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Alcohol consumption is common on college campuses and is associated with negative consequences. Factors associated with availability of alcohol are not completely understood.To describe how proximity and density of alcohol outlets are associated with any drinking and binge drinking in students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Participants were full-time students enrolled in the Young Adults Eating and Active for Health, a multisite, randomized intervention that assessed a variety of health behaviors. Geographic information systems were used to calculate proximity and enumerate alcohol outlet densities. Participants were categorized as "drinkers" or "nondrinkers" based on self-reported alcohol consumption. Binge drinking was categorized as "non-binge drinker," "frequent binge drinker," and "excessive binge drinker." Analysis included regression, t tests, and chi-square tests. RESULTS. Among the 166 participants, 126 (76%) were drinkers. Among drinkers, 80 (63%) were either frequent or excessive binge drinkers. Drinkers lived closer to an alcohol outlet than non-drinkers (0.18 +/- 0.15 vs. 0.61 +/- 1.59 miles, respectively, P=0.005). Within a 1-mile walking radius, there were 47% more establishments for drinkers (153 +/- 47 compared to 104 +/- 55 outlets for nondrinkers, P0.0001). At distances of 0.10-0.25 and 0.25-0.50 miles, twice as many outlets were available to drinkers (19 +/- 19 and 43 +/- 25, respectively) compared to nondrinkers (7 +/- 11 and 20 +/- 22, respectively), P0.001. Proximity and density were hot associated with binge drinking frequency.Drinkers lived closer to alcohol outlets and had significantly more outlets available at a distance of up to 1 mile. Municipal and college administrators could consider limiting alcohol license distributions in municipalities with high alcohol consumption.

OBJECTIVE. We recently reported that 60% of children newly diagnosed with cystic fibrosis who had pancreatic insufficiency responded to treatment initiation and achieved catch-up weight gain to a level comparable with their birth weight z score within 2 years of diagnosis (“responders”), whereas the remaining 40% failed to do so (“nonresponders”). The present study examined the impact of this early weight recovery on subsequent growth pattern and pulmonary status at 6 years of age.PATIENTS AND METHODS. Sixty-three children with cystic fibrosis who had pancreatic insufficiency but no meconium ileus, and were enrolled in the Wisconsin Cystic Fibrosis Neonatal Screening Project, were studied. Responders were defined by a recovery of weight z score comparable with that at birth within 2 years of diagnosis. From ages 2 to 6, growth was measured by both height and BMI. Pulmonary status was evaluated by symptoms, spirometry, quantitative chest radiography, and respiratory microbiology.RESULTS. The majority (71%) of the responders maintained their early weight recovery through 6 years of age, whereas only 32% of the nonresponders achieved substantial growth improvement from 2 to 6 years of age. Proportionately fewer responders reported cough symptoms (10% daytime cough; 22% nighttime cough) compared with nonresponders (41% daytime cough; 45% nighttime cough) at age 6. The percentage of predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second at age 6 was 11% higher in responders (99.5% ± 13.9%) compared with nonresponders (88.3% ± 18.5%). Responders had significantly better Brasfield (20.1 ± 1.4) and Wisconsin chest radiograph (8.3 ± 3.3) scores compared with nonresponders (Brasfield: 18.9 ± 1.8; Wisconsin: 12.3 ± 8.3). Respiratory microbiology results were not significantly different. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the positive association between responder and percent predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 second at 6 years of age remained statistically significant after controlling for infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and chest radiograph scores. Growth patterns from 2 to 6 years of age were not associated with pulmonary measures at age 6.CONCLUSIONS. Patients with cystic fibrosis with pancreatic insufficiency who achieved early growth recovery within 2 years of diagnosis had fewer cough symptoms, higher lung function, and better chest radiograph scores at 6 years of age.

In 2005, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) revised the nutrition classification guidelines to eliminate the use of percentage of ideal body weight (%IBW) to define "nutritional failure"; the CFF also recommended that children with cystic fibrosis maintain a body mass index percentile (BMIp)or = 50th.We assessed the effect of the 2005 CFF nutrition classification guidelines on evaluating the performance of nutritional care practices.Data from 14,702 children reported to the 2002 CFF Patient Registry were analyzed to compare malnutrition rates in 113 cystic fibrosis centers in the United States. Nutritional failure was defined according to the 2002 CFF criteria--ie, height5th percentile, %IBW90%, or BMIp10th. "Below BMI goal" was defined according to the 2005 CFF criterion, ie BMIp50th.Eliminating %IBW resulted in a 6% reduction (from 33% to 27%) in the nutritional failure rate in the United States. The use of BMIp50th led to the classification of 57% of children as below the BMI goal. Misclassification of nutritional failure according to %IBW ranged from 1% to 16% among 113 centers and was greater in the centers with a larger proportion of tall patients. After the elimination of %IBW, one-third of centers changed to a different tertile ranking for nutritional failure rates (kappa = 0.50, moderate-to-poor agreement). More than half the centers changed to a different tertile ranking, from nutritional failure to below BMI goal (kappa = 0.22, poor agreement).Eliminating misclassification by %IBW and implementing the new BMI goal led to profound and unequal changes in malnutrition rates across cystic fibrosis centers.

This training award supports studies to describe associations between breast cancer risk and elements of energy balance. As part of an ongoing, population-based case-control study of breast cancer, associations between intentional weight loss at multiple time periods and risk of breast cancer were examined. Breast cancer patients were identified from statewide tumor registries in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin from 1996-1998. Similarly aged control women were randomly selected from population lists. Information on intentional weight loss and breast cancer risk factors was obtained through telephone interviews. Data were collected for 2156 cases and 2833 controls. Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). After adjustment for age, body size, number of weight loss episodes and other risk factors, reduced odds of breast cancer were observed for intentional weight loss during the teens (>60 pounds (OR)=O.43, CI-0.l9-0.99) and forties (40-69 pounds OR=O.60, CI=O.36-l.00). Cumulative intentional weight loss (>120 pounds) was associated with a 43% reduction in risk (OR=O.57, CI=O.37-O.89). Associations with cumulative weight loss were more pronounced in women who gained substantial amounts of weight. These results suggest that large amounts of intentional weight loss, independent of attained weight, may be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer.