Objective: Previous studies from European countries noted that food products promoted on TV for children did not comply with international guidelines, including the World Health Organization European Nutrient Profile Model (WHO-ENPM) and the EU Pledge Nutrition Criteria (EU-PNC, an initiative developed by leading food companies). We aim to provide new data from Italy.
Design: Evaluation of Italian TV advertisements.
Background: Population data on tobacco use and its determinants require continuous monitoring and careful inter-country comparison. We aimed to provide the most up-to-date estimates on tobacco smoking from a large cross-sectional survey, conducted in selected European countries.
Methods: Within the TackSHS Project, a face-to-face survey on smoking was conducted in 2017-2018 in 12 countries: Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain, representing around 80% of the 432 million European Union (EU) adult population.
Problematic and pathological gambling have emerged as substantial problems in many countries. One potential accelerating factor for this phenomenon during recent years is the Internet, which offers different kinds of games and online applications for gambling that are faster, more attractive due to a variety of design and marketing options, less costly and potentially more addictive than terrestrial gambling opportunities. However, the contributing role of the Internet for problematic gambling has not been analyzed sufficiently so far and remains inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the steadily growing health burden of obesity in Germany, the measuring and quantification of its costs and relevant economic consequences have become increasingly important. The usual quantifications via previous cost-of-illness approaches mostly have several weaknesses, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHazardous alcohol consumption in Germany is a main threat to health. By using insurance claim data from the German Statutory Health Insurance and a classification strategy based on ICD10 diagnoses-codes we analyzed a sample of 146,000 subjects with more than 19,000 hazardous alcohol consumers. Employing different regression models with a control function approach, we calculate life years lost due to alcohol consumption, annual direct and indirect health costs, and the burden of pain and suffering measured by the Charlson-Index and assessed pain diagnoses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Neuropsychopharmacol
July 2013
Recent publications calculated an annual prevalence of 38% of the population within the European Union having a "disorder of the brain" including substance use disorders (SUD) (Wittchen et al., 2011). The overall economic burden was estimated at 789 billion € (Gustavsson et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine whether the German food industry directs commercials for unhealthy products to children and whether self-administered voluntary restrictions on the promotion of less healthy foods (the EU Pledge) are effective to mitigate this exposure.
Design: By analysing German data from television (TV) channels, advertised products were categorized and food products classified as core foods (healthy) and non-core foods (less healthy). Marketing techniques were documented.
Objectives: We compared television food advertising to children in several countries.
Methods: We undertook a collaboration among 13 research groups in Australia, Asia, Western Europe, and North and South America. Each group recorded programming for 2 weekdays and 2 weekend days between 6:00 and 22:00, for the 3 channels most watched by children, between October 2007 and March 2008.
Aim: The study aimed to explore the place of taxation in preventing underage binge drinking in Germany.
Method: We reviewed evidence on the role of excise taxes on alcohol in preventing alcohol problems and underage drinking. We analyzed historical German data on tax on alcoholic beverages and compared this with European data, finally calculating tax scenarios and their impact on underage binge drinking.