Is neighbourhood access to tobacco outlets related to smoking behaviour and tobacco-related health outcomes and hospital admissions?

Objectives: Although the harms of tobacco use are widely accepted, few studies have examined the relationship between access to tobacco outlets and hospital admissions. This study aimed to examine the relationship between neighbourhood access to tobacco outlets, smoking and hospital admissions and self-reported morbidity.

Methods: Responses as to smoking behaviour were obtained from 12,270 adult participants in Western Australia (2003-2009) and individually record-linked to hospital admissions and geographically linked to tobacco outlets.

Acute systemic DNA damage in youth does not impair immune defense with aging.

Aging-related decline in immunity is believed to be the main driver behind decreased vaccine efficacy and reduced resistance to infections in older adults. Unrepaired DNA damage is known to precipitate cellular senescence, which was hypothesized to be the underlying cause of certain age-related phenotypes. Consistent with this, some hallmarks of immune aging were more prevalent in individuals exposed to whole-body irradiation (WBI), which leaves no anatomical repository of undamaged hematopoietic cells.

The Effect of the Social and Physical Environment on Children's Independent Mobility to Neighborhood Destinations.

Background: Relationships between context-specific measures of the physical and social environment and children's independent mobility to neighborhood destination types were examined.

Methods: Parents in RESIDE's fourth survey reported whether their child (8-15 years; n = 181) was allowed to travel without an adult to school, friend's house, park and local shop. Objective physical environment measures were matched to each of these destinations.

A longitudinal analysis of the influence of the neighborhood built environment on walking for transportation: the RESIDE study.

The purpose of the present analysis was to use longitudinal data collected over 7 years (from 4 surveys) in the Residential Environments (RESIDE) Study (Perth, Australia, 2003-2012) to more carefully examine the relationship of neighborhood walkability and destination accessibility with walking for transportation that has been seen in many cross-sectional studies. We compared effect estimates from 3 types of logistic regression models: 2 that utilize all available data (a population marginal model and a subject-level mixed model) and a third subject-level conditional model that exclusively uses within-person longitudinal evidence. The results support the evidence that neighborhood walkability (especially land-use mix and street connectivity), local access to public transit stops, and variety in the types of local destinations are important determinants of walking for transportation.