The present paper assesses the causal effects of education on smoking and self-rated health in Canada. Education is instrumented using the changes in compulsory schooling laws. The sample is restricted to cohorts born between 1946 and 1964. The data are from the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1995 and 2016, allowing to observe the evolution of…

Individuals who restrict their caloric intake and/or exercise excessively to mitigate the calories from alcohol consumption may suffer from an eating disorder, substance abuse disorder, or both. While the term "drunkorexia" has been used in both academic articles and popular culture, issues persist with respect to diagnosing and treating…

Sugar-sweetened beverages contribute calories and added sugars to the diets of U.S. children. Studies have suggested a link between the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and dental caries, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children. The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend…

Parent-child communication about gender and sexuality has received increasing attention since the late 1990s, in response to growing awareness that open dialogue plays a vital role in sex and relationships education, and improving sexual health outcomes for families and young people. However, the insights gained from this literature have been…

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 9-12 hours of sleep for children aged 6-12 years and 8-10 hours for those aged 13-18, yet only two-thirds of children meet these recommendations. This report uses 2020 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to describe regular bedtimes, defined as going to sleep at the same time most days or…

This study aims to analyze South Korea's experience during the COVID-19 outbreak through a gendered lens. We briefly introduce the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea, scrutinize gendered vulnerability in contracting the virus, and then analyze the gendered aspects of the pandemic response in two phases: quarantine policy and mitigation policy. The authors…

Antidepressants are one of the three most commonly used therapeutic drug classes in the United States. While the majority of antidepressants are taken to treat depression, antidepressants can also be taken to treat other conditions, like anxiety disorders. This Data Brief provides the most recent estimates of antidepressant use in the U.S.…

Montana is proud to have completed over three decades of participation in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). These results are valuable to educators, school boards, and communities, including parents and students, in understanding the health risks of Montana students, enabling districts to design local health and physical education curriculum…

Changes in thinking skills are commonly experienced by older adults, though large variation exists. Such changes are one of the top concerns of people as they get older. Public perceptions of those changes could be used to effectively communicate with them about ways to improve their thinking skills. This study explored people's views about…

Continually accumulating information on the health risks associated with sedentary lifestyles indicates a severe public health need for increased physical activity, as well as for careful attention to factors that can curtail it. Study and documentation of such factors, however, are not enough to promote widespread change in firmly established…

The Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is administered by the Montana Office of Public Instruction every two years to students in grades 7 through 12. The purpose of the survey is to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems…

Most hepatitis C transmission occurs through the sharing of equipment used for injecting drugs, and in many settings, the majority of equipment sharing occurs between sexual partners. Despite this, few health promotion materials directly address sexual partnerships, couples or social relationships in general. This blindspot is one example of the…

Alcohol media literacy is an emerging field that aims to address the link between exposure to alcohol advertising and subsequent expectancies and behaviours for children and adolescents. The design, rigour and results of alcohol media literacy programmes vary considerably, resulting in a number of unanswered questions about effectiveness. To…

Objective: To review the literature on college student waterpipe use with a focus on undergraduates in the United States. Participants: Undergraduate students. Methods: Studies were accessed using the databases PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Academic Search Premier. Searches included combinations of the following keywords: "waterpipe," "hookah,"…

Parents play an important role in influencing adolescent health behaviors and parenting practices may be an important pathway through which social disadvantage influences adolescent health behaviors that can persist into adulthood. This analysis uses the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine how parenting practices mediate…