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Biomedical subjects

J Friday

Publications and source records attributed to J Friday.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Retropharyngeal abscess after blunt trauma in an adolescent.

Retropharyngeal abscess is an unusual infection in teenagers, and it is rarely associated with blunt trauma. We present the case of 17-year-old male who developed signs and symptoms of retropharyngeal abscess soon after being struck by a car. The case illustrates that retropharyngeal abscess should be considered, even in an adolescent, if the patient has fever, neck stiffness, and sore throat with symptoms out of proportion to the oropharyngeal findings.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1997

Method for assessing food intakes in terms of servings based on food guidance.

We describe a method for comparing food intakes reported in surveys with recommendations given in the US Department of Agriculture's food guide pyramid. Such comparison was previously difficult because many foods are eaten as mixtures that cannot be categorized into pyramid food groups and because food intake data and food recommendations are expressed in different units of measurement. We developed a recipe file showing ingredients at multiple levels of breakdown and used it to disaggregate food mixtures into their ingredients so that they could be placed into pyramid food groups. Food-specific weight consistent with the pyramid definitions for serving sizes were derived from the food code book of the 1989-1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals and used to develop a serving-weight file. Data collected from 8181 adults aged > or = 20 y in the survey were used to estimate the mean number of servings from pyramid food groups and percentages of the population meeting pyramid recommendations. The mean numbers of servings were close to the minimum recommendations for the grain, vegetable, and meat groups and well below the minimum recommendations for the fruit and dairy groups. large proportions of adults (43-72%) failed to meet the dietary recommendations. Our method has several nutrition monitoring and nutrition education applications.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Fruit and vegetable intakes of children and adolescents in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the ways in which fruits and vegetables are consumed by children, to provide estimates of their intakes compared with recommendations, and to estimate the percentage of children meeting those recommendations. DESIGN: We examined 3 days of dietary data from respondents in the US Department of Agriculture's 1989-1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals. All foods reported in the survey were disaggregated into their component ingredients; all fruit and vegetable ingredients were assigned specific weights to correspond with a serving as defined by current dietary guidance materials; and the number of servings of each fruit and vegetable was tallied. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 3148 children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years in the 48 conterminous United States. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Percentages of fruit and vegetable servings consumed in various forms, mean number of servings consumed per day, and percentage of persons meeting various recommendations by sex/age, race/ethnicity, and household income. RESULTS: Nearly one quarter of all vegetables consumed by children and adolescents were french fries. Their intakes of all fruits and of dark green and/or deep yellow vegetables were very low compared with recommendations. Only one in five children consumed five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day. CONCLUSION: Pediatricians should encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables, especially dark green and deep yellow vegetables, by children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

US adults' fruit and vegetable intakes, 1989 to 1991: a revised baseline for the Healthy People 2000 objective.

OBJECTIVES: This study provides revised baseline data for the Healthy People 2000 objective related to fruit and vegetable intakes, accounting for fruits and vegetable intakes, accounting for fruits and vegetables from all sources and measuring servings in a manner consistent with current dietary guidance. METHODS: Dietary data from 8181 adults in the US Department of Agriculture's 1989-1991 Continuing Surveys of Food Intakes by Individuals were examined. All foods were disaggregated into their component ingredients; all fruit and vegetable ingredients were assigned specific weights to correspond to a serving as defined by current dietary guidance materials; and the number of servings was tallied. RESULTS: While mean intakes of fruits and vegetables--4.3 servings per day--were not far from the Year 2000 objective, only 32% of American adults' intakes met the objective. When more stringent standards were set either to compensate for higher calorie levels or to achieve the balance between fruits and vegetables suggested in current guidance, only 24% and 12%, respectively, met the recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest a need to develop strategies for overcoming barriers to eating fruits and vegetables.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Prevention of youth violence: rationale and characteristics of 15 evaluation projects.

Interpersonal violence is a major cause of injury, disability, and death, especially among youth. Evaluations of 15 youth violence-prevention projects are under way. Public health is concerned about health problems that need to be addressed via collective action. Public health involvement in addressing interpersonal violence among youths brings an emphasis on primary prevention, a systematic and scientific process, and integrative leadership. Few quantitative evaluations of violence-prevention projects have been done. The interventions are scientifically based and use a spectrum of strategies. Individually oriented strategies are more common than those directed toward peers, families, schools, or communities. Each project has a rigorous evaluation design. Twelve are randomized. Sample sizes range from 180 to 10,000. Participants range in age from 5 to 18 years, although most are in the middle-school years (11-14 years). At baseline, intervention and comparison groups are similar. Baseline data demonstrate high frequency of violent behavior, weapon carrying, and exposure to violence among the youthful participants. Field intervention and evaluation research is difficult and expensive. Difficulties encompass organizational programatic, and scientific issues; these difficulties reduce scientific interest and financial support for projects such as these. Public health has an important role to play in reducing violence. These projects will make important contributions to that task.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The students for peace project: a comprehensive violence-prevention program for middle school students.

Students for Peace is a three-year project (October 1993- September 1996) designed to evaluate a comprehensive, school-based intervention that seeks to prevent violence among sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students in a large urban school district in Texas. This study examines the hypothesis that students exposed to a two-year multiple-component intervention will reduce aggressive behavior compared to students who receive the district's "usual care" of violence prevention activities. Students for Peace is based largely on Social Learning. Theory (SLT), which addresses both the psychosocial dynamics underlying health behavior and the methods of promoting behavior change, while emphasizing cognitive processes and their effect on behavior. SLT explains human behavior in terms of a model in which three factors-behavior, social-environmental influences, and personal factors (such as personality, perceptions and expectations, and affect)-all interact. Theoretically, an individual's behavior is uniquely determined by a combination of these factors; thus, these factors become the elements for intervention strategies. The intervention program includes four main components: (1) modification of the school environment, (2) a violence-prevention curriculum, (3) peer leadership, and (4) parent education. Students for Peace is using a nested cross-sectional and cohort design in which school is the unit of design, allocation, and analysis. Eight schools, four intervention and four control, are participating. In May 1994, a questionnaire was administered to all students in school the day of the survey. A posttest evaluation was taken in the spring of 1995 and will be followed by a final posttest in spring 1996. A total of 8,865 students responded to the baseline survey. Nearly all variables indicated comparability between treatment and control conditions. As a population, Students for Peace participants are largely Hispanic (65%) or African American (19%). Violence-related variables indicated 30-day fighting prevalence, 23%; 12-month prevalence of injuries due to fighting, 14%; 30-day hand-gun carrying prevalence, 11%; 30-day prevalence of taunts and threats at school, 27%, and threats going to and from school, 26%. Overall, the data from Year 1 activities indicate a population in need of violence-prevention intervention. The challenge is to mold existing district resources into a theoretically sound program of interventions. If that program is found effective, the district will already have the necessary documentation, personnel, and skills for broader dissemination.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Attributional bias and reactive aggression.

This article looks at a cognitive behavioral intervention designed to reduce minority youths' (Latino and African-American boys) levels of reactive peer-directed aggression. The BrainPower Program trains aggressive boys to recognize accidental causation in ambiguous interactions with peers. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of this attribution retraining program in reducing levels of reactive, peer-directed aggression. This research hypothesizes that aggressive young boys' tendency to attribute hostile intentions to others in ambiguous social interactions causes display of inappropriate, peer-directed aggression. A reduction in attributional bias should produce a decrease in reactive physical and verbal aggression directed toward peers. A 12-session, attributional intervention has been designed to reduce aggressive students' tendency to infer hostile intentions in peers following ambiguous peer provocations. The program trains boys to (1) accurately perceive and categorize the available social cues in interactions with peers, (2) attribute negative outcomes of ambiguous causality to accidental or uncontrollable causes, and (3) generate behaviors appropriate to these retrained attributions. African-American and Latino male elementary-school students (N = 384), in grades four-six, served as subjects in one of three groups: experimental attribution retraining program, attention training, and no-attention control group. Three broad categories of outcome data were collected: teacher and administrator reports of behavior, independent observations of behavior, and self-reports from participating students. Process measures to assess implementation fidelity include videotaped training sessions, observations of intervention sessions, student attendance records, and weekly team meetings. The baseline data indicated that students who were evenly distributed across the four sites were not significantly different on the baseline indicators: student cognitions, teacher perceptions of behavior, and student suspension rates. Substantial evidence has shown that aggressive boys tend to attribute hostile intentions to peers, often resulting in inappropriate retaliatory aggression. The BrainPower Program was designed to determine whether psychoeducational strategies in a school context are effective in reducing attributional bias and whether such reductions significantly reduce aggressive behavior.

Black or African American↗