Instrumental variables in the cost of illness featuring type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To ascertain how an instrumental variables (IV) model can improve upon the estimates obtained from traditional cost-of-illness (COI) models that treat health conditions as predetermined.

Study Setting And Design: A simulation study based on observational data compares the coefficients and average marginal effects from an IV model to a traditional COI model when an unobservable confounder is introduced. The two approaches are then applied to real data, using a kinship-weighted family history as an instrument, and differences are interpreted within the context of the findings from the simulation study.

The changing food environment and neighborhood prevalence of type 2 diabetes.

In this ecological study, we used longitudinal data to assess if changes in neighborhood food environments were associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence, controlling for a host of neighborhood characteristics and spatial error correlation. We found that the population-adjusted prevalence of fast-food and pizza restaurants, grocery stores, and full-service restaurants along with changes in their numbers from 1990 to 2010 were associated with 2015 T2DM prevalence. The results suggested that neighborhoods where fast-food restaurants have increased and neighborhoods where full-service restaurants have decreased over time may be especially important targets for educational campaigns or other public health-related T2DM interventions.

Thx 4 the msg: Assessing the Impact of Texting on Student Engagement and Persistence.

Unlabelled: As colleges and universities strive to increase persistence and aid students in reaching graduation, they are utilizing alternative communication strategies like text messaging. Behavioral economics researchers suggest personalized, regular nudges can help college students make decisions that positively impact their college career and keep them on track for graduation. The current study presents the results of a randomized field experiment where a text messaging program was implemented in a large college at a public university.

Food Insecurity and the Risk of Obesity, Depression, and Self-Rated Health in Women.

Recent studies have shown that food insecurity is associated with obesity, depression, and other adverse health outcomes although little research has been focused on these relationships in underrepresented cultural and social groups. In this study we elucidate the relationship between food insecurity, community factors, dietary patterns, race/ethnicity and health among underrepresented women. The data for this investigation come from a cross-sectional survey of women drawn from five urban Utah communities of color, including African immigrants/refugees, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders, and women from four rural Utah counties.

Incorporation of Information-Seeking Behavior Into Food Insecurity Research.

Introduction: Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods affects the health of individuals. Because of its association with chronic health conditions, addressing food insecurity may improve health outcomes and decrease health-related costs. This study explores whether and how information seeking as captured by calls made to United Way 2-1-1 can be used to identify food-insecure areas and information deserts-communities with low proportions of residents accessing government food resources but with high rates of 2-1-1 calls for emergency food resources.

Assessing the Likelihood of Having a Regular Health Care Provider among African American and African Immigrant Women.

Objective: Immigrants, especially refugees, face unique barriers to accessing health care relative to native born Americans. In this study, we examined how immigration status, health, barriers to access, and knowledge of the health care system relate to the likelihood of having a regular health care provider.

Methods: Using logistic regression and data from a community-based participatory study, we estimated the relative likelihood that an African immigrant woman would have a regular health care provider compared with an African American woman.

The joint effects of family risk of obesity and neighborhood environment on obesity among women.

Obesity is a significant health problem in the United States that has encouraged a search for modifiable risk factors, such as walkable neighborhood designs. Prior research has shown linkages between a family history of obesity (i.e.

The nexus between health and time use among racially and ethnically diverse women.

Objectives: Ethnic and racial health disparities have been well-documented in the scholarly literature. In recent years, evidence about time spent in physical (in)activity and its relationship to physical and mental health has also emerged. This study assesses if observed ethnic/racial health differences were associated with differences in time use.

Outcomes From a Hearing-Targeted Cytomegalovirus Screening Program.

Background And Objectives: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common congenital infection and nongenetic cause of congenital sensorineural hearing loss in the United States. Utah was the first state to pass legislation mandating CMV screening for newborns who fail newborn hearing screening (NBHS). The study objective was to present outcomes of hearing-targeted CMV screening and determine factors predicting CMV screening.

Planning Ahead or Living a Day at a Time? A Family History of AD and Retirement Planning.

Background: We assess whether a family history of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with the odds that healthy family members' engage in retirement planning activities.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study utilizing individual-level data from the Utah Population Database that have been linked to Medicare records and to responses from a retirement planning survey. Engagement in 3 retirement planning activities was estimated as a function of the number of parents and grandparents diagnosed with AD along with a set of fundamental socioeconomic and demographic covariates.

Cost-benefit analysis of targeted hearing directed early testing for congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

Objectives: In this study, we estimate an ex ante cost-benefit analysis of a Utah law directed at improving early cytomegalovirus (CMV) detection.

Study Design: We use a differential cost of treatment analysis for publicly insured CMV-infected infants detected by a statewide hearing-directed CMV screening program.

Methods: Utah government administrative data and multi-hospital accounting data are used to estimate and compare costs and benefits for the Utah infant population.

Family, frailty, and fatal futures? Own-health and family-health predictors of subjective life expectancy.

Subjective life expectancy is a powerful predictor of a variety of health and economic behaviors. This research expands upon the life expectancy literature by examining the influence of familial health histories. Using a genetic/environmental model, we hypothesize that individuals' assessments of their life expectancies will be linked to the health of first-degree and second-degree relatives, with same-sex relatives' health exercising a stronger effect than that of opposite-sex relatives.

Putting it off: family breast cancer history and women's retirement planning.

Objective: Cancer diagnoses have significant consequences that extend beyond the individual to family members. Our research builds on prior research by examining how a family history of breast cancer is related to women's retirement preparations.

Methods: Taking guidance from the stress process model, we generate and test hypotheses using multivariate logistic regression and unique data on retirement planning and familial cancer histories for 467 women.

Family Health Histories and Their Impact on Retirement Confidence.

Objective: Retirement confidence is a key social barometer. In this article, we examine how personal and parental health histories relate to working-age adults' feelings of optimism or pessimism about their overall retirement prospects.

Method: This study links survey data on retirement planning with information on respondents' own health histories and those of their parents.

Geographic scale matters in detecting the relationship between neighbourhood food environments and obesity risk: an analysis of driver license records in Salt Lake County, Utah.

Objectives: Empirical studies of the association between neighbourhood food environments and individual obesity risk have found mixed results. One possible cause of these mixed findings is the variation in neighbourhood geographic scale used. The purpose of this paper was to examine how various neighbourhood geographic scales affected the estimated relationship between food environments and obesity risk.

Active transportation: do current traffic safety policies protect non-motorists?

Objective: This study investigated the impact that state traffic safety regulations have on non-motorist fatality rates.

Methods: Data obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) were analyzed through a pooled time series cross-sectional model using fixed effects regression for all 50 states from 1999 to 2009. Two dependent variables were used in separate models measuring annual state non-motorist fatalities per million population, and the natural log of state non-motorist fatalities.

Does Daylight Savings Time encourage physical activity?

Background: Extending Daylight Savings Time (DST) has been identified as a policy intervention that may encourage physical activity. However, there has been little research on the question of if DST encourages adults to be more physically active.

Methods: Data from residents of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah ages 18-64 who participated in the 2003-2009 American Time Use Survey are used to assess whether DST is associated with increased time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

Harvesting more than vegetables: the potential weight control benefits of community gardening.

Objectives: We examined the association of participation in community gardening with healthy body weight.

Methods: We examined body mass index (BMI) data from 198 community gardening participants in Salt Lake City, Utah, in relationship to BMI data for 3 comparison groups: neighbors, siblings, and spouses. In comparisons, we adjusted for gender, age, and the year of the BMI measurement.

Moderate to vigorous physical activity and weight outcomes: does every minute count?

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test if moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in less than the recommended ≥10-minute bouts related to weight outcomes.

Design: Secondary data analysis.

Setting: Random sample from the U.

Re-visiting the relationship between neighbourhood environment and BMI: an instrumental variables approach to correcting for residential selection bias.

Background: A burgeoning literature links attributes of neighbourhoods' built environments to residents' physical activity, food and transportation choices, weight, and/or obesity risk. In cross-sectional studies, non-random residential selection impedes researchers' ability to conclude that neighbourhood environments cause these outcomes.

Methods: Cross-sectional data for the current study are based on 14,689 non-Hispanic white women living in Salt Lake County, Utah, USA.

Neighborhood design for walking and biking: physical activity and body mass index.

Background: Neighborhood designs often relate to physical activity and to BMI.

Purpose: Does neighborhood walkability/bikeability relate to BMI and obesity risk and does moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) account for some of the relationship?

Methods: Census 2000 provided walkability/bikeability measures-block group proportions of workers who walk or bike to work, housing age, and population density-and National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES 2003-2006) provided MVPA accelerometer measures. Regression analyses (2011-2012) adjusted for geographic clustering and multiple control variables.

Mixed land use and obesity: an empirical comparison of alternative land use measures and geographic scales.

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States. Walkable neighborhoods, characterized as having the 3Ds of walkability (population Density, land use Diversity, and pedestrian-friendly Design), have been identified as a potentially promising factor to prevent obesity for their residents. Past studies examining the relationship between obesity and walkability vary in geographic scales of neighborhood definitions and methods of measuring the 3Ds.

Effects of neighborhood walkability on healthy weight: assessing selection and causal influences.

Studies that examine the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and weight are limited because residents are not randomly distributed into neighborhoods. If associations are found between neighborhood characteristics and weight in observational studies, one cannot confidently draw conclusions about causality. We use data from the Utah Population Database (UPDB) that contain body mass index (BMI) information from all drivers holding a Utah driver license to undertake a cross-sectional analysis that compares the neighborhood determinants of BMI for youth and young adults.

Time use choices and healthy body weight: a multivariate analysis of data from the American Time Use Survey.

Background: We examine the relationship between time use choices and healthy body weight as measured by survey respondents' body mass index (BMI). Using data from the 2006 and 2007 American Time Use Surveys, we expand upon earlier research by including more detailed measures of time spent eating as well as measures of physical activity time and sedentary time. We also estimate three alternative models that relate time use to BMI.

Trends in Americans' food-related time use: 1975-2006.

Objective: To describe how the time spent in food-related activities by Americans has changed over the past 30 years.

Design: Data from four national time diary surveys, spanning 1975-2006, are used to construct estimates of trends in American adults' time spent in food-related activities. Multivariate Tobits assess how food-related activities have changed over time controlling for sociodemographic and economic covariates.