Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jan 1997
Multicenter Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialA trial of church-based smoking cessation interventions for rural African Americans.
The Alliance of Black Churches Health Project was begun in an effort to address the health problems of the African-American residents of two rural Virginia counties. Smoking cessation was chosen as the principal target behavior in one county. Church coalitions were chosen as the principal organizations through which to implement the interventions. ⋯ Smoking cessation interventions for African Americans can be successfully implemented through a church coalition. The interventions were associated with significant progress along the stages of cessation. Although the quit rate was higher in the intervention community, the difference was not significant.
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Preventive medicine · Jul 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialTobacco use measurement, prediction, and intervention in elementary schools in four states: the CATCH Study.
The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) is a multistate field trial examining the effects of school environment, classroom curricula, and family intervention components in promoting the cardiovascular health of elementary school students. The purpose of this paper is to describe the CATCH tobacco use intervention and measurement, including the adoption of tobacco-free school policies. ⋯ Future studies should examine the impact of parallel policy interventions that are ongoing at both school and state levels. Tobacco-free policies appear to be a crucial part of school-based interventions and must be tailored to political and regional factors affecting a given school district.
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Preventive medicine · May 1996
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialThe effectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (project DARE): 5-year follow-up results.
This article reports the results of a 5-year, longitudinal evaluation of the effectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), a school-based primary drug prevention curriculum designed for introduction during the last year of elementary education. DARE is the most widely disseminated school-based prevention curriculum in the United States. ⋯ The findings of this 5-year prospective study are largely consonant with the results obtained from prior short-term evaluations of the DARE curriculum, which have reported limited effects of the program upon drug use, greater efficacy with respect to attitudes, social skills, and knowledge, but a general tendency for curriculum effects to decay over time. The results of this study underscore the need for more robust prevention programming targeted specifically at risk factors, the inclusion of booster sessions to sustain positive effects, and greater attention to interrelationships between developmental processes in adolescent substance use, individual level characteristics, and social context.
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A study of system delay, the time between the initial medical consultation and the establishment of a diagnosis, in breast cancer patients revealed that almost 40% of women reported delays of at least 4 weeks. The objective of this study was to explore the reasons for these prolonged intervals between initial medical consultation and establishment of a diagnosis. ⋯ This study looked at the issue of how the behaviors of women and their providers contribute to the timing of breast cancer diagnosis. It is one of the only studies to examine the woman's role in delay. It is clear from this study that additional work is needed to look at this question. However, the results of this study suggest that efforts must be made to reduce the time needed to get an appointment with a physician or a diagnostic test, as well as to educate physicians and the women themselves regarding the importance of breast symptoms and the value of prompt evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment.
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Preventive medicine · May 1995
Multicenter StudyDietary saturated and trans fatty acids and cholesterol and 25-year mortality from coronary heart disease: the Seven Countries Study.
In the Seven Countries Study associations between intake of individual fatty acids and dietary cholesterol were studied in relation to serum cholesterol and 25-year mortality from coronary heart disease. All analyses concern only intercohort comparisons. ⋯ Interpreted in the light of experimental and clinical studies, the results of these cross-cultural analyses suggest that dietary saturated and trans fatty acids and dietary cholesterol are important determinants of differences in population rates of coronary heart disease death.