The impact of aggregate positive lifestyle behaviors on low back pain resilience and care seeking.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Low back pain (LBP) is a global issue, and the high associated costs are mainly attributed to a small proportion of people with LBP who seek care. Importantly, the impact of aggregate positive lifestyle behaviors on LBP resilience and care seeking is not known. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between positive lifestyle behaviors and LBP resilience. STUDY DESIGN: This study was a prospective longitudinal cohort study. PATIENT SAMPLE: Data was collected as part of the AUstralian Twin BACK Study (AUTBACK). Participants who reported a lifetime previous history of LBP at baseline were included in this analysis (n = 340). OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcomes of interest were the number of weeks without activity limiting LBP and total number of days of healthcare usage, health practitioner care, self-management care, and medication intake. METHODS: A lifestyle behavior score was built using variables of body mass index (BMI), physical activity, smoking status, and sleep quality. Negative binomial regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between the positive lifestyle behavior score and the count outcomes of number of weeks without activity limiting LBP and number of days participants used care. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, no association was found between participants' positive lifestyle behavior score and their number of weeks without activity limiting LBP (IRR: 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between higher positive lifestyle behavior scores and fewer number of days of participants' total healthcare usage (IRR:0.69, 95% CI 0.56-0.84), healthcare practitioner visits (IRR:0.62, 95% CI 0.45-0.84), use of self-management strategies (IRR:0.74, 95% CI 0.60-0.91), and use of pain medication (IRR:0.55, 95% CI 0.44-0.68). CONCLUSION: People who adopt optimal lifestyle behaviors, such as engaging in adequate physical activity, achieving optimal quality sleep, maintaining an ideal BMI, and not smoking, may not experience less time suffering from activity limiting LBP, but are less likely to use healthcare and pain medication for their LBP.

A rapid review examining purchasing changes resulting from fiscal measures targeted at high sugar foods and sugar-sweetened drinks.

To aim of the review was to examine the most recent (2010 onwards) research evidence on the health and behavioural impacts, in adults and children, of fiscal strategies that target high sugar foods and sugar-sweetened drinks (SSDs). A pragmatic rapid review was undertaken using a systematic search strategy. The review was part of a programme of work to support policy development in relation to high sugar food and SSDs. A total of 11 primary research publications were included, describing evidence from France (n = 1), the Netherlands (n = 3), and the United States of America (n = 7), assessed through a variety of study designs, with the majority in adult populations (n = 10). The evidence reviewed focused on consumer behaviour outcomes and suggested that fiscal strategies can influence purchases of high sugar products. Although the majority of studies (n = 10), including three field studies, demonstrated that an increase in the price of high sugar foods and SSDs resulted in a decrease in purchases, eight studies were conducted in a laboratory or virtual setting which may not reflect real-life situations.Findings from this review support evidence from the broader literature that suggests that fiscal measures can be effective in influencing the purchasing of high sugar foods and SSDs.

Socioeconomic and demographic drivers of red and processed meat consumption: implications for health and environmental sustainability.

Red and processed meat (RPM) intake varies widely globally. In some high-income countries (HIC) the last decade has witnessed an overall decline or stabilisation in the consumption of RPM, in contrast to emerging economies where its consumption continues to increase with rising income and rapid urbanisation. The production and consumption of RPM have become major concerns regarding the environmental impacts of livestock in particular, but also because of associations between high RPM consumption and diet-related non-communicable disease. Therefore, it is important to identify socioeconomic and demographic drivers of the consumption of RPM. This paper explores how consumption of RPM differs with age, gender, socioeconomic status and in different global contexts. There are some key socioeconomic and demographic patterns in RPM consumption. Men tend to consume RPM more often and in higher quantities, and there is evidence of a social gradient in HIC, with lower socioeconomic groups consuming RPM more often and in larger quantities. Patterns for consumption with age are less clear cut. It is apparent that consumers in HIC are still consuming high levels of RPM, although the downward shifts in some socioeconomic and demographic groups is encouraging and suggests that strategies could be developed to engage those consumers identified as high RPM consumers. In low- and middle-income countries, RPM consumption is rising, especially in China and Brazil, and in urban areas. Ways of encouraging populations to maintain their traditional healthy eating patterns need to be found in low- and middle-income countries, which will have health, environmental and economic co-benefits.