Perspectives of peripartum people on opportunities for personal and collective action to reduce exposure to everyday chemicals: Focus groups to inform exposure report-back.

Participants in biomonitoring studies who receive personal exposure reports seek information to reduce exposures. Many chemical exposures are driven by systems-level policies rather than individual actions; therefore, change requires engagement in collective action. Participants' perceptions of collective action and use of report-back to support engagement remain unclear. We conducted virtual focus groups during summer 2020 in a diverse group of peripartum people from cohorts in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program (N = 18). We assessed baseline exposure and collective action experience, and report-back preferences. Participants were motivated to protect the health of their families and communities despite significant time and cognitive burdens. They requested time-conscious tactics and accessible information to enable action to reduce individual and collective exposures. Participant input informed the design of digital report-back in the cohorts. This study highlights opportunities to shift responsibility from individuals to policymakers to reduce chemical exposures at the systems level.

Counseling patients on preventing prenatal environmental exposures--a mixed-methods study of obstetricians.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of U.S. obstetricians on the topic of prenatal environmental exposures. STUDY DESIGN: A national online survey of American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) fellows and 3 focus groups of obstetricians. RESULTS: We received 2,514 eligible survey responses, for a response rate of 14%. The majority (78%) of obstetricians agreed that they can reduce patient exposures to environmental health hazards by counseling patients; but 50% reported that they rarely take an environmental health history; less than 20% reported routinely asking about environmental exposures commonly found in pregnant women in the U.S.; and only 1 in 15 reported any training on the topic. Barriers to counseling included: a lack of knowledge of and uncertainty about the evidence; concerns that patients lack the capacity to reduce harmful exposures; and fear of causing anxiety among patients. CONCLUSION: U.S. obstetricians in our study recognized the potential impact of the environment on reproductive health, and the role that physicians could play in prevention, but reported numerous barriers to counseling patients. Medical education and training, evidence-based guidelines, and tools for communicating risks to patients are needed to support the clinical role in preventing environmental exposures that threaten patient health.

Tobacco and the movie industry.

Despite the tobacco industry's voluntary restrictions and its agreement with the state attorneys general prohibiting direct and indirect cigarette marketing to youth and paid product placement, tobacco use remains prevalent in movies. Extensive research provides strong and consistent evidence that smoking in the movies promotes smoking. This article summarizes the evidence on the nature and effect of smoking in the movies on adolescents (and others) and proposes several solutions to reduce adolescent exposure to movie smoking and subsequent smoking.

Smoking in the movies increases adolescent smoking: a review.

OBJECTIVE: Despite voluntary restrictions prohibiting direct and indirect cigarette marketing to youth and paid product placement, tobacco use remains prevalent in movies. This article presents a systematic review of the evidence on the nature and effect of smoking in the movies on adolescents (and others). METHODOLOGY: We performed a comprehensive literature review. RESULTS: We identified 40 studies. Smoking in the movies decreased from 1950 to approximately 1990 and then increased rapidly. In 2002, smoking in movies was as common as it was in 1950. Movies rarely depict the negative health outcomes associated with smoking and contribute to increased perceptions of smoking prevalence and the benefits of smoking. Movie smoking is presented as adult behavior. Exposure to movie smoking makes viewers' attitudes and beliefs about smoking and smokers more favorable and has a dose-response relationship with adolescent smoking behavior. Parental restrictions on R-rated movies significantly reduces youth exposure to movie smoking and subsequent smoking uptake. Beginning in 2002, the total amount of smoking in movies was greater in youth-rated (G/PG/PG-13) films than adult-rated (R) films, significantly increasing adolescent exposure to movie smoking. Viewing antismoking advertisements before viewing movie smoking seems to blunt the stimulating effects of movie smoking on adolescent smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Strong empirical evidence indicates that smoking in movies increases adolescent smoking initiation. Amending the movie-rating system to rate movies containing smoking as "R" should reduce adolescent exposure to smoking and subsequent smoking.

Disaster at a distance: impact of 9.11.01 televised news coverage on mothers' and children's health.

Families enrolled in a research program examining children's health behaviors and media habits before September 11, 2001 were analyzed to assess the impact of media coverage of the terrorist attacks on children's and mothers' stress levels, coping strategies, and health behaviors. After the attacks, 68% of mothers and 38% of children reported experiencing one or more symptoms of distress. These results indicate that children were more susceptible to experiencing distress symptoms if their families had preexisting relational difficulties and increased television viewing during the days after the attacks. Implications for research and preventive clinical interventions are discussed.

Interactive data collection: benefits of integrating new media into pediatric research.

Despite the prevalence of children's computerized games for recreational and educational purposes, the use of interactive technology to obtain pediatric research data remains underexplored. This article describes the development of laptop interactive data collection (IDC) software for a children's health intervention study. The IDC integrates computer technology, children's developmental needs, and quantitative research methods that are engaging for school-age children as well as reliable and efficient for the pediatric health researcher. Using this methodology, researchers can address common problems such as maintaining a child's attention throughout an assessment session while potentially increasing their response rate and reducing missing data rates. The IDC also promises to produce more reliable data by eliminating the need for manual double entry of data and reducing much of the time and costs associated with data cleaning and management. Development and design considerations and recommendations for further use are discussed.