Taxing sweetened drinks . . . and other stories

Sweet drinks taxSeattle is one of seven US cities that have implemented taxes on sweetened beverages. Sales have fallen and a complicated analysis of longitudinal data on 6000 children finds evidence of a reduction in adiposity. The primary outcome was children’s BMIp95, which is body mass index expressed as a percentage of the 95th percentile for an age and sex-matched reference population—a measure of adiposity thought to be better at capturing change than a BMI z score. Children living in the city showed a greater change in BMIp95 than those living in a nearby non-taxed comparison area (JAMA Netw Open doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.13644).Remission and recovery in psychotic disordersTwenty five year follow-up of 600 people who presented with a first episode of psychosis shows that the prognosis is highly dependent on the underlying diagnosis. The most common trajectory for patients with schizophrenic disorders was no remission and no recovery. The outlook for people…
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