Biomedical subjects

K M Blankenship

Publications and source records attributed to K M Blankenship.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Structural interventions: concepts, challenges and opportunities for research.

Structural interventions refer to public health interventions that promote health by altering the structural context within which health is produced and reproduced. They draw on concepts from multiple disciplines, including public health, psychiatry, and psychology, in which attention to interventions is common, and sociology and political economy, where structure is a familiar, if contested, concept. This has meant that even as discussions of structural interventions bring together researchers from various fields, they can get stalled in debates over definitions. In this paper, we seek to move these discussions forward by highlighting a number of critical issues raised by structural interventions, and the subsequent implications of these for research.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed2000

Structural interventions in public health.

OBJECTIVE: To review structural interventions in public health, identify distinct approaches to structural interventions, and assess their implications for HIV-prevention interventions. METHOD: The MEDLINE, HealthStar, PsychInfo and Sociofile databases were searched on specific health issues, types of public health interventions, and conceptual topics (e.g. empowerment, social structure, and inequality) to compile a list of public health interventions in the United States. We excluded interventions focused on testing and surveillance unless they specifically facilitated prevention, and educational or media campaigns focused on increasing individuals' level of knowledge about a particular health problem. RESULTS: The term 'structural' is used to refer to interventions that work by altering the context within which health is produced or reproduced. Structural interventions locate the source of public-health problems in factors in the social, economic and political environments that shape and constrain individual, community, and societal health outcomes. We identified two dimensions along which structural interventions can vary. They may locate the source of health problems in factors relating to availability, acceptability, or accessibility; and they may be targeted at the individual, organizational, or environmental levels. All together, this framework suggests nine kinds of structural interventions, and it is possible to identify examples of each kind of intervention across a range of public health issues. CONCLUSIONS: The relevance of this framework for developing HIV prevention interventions is considered.

Databases, Factual↗

PubMed1998

Evaluation of an innovative program to address the health and social service needs of drug-using women with or at risk for HIV infection.

Drug-using women with or at risk for HIV infection have many competing unmet needs, especially for social services, drug treatment, and medical care. High-risk drug-using women were recruited through street outreach, at needle exchange sites, a prison, and local community based organizations in New Haven, Connecticut for a study of the service needs of out-of-treatment drug users and the ability of an interactive case management intervention (ICM) to address those needs. These women were administered baseline and follow-up interviews to identify their health and social service needs and the degree to which these needs were resolved. The women who chose to enroll in the interactive case management intervention (n = 38) did not differ demographically nor in their HIV risk behaviors from those not receiving case management (n = 73). Provision of ICM was most successful in meeting needs for supportive mental health counseling, basic services, and long term housing. The impact of interactive case management was less evident for the acquisition of medical and dental services, which were accessed comparably by women not receiving the intervention. Overall, the women who enrolled in the ICM intervention showed a significant decrease in the number of unmet service needs as compared to those who did not enroll. Multiple contacts were required by the case manager to establish trust and to resolve the unmet service needs of these high-risk women. Women with or at risk for HIV infection can be effectively engaged in an ICM intervention in order to meet their multiple unmet service needs, although such interventions are time-and-labor intensive.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Activity of a maize ubiquitin promoter in transgenic rice.

We have used the maize ubiquitin 1 promoter, first exon and first intron (UBI) for rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. Taipei 309) transformation experiments and studied its expression in transgenic calli and plants. UBI directed significantly higher levels of transient gene expression than other promoter/intron combinations used for rice transformation. We exploited these high levels of expression to identify stable transformants obtained from callus-derived protoplasts co-transfected with two chimeric genes. The genes consisted of UBI fused to the coding regions of the uidA and bar marker genes (UBI:GUS and UBI:BAR). UBI:GUS expression increased in response to thermal stress in both transfected protoplasts and transgenic rice calli. Histochemical localization of GUS activity revealed that UBI was most active in rapidly dividing cells. This promoter is expressed in many, but not all, rice tissues and undergoes important changes in activity during the development of transgenic rice plants.

Cloning, Molecular↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Syringe source, use, and discard among injection-drug users in New Haven, Connecticut.

We examined syringe source, use, and discard practices of injection-drug users (IDUs) in New Haven, Connecticut, a city with both a legal syringe-exchange program (SEP) and non-prescription availability of syringes through pharmacies. The population demographics, syringe use, and discard practices of IDUs who obtained syringes from various sources were compared using structured interview data. Of the 373 IDUs recruited, 268 (72 percent) resided in the city of New Haven. Among the New Haven IDUs, 111 (41 percent) reported pharmacies, 36 (13 percent) reported the New Haven SEP, 90 (34 percent) reported both, and 27 (10 percent) reported neither as their usual source of syringes in the past six months. No significant differences (p value < 0.05) were observed among New Haven IDUs who relied on pharmacies versus the SEP. However, IDUs who relied on the SEP were significantly less likely to report they threw away used syringes, compared with pharmacy users. Both the pharmacies and the New Haven SEP are important sources of sterile syringes for IDUs in New Haven. The lower frequency of syringe discard by IDUs who obtained their syringes primarily through the SEP indicates another public health benefit of programs such as these.

Connecticut↗