Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialHealthy Start: a comprehensive health education program for preschool children.
Healthy Start is a 3-year demonstration and education research project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidimensional cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction intervention in preschool centers over a 3-year period of time. ⋯ While substantial efforts have targeted CV risk reduction and health education for elementary school children, similar efforts aimed at preschool children have been lacking. The rationale for beginning CV risk reduction programs for preschool children is based upon the premise that risk factors for heart disease are prevalent by 3 years of age and tend to track over time, most commonly hypercholesterolemia and obesity, both related to nutrition. Since the behavioral antecedents for nutritional risk factors begin to be established very early in life, it is important to develop and evaluate new educational initiatives such as Healthy Start, aimed at the primary prevention of cardiovascular risk factors in preschool children. The purpose of this publication is to describe the rationale and methods for the Healthy Start project.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
ReviewA critical period of brain development: studies of cerebral glucose utilization with PET.
Studies with positron emission tomography indicate that the human brain undergoes a period of postnatal maturation that is much more protracted than previously suspected. In the newborn, the highest degree of glucose metabolism (representative of functional activity) is in primary sensory and motor cortex, cingulate cortex, thalamus, brain stem, cerebellar vermis, and hippocampal region. At 2 to 3 months of age, glucose utilization increases in the parietal, temporal, and primary visual cortex; basal ganglia; and cerebellar hemispheres. ⋯ Initially, there is a rise in the rates of glucose utilization from birth until about age 4 years, at which time the child's cerebral cortex uses over twice as much glucose as that of adults. From age 4 to 10 years, these very high rates of glucose consumption are maintained, and only after then is there a gradual decline of glucose metabolic rates to reach adult values by age 16-18 years. Correlations between glucose utilization rates and synaptogenesis are discussed, and the argument is made that these findings have important implications with respect to human brain plasticity following injury as well as to "critical periods" of maximal learning capacity.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
Mother's knowledge of, attitudes toward, and management of fever in preschool children in Italy.
We examined mothers' knowledge of, attitudes toward, and management of fever in their children. ⋯ These findings suggest that informing mothers on the definition, consequences, and treatment of fever can significantly improve their confidence in managing fever, as reflected by fewer requests for physicians' visits.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
Predictors of state legislators' intentions to vote for cigarette tax increases.
This study analyzed influences on state legislators' decisions about cigarette tax increase votes using a research strategy based on political science and social-psychological models. ⋯ Legislators' votes on cigarette tax increases may be influenced by their perceptions of positive and negative outcomes of a cigarette tax increase and by perceived constituent pressures. This research model provides useful insights for theory and practice and should be refined in future tobacco control research.
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Preventive medicine · Mar 1998
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialTransdermal nicotine replacement for hospitalized patients: a randomized clinical trial.
This study was undertaken to assess the safety and efficacy of a treatment involving brief counseling and the nicotine patch among hospital inpatients and to identify variables associated with long-term smoking cessation following hospitalization. ⋯ The initiation of nicotine patch therapy during hospitalization appears to be safe when used among patients carrying a wide range of diagnoses. Our study provided no evidence of the superiority of nicotine patches versus placebo, but this does not preclude the possibility that future research using larger samples might detect differences between patch groups. Hospital interventions for smoking cessation may be most effective among patients hospitalized for a smoking-related illness such as respiratory disease.