OBJECTIVE To examine exposure to tobacco smoke products (TSPs), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and in-home smoke among youth with asthma in the United States. METHODS Nationally representative, cross-sectional data from 2250 youth aged 4 to 19 years with current asthma in the 1988-1994, 1999-2004, and 2005-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were analyzed. Outco...

This study explores the impact of incorporating Food-away-from-Home (FAFH) into the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). The new model of this study, FLEX, uses similar sets of datasets on prices, nutrition and average consumption pattern as those used in the TFP model. The 2001-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data is used to generate average consumption and nutrient profiles...

Although there is a large health, social, and economic burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in the United States, the number of persons infected with HCV in Rhode Island (RI) is unknown. To inform the expansion of HCV-related public health efforts in RI, and because surveillance data are lacking and national surveys, including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)...

BACKGROUND With the emergence of obesity as a global health issue an increasing number of major demographic surveys are collecting measured anthropometric data. Yet little is known about the characteristics and reliability of these data. OBJECTIVES We evaluate the accuracy and reliability of anthropometric data collected in the home during Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolesc...

BACKGROUND Environmental and behavioural factors are thought to contribute to all-cause mortality. Here, we develop a method to systematically screen and validate the potential independent contributions to all-cause mortality of 249 environmental and behavioural factors in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). METHODS We used Cox proportional hazards regression to ass...

OBJECTIVE To compare cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in a cohort of Mexican health workers with representative samples of US-born and Mexico-born Mexican-Americans living in the US. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data were obtained from the Mexican Health Worker Cohort Study (MHWCS) in Mexico and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) IV 1999-2006 in the US. Regression...

BACKGROUND Most children do not meet the recommendation for fruit consumption. Apples are the second most commonly consumed fruit in the US; however, no studies have examined the association of total apple products, apples, apple sauce, and 100 % apple juice consumption on diet quality and weight/adiposity in children. METHODS The purpose of this study was to examine the association between v...

The homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was used to measure the degree of insulin resistance (IR). Previous literature revealed that mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC) is one of the anthropometric indicators for nutritional status and the relationship between MAMC and HOMA-IR remains uncertain in the obese and non-obese elderly individuals. The present study included 5...

One of the main determinants of who will develop osteoporosis is the amount of bone accumulated at peak bone density. There is poor agreement, however, on when peak bone density occurs. Ethnic differences were observed in age at peak bone density and their correlates. Since the diagnosis of osteoporosis and osteopaenia is based on the comparison between patients' bone mineral density (BMD) and ...

BACKGROUND The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected health, housing, and environmental data in a single integrated national survey for the first time in the United States in 1999-2004. OBJECTIVES We aimed to determine how floor dust lead (PbD) loadings and other housing factors influence childhood blood lead (PbB) levels and lead poisoning. METHODS We analyzed data from...