scholarly journals Predictors of Vape Shops Going out of Business in Southern California

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artur Galimov ◽  
Ellen Galstyan ◽  
Sheila Yu ◽  
Sabrina L. Smiley ◽  
Leah Meza ◽  
...  

Objectives: Vape shops have proliferated in the United States (US) in recent years. As of May 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asserted its authority to regulate electronic nicotine delivery systems. It is critical to understand how these polices have affected the vape shop industry, as the rise and fall of vape shop proliferation has the potential for influencing public health. Methods: In this longitudinal study, we examined factors associated with vape shop (N = 77) closure over a 2-1/2-year period in southern California. We assessed predictors of vape shops going out of business using a multivariate logistic regression model. Results: Among 77 vape shops assessed at baseline, 44.2% closed over a 2-1/2-year period. The absence of a "bar type" physical environment (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.12-6.20), poorer shop accessibility (OR = 7.11, 95% CI = 1.17-43.24), fewer reports of qualified personnel (OR = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.12-4.64), less average time spent in shop by customers (OR = 4.8, 95% CI = 1.18-19.60), a narrower e-liquid flavor selection (OR = 6.55, 95% CI = 1.56-27.49), and less vape device diversity (OR = 2.36, 95% C = 1.13-4.91) predicted vape shop closure. Conclusions: The rise and subsequent decline in vape shops could potentially affect public health. However, there needs to be more research on their association with public health..

Author(s):  
Marie-Helen Maras ◽  
Michelle D. Miranda

AbstractIn the fall of 2014, the US was faced with the reality that a deadly, foreign virus had entered its borders. Ebola, a disease thought to be of little threat to the US yet classified as a major bioterrorism agent, became a reality for the American government and its citizens. The introduction of Ebola unveiled many deficiencies in the country’s health care system, international travel policies, and ability to control or restrict the movement of exposed individuals in order to protect the larger population. The need to review and establish legal guidelines and policies to deal with these deficiencies is paramount: the inherent lack of training and education; weaknesses in monitoring, maintenance, and treatment; and the lack of uniform guidelines to isolate international travelers have all demonstrated that the country may not be able to control a larger-scale threat in the future.


Author(s):  
Sarah Raifman ◽  
M. Antonia Biggs ◽  
Lauren Ralph ◽  
Katherine Ehrenreich ◽  
Daniel Grossman

Abstract Introduction Twenty-four states have at least one law in place that could be used to prosecute people for self-managed abortion (SMA), or the termination of a pregnancy outside of the formal healthcare system. We investigated factors associated with public attitudes about SMA legality and legal access to abortion more generally. Methods In August 2017, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of English- and Spanish-speaking women ages 18–49 years in the United States (US) using Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel. Unadjusted and adjusted multinomial logistic regression estimates identify characteristics associated with believing that SMA should not be against the law, compared to should be against the law, with weighting to account for sampling into the panel. Results Overall, 76% (95% CI: 74.3%-77.1%) and 59% (95% CI: 57.3%-60.4%) of participants (n = 7,022, completion rate 50%) reported that abortion and SMA, respectively, should not be against the law; 1% and 19% were unsure. Among those living in a state with at least one law that could be used to prosecute an individual for SMA, the majority (55%, 95% CI: 52.7%-57.9%) believed SMA should not be against the law. Factors associated with believing SMA should not be against the law, compared to should be against the law, included prior abortion experience and higher levels of education and income. Conclusion Most reproductive age women in the US believe that SMA should not be criminalized. There is more uncertainty about SMA legality than about the legality of abortion more generally. Policy Implications US laws that criminalize SMA are not supported by the majority of the people living in their jurisdictions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 395-418
Author(s):  
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah

Canada has received praise and international attention for its departure from strict cannabis prohibition and the introduction of a legal regulatory framework for adult use. In addition to the perceived public health and public safety benefits associated with legalization, reducing the burden placed on the individuals criminalized for cannabis use served as an impetus for change. In comparison to many jurisdictions in the United States, however, Canadian legalization efforts have done less to address the harms that drug law enforcement has inflicted on individuals and communities. This article documents the racialized nature of drug prohibition in Canada and the US and compares the stated aims of legalization in in both jurisdictions. The article outlines the various reparative measures being proposed and implemented in America and contrasts those with the situation in Canada, arguing, furthermore that the absence of social justice measures in Canadian legalization is an extension of the systemic racism perpetuated under prohibition.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Boričić ◽  
Snežana Simić ◽  
Nađa Vasiljević ◽  
Jelena Marinković

AbstractIntroduction. The pandemic of obesity in adolescents is one of the challenges of public health.Aim. The aim of this study was to examine the association of overweight with demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors among Serbian adolescents.Method. A cross-sectional study of 2139 adolescents aged 10 to 19 years was carried out. Data used in this study were from the 2006 Health Survey. In accordance with the international sex- and age-specific Body Mass Index cut-off points, all participants were classified as being normal weight or overweight, including obese. The association between the risk factors and overweight were examined using a multivariate logistic regression model.Results. The study showed that 28.9% of boys and 17.0% of girls were overweight, while 14.5% of boys and 8.1% of girls were obese. Boys were more likely to be overweight/obese, compared with girls. Being younger (p< 0.01 for 14 to 15 years) and (p< 0.01, for 16 to 19 years), engaging in physical activities that last less than 7 hours a week, in such a manner that they breathe quickly and become sweaty, (p< 0.01) and skipping breakfast (p< 0.05) were risk factors significantly associated with overweight among adolescents. No significant association was found with wealth index.Conclusion. These findings should be an integral part of further preventive interventions, especially oriented towards younger adolescents, who are physically inactive, have a habit of skipping breakfast and are boys.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daisy Massey ◽  
Chenxi Huang ◽  
Yuan Lu ◽  
Alina Cohen ◽  
Yahel Oren ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has continued to spread in the US and globally. Closely monitoring public engagement and perception of COVID-19 and preventive measures using social media data could provide important information for understanding the progress of current interventions and planning future programs. OBJECTIVE To measure the public’s behaviors and perceptions regarding COVID-19 and its daily life effects during the recent 5 months of the pandemic. METHODS Natural language processing (NLP) algorithms were used to identify COVID-19 related and unrelated topics in over 300 million online data sources from June 15 to November 15, 2020. Posts in the sample were geotagged, and sensitivity and specificity were both calculated to validate the classification of posts. The prevalence of discussion regarding these topics was measured over this time period and compared to daily case rates in the US. RESULTS The final sample size included 9,065,733 posts, 70% of which were sourced from the US. In October and November, discussion including mentions of COVID-19 and related health behaviors did not increase as it had from June to September, despite an increase in COVID-19 daily cases in the US beginning in October. Additionally, counter to reports from March and April, discussion was more focused on daily life topics (69%), compared with COVID-19 in general (37%) and COVID-19 public health measures (20%). CONCLUSIONS There was a decline in COVID-19-related social media discussion sourced mainly from the US, even as COVID-19 cases in the US have increased to the highest rate since the beginning of the pandemic. Targeted public health messaging may be needed to ensure engagement in public health prevention measures until a vaccine is widely available to the public.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US METHODS We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling RESULTS An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis CONCLUSIONS The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines


Circulation ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (Suppl_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Hassanin ◽  
Mahmoud M Hassanein ◽  
Madiha F Abdel-maksoud

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a growing public health burden in many low and middle-income countries (LMIC). However, most HF registries were conducted in high income countries, which often have different ethnic and cultural backgrounds from that of LMIC. Hypothesis: Independent clinical variables associated with mortality in patients hospitalized for HF in Egypt are different from those established in the United States (US). Methods: Between 2011 and 2014, 1,660 patients hospitalized for HF were enrolled from 20 centers across Egypt as part of the European Society of Cardiology HF long-term Registry. Deceased patients were compared to survivors, to identify demographic, clinical and biochemical variables associated with in-hospital and one-year mortality. Variables associated with mortality on univariate analysis, and independent variables identified in the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry (ADHERE) and in the Seattle Heart Failure Model, both based in the US, were entered into the multivariate logistic regression model. Results: In-hospital mortality was 5%. Only two independent clinical factors associated with in-hospital mortality were identified: elevated serum creatinine (sCr), OR=1.47 [95% CI: 1.23, 1.74] for every point increases above one mg/dl; and low admission systolic blood pressure (SBP), OR=1.54; [95% CI: 1.43, 1.65] for every 10 points decrease in SBP below 140 mmHg. At one-year follow up, mortality was 27%. Independent predictors of one-year mortality were: age, OR=1.47; [95% CI: 1.23,1.75] for every 10-year increase above 40; low discharge SBP, OR=1.30 [95% CI: 1.08, 1.52] for every 10 points decrease below 140 mmHg; low ejection fraction, OR=1.51 [95% CI: 0.59,0.73] for every 5 points decrease from 65%; chronic liver disease, OR=3.0 [95% CI: 1.51,5.88]; history of stroke, OR=3.2 [95% CI: 1.52,6.65]. These variables overlapped with those identified in US registries. Conclusions: Independent clinical variables associated with mortality after HF hospitalization in Egypt are similar to those reported in HF registries in the US.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 967-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Rebekah H. Nagler ◽  
Erika Franklin Fowler

Abstract The coronavirus public health crisis is also a political-communication and health-communication crisis. In this article, the authors describe the key communication-related phenomena and evidence of concerning effects manifested in the United States during the initial response to the pandemic. The authors outline the conditions of communication about coronavirus that contribute to deleterious outcomes, including partisan cueing, conflicting science, downplayed threats, emotional arousal, fragmented media, and Trump's messaging. The authors suggest these have contributed to divergent responses by media sources, partisan leaders, and the public alike, leading to different attitudes and beliefs as well as varying protective actions taken by members of the public to reduce their risk. In turn, these divergent communication phenomena will likely amplify geographic variation in and inequities with COVID-19 disease outcomes. The authors conclude with some suggestions for future research, particularly surrounding communication about health inequity and strategies for reducing partisan divergence in views of public health issues in the future.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 520-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Rodriguez ◽  
Jan Shoultz ◽  
Erin Richardson

Little is known about factors associated with health care screening of intimate partner violence (IPV) for Latinas during pregnancy. This study builds on current research examining IPV-associated outcomes among Latinas by analyzing 210 pregnant Latina responses to a patient survey. A multivariate logistic regression model examined factors associated with being screened for IPV. One-third of pregnant women reported being screened for IPV. Factors related to being screened for IPV are reported and did not match those associated with having experienced IPV. While most pregnant Latinas were not screened for IPV, having systematic processes in place for IPV screening and fostering good patient–provider communication may facilitate identification of IPV. Having a greater awareness of the risk factors associated with IPV may also provide cues for clinicians to better address the issue of IPV.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoshuang Liu ◽  
Xiao Xu ◽  
Guanqiao Li ◽  
Xian Xu ◽  
Yuyao Sun ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The widespread pandemic of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses an unprecedented global health crisis. In the United States (US), different state governments have adopted various combinations of non-pharmaceutical public health interventions (NPIs), such as non-essential business closures and gathering bans, to mitigate the epidemic from February to April, 2020. Quantitative assessment on the effectiveness of NPIs is greatly needed to assist in guiding individualized decision making for adjustment of interventions in the US and around the world. However, the impacts of these approaches remain uncertain.Methods: Based on the reported cases, the effective reproduction number (Rt) of COVID-19 epidemic for 50 states in the US was estimated. Measurements on the effectiveness of nine different NPIs were conducted by assessing risk ratios (RRs) between R t and NPIs through a generalized linear model (GLM). Results: Different NPIs were found to have led to different levels of reduction in Rt. Stay-at-home contributed approximately 51% (95% CI 46%-57%), wearing (face) masks 29% (15%-42%), gathering ban (more than 10 people) 19% (14%-24%), non-essential business closure 16% (10%-21%), declaration of emergency 13% (8%-17%), interstate travel restriction 11% (5%-16%), school closure 10% (7%-14%), initial business closure 10% (6%-14%), and gathering ban (more than 50 people) 7% (2%-11%).Conclusions: This retrospective assessment of NPIs on Rt has shown that NPIs played critical roles on epidemic control in the US in the past several months. The quantitative results could guide individualized decision making for future adjustment of NPIs in the US and other countries for COVID-19 and other similar infectious diseases.


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