Mystery shops involving attempted tobacco purchases by young buyers have been implemented in order to monitor retail stores' performance in refusing underage sales. Anecdotal evidence suggests that mystery shop visits with immediate feedback to store personnel can improve age verification. This study investigated the effect of monthly and twice-monthly mystery shop reports on age verification. Mystery shoppers visited 45 Walgreens stores 20 times. The stores were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions. Control group stores received no feedback, whereas 2 treatment groups received feedback communications on every visit (twice monthly) or on every second visit (monthly) after baseline. Logit regression models tested whether each treatment group improved verification rates relative to the control group. Postbaseline verification rates were higher in both treatment groups than in the control group, but only the stores receiving monthly communications had a significantly greater improvement compared with the control group stores. Verification rates increased significantly during the study period for all 3 groups, with delayed improvement among control group stores. Communication between managers regarding the mystery shop program may account for the delayed age-verification improvements observed in the control group stores. Encouraging interstore communication might extend the benefits of mystery shop programs beyond those stores that receive this intervention.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2011.561912 | DOI Listing |
J Eval Clin Pract
February 2025
Ordos Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ordos City, China.
Background: To investigate the effect of Midnight-noon Ebb-flow combined with five-element music therapy in the continuous nursing of patients with chronic wounds.
Methods: From March 2022 to November 2023, we recruited 50 eligible chronic wound patients and randomly divided them into two groups according to a random number table: the experimental group (n = 25) and the control group (n = 25). The control group was treated with conventional nursing measures.
Pulmonology
December 2025
Laboratory of Experimental Therapeutics, LIM-20, Department of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) induces an imbalance in T helper (Th) 17/regulatory T (Treg) cells that contributes to of the dysregulation of inflammation. Exercise training can modulate the immune response in healthy subjects.
Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effects of exercise training on Th17/Treg responses and the differentiation of Treg phenotypes in individuals with COPD.
Scand J Med Sci Sports
January 2025
Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada, Melilla, Spain.
We aimed to determine the persisting effects of various exercise modalities and intensities on functional capacity after periods of training cessation in older adults. A comprehensive search was conducted across the Cochrane Library, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science Core Collection up to March 2024 for randomized controlled trials examining residual effects of physical exercise on functional capacity in older adults ≥ 60 years. The analysis encompassed 15 studies and 21 intervention arms, involving 787 participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Eval Clin Pract
February 2025
California State University Monterey Bay, Seaside, California, USA.
Rationale: Obesity is an increasing medical issue not responding well to behavioural treatments beyond their initial weeks/months.
Aims And Objectives: Before suggesting surgical or pharmacological interventions, medical professionals might consider referrals to cost-effective, community-based behavioural treatments if stronger theoretical/empirical bases were demonstrated. Thus, evaluation of such is warranted.
J Med Econ
January 2025
UNESCO-TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences, Trieste, Italy.
Aim: Dynamic cancer control is a current health system priority, yet methods for achieving it are lacking. This study aims to review the application of system dynamics modeling (SDM) on cancer control and evaluate the research quality.
Methods: Articles were searched in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus from the inception of the study to November 15th, 2023.
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