Mexico’s Improving Pork Sector Creates Positives for Imports

Personal income growth and increased urbanization have Mexican consumers putting more pork into their shopping baskets. In response to this strong demand, the Mexican hog industry has consolidated into larger and more effi cient operations and adopted improved genetics and management practices. Pork production in Mexico has increased by 23 percent between 1995 and 2005. However, this increased production has not kept pace with demand, so imports have surged to supply the shortfall. In 2005, Mexico imported 201,795 metric tons of U.S. pork, 118,140 metric tons of U.S. pork variety meats, and more than 122,000 live U.S. slaughter hogs

The Changing Structure of Pork Trade, Production, and Processing in Mexico

The structure of the pork production, slaughter, and processing sectors in Mexico has changed significantly since implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and with rising income and increased urbanization. Today, Mexico\u27s pork industry has become more integrated and achieved greater production efficiencies in response to increasing demand for better product quality and stricter sanitary practices in production and processing pork for both the domestic market and for export. However, despite these improvements Mexico\u27s pork industry has not kept up with the rising domestic demand, and Mexico has become an increasingly important market for the United States. A key to the development of increased trade in both live animals and pork is growth of federally inspected or Tipo Inspección Federal (TIF) plant production, as well as development of marketing channels and product promotion that support high-quality consumer meat products

Mexico\u27s Changing Pork Industry: The Forces of Domestic and International Market Demand

Once dominated by traditional and small-scale production systems with little regulation, Mexico\u27s pork industry now includes modern, vertically integrated production systems and federal inspection of packing and processing plants. Recent structural changes have resulted in three distinct segments within the production and processing sectors as the industry works to adjust to international and domestic demand for better product quality, stricter sanitary practices, and increased supplies yet continue to meet the needs of low-income consumers. As the structural changes continue, the industry faces several challenges that will affect its ability to become both internationally and domestically competitive. To meet these challenges, the Mexican government is faced with decisions about implementing and enforcing regulations and providing incentives to encourage continued development and best serve domestic consumers

All together now: findings from a PCORI workshop to align patient-reported outcomes in the electronic health record

In recent years, patient-reported outcomes have become increasingly collected and integrated into electronic health records. However, there are few cross-cutting recommendations and limited guidance available in this rapidly developing research area. Our goal is to report key findings from a 2013 Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute workshop on this topic and a summary of actions that followed from the workshop, and present resulting recommendations that address patient, clinical and research/quality improvement barriers to regular use. These findings provide actionable guidance across research and practice settings to promote and sustain widespread adoption of patient-reported outcomes across patient populations, healthcare settings and electronic health record systems

Sleep quality in individuals diagnosed with colorectal cancer: Factors associated with sleep disturbance as patients transition off treatment

To identify patient characteristics associated with sleep disturbance and worsening of sleep in individuals diagnosed with localized colorectal cancer and assess heterogeneity in these relationships. Methods: Data were from the MY-Health study, a community-based observational study of adults diagnosed with cancer. Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® Sleep Disturbance, Anxiety, Depression, Fatigue, and Pain Interference measures were administered. Participants self-reported demographics, comorbidities, and treatment information. Regression mixture and multiple regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between sleep disturbance and patient characteristics cross-sectionally at an average of 10 months after diagnosis (n = 613) as well as change in sleep disturbance over a 6-month period (n = 361). Results: Pain, anxiety, fatigue, and the existence of multiple comorbid conditions had statistically significant relationships with sleep disturbance (B = 0.09, 0.22, 0.29, and 1.53, respectively; P < 0.05). Retirement (B = -2.49) was associated with sleep quality in the cross-sectional model. Worsening anxiety (B = 0.14) and fatigue (B = 0.20) were associated with worsening sleep disturbance, and more severe sleep disturbance 10 months after diagnosis (B = -0.21) was associated with improvement in sleep quality after diagnosis (P < 0.05). No evidence of latent subgroups of patients (heterogeneity) was present. Conclusions: Pain, anxiety, fatigue, employment, and comorbid conditions were associated with sleep disturbance, but regression coefficients were small (< |2.5|). Results suggest that screening for anxiety, depression, fatigue, or pain is not sufficient for identifying sleep disturbance. Given the negative consequences of sleep disturbance, sleep disturbance screening may be warranted

Relationship between sleep and exercise as colorectal cancer survivors transition off treatment

Purpose The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between exercise and sleep disturbance in a sample of individuals diagnosed with stage I, II, and III colorectal cancer (CRC) as patients transitioned off first-line treatment. We also sought to identify heterogeneity in the relationship between sleep disturbance and exercise. Methods Data were obtained from the MY-Health study, a community-based observational study of adults diagnosed with cancer. Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS) measures (e.g., PROMIS Sleep) were administered, and participants self-reported demographics, comorbidities, cancer treatment, and exercise. Regression mixture and multiple regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between sleep disturbance and exercise cross-sectionally at an average of 10 months after diagnosis, and the change in sleep disturbance over a 7-month period, from approximately 10 to 17 months post-diagnosis. Results Patients whose exercise was categorized as likely at or above American College of Sports Medicine’s guidelines did not report statistically better sleep quality compared to patients who were classified as not active. However, retirement (B = − 2.4), anxiety (B = 0.21), and fatigue (B = 0.24) had statistically significant relationships with sleep disturbance (p < 0.05). Increase in exercise was not significantly associated with a decrease in sleep disturbance. No statistical heterogeneity was revealed in the relationship between sleep and exercise. Conclusions Further prospective research using an objective measure of exercise is warranted to confirm or refute the nature of the relationship between exercise and sleep disturbance in individuals diagnosed with CRC transitioning off first-line treatment

Impact of diagnosis and treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer on health-related quality of life for older Americans: A population-based study

Few studies have measured the longitudinal change in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of prostate cancer patients starting prior to cancer diagnosis, or provide simultaneous comparisons with a matched non-cancer cohort. Our study addresses these gaps by providing unique estimates of the effects of a cancer diagnosis on HRQOL accounting for the confounding effects of ageing and comorbidity

The challenge of measuring intra-individual change in fatigue during cancer treatment

Evaluate how well three different patient-reported outcomes (PROs) measure individual change