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David V McQueen

Publications and source records attributed to David V McQueen.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Evaluating the effectiveness of health promotion policy: changes in the law on drinking and driving in California.

The purpose of the study was to determine the utility of general population health surveillance data for evaluating broad policy changes that relate to health promotion. Data were drawn from the United States (US) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for one US state, California. Because these data are collected frequently and continually, a quasi-experimental approach to the evaluation was possible using a type of interrupted time series analysis or longitudinal impact analysis. A statistically significant decrease in the number of declared episodes of drinking and driving was found after enactment of new state policy. These findings were compared and found consistent with another study in California that examined the effect of changes in the law on alcohol-related traffic accidents. Our findings suggest that data from a behavioral surveillance system, in this case the BRFSS, are useful to evaluate the effect of a health promotion intervention. Further, the study demonstrates the utility of comparing different data sources when assessing a population-wide change in health promotion policy.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Institutionalization of social and behavioral risk factor surveillance as a learning system.

OBJECTIVES: This paper extends further the systematic nature of social and behavioral risk factor surveillance by showing how it becomes a learning system. The authors argue that such a systematic approach will lead to a better informed public health practice and a better understanding of key public health concerns such as obesity. METHODS: This paper is based on methods developed over some 25 years of experience in designing and operating behavioral risk factor surveillance systems. Measurement issues still remain a key concern and special attention is paid to the role of time as a critical variable in developing a surveillance system. RESULTS: The paper lays out five critical areas for attention if a system is to be considered a learning system. Examples are given from ongoing surveillance systems that have developed a base for a learning system and notes how these are institutionalized. CONCLUSIONS: In the ideal case a learning system based on sociobehavioral surveillance is dependent on data being collected continuously with careful attention paid to the analytical challenges of such complex data. This is an ideal systematic approach that has not been realized in most surveillance systems now available.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗

[Using evidence to assess the effectiveness of health promotion programs: a few fundamental issues].

This paper first discusses more generally the notion of "evidence" and then applies it to the field of health promotion. It is argued that health promotion has not yet reached the status of a fully recognised and recognisable discipline, borrowing many of its theoretical and methodological approaches from apparatuses to a wide variety of established other disciplines. Consequently, developing "evidence-based" practices in health promotion, as in biomedicine for example, is problematic on many counts and leaves three major issues unsolved. These issues are addressed and the authors conclude on an optimistic note, despite the serious problems that still remain to be solved.

Benchmarking↗

Validity of women's self-reports of cancer screening test utilization in a managed care population.

This study was undertaken to examine the validity of self-reported data on breast and cervical cancer screening behavior. An abbreviated version of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System telephone survey, including questions on mammography, clinical breast examination (CBE), and Papanicolaou test utilization, was administered to a sample of 480 women aged 40-74 years, enrolled in Kaiser Permanente Colorado for at least 5 years. Screening information reported in the telephone interview was compared with that abstracted from respondents' medical records. The vast majority of women had a mammogram, CBE, and Pap test according to both self-report and medical record. Sensitivity for determining whether her last test was within 2 years (3 years for Pap test) exceeded 95% for all, whereas specificities were <55%. The percentage of overall agreement between self-reported and recorded information was 88.4% (kappa = 0.62) for mammography, 87.9% (kappa = 0.45) for CBE, and 87.2% (kappa = 0.54) for Pap test. Pearson correlations between self-reported and recorded information for specific time interval since most recent mammogram, CBE, and Pap test were 0.72, 0.58, and 0.65, respectively. Correlation increased greatly when time interval was allowed to vary by +/-1 year. In most cases of disagreement, the self-report underestimated the time since last screening. These results suggest that self-reporting of breast and cervical cancer screening is fairly accurate in this managed care population, although women tend to underestimate the time since their last screening.

Adult↗