. Findings COVID-TRACK is a Python based web-application that provides a platform for tracking testing, incidence, hospitalizations, and deaths related to COVID-19 along with various derived quantities. Our application makes the comparison across states in the USA and countries in the world easy to explore, with useful transformation options including per capita, log scale, and/or moving averages. We illustrate its use by assessing various viral trends in the USA and Europe. Conclusion The COVID-TRACK web-application is a user-friendly analytical tool to compare data and trends related to the COVID-19 pandemic across areas in the United States and worldwide. Our tracking tool provides a unique platform where trends can be monitored across geographical areas in the coming months to watch how the pandemic waxes and wanes over time at different locations around the USA and the globe.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
TAKASHI INOGUCHI

This special issue focuses on the role of civil society in international relations. It highlights the dynamics and impacts of public opinion on international relations (Zaller, 1992). Until recently, it was usual to consider public opinion in terms of its influence on policy makers and in terms of moulding public opinion in the broad frame of the policy makers in one's country. Given that public opinion in the United States was assessed and judged so frequently and diffused so globally, it was natural to frame questions guided by those concepts which pertained to the global and domestic context of the United States.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Karly A. Hegge ◽  
Anisa S. Fornoff ◽  
Sheryl L. Gutierres ◽  
Sally L. Haack

Osteoporosis is a growing health concern in the United States, with an enormous impact on morbidity and mortality. Despite published guidelines to aid clinicians in its management, several controversies remain. Many trials evaluate surrogate measures of bone strength rather than more clinically relevant outcomes, including fracture. Furthermore, the role of combination and sequential therapy remains unclear. Limited data are available regarding appropriate duration of therapy, management of osteoporosis in men, and treatment of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. The development of unique therapeutic agents could potentially revolutionize the treatment of osteoporosis. Once yearly zoledronic acid may provide advantages over existing therapies. Because of limitations with existing selective estrogen receptor modulators, the search for agents with better efficacy and safety profiles has led to the development of several new medications within this class. Finally, denosumab, a monoclonal antibody to receptor activator for nuclear factor-kappa B ligand, also represents a novel therapeutic option for osteoporosis.


1980 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 299-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.D. Bruck

The control of blood glucose levels in diabetes involving devices are critically reviewed, and the role of blood-contacting biomaterial components analyzed. These include mechanical insulin-delivery systems of the closed-loop type that require an electronic glucose sensor and feedback, and open-loop systems that deliver insulin without a sensor and feedback. Whole pancreatic and islet transplantations, islet encapsulation, and the potential role of polymeric sustained drug delivery systems are discussed. The medical and social impacts of diabetes mellitus are of prime public health concern and of even greater magnitude than those of heart disease in the United States. While future advances in device design, miniaturization, and biometrials technology will significantly add to the arsenal of therapeutic alternatives, devices capable of controlling blood glucose levels ought to be viewed as mere interim phases rather than as final goals of the problem.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Ferris ◽  
Cheneal Puljević ◽  
Florian Labhart ◽  
Adam Winstock ◽  
Emmanuel Kuntsche

Abstract Aims This exploratory study aims to model the impact of sex and age on the percentage of pre-drinking in 27 countries, presenting a single model of pre-drinking behaviour for all countries and then comparing the role of sex and age on pre-drinking behaviour between countries. Methods Using data from the Global Drug Survey, the percentages of pre-drinkers were estimated for 27 countries from 64,485 respondents. Bivariate and multivariate multilevel models were used to investigate and compare the percentage of pre-drinking by sex (male and female) and age (16–35 years) between countries. Results The estimated percentage of pre-drinkers per country ranged from 17.8% (Greece) to 85.6% (Ireland). The influence of sex and age on pre-drinking showed large variation between the 27 countries. With the exception of Canada and Denmark, higher percentages of males engaged in pre-drinking compared to females, at all ages. While we noted a decline in pre-drinking probability among respondents in all countries after 21 years of age, after the age of 30 this probability remained constant in some countries, or even increased in Brazil, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. Conclusions Pre-drinking is a worldwide phenomenon, but varies substantially by sex and age between countries. These variations suggest that policy-makers would benefit from increased understanding of the particularities of pre-drinking in their own country to efficiently target harmful pre-drinking behaviours.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 820-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette M. Cortese ◽  
K. Luan Phan

AbstractAnxiety, stress, and trauma-related disorders are a major public health concern in the United States. Drugs that target the γ-aminobutyric acid or serotonergic system, such as benzodiazepines and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, respectively, are the most widely prescribed treatments for these disorders. However, the role of glutamate in anxiety disorders is becoming more recognized with the belief that drugs that modulate glutamatergic function through either ionotropic or metabotropic glutamate receptors have the potential to improve the current treatment of these severe and disabling illnesses. Animal models of fear and anxiety have provided a method to study the role of glutamate in anxiety. This research has demonstrated that drugs that alter glutamate transmission have potential anxiolytic action for many different paradigms including fear-potentiated startle, punished responding, and the elevated plus maze. Human clinical drug trials have demonstrated the efficacy of glutamatergic drugs for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia. Recent data from magnetic resonance imaging studies provide an additional link between the glutamate system and anxiety. Collectively, the data suggest that future studies on the mechanism of and clinical efficacy of glutamatergic agents in anxiety disorders are appropriately warranted.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (17) ◽  
pp. 1827-1831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer E. Norman ◽  
Jennifer Rutkowsky ◽  
Sue Bodine ◽  
John C. Rutledge

Dementia has become a major health concern for the aging population of the United States. Studies indicate that participation in moderate exercise, with training, has been shown to have a beneficial impact on cognition. Thus, exercise and its effects on cognitive function has become an important area of research. This review summarizes the current literature on the potential mechanisms of the benefits of exercise for cognitive function.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 382-388
Author(s):  
Moon Young Seo ◽  
Shin-Hye Kim ◽  
Mi Jung Park

Childhood obesity is a global health concern. Air pollution is also a crucial health threat, especially in developing countries. Over the past decade, a number of epidemiologic and animal studies have suggested a possible role of pre- or postnatal exposure to air pollutants on childhood obesity. Although no clear mechanism has been elucidated, physical inactivity, oxidative stress, and epigenetic modifications have been suggested as possible mechanisms by which obesity develops due to air pollution. In this review, we summarize and review previous epidemiologic studies linking air pollution and childhood obesity and discuss the possible mechanisms underlying air pollution-induced obesity based on in vivo and in vitro evidence.


Vaccines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stonedahl ◽  
Penny Clarke ◽  
Kenneth L. Tyler

Encephalitis resulting from viral infections is a major cause of hospitalization and death worldwide. West Nile Virus (WNV) is a substantial health concern as it is one of the leading causes of viral encephalitis in the United States today. WNV infiltrates the central nervous system (CNS), where it directly infects neurons and induces neuronal cell death, in part, via activation of caspase 3-mediated apoptosis. WNV infection also induces neuroinflammation characterized by activation of innate immune cells, including microglia and astrocytes, production of inflammatory cytokines, breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, and infiltration of peripheral leukocytes. Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain and monitor the CNS for signs of injury or pathogens. Following infection with WNV, microglia exhibit a change in morphology consistent with activation and are associated with increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines. Recent research has focused on deciphering the role of microglia during WNV encephalitis. Microglia play a protective role during infections by limiting viral growth and reducing mortality in mice. However, it also appears that activated microglia are triggered by T cells to mediate synaptic elimination at late times during infection, which may contribute to long-term neurological deficits following a neuroinvasive WNV infection. This review will discuss the important role of microglia in the pathogenesis of a neuroinvasive WNV infection. Knowledge of the precise role of microglia during a WNV infection may lead to a greater ability to treat and manage WNV encephalitis.


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