BACKGROUND The rapidly increasing burden of chronic disease is difficult to reconcile with the large, compelling body of literature that demonstrates the substantial preventive and therapeutic benefits of comprehensive lifestyle intervention, including physical activity, smoking cessation and healthy diet. Physical inactivity is now the fourth leading independent risk factor for death caused by...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of having regular healthcare providers and diabetes self-management education (DSME) on the receipt of diabetes preventive care among all groups and by race/ethnicity. DATA SOURCE The 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey. METHODS Logistic regression analyses were performed for the full sample and separately for Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites. RES...

BACKGROUND Countries with limited resources in economic downturns often reduce government expenditures, of which spending on preventive healthcare with no apparent immediate health impact might be cut down first. This research aims to find the optimum share of preventive health expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) and investigate the implications of preventive health services on economic...

OBJECTIVE Healthcare providers and other employees, especially those who do not work in a hospital, may not easily find help after the occurrence of a blood exposure accident. In 2006, a national call center was established in The Netherlands to fill this gap. METHODS All occupational blood exposure accidents reported to the 24-hours-per-day, 7-days-per-week call center from 2007, 2008, and 2...

Patterns of healthcare use in a sample of young adults entering the US Navy (N=1137) were examined in a longitudinal survey study. Baseline data provided information about healthcare use as a civilian, whereas follow-up data were used to examine changes in patterns of use over time following entry into the Military Health System (MHS). Entrance into the MHS was marked by increased use of preven...

Although mortality rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) declined by 26% from 1995 to 2005,1 it remains the leading cause of death for US adults. The American Heart Association (AHA) set a 2020 impact goal to “improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from CVD and stroke by 20%.”2 To this end, the AHA recommended prevention as a first-line strategy and id...

Although mortality rates from cardiovascular disease (CVD) declined by 26% from 1995 to 2005,1 it remains the leading cause of death for US adults. The American Heart Association (AHA) set a 2020 impact goal to “improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from CVD and stroke by 20%.”2 To this end, the AHA recommended prevention as a first-line strategy and id...