American journal of preventive medicine
-
Although youth violence is a serious concern in the United States, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) youth have generally been neglected as a demographic group for scholarly inquiry or community mobilization efforts. This lack of attention in the violence prevention field is indicative of two perceptual impediments with which AAPI communities have struggled for decades: (1) That AAPIs represent a relatively small portion of the United States population, and (2) That AAPIs are stereotyped as "model minorities" who do not encounter serious social obstacles and who lack ethnic heterogeneity. ⋯ Findings from these mobilization efforts highlight the need for long-term university-community commitments, in which university entities take a leadership role in disaggregating AAPI juvenile justice data. Another critical need is to work with previously marginalized ethnic groups within the AAPI population.
-
Dietary guidelines, especially those designed to prevent the diseases of dietary excess, are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. National dietary guidelines have been promulgated based on scientific reasoning and indirect evidence. In general, weak evidentiary support has been accepted as adequate justification for these guidelines. ⋯ Using guidelines against dietary fat as a case in point, an analysis is provided that suggests that harm indeed may have been caused by the widespread dissemination of and adherence to these guidelines, through their contribution to the current epidemic of obesity and overweight in the U. S. An explanation is provided of what may have gone wrong in the development of dietary guidelines, and an alternative and more rigorous standard is proposed for evidentiary support, including the recommendation that when adequate evidence is not available, the best option may be to issue no guideline.
-
To document the growing use in the United States of health impact assessment (HIA) methods to help planners and others consider the health consequences of their decisions. ⋯ These completed HIAs are useful for helping conduct future HIAs and for training public health officials and others about HIAs. More work is needed to document the impact of HIAs and thereby increase their value in decision-making processes.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Telephone intervention to promote diabetic retinopathy screening among the urban poor.
Participation in diabetic retinopathy screening is suboptimal. The Vision is Precious study (2001-2005) tested the hypothesis that a tailored telephone intervention in urban minority diabetes populations, offered in English or Spanish, would result in greater screening for retinopathy than a standard print intervention. ⋯ A limited telephone intervention can improve significantly participation in retinopathy screening in a minority, low-income population. This intervention influenced risk perceptions about diabetes complications. Further research is needed to develop effective risk communications to prevent the complications of diabetes.