The association between community physical activity settings and youth physical activity, obesity, and body mass index.

Background: This study examined the association between the level of physical activity (PA) friendliness of the built environment and adolescent PA and body mass index using a national sample of youth and data collected from the communities where they reside.

Methods: Data on height, weight, and PA were taken from annual nationally representative cross-sectional Monitoring the Future surveys of 8th and 10th graders in schools, from 2001 through 2003. Measures of safety, outdoor and commercial PA settings, and urban sprawl were constructed using data collected from the communities in which the students reside.

Self-reported price of cigarettes, consumption and compensatory behaviours in a cohort of Mexican smokers before and after a cigarette tax increase.

Objective: To assess the impact of a 2007 cigarette tax increase from 110% to 140% of the price to the retailer on cigarette price and consumption among Mexican smokers, including efforts to offset price increases.

Methods: Data were analysed from the 2006 and 2007 administrations of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Survey in Mexico, which is a population-based cohort of adult smokers. Self-reported price of last cigarette purchase, place of last purchase, preferred brand, daily consumption and quit behaviour were assessed at baseline and follow-up.

Trends in exposure to television food advertisements among children and adolescents in the United States.

Objective: To examine the trends in food advertising seen by American children and adolescents.

Design: Trend analysis of children's and adolescents' exposure to food advertising in 2003, 2005, and 2007, including separate analyses by race.

Participants: Children aged 2 to 5 years and 6 to 11 years and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

State-level tobacco control policies and youth smoking cessation measures.

Objective: Research on the effects of state-level tobacco control policies targeted at youth has been mixed, with little on the effects of these policies and youth smoking cessation. This study explored the association between state-level tobacco control policies and youth smoking cessation behaviors from 1991 to 2006.

Methods: The study design was a population-based, nested survey of students within states.

Economic contextual factors, food consumption, and obesity among U.S. adolescents.

Adolescents have poor dietary behaviors and high overweight prevalence. Economic contextual factors such as food prices and food store and restaurant availability are hypothesized and increasingly being explored empirically as contributors to the obesity epidemic. Evidence showed that healthful compared with less healthful foods increasingly cost more and that fast food restaurants are increasingly available.

Soda taxes, soft drink consumption, and children's body mass index.

Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages have been proposed to combat obesity. Using data on state sales taxes for soda and individual-level data on children, we examine whether small taxes are likely to change consumption and weight gain or whether larger tax increases would be needed. We find that existing taxes on soda, which are typically not much higher than 4 percent in grocery stores, do not substantially affect overall levels of soda consumption or obesity rates.

Do state expenditures on tobacco control programs decrease use of tobacco products among college students?

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of state tobacco control program expenditures on individual-level tobacco use behaviors among young adults. Data come from the 1997, 1999 and 2001 waves of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). Our findings indicate that a higher level of state spending on tobacco control programs in the prior year is associated with a statistically significant increase in the probability that current daily smokers report at least one attempt to quit smoking in the past year.

Evidence for Connections Between Prosecutor-Reported Marijuana Case Dispositions and Community Youth Marijuana-Related Attitudes and Behaviors.

This article examines relationships between local drug policy (as represented by prosecutor-reported case outcomes for first-offender juvenile marijuana possession cases) and youth self-reported marijuana use, perceived risk, and disapproval. Interviews with prosecutors and surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students in the United States were conducted in 2000. Analyses include data from 97 prosecutors and students from 127 schools in 40 states.

Associations between state-level soda taxes and adolescent body mass index.

Purpose: Soft drink consumption has been linked with higher energy intake, obesity, and poorer health. Fiscal pricing policies such as soda taxes may lower soda consumption and, in turn, reduce weight among U.S.

Price, availability, and youth obesity: evidence from Bridging the Gap.

After a decade of analyzing environmental influences on substance use and its consequences among youth in the United States, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Bridging the Gap program has begun studying the effect of environmental factors on youth physical activity, diet, and weight outcomes. Much of this research has focused on access to food, as reflected by availability and price. Program researchers have documented disparities in access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity; healthier food outlets and opportunities for physical activity are relatively less available in communities with lower income and larger proportions of racial/ethnic minority populations.

Food prices and obesity: evidence and policy implications for taxes and subsidies.

Context: Pricing policies have been posited as potential policy instruments to address the increasing prevalence of obesity. This article examines whether altering the cost of unhealthy, energy-dense foods, compared with healthy, less-dense foods through the use of fiscal pricing (tax or subsidy) policy instruments would, in fact, change food consumption patterns and overall diet enough to significantly reduce individuals' weight outcomes.

Methods: This article examined empirical evidence regarding the food and restaurant price sensitivity of weight outcomes based on a literature search to identify peer-reviewed English-language articles published between 1990 and 2008.

State sales tax rates for soft drinks and snacks sold through grocery stores and vending machines, 2007.

Junk food consumption is associated with rising obesity rates in the United States. While a "junk food" specific tax is a potential public health intervention, a majority of states already impose sales taxes on certain junk food and soft drinks. This study reviews the state sales tax variance for soft drinks and selected snack products sold through grocery stores and vending machines as of January 2007.

Relation between newspaper coverage of tobacco issues and smoking attitudes and behaviour among American teens.

Objective: Geographic variation in youth smoking prevalence suggests that community-level factors influence risk of tobacco use. We examine the extent to which newspaper coverage of tobacco issues is related to youth smoking attitudes and behaviours.

Design: We conducted a content analysis of 8390 newspaper articles on tobacco issues from 386 daily newspapers circulating at 5% or more in 2001-3 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey communities.

Surveillance of tobacco industry retail marketing activities of reduced harm products.

With the introduction of potential reduced exposure products (PREPs) and the interest in studying tobacco harm reduction, sound research and surveillance are needed to examine and understand the distribution and availability of PREPs in communities, as well as the tobacco industry's marketing practices surrounding these products. We examined the availability and marketing of PREPs in a national sample of tobacco retail stores. We also compared the price of PREPs to those of premium brand cigarettes and examined the distribution of PREPs in comparison with premium brand cigarettes by store type, urbanization, region, and race/ethnicity.

The economic impact of clean indoor air laws.

Clean indoor air laws are easily implemented, are well accepted by the public, reduce nonsmoker exposure to secondhand smoke, and contribute to a reduction in overall cigarette consumption. There are currently thousands of clean indoor air laws throughout the Unites States, and the majority of Americans live in areas where smoking is completely prohibited in workplaces, restaurants, or bars. The vast majority of scientific evidence indicates that there is no negative economic impact of clean indoor air policies, with many studies finding that there may be some positive effects on local businesses.

News on tobacco and public attitudes toward smokefree air policies in the United States.

Objectives: Smoking bans are a central component of comprehensive tobacco control programs, and an increasing number of states and localities have adopted them. Public support is critical as efforts continue to extend protection from secondhand smoke to all. We examine the relationship between state print news coverage of tobacco and public sentiment towards smoking bans.

Associations between access to food stores and adolescent body mass index.

Background: Environmental factors such as the availability of local-area food stores may be important contributors to the increasing rate of obesity among U.S. adolescents.

The availability of local-area commercial physical activity-related facilities and physical activity among adolescents.

Background: A significant number of American youth do not participate in sufficient levels of physical activity.

Methods: This article reports the association between the availability of commercial physical activity-related facilities and self-reported physical activity behavior among United States adolescents. Geographic identifiers at the ZIP-code level were used to combine repeated cross-sections of individual-level data on 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade adolescents from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey with external commercial physical activity-related facility outlet density measures obtained from business lists from Dun and Bradstreet for the years 1997 through 2003.

Public health obesity-related TV advertising: lessons learned from tobacco.

Background: Over the past 25 years, the percent of overweight and obese adults and children in the United States has increased dramatically. The magnitude and scope of the public health threat from obesity have resulted in calls for a national comprehensive obesity prevention strategy, akin to tobacco use prevention strategies undertaken over the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare population exposure to paid media campaigns for tobacco and obesity prevention, draw lessons from tobacco advertising, and compare tobacco and obesity behaviors/influences to identify priorities and pitfalls for further research on obesity adverting.

Adolescent exposure to food advertising on television.

Background: Television viewing is hypothesized to contribute to obesity among children and adolescents through several mechanisms that include the displacement of physical activity, snacking while watching TV, and the influence of food advertising.

Methods: This study drew on television ratings to examine the distribution of food advertising exposure among adolescents aged 12 through 17 based on 170 top-rated shows across network, cable and syndicated TV stations over the 9-month period from September 2003 to May 2004. A total of 238,353 30-second equivalent advertisements on the top-rated shows were assessed.