American journal of preventive medicine
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Cigarette smoking remains the most important preventable cause of death in the United States, and the burden is especially great for African Americans. A promising approach to better understanding smoking behavior involves the application of a stages-of-change model. The purpose of this study was to analyze the smoking behavior of a population-based sample of African Americans in two rural southern counties using this model. ⋯ This study provides support for applying a stages-of-change model to African Americans who smoke. Many of the predictors of the stage of change are the same as those found in other populations. In addition, finding an association between stages and both physician visits and believing stopping smoking can improve health has important implications for providing smoking cessation services in health care settings.
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To describe the clinical causes of fetal death in black women, we performed a record review of the primary causes of fetal deaths (n = 315, > or = 500 g or > or = 24 weeks' gestation) occurring over an 11-year period in a population of 26,852 black women who delivered at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, University of Chicago Hospitals, Chicago, IL. The over-all fetal death rate (FDR) per 1,000 total births was 11.7, consistent with U. S. vital statistics data for blacks. ⋯ Furthermore, hypertension in pregnancy accounted for 15% of the excess fetal mortality in our population of urban black women as compared to the population of Canadian white women. Health care providers should be aware of the risk of fetal death in hypertensive, innercity, U. S. black women.
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Comparative Study
The validity of self-reported hypertension and correlates of hypertension awareness among blacks and whites within the stroke belt.
Hypertension surveillance activities increasingly are relying on information obtained by self-report. However, limited information is available concerning the validity of such data, especially among populations residing within the stroke belt. We used interview information and blood pressure measurements from the South Carolina Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Project to determine the validity of self-reported hypertension and the correlates of hypertension awareness among 2,210 whites and 704 blacks who participated in the program in 1987. ⋯ Among hypertensive blacks, overweight persons were substantially more likely than nonoverweight persons to be aware of their hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 4.6, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.9, 10.7 in black women and OR = 4.4, 95% CI = 1.0, 17.9 in black men). The validity of self-reported hypertension was relatively high in all race-sex groups. There is a need to increase hypertension awareness among hypertensive blacks who are not overweight.