scholarly journals Minimum Instructional Hours at School and Childhood Weight

2018 ◽  
pp. 31-43
Author(s):  
Tricia Snyder ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Obesity ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Instructional Time ◽  
Childhood Weight ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The U.S

Increasing weight of children in the United States (U.S) has been a persistent public health issue for decades. According to the Center for Disease Control, in the 1963–1970 period, 4% of children between the ages of 6 and 11 were defined to be overweight; that level had more than tripled by 1999, reaching 13% and is even higher today. Childhood obesity is especially common among minority schoolchildren, with approximately 20% of whom are now overweight. Obesity in the U.S. currently cost close to $200 billion a year and accounts for over 20% of all healthcare cost. In seeking explanations for the increase in childhood weight, it is unclear whether childhood obesity arises primarily from school or non-school influences and how school instructional hours can impact a child’s overall health. Therefore, it is important to determine how instructional time at schools and educational institutions potentially impacts a children’s physical health. In this study, we use state-level variations in the minimum amount of instructional time to study the effect of the amount of time spent at school on children’s physical health. We find that an increase in the number of school hours reduces childhood obesity in African Americans by close to .13 percentage points.

scholarly journals Holistic Health: Does It Really Include Mental Health?

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 2092-2099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly K. McClanahan ◽  
Marlene B. Huff ◽  
Hatim A. Omar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Holistic Health ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Mental And Physical Health ◽  
The U.S

Holistic health, incorporating mind and body as equally important and unified components of health, is a concept utilized in some health care arenas in the United States (U.S.) over the past 30 years. However, in the U.S., mental health is not seen as conceptually integral to physical health and, thus, holistic health cannot be realized until the historical concept of mind-body dualism, continuing stigma regarding mental illness, lack of mental health parity in insurance, and inaccurate public perceptions regarding mental illness are adequately addressed and resolved. Until then, mental and physical health will continue to be viewed as disparate entities rather than parts of a unified whole. We conclude that the U.S. currently does not generally incorporate the tenets of holistic health in its view of the mental and physical health of its citizens, and provide some suggestions for changing that viewpoint.

Human Trafficking, Immigration Regulation, and Subfederal Criminalization

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Chacón
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Trafficking In Persons ◽  
International Regulation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Comparative Treatment ◽  
Systemic Problems ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
The U.S

In the fifteen years since the enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act—the U.S. legislation implementing the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children—every state in the United States has enacted its own, state-level antitrafficking law. This paper presents a multistate survey of state-level antitrafficking laws and the criminal prosecutions that have been conducted pursuant to those over the past decade. The comparative treatment of noncitizens and citizens in antitrafficking prosecutions is of particular concern. This research reveals that while subfederal implementation of antitrafficking laws has the potential to complement stated federal and international antitrafficking objectives, it also has the power to subvert and undermine those goals. State-level enforcement both mirrors and amplifies some of the systemic problems that arise when the criminal law is used as a tool to combat trafficking, including the manipulation of antitrafficking tools and rhetoric to perpetuate racial subordination and migrant criminalization. Ultimately, this research offers broader theoretical insights into the promises and pitfalls of overlapping criminal jurisdiction both within federalist systems and within frameworks of international regulation.

A Survey of Food Allergen Control Practices in the U.S. Food Industry

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN M. GENDEL ◽  
NAZLEEN KHAN ◽  
MONALI YAJNIK
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Food Allergy ◽  
Food Allergen ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Adverse Reactions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
The U.S

Despite awareness of the importance of food allergy as a public health issue, recalls and adverse reactions linked to undeclared allergens in foods continue to occur with high frequency. To reduce the overall incidence of such problems and to ensure that food-allergic consumers have the information they need to prevent adverse reactions, it is important to understand which allergen control practices are currently used by the food industry. Therefore, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration carried out directed inspections of registered food facilities in 2010 to obtain a broader understanding of industry allergen control practices in the United States. The results of these inspections show that allergen awareness and the use of allergen controls have increased greatly in the last decade, but that small facilities lag in implementing allergen controls.

Structural Sexism and Health in the United States: A New Perspective on Health Inequality and the Gender System

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Homan
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Micro Level

In this article, I build a new line of health inequality research that parallels the emerging structural racism literature. I develop theory and measurement for the concept of structural sexism and examine its relationship to health outcomes. Consistent with contemporary theories of gender as a multilevel social system, I conceptualize and measure structural sexism as systematic gender inequality at the macro level (U.S. state), meso level (marital dyad), and micro level (individual). I use U.S. state-level administrative data linked to geocoded data from the NLSY79, as well as measures of inter-spousal inequality and individual views on women’s roles as predictors of physical health outcomes in random-effects models for men and women. Results show that among women, exposure to more sexism at the macro and meso levels is associated with more chronic conditions, worse self-rated health, and worse physical functioning. Among men, macro-level structural sexism is also associated with worse health. However, greater meso-level structural sexism is associated with better health among men. At the micro level, internalized sexism is not related to physical health among either women or men. I close by outlining how future research on gender inequality and health can be furthered using a structural sexism perspective.

Who Writes Criminal Laws? Actors, Values, and Institutions in Criminal Law-Making / Wer schreibt das Strafrecht? Akteure, Werte und Institutionen der Strafrechts-gesetzbegung

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hammel
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Structural Difference ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Expert Control ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Penal Law ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Law Making

AbstractThe responses of the U.S. and Europe to increased crime from the 1960s to the 1990s differed starkly: the U.S. enacted a punitive agenda, while penal polity and incarceration rates in Western (and Eastern) Europe remained gener­ally stable. To explain this divergence, many commentators invoke cultural or historical factors such as America’s ‘frontier mentality” or Calvinist religious heritage. This article proposes another focus: differing cultures of criminal law-making. During the Enlightenment, a pattern of expert control over penal law emerged in most European nation-states. The pattern still holds - even today, major changes to penal polity are still entrusted to groups of elite professors, jurists and senior civil servants, who create coherent codes covering the entire national territory. In the United States, no tradition of expert control took hold. Criminal law is made at the state level, there is little emphasis on logical code-drafting and shifting local majorities can pass new criminal laws almost at will This structural difference in who writes criminal laws has far-reaching effects not only on the how crime is defined, but on other factors such as public expectations of the criminal justice system and the values penal legislation is thought to express.

scholarly journals Analysis of Determinants Affecting Organic Production: State Evidence from the United States

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 503
Author(s):  
Yongrui Hou ◽  
Tianyuan Luo ◽  
Jing Hao
Keyword(s):  
Organic Farming ◽  
Organic Agriculture ◽  
Large Population ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
Vegetable Production ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The U.S

As the demand for organic products quickly grows in the U.S., the domestic supply of organic commodities has stagnated and failed to meet the increasing needs. To expand the organic supply capacity in the country, it is crucial to identify the key factors that could effectively promote the scale of organic farming in the U.S. Using a multivariate analytic model and state level data from multiple sources and years, this study examines a wide range of determinants that could affect organic agriculture. The results show that research funding would significantly increase organic vegetable production and the number of organic farms. The development of organic farming could be greatly encouraged by the support of research institutions. In addition, the evidence shows that abundant farm workers are essential for the organic farming sector, which is labor-intensive. Finally, a large population base could create a more stable consumer group that would promote the development of organic agriculture. These results suggest the importance of exploring and expanding consumer groups for organic commodities. These findings provide insightful implications that research support, labor availability, and a solid consumer base are crucial to boost the organic sector in the U.S. and other countries.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders varied by state

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0245008
Author(s):  
Yevgeniy Feyman ◽  
Jacob Bor ◽  
Julia Raifman ◽  
Kevin N. Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
State Level ◽  
County Level ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Reduced Mobility ◽  
The U.S

State “shelter-in-place” (SIP) orders limited the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. However, impacts may have varied by state, creating opportunities to learn from states where SIPs have been effective. Using a novel dataset of state-level SIP order enactment and county-level mobility data form Google, we use a stratified regression discontinuity study design to examine the effect of SIPs in all states that implemented them. We find that SIP orders reduced mobility nationally by 12 percentage points (95% CI: -13.1 to -10.9), however the effects varied substantially across states, from -35 percentage points to +11 percentage points. Larger reductions were observed in states with higher incomes, higher population density, lower Black resident share, and lower 2016 vote shares for Donald J. Trump. This suggests that optimal public policies during a pandemic will vary by state and there is unlikely to be a “one-size fits all” approach that works best.

scholarly journals Absolutist Words From Search Volume Data Predict State-Level Suicide Rates in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 788-793
Author(s):  
Jais Adam-Troian ◽  
Thomas Arciszewski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Volume Data ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
Search Volume

Suicide continues to be a major public health issue, especially in the United States. It is a well-established fact that depression and suicidal ideation are risk factors for suicide. Drawing on recent research that shows that absolutist words (e.g., “completely,” “totally”) constitute linguistic markers of suicidal ideation, we created an online index of absolutist thinking (ATI) using search query data (i.e., Google Trends time series). Mixed-model analyses of age-adjusted suicide rates in the United States from 2004 to 2017 revealed that ATI is linked with suicides, β = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.12, 0.31], p < .001, and predicts suicides within 1 year, β = 0.16, 95% CI = [0.05, 0.28], p = .006, independently of state characteristics and historical trends. It is the first time that a collective measure of absolutist thinking is used to predict real-world suicide outcomes. Therefore, the present study paves the way for novel research avenues in clinical psychological research.

scholarly journals State-Level Prevalence of Bullying Victimization Among Children and Adolescents, National Survey of Children’s Health, 2016-2017

2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydie A. Lebrun-Harris ◽  
Laura J. Sherman ◽  
Bethany Miller
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
National Survey ◽  
New York State ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Bullying Victimization ◽  
Being Bullied

Bullying is a serious public health issue among children and adolescents in the United States. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of bullying victimization (defined as a child being bullied, picked on, or excluded by children) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. We used data on bullying victimization from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). We stratified the sample by age: children aged 6-11 years (n = 21 142) and adolescents aged 12-17 years (n = 29 011). We conducted bivariate analyses to determine the prevalence of bullying victimization by state for each age group. In the survey, parents/caregivers responded to a question about whether it was “definitely true,” “somewhat true,” or “not true” that their child “is being bullied, picked on, or excluded by other children.” We combined “definitely true” and “somewhat true” responses to create a dichotomous variable for bullying victimization. Parents reported 22.4% of children aged 6-11 years and 21.0% of adolescents aged 12-17 years as experiencing bullying victimization during 2016-2017. The prevalence of bullying victimization among children ranged from 16.5% in New York State to 35.9% in Wyoming and among adolescents ranged from 14.9% in Nevada to 31.6% in Montana. The prevalence of bullying victimization among children or adolescents was >30% in 7 states: Arkansas, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. These data can be used to inform state programs and policies to support bullying prevention efforts and services for children and adolescents who experience bullying. NSCH will continue to collect data on bullying victimization to track annual trends in national and state-level prevalence rates among children and adolescents.

Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Zackin
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
State Constitutions ◽  
Positive Rights ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Tradition ◽  
Fundamental Values ◽  
The U.S

Unlike many national constitutions, which contain explicit positive rights to such things as education, a living wage, and a healthful environment, the U.S. Bill of Rights appears to contain only a long list of prohibitions on government. American constitutional rights, we are often told, protect people only from an overbearing government, but give no explicit guarantees of governmental help. This book argues that we have fundamentally misunderstood the American rights tradition. The United States actually has a long history of enshrining positive rights in its constitutional law, but these rights have been overlooked simply because they are not in the U.S. Constitution. The book shows how they instead have been included in America's state constitutions, in large part because state governments, not the federal government, have long been primarily responsible for crafting American social policy. Although state constitutions, seemingly mired in trivial detail, can look like pale imitations of their federal counterpart, they have been sites of serious debate, reflect national concerns, and enshrine choices about fundamental values. This book looks in depth at the history of education, labor, and environmental reform, explaining why America's activists targeted state constitutions in their struggles for government protection from the hazards of life under capitalism. Shedding light on the variety of reasons that activists pursued the creation of new state-level rights, the book challenges us to rethink our most basic assumptions about the American constitutional tradition.

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