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Information on how promptly food recalls of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-regulated products are disseminated to retailers is not well documented. Store managers were surveyed after recalls were declared to estimate the proportion aware of a recall, to describe the methods by which they learned of the recall, and to ascertain how they would prefer to be notified of recalls in the future. From 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009, we identified FDA Class I products recalled because of potential contamination with an infectious agent such as Salmonella, which were sold in New York City. After each recall, a sample of retailers who carried the products was contacted, a standardized questionnaire was administered to store managers, and a sample of stores was inspected to determine if the product had been removed. Among nine recalls evaluated, 85 % (range, 12 to 100 % ) of managers were aware of the recall affecting a product at their store. Chain store managers were more aware of recalls than were independent store managers (93 versus 78%, P < 0.0001). More chain store managers first heard about the recall via e-mail as compared with independent store managers (35 versus 4%, P < 0.0001). E-mail notification was preferred by large chain store managers (38 versus 8%, P < 0.0001); on inspection, chain stores were more likely to have removed the item than were independent stores (85 versus 56%, P = 0.0071). Although recall information reaches many stores, faster electronic notifications are not effective at reaching small, independent stores, which may lack computers or fax machines. Alternate means to disseminate recall notifications rapidly are needed for stores without electronic communication capabilities.

Objectives: This article examines how processes of cumulative adversity shape heart attack risk trajectories across the life course., Methods: Our sample includes 9,760 Health and Retirement Study respondents born between 1931 and 1941. Using self-reported retrospective measures of respondents' early background, we first identify three latent classes with differential exposure to childhood disadvantage. Intervening covariates associated with educational attainment, employment status, income attainment, marital history, and health behaviors are added to capture sequential processes of adversity. Final latent-class cluster models estimate the cumulative impact of these covariates on three different heart attack risk trajectories between 1992 and 2002: high, increasing, and low., Results: Early disadvantage and childhood illness have severe enduring effects and increase the risk for heart attack. Adult pathways, however, differentially influence trajectories of heart attack risk and mediate the effects of early disadvantage., Discussion: Findings suggest that future research should consider how processes of cumulative adversity initiated in childhood influence health outcomes in older ages.

This paper tests predictions of continuity and change in antisocial behavior over time as derived from population heterogeneity and life-course perspectives. These predictions are assessed with respect to a rarely studied form of delinquent/criminal behavior, cocaine use during the late-teenage and young adult years. We first examine the extent to which differential propensities toward antisocial behavior can be detected in a nationally representative sample of youth aged 14-16 in 1979. Based on self-reported delinquent and criminal activities in late adolescense, traditional cross-sectional latent-class analysis identifies three groups of antisocial/rebellious respondents and a group of non-offenders. We then follow these groups into early adulthood, examining age trajectories of cocaine usage between 1984 and 1998. Latent-class trajectory models identify clusters of respondents who show similar age trajectories of cocaine use over time and provide parameter estimates that predict membership in those clusters. In support of the population heterogeneity perspective, we find that antisocial/rebellious youth have higher probabilities of cocaine use throughout early adulthood than non-of-fending youth. There is, however, much variation in drug use patterns among the groups as they aged. In support of a life-course perspective, we find that social ties to schools, families, religion, and the labor market help differentiate youth who refrain from, maintain, or desist from using cocaine through early adulthood.

Objectives: We examine age differences in adults' participation in, perceived barriers to, and institutional support for educational activities provided by schools, businesses, and community organizations in the 1990s., Methods: We conduct descriptive and logistic regression analyses on a sample of respondents aged 30 to 74 from the National Household Education Surveys., Results: Adult education participation rates increased for all ages over the 1990s, but gains were proportionately largest among people in later phases of the life course. Although age was a weaker predictor of engaging in educational activities at the end of the 1990s than it was at the beginning of the decade, older adults continue to be less likely than younger ones to participate in education and training provided by businesses and schools. Some of this age discrepancy occurs because employers are more likely to provide financial support for training to younger employees. Older adults, however, are less likely than younger adults to perceive obstacles to their participation in education and training., Discussion: Although age-graded roles of student, worker, and retiree are becoming increasingly blurred, Americans' pursuit of education at the end of the twentieth century was still guided by age-related role expectations.