Association of Chain Restaurant Advertising Spending With Obesity in US Adults.

Importance: Restaurants spend billions of dollars on marketing. However, little is known about the association between restaurant marketing and obesity risk in adults.

Objective: To examine associations between changes in per capita county-level restaurant advertising spending over time and changes in objectively measured body mass index (BMI) for adult patients.

Impact of Changes in Chain Restaurant Calories over Time on Obesity Risk.

Background: Prior research on the restaurant environment and obesity risk is limited by cross-sectional data and a focus on specific geographic areas.

Objective: To measure the impact of changes in chain restaurant calories over time on body mass index (BMI).

Design: We used a first-difference model to examine whether changes from 2012 to 2015 in chain restaurant calories per capita were associated with percent changes in BMI.

How do health insurer market concentration and bargaining power with hospitals affect health insurance premiums?

The US health insurance industry is highly concentrated, and health insurance premiums are high and rising rapidly. Policymakers have focused on the possible link between the two, leading to ACA provisions to increase insurer competition. However, while market power may enable insurers to include higher profit margins in their premiums, it may also result in stronger bargaining leverage with hospitals to negotiate lower payment rates to partially offset these higher premiums.

Reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption by providing caloric information: how Black adolescents alter their purchases and whether the effects persist.

Objectives: We examined the ways in which adolescents altered the type and size of their purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), together with whether the effects persisted after removing caloric information signs in stores.

Methods: We used a case-crossover design with 6 stores located in low-income Black neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland, from 2012 to 2013. The intervention used 1 of 4 randomly posted signs with caloric information: absolute calories, number of teaspoons of sugar, and number of minutes of running or miles of walking necessary to burn off a beverage.

Reduction in purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages among low-income Black adolescents after exposure to caloric information.

Objectives: We examined the effect of an intervention to provide caloric information about sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) on the number of SSB purchases.

Methods: We used a case-crossover design with 4 corner stores located in low-income, predominately Black neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. The intervention randomly posted 1 of 3 signs with the following caloric information: (1) absolute caloric count, (2) percentage of total recommended daily intake, and (3) physical activity equivalent.