American journal of preventive medicine
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Because the presence and improper storage of household firearms are risk factors for injury, it is important to understand the prevalence of ownership and storage practices within households to help guide intervention development. This systematic review of published articles (1992 to 2002) provides prevalence estimates of firearm ownership and storage practices in U.S. households. ⋯ Although the methodologic rigor of published articles varies substantially, the literature clearly establishes that firearms are common in U.S. households, even in the homes of medical professionals and those with children.
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Obesity is a major health problem in the United States and around the world. To date, relationships between obesity and aspects of the built environment have not been evaluated empirically at the individual level. ⋯ Measures of the built environment and travel patterns are important predictors of obesity across gender and ethnicity, yet relationships among the built environment, travel patterns, and weight may vary across gender and ethnicity. Strategies to increase land-use mix and distance walked while reducing time in a car can be effective as health interventions.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Body and soul. A dietary intervention conducted through African-American churches.
Body and Soul was a collaborative effort among two research universities, a national voluntary agency (American Cancer Society), and the National Institutes of Health to disseminate and evaluate under real-world conditions the impact of previously developed dietary interventions for African Americans. ⋯ The results suggest that research-based interventions, delivered collaboratively by community volunteers and a health-related voluntary agency, can be effectively implemented under real-world conditions.
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Although incidence of cancer is increasing among Asian-American and Pacific-Islander (AAPI) women, their low cancer screening rates are inadequately addressed. Furthermore, the traditional approach of studying the diverse AAPI nationalities as one group hides important intra- and inter-group ethnic differences in cancer screening, as well as lack of representativeness because the surveys are not administered in any AAPI language. To address these problems, this study compared cancer screening rates among particular AAPI groups and non-AAPIs living in an ethnically diverse region. ⋯ These findings support the evidence of disparities in receipt of cancer screening services among subgroups of AAPI women. Additionally, these findings highlight the importance of disaggregating the heterogeneous AAPI population to identify higher-risk subgroups and facilitate development of effective targeted interventions.