PURPOSE OF REVIEW In accordance with US dietary guidance, incorporating variety into the diet can align with energy balance, though greater food variety in some categories may make energy balance more challenging. Thus, experimental and epidemiologic evidence is summarized on the relationship between food variety, food and energy intake, and energy balance. RECENT FINDINGS Lab-based, experime...

What makes one individual more susceptible than another to the harmful effects of air pollution? If particulate matter (PM) differentially affects certain populations, which factors or characteristics are most likely to account for the heightened risk? These are the questions behind a new review of studies that examined various characteristics linked with susceptibility [EHP 119(4):446–454; Sac...

Recent epidemiologic research has shown that people with higher socioeconomic status (SES) (e.g., educational attainment) have better psychological health than those with lower SES. However, the psychosocial mechanisms of underlying this relationship remain unclear. To fill this gap, the current study examines the mediating effects of job demands and job resources in the relationship between ed...

Seasonal and pandemic strains of influenza have widespread implications for the global economy and global health. This has been highlighted recently as the epidemiologic characteristics for hospitalization and mortality for pandemic influenza H1N1 2009 are now emerging. While treatment with neuraminidase inhibitors are effective for seasonal and pandemic influenza, prevention of morbidity and m...

Using contextual factors beyond individual factors, contextual analysis allows a more accurate identification of at-risk populations, which could be useful when planning health programs. Multilevel models, widely used in British and North-American social epidemiology research but less frequently in France, are particularly suitable to analyse contextual data, because they take into account thei...