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Each year in the United States, nontyphoidal Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter cause >2 million estimated foodborne illnesses, 31,000 hospitalizations, and 700 deaths (1), representing an estimated [...]

Objective: Energy drinks are consumed for a variety of reasons, including to boost mental alertness and energy. We assessed associations between demographic factors and various high-risky behaviours with energy drink consumption as they may be linked to adverse health events.Design: We conducted cross-sectional analysis including basic descriptive and multivariable adjusted logistic regression analyses to characterize demographic and behavioural factors (including diet quality, binge drinking, and illicit drug use, among others obtained via questionnaires) in relation to energy drink consumption.Setting: We used data from two large United States-based cohorts.Participants: 46,390 participants from Nurses' Health Study 3 (NHS3, n=37,302; ages 16-31) and Growing Up Today Study (GUTS, n=9088, ages 20-55).Results: Of the 46,390 participants, 13.2% reported consuming ≥1 energy drink every month. Several risky behaviours were associated with energy drink use, including illegal drug use (pOR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.16, 1.81), marijuana use (pOR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.28, 1.73), smoking (pOR: 1.88. 95% CI: 1.55, 2.29), tanning bed use (pOR: 2.31, 95% CI: 1.96, 2.72), and binge drinking (pOR: 2.53, 95% CI: 2.09, 3.07). Other factors, such as high body mass index (BMI), e-cigarette use, and poor diet quality were found to be significantly associated with higher energy drink consumption (P values<0.001).Conclusions: Our findings show that energy drink consumption and high-risk behaviours may be related, which could potentially serve as not only as a talking point for providers to address in outreach and communications with patients, but also a warning sign for medical and other health practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the decrease in the incidence of infections caused by foodborne pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. It mentions that the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) observed reduction in infections associated with international travel and changes in exposures to foodborne pathogens due to widespread public health interventions.

Background: Dietary supplements, such as herbal or complementary nutritional products and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), are commonly used in the United States, yet national data on adverse effects are limited.Methods: We used nationally representative surveillance data from 63 emergency departments obtained from 2004 through 2013 to describe visits to U.S. emergency departments because of adverse events related to dietary supplements.Results: On the basis of 3667 cases, we estimated that 23,005 (95% confidence interval [CI], 18,611 to 27,398) emergency department visits per year were attributed to adverse events related to dietary supplements. These visits resulted in an estimated 2154 hospitalizations (95% CI, 1342 to 2967) annually. Such visits frequently involved young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 years (28.0% of visits; 95% CI, 25.1 to 30.8) and unsupervised children (21.2% of visits; 95% CI, 18.4 to 24.0). After the exclusion of unsupervised ingestion of dietary supplements by children, 65.9% (95% CI, 63.2 to 68.5) of emergency department visits for single-supplement-related adverse events involved herbal or complementary nutritional products; 31.8% (95% CI, 29.2 to 34.3) involved micronutrients. Herbal or complementary nutritional products for weight loss (25.5%; 95% CI, 23.1 to 27.9) and increased energy (10.0%; 95% CI, 8.0 to 11.9) were commonly implicated. Weight-loss or energy products caused 71.8% (95% CI, 67.6 to 76.1) of supplement-related adverse events involving palpitations, chest pain, or tachycardia, and 58.0% (95% CI, 52.2 to 63.7) involved persons 20 to 34 years of age. Among adults 65 years of age or older, choking or pill-induced dysphagia or globus caused 37.6% (95% CI, 29.1 to 46.2) of all emergency department visits for supplement-related adverse events; micronutrients were implicated in 83.1% (95% CI, 73.3 to 92.9) of these visits.Conclusions: An estimated 23,000 emergency department visits in the United States every year are attributed to adverse events related to dietary supplements. Such visits commonly involve cardiovascular manifestations from weight-loss or energy products among young adults and swallowing problems, often associated with micronutrients, among older adults. (Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]