Heavy drinking and health promotion activities

Risky behaviour and non-vaccination

Widespread vaccination acceptance is of critical import to society dealing with the continuing aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The risky behaviours that predict whether individuals vaccinate for seasonal influenza can help policymakers fashion plans to improve vaccination rates and more reliably establish herd immunity. To this end, Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) data were employed to determine how an individual’s choice to engage in various risky behaviours relates with the likelihood that the same individual gets the seasonal influenza vaccine. Controls were included for demographic, geographic, and health insurance factors. In addition to controlling for these factors, regressions were further stratified based upon gender, the presence of children in the home, and age. I found that excess sun exposure, poor oral hygiene, smoking, and unhealthy diet choices correlated with reduced vaccination probability—both over the subsequent year and for that individual’s lifetime. These results have important implications for properly targeting individuals for widespread vaccinations.

Gender-moderated links between urgency, binge drinking, and excessive exercise

OBJECTIVE

Exercise correlates with alcohol use, but the nature of this relation and the extent to which it is maladaptive remains unclear. Urgency and motives for engaging in drinking and exercise might indicate when these behaviors are problematic. The current study examined whether urgency moderated the association between exercise motivated by weight loss and drinking.

PARTICIPANTS

College students (N = 589, 45.7% male) completed the study during the spring of 2012.

METHODS

Participants completed self-report assessment measures, including frequency/quantity of alcohol consumption, exercise for weight loss, and urgency, during a single session.

RESULTS

Negative urgency moderated the relation between exercise and alcohol consumption in men but not women; the link between excessive exercise and alcohol use was stronger for men with higher levels of urgency.

CONCLUSIONS

Further clarification of the mechanisms underlying alcohol use and physical activity-particularly maladaptive approaches to exercise-will inform health interventions among college students.

Do people taking flu vaccines need them the most?

Background

A well targeted flu vaccine strategy can ensure that vaccines go to those who are at the highest risk of getting infected if unvaccinated. However, prior research has not explicitly examined the association between the risk of flu infection and vaccination rates.

Purpose

This study examines the relationship between the risk of flu infection and the probability of getting vaccinated.

Methods

Nationally representative data from the US and multivariate regression models were used to estimate what individual characteristics are associated with (1) the risk of flu infection when unvaccinated and (2) flu vaccination rates. These results were used to estimate the correlation between the probability of infection and the probability of getting vaccinated. Separate analyses were performed for the general population and the high priority population that is at increased risk of flu related complications.

Results

We find that the high priority population was more likely to get vaccinated compared to the general population. However, within both the high priority and general populations the risk of flu infection when unvaccinated was negatively correlated with vaccination rates (r = −0.067, p<0.01). This negative association between the risk of infection when unvaccinated and the probability of vaccination was stronger for the high priority population (r = −0.361, p<0.01).

Conclusions

There is a poor match between those who get flu vaccines and those who have a high risk of flu infection within both the high priority and general populations. Targeting vaccination to people with low socioeconomic status, people who are engaged in unhealthy behaviors, working people, and families with kids will likely improve effectiveness of flu vaccine policy.