Most governments try to discourage their citizens from taking extreme risks with their health and lives. Yet, for reasons not understood, many people continue to do so. We suggest a new approach to this longstanding question. First, we show that expected-utility theory predicts that ‘happier’ people will be less attracted to risky behaviors. Second, using BRFSS data on seatbelt use in a sample ...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the current investigation is to assess and validate the factor structure of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System's (BRFSS) Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) module. METHOD ACE data available from the 2009 BRFSS survey were fit using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to estimate an initial factorial structure. The exploratory solution was then validated usin...

background: now the increasing growth of chronic diseases is the major health challenge worldwide. this survey was conducted to assess noncommunicable diseases related risk factors. methods: a population-based cross sectional study was conducted in 2005 and repeated annually by 2009 in hamadan province, the west of iran using two-stage cluster sampling method. a total sample of 6500 subjects 15...

Workers in various industries and occupations are at risk for work-related asthma* (1). Data from the 2006-2007 adult Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Asthma Call-back Survey (ACBS), an in-depth asthma survey conducted with respondents who report an asthma diagnosis, from 33 states indicated that up to 48% of adult current asthma might be related to work and could therefore po...

INTRODUCTION Little is known about health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among people with multiple chronic conditions. We examined the association between the number of chronic conditions and self-reported HRQOL outcomes among adults in the United States. METHODS We used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 2007 (n = 430,912) to compare 4 HRQOL measures for pe...

Georgia is ranked fifth highest among states for rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis. About 4% of persons living with HIV infection in the United States reside in Georgia, and almost 19% of these people do not know their HIV status. The present study examined the trends and associated factors of HIV testing among adults in Georgia between 2011 and 2015 by analyzing data of the...

Using microdata for adults from 1987 to 2000 years of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), I show that smoking and excess weight decline during temporary economic downturns while leisure-time physical activity rises. The drop in tobacco use occurs disproportionately among heavy smokers, the fall in body weight among the severely obese and the increase in exercise among those ...

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) was originally conducted by using a landline telephone survey mode of data collection. To meet challenges of random-digit-dial (RDD) surveys and to ensure data quality and validity, BRFSS is integrating multiple modes of data collection to enhance validity. The survey of adults who use only cellular telephones is now conducted in parallel w...

Consistent with the findings of Ramsey et al (1), we found that the Washington State smoking prevalence data from the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) were lower than the prevalence data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). In this letter, we discuss how Washington resolved this problem of disparate prevalence estimates and still obtained population-based survey data on many t...