OBJECTIVE Whether the increase in prescription medication use over time differs by age and obesity status is unclear. METHOD National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1988 and 2012 was analyzed (n = 57,543). FINDINGS Increased medication use over time was seen in older individuals of all body mass index (BMI) classes, with the most prominent increase in those with ob...

The combined use of opioid and benzodiazepine medications increases the risk of hazardous effects, such as respiratory depression. Although recent increases in outpatient use of opioid prescriptions have been documented, there are limited data regarding rates and correlates of combined opioid and benzodiazepines among adults in outpatient settings. Our objective was to examine annual trends in ...

We examine the education gradient in diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. We take into account diagnosed as well as undiagnosed cases, and use methods accounting for the possibility of unmeasured factors that are correlated with education and drive both the likelihood of having illness and the propensity to be diagnosed. Data come from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surv...

BACKGROUND This study compares differences in quality-adjusted life expectancy across the eight original National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) industry sectors. METHODS Data from the 1997 to 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were used to estimate quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for all workers and by NORA sector. Differences in QALYs were calculated and translated into e...

Nearly 40 million persons in the United States have a disability, as defined by responses to six questions recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the national standard for identifying disabilities in population-based health surveys (1). Although these questions have been used to estimate prevalence of functional disabilities overall, as well as types of functional di...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the prevalence of dietary supplement (DS) use in American adolescents. We conducted this study to analyze the prevalence of DS use and factors associated with this use in a national population-based sample. METHODS We used data from the 1999 - 2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) for adolescents age 11 to 19. Using weighted logistic ...

The present data article describes high-school drop-out related web activities in Canada, from 2004 to 2012, obtained mining Google Trends (GT), using high-school drop-out as key-word. The searches volumes were processed, correlated and cross-correlated with statistical data obtained at national and province level and broken down for gender. Further, an autoregressive moving-average (ARMA) mode...

BACKGROUND Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) prevalence in the United States decreased approximately 60% in the three decades between the 1971-1972 and 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) surveys. We examined the effects of birth cohort on LTBI prevalence over time. METHODS Using weighted data analysis software to account for NHANES survey design, we calcula...

The Varicella (chickenpox) Active Surveillance Project (VASP) has been conducting active surveillance since 1 January 1995 in the high desert community known as Antelope Valley, CA (population 300,000) among 300 public and private schools, daycares, and healthcare providers. Capture-recapture methods were applied to estimate reporting completeness for 1995 varicella incidence data and these wer...

BACKGROUND Previous research suggests that certain populations, including rural residents, exhibit health care avoidant behaviors more frequently than other groups. Additionally, health care avoidance is related to sociodemographics, attitudes, social expectations, ability to pay for care, and prior experiences with providers. However, previous studies have been limited to specific geographic a...