American journal of preventive medicine
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Unintentional home injuries impose significant, but little reported, costs to society. The most tangible are medical and indirect costs. A less-tangible cost is the value of lost quality of life due to impairment or death. ⋯ These estimates indicate that unintentional home injuries, especially falls, are a major problem in the United States. Falls are a particular problem in need of more attention.
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This paper investigates the association between implementing a personal space smoking restriction for the home or automobile, and various sociodemographic, social, behavioral, and attitudinal variables. ⋯ Results suggest that a substantial segment of African Americans have accepted and translated public policy concerns about ETS into practice and reveal other variables that could be targeted in future interventions to increase implementation of personal space smoking restrictions.
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While the overall death rate from unintentional carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning has decreased in the United States due to improved automobile emissions controls and a decline in CO poisonings from motor vehicles, exposures have not changed from some sources of CO. One of these is the operation of portable electrical generators in poorly ventilated spaces. This study sought to describe the population poisoned from CO produced by portable electric generators, and to determine the reasons that generators are operated in a hazardous fashion. ⋯ CO poisoning from portable electric generators occurs in a characteristic population, in a few typical locations and for a limited number of reasons. This information may help target prevention efforts for this form of poisoning, such as warning labels or educational programs.
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More needs to be known about the prevalence of risk and protective factors for fires, burns, and carbon monoxide poisoning in U.S. households. ⋯ Results suggest that there is much room for improvement regarding adoption of measures to prevent fires, burns, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Further investigations of the efficacy of carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, and escape plans, as well as effectiveness studies of fire and burn-prevention efforts are needed.
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Practice Guideline Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial Guideline
Implementing guidelines for smoking cessation: comparing the efforts of nurses and medical assistants.
It is unclear how different types of intake clinicians (registered nurses [RNs], and less costly licensed practical nurses [LPNs] and medical assistants [MAs]) compare in the performance of smoking-cessation activities recommended in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) smoking-cessation clinical practice guideline. ⋯ Although both MAs and LPNs showed marked improvements in performance in response to the guideline intervention, patients seen by these intake clinicians were less likely to receive guideline-recommended counseling, compared to those patients seen by RNs. Given their important role in the delivery of preventive care, MAs and LPNs should receive proper training in cessation counseling, should have strong physician and administrative support, and should be included in efforts to implement smoking-cessation guidelines in primary care.