Objective National concerns over food insecurity and obesity have prompted legislation seeking to further restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) purchases. The objective of this study is to provide insight on the potential impact of proposed purchase restrictions by comparing SNAP participant and income-eligible non-participants' expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods, that is, hot foods, prepared foods, alcohol, vitamins and meal supplements. Design Cross-sectional study. Bivariate analysis and multivariable regression analysis with an instrumental variables approach were employed to compare the probability of purchasing and expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods among SNAP participants and income-eligible non-participants. Setting National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey, 2012-2013. Participants 2513 households, of which 1316 were SNAP participants and 1197 were income-eligible non-participants. Results Both the share of households purchasing and household expenditures on current SNAP-restricted foods were similar among SNAP participants and income-eligible non-participants. Conclusions Results provide further empirical evidence that proposed SNAP purchase restrictions on sugar-sweetened beverages, snack foods and luxury foods are unlikely to have a meaningful effect on SNAP household food purchases.The nature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders with an onset in middle or late adulthood remains controversial. The aim of our study was to determine in patients aged 60 and older if clinically relevant subtypes based on age at onset can be distinguished, using admixture analysis, a data-driven technique. We conducted a cross-sectional study in 94 patients aged 60 and older with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Admixture analysis was used to determine if the distribution of age at onset in this cohort was consistent with one or more populations of origin and to determine cut-offs for age at onset groups, if more than one population could be identified. Results showed that admixture analysis based on age at onset demonstrated only one normally distributed population. Our results suggest that in older schizophrenia patients, early- and late-onset ages form a continuum.Objectives To examine the extent and characteristics of food and beverage (F&B) promotion in Hong Kong mass transit railway (MTR) stations in districts with different socioeconomic statuses (SES) and school density. Design All advertisements located in the eight selected MTR stations were recorded by photographs or videos, and classified into F&B and non-F&B. The percentage of F&B advertisements and unhealthy F&B being promoted, and common persuasive marketing strategies used in F&B advertisements were compared between low v. high SES districts and school zones v. non-school zones.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/VX-745.html  Setting MTR stations in Hong Kong. Participants Not applicable. Results Of the 8064 advertisements documented, 861 (10·7 %) were F&B advertisements, promoting 1860 F&B items. More than half of the these were unhealthy foods. Stations in high SES districts or school zones tend to advertise more unhealthy items (high v. low SES 55·8 v. 50·8 %, P = 0·049; school v. non-school 60·8 v. 49·3 %, P less then 0·001). More than one-third of the F&B advertisements recorded did not utilise any of those persuasive marketing techniques that were examined, and using models (13·9 %) or providing discounts (8·8 %) were the two most frequently used non-festival-related persuasive marketing strategies. Conclusions Unhealthy F&B advertising in MTR stations is prevalent regardless of SES and school density, and persuasive marketing strategies were infrequently used. These suggest that a ban on unhealthy F&B advertising around schools or the use of persuasive marketing strategies alone would be ineffective in Hong Kong. To align with the recommendation from WHO, a universal ban of junk food advertising should be enacted.Researchers agree that early literacy activities, like book sharing and parent-child play, are important for stimulating language development. We hypothesize that book sharing is most powerful because it elicits more interactive talk in young children than other activities. Parents of 43 infants (9-18 months) made two daylong audio recordings using the LENA system. We compared a typical day, with spontaneous occurring activities, with an instructed day when caregivers were prompted to do book reading and toy play. Book sharing resulted in a combination of more parent talk, child talk, and interactions than other language activities. Research context did not influence outcomes no differences were found in language use between the spontaneous and the instructed activities. Overall it seems clear that even with infants shared reading is a strong unique stimulator of language use from parent and child.Objectives The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) provides timely, reliable, and affordable access to necessary medicines for Australians. We reviewed the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) submissions and their related outcomes and timelines since 2010. Methods We examined the PBS Website to identify submissions and their related PBAC outcomes for new medicines, new indications, and new combination products that had been considered by the PBAC since 2010. Results Thirty-five PBAC meetings were held during the study period, at which the Committee considered 781 submissions (1,074 medicine/patient population pairings). We saw an increase in the annual number of submissions (medicine/patient population parings). The recommendation rate for the study period was higher than the rejection rate. The annual mean value for the period from the date of initial PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing ranged from 357 to 644 days; the annual mean value for the period of the date of PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing ranged from 187 to 245 days. It took, on average, 1.70 submissions that included an economic evaluation to obtain a PBAC recommendation. It took more submissions to obtain a PBAC recommendation for a cost-effectiveness analysis submission than it did for a CMA submission. The PBAC was willing to recommend medicines for most acceptable base-case incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) bands, and the majority of the PBAC did not recommended any medicine in the study period that had a base-case ICER >AUD75,000. Conclusions The results of our analyses reveal a minor reduction in the period from the date of PBAC recommendation to the date of PBS listing. Several analyses were hampered by a high proportion of missing data.