80 Results Found

A novel method was applied to account for representation bias in U.S. cannabis prevalence estimates derived from the 2016–2024 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Although the BRFSS provides national coverage, the cannabis modul...

Georgia is ranked fifth highest among states for rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis. About 4% of persons living with HIV infection in the United States reside in Georgia, and almost 19% of these people do not know their HIV status....

Background/Objectives: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally. Screening for cancer helps to prevent comorbid conditions among individuals with chronic medical conditions, such as stroke. The gold standa...

Effective COVID-19 vaccine distribution requires prioritizing locations that are accessible to high-risk target populations. However, little is known about the vaccination location preferences of individuals with underlying chronic conditions. Using...

Background: Depression is a key psychosocial risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, the degree to which lack of health insurance amplifies this risk remains unclear. Geographical disparities in mental health, cardiovascular outcomes,...

Introduction: In 2014, it was reported that there was a backlog of an estimated 1.2 million claims nationwide at the United States Veterans Administration (VA). This ecological occurrence opened up a space for asking and answering some important ques...

Dental care is a well-established marker of both oral and systemic health, driven by behavioral, socioeconomic, and geographic factors. This study aimed to develop and evaluate machine learning models to classify the presence and severity of permanen...

Following recent econometric developments, we use self-assessed general health on a Likert scale conditioned by several objective determinants to measure health disparity between non-Hispanic Whites and minority groups in the United States. A statist...

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons in the US experience a disparity in chronic respiratory diseases compared to white persons. Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, we previously showed that the AI/AN race/ethnicit...

Rationale/Objective: The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) health survey has been used to describe the epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the US. Through addressing respiratory symptoms and tobacco use, i...

Social determinants of health (SDoH) comprise a broad array of social conditions, such as access to food and housing, that facilitate or impede individual behavior. The aim of this study was to assess the association between SDoH and cigarette smokin...

Background: The literature shows a strong association between level of education and the risk of developing Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). However, the extent to which this association attenuates after accounting for sociodemographic characteristics a...

Many health risk factors are intervention targets within communities, but information regarding high-risk subpopulations is rarely available at a geographic resolution that is relevant for community-scale interventions. Researchers and community part...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer, and the second most common cancer-related cause of death in the United States (USA). Timely screening reduces both CRC incidence and mortality. Understanding population behaviors and factors...

Purpose: Weight loss is advantageous for individuals with obesity and arthritis. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine if there are differences by rural-urban status among older adults with these conditions who reported being advised by a...

Although consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is a key contributor to epidemic obesity and has dramatically increased over the past decade in the United States, little is known about its prevalence and associated factors. Data from the 201...

Although the etiology of obesity is complex, social disparities are gaining attention for their contribution to obesity. The aim of this study was to estimate prevalence of obesity and to explore the associations between socio-demographic characteris...

Background: Major Depressive Disorder is a leading cause of disability worldwide and one of the most common disorders in the United States. Contributors to an individual’s risk for experiencing depressive disorders include individual and social...

Regular physical activity and sport participation have been shown to improve women’s health; however, research has found that better health is associated with sport participation. Little is known about the sociodemographic determinants of physi...

A recursive system of ordered self assessed health together with BRFSS data were used to investigate health and obesity in the Appalachian state of West Virginia. Implications of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity of lifestyle outcomes on healt...

The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is widely used to estimate adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in pediatric populations, but it only captures household adversity and economic hardship, omitting direct measures of emotional, phy...

Chronic diseases affect a disproportionate number of United States (US) veterans, causing significant long-term health issues and affecting entitlement spending. This longitudinal study examined the health status of US veterans as compared to non-vet...

Current reported incidence rates for ovarian cancer may significantly underestimate the true rate because of the inclusion of women in the calculations who are not at risk for ovarian cancer due to prior benign salpingo-oophorectomy (SO). We have con...

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Hispanic ethnic concentration is associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and, if this relationship exists, whether it is affected by the socioeconomic environment. The study uses the Texas Beha...

Background: Predictive performance does not establish whether model-identified risks correspond to feasible, equitable pathways. We assessed the actionability and equity of a severe tooth loss prediction model using constrained algorithmic recourse a...

The research aims to explore the association between behavioral habits and chronic diseases, and to identify a portfolio of risk factors for preventive healthcare. The data is taken from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) database...

Inequalities in health have been identified for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations nationally. Policies in the U.S. South offer fewer protections for LGB people than in other regions, yet, limited data exist for this region. North Carolina...

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) have become a major public health problem affecting the national economy and social development, and have become one of the major causes of death. Therefore, the prevention, control and risk assessment of CVD have been i...

Background: Heart disease is the fourth leading cause of death for young adults aged 18–34 in the United States. Recent research suggests that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may shape cardiovascular health and its proximate antecedents. I...

Despite the success of HIV prevention drugs such as PrEP, HIV incident transmission rates remain a significant problem in the United States. A life-course perspective, including experiences of childhood adversity, may be useful in addressing the HIV...

The study’s aim was to identify disparities in the use of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) services. Data were obtained from the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) conducted through landline and cellular phones by the Centers fo...

Multilevel models are overwhelmingly applied to single health outcomes, but when two or more health conditions are closely related, it is important that contextual variation in their joint prevalence (e.g., variations over different geographic settin...

The obesity epidemic in the United States has been well documented and serves as the basis for a number of health interventions across the nation. However, those who have served in the U.S. military (Veteran population) suffer from obesity in higher...

This study examines the association between state and county unemployment rates and individuals’ body weight status during the latest recession in the U.S. We used the U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data in 2007, 2009 and 201...

This study examines the association of emotional and physical reactions to perceived discrimination with depressive symptoms among a sample of African American (AA) men in the southeastern United States. Analysis of the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Su...

This article examined the sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicine/therapy (CAM) among adults with current asthma in the United States. We used data from 76,802 adults aged 18 years...

Cancer screening is an important way to reduce the burden of cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic created delays in screening with the potential to increase cancer disparities in the United States (U.S.). Data from the 2014–2020 Behavioral Risk Factor...

Despite growing recognition of the role that social determinants of health (SDOHs) and health-related social needs (HRSNs) play in chronic disease, limited research has examined their associations with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in...

Background/Objectives: Informal caregivers of older adults are a high-burden population for psychological problems, yet evidence on the relationship between physical activity (PA) and mental health in this population is still limited. The aim of this...

Background/objectives: The association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and asthma severity among United States (US) adults with asthma has not been well documented. In addition, whether gender differences exist in this association has be...

Mississippi has long been one of the most obese states in the U.S., with its obesity rates consistently exceeding the national average. The state’s severe obesity rate is also among the highest in the nation. This study utilized the 2011 to 202...

Machine learning is increasingly applied to cardiovascular disease prediction yet reported performance metrics often appear implausibly high due to methodological errors. Recent work has reported nearly perfect predictive accuracy (≈99%) using...

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer and the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States (USA). Early screening has been demonstrated to improve clinical outcomes for CRC. Assessing patterns in CRC scr...

Poor Self-Rated Health (SRHp) is part of a four-item scale for self-assessment. SRH from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) is used to test hypotheses linking population-level well-being influenced by bereavement due to the d...

Background: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) waived deductibles and eliminated coinsurance for colonoscopies for Medicare beneficiaries beginning in January 1, 2011. This study investigated the effect of the ACA’s directive to remove the financial...

One-third of Americans with diabetes will develop diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading cause of blindness in working-age Americans. Social determinants of health (SDOHs) are conditions in a person’s environment that may impact health. The obj...

Purpose: This study investigates the bidirectional relationship between body weight and depression for both males and females in the U.S. Methods: Data are drawn from the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and a simultaneous ord...

There is evidence that sexual minority populations have a potentially heightened risk of poor health outcomes due in part to the discrimination they may face. In the present study, we examined whether overweightness and obesity vary by sexual minorit...

Sport participation has been associated with lower rates of chronic diseases when compared to other forms of physical activity (PA) among women. However, we do not know if this relationship holds true for men. The purpose of this study was to examine...

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly being applied to clinical tasks, but it remains unclear whether medical-specific models consistently outperform smaller, generalpurpose ones. This study investigates that assumption in the context of card...