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Biomedical subjects

Rob Turrisi

Publications and source records attributed to Rob Turrisi.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Efficacy of a partner assistance intervention designed to increase skin self-examination performance.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of partner assistance in learning and implementation of an intervention designed to promote skin self-examination (SSE) behaviors in persons at risk of developing melanoma. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial with immediate and 4-month follow-up visits. SETTING: Clinical offices in the ambulatory care area of a hospital. Patients The study included 130 participants and their cohabiting partners drawn from a melanoma registry. Intervention The subjects were randomly assigned to receive the intervention either as solo learning or as dyadic learning. The intervention consisted of a 10-minute demonstration of the ABCDE (asymmetry of shape, border irregularity, color variegation, diameter > or =6 mm, and evolution of the lesion) rule and skills training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Behavioral measures included self-reported performance of SSE and use of a body map designed to record areas of concern found during SSE. Intentions, along with attitudinal measures such as perceived importance of SSE and self-efficacy in performing SSE, were also assessed at the 4-month follow-up visit. RESULTS: The participants in the dyadic learning group were significantly more likely to report engaging in SSE behaviors (P<.05). The dyadic learning group also exhibited greater intentions to perform future SSE (P<.01), higher perceived importance of SSE (P<.01), and higher perceived self-efficacy (P<.01). CONCLUSION: Dyadic learning may be more effective than solo learning in regard to interventions designed to teach and promote health behaviors, such as SSE.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Examination of mediating variables in a partner assistance intervention designed to increase performance of skin self-examination.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to identify mediating variables that may explain the increased effectiveness of a partner-learning skin self-examination (SSE) skills training program over a solo-learning SSE skills training program in a sample of patients at risk for melanoma. METHODS: We conducted a randomized control design with pretest, immediate posttest, and 4-month follow-up measures in a clinical ambulatory care office of a hospital. In all, 130 participants were drawn from a melanoma hospital registry and randomly assigned to a solo-learning control group (n = 65) or a partner-learning group (n = 65). Participants either received the skills training individually in the solo-learning control group or in the partner-learning group in which a partner was actively involved in the training. The intervention consisted of a 10-minute educational presentation and skills training session about the ABCDE rule of early melanoma detection. The main outcome measure was SSE performance as measured by use of a body map. The mediators measured included attitudes toward SSE, self-efficacy/confidence in the ability to effectively perform SSE, comfort with having a partner help with SSE, perceived melanoma/skin cancer risk, concern about developing skin cancer/skin damage, and melanoma/skin cancer knowledge. RESULTS: Attitudes toward SSE, self-efficacy, comfort with having someone help with SSE, and concern about developing sun-damaged skin were found to be significant mediators. LIMITATIONS: Study limitations include sample size, the evaluation of short-term program effects, and partner relationship variables that could influence the effectiveness of partner learning. CONCLUSIONS: Involvement of a partner in the SSE skills training was more effective than solo learning because of the changes in the above-mentioned mediators. Future SSE skills training programs could benefit through using approaches that produce changes in key variables such as increasing attitudes toward SSE, increasing self-efficacy beliefs in the ability to perform SSE, and making participants feel confident in their ability to examine their skin.

Follow-Up Studies↗
PubMed2006

Skills training to learn discrimination of ABCDE criteria by those at risk of developing melanoma.

OBJECTIVE: To develop skin self-examination skills by improving the use of the ABCDE criteria by those at risk of developing melanoma. DESIGN: Ten single-sex groups of 10 unrelated adults received a knowledge-based intervention followed by skills training. SETTING: Classroom in the ambulatory care area of a hospital. Patients One hundred unrelated adults with either a personal or family history of melanoma and no previous skin self-examination counseling. Interventions A dermatologist presented information, and each subject read a brochure and reviewed a bookmark. The facilitator led the group discussions about scoring each feature and the decision to seek medical care. Measurement of moles with a ruler and a pencil eraser and the use of an illuminated magnifying lens were demonstrated. Preintervention and postintervention assessments were performed for each intervention. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Recognition of A, B, C, D, and E traits. RESULTS: The subjects preferred the bookmark (87% of subjects), opaque ruler (94% of subjects), and lighted magnifying lens (81% of subjects) to reading the brochure, which was felt to take too long. Recognition of border irregularity, color variation, and diameter improved significantly after the intervention. Women recognized color variation more often than men (94% vs 62%; odds ratio [OR], 23.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 16.1-50.5). Men identified irregular borders more often than women (91% vs 75%; OR, 16.8; 95% CI, 4.5-22.6). Women appropriately decided to see a physician more often than men (81% vs 57%; OR, 13.5; 95% CI, 7.1-28.4). CONCLUSIONS: Determining the presence of the A, B, C, and E criteria is challenging for the novice. Skills training aided performance of skin self-examination. Differences in proclivities according to sex suggest that if men and women form partnerships for skin checks, they may learn from each other, and their combined strengths will promote detection of early melanomas.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Influence of parent and child characteristics on a parent-based intervention to reduce unsafe sun practices in children 9 to 12 years old.

OBJECTIVE: To identify familial characteristics that may have influenced the effectiveness of a parent-based intervention to reduce unsafe sun practices in children aged 9 to 12 years (fourth through sixth grades). DESIGN: Randomized control design with a 30-day follow-up. SETTING: Participants were recruited from 2 distinct regions in the United States: southern Idaho and eastern Tennessee. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred forty children were assigned to the experimental group in which the parents received the intervention materials. One hundred twenty-nine respondents were assigned to the control group. INTERVENTION: The intervention provided materials that encouraged parents to communicate skin cancer risks, promote sun-safe behaviors, and discourage high-risk sun-related behaviors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures included sunburn frequencies, sunburn severity, and sunbathing tendencies. The moderator variables were positive characteristics of the parent-child relationship, levels of negative communication, parental monitoring, and child compliance. RESULTS: Sunburn frequency, sunburn severity, and sunbathing tendencies were most effectively reduced when the quality of the parent-child relationship was high, the child exhibited high levels of compliance, and there were low levels of negative communication. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study provide evidence that parents can be viable change agents for child behaviors and that the quality of the family relationship is critical to the success of such interventions.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Do we learn from our mistakes? An examination of the impact of negative alcohol-related consequences on college students' drinking patterns and perceptions.

OBJECTIVE: Little research has examined antecedents of specific drinking consequences (vomiting, regretted sex, hangover, blackouts) among college students. This research examined how students' experiences of past consequences relate to their beliefs of experiencing similar consequences in the future and how these beliefs relate to current drinking patterns. METHOD: Self-reported past drinking behavior and resulting consequences associated with specific occasions were assessed among 303 (66% women) college students. Students also estimated number of drinks associated with risk of experiencing future similar consequences. RESULTS: Paired-samples t tests indicated that students significantly overestimated the number of drinks it would take to vomit, have unwanted sexual experiences, experience hangovers, and black out in comparison with the actual self-reported number of drinks consumed the last time identical consequences were experienced. In addition, a series of multiple-regression analyses revealed that greater misperceptions between the perceived and actual number of drinks associated with each type of consequence were consistently associated with heavier drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that heavier-drinking students do not learn from their mistakes but instead overestimate the amount of alcohol they can consume without experiencing negative consequences. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed in terms of augmenting brief interventions aimed at heavy-drinking college students.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

College students' study time: course level, time of semester, and grade earned.

The association of total study time, number of events, time per event ratio, study strategies, and course grades across the semester were examined by linking students' study logs to course performance. There were 37 upper-division and 109 lower-division participants. Students earning As and Bs studied more frequently at the end of the semester but for shorter periods of time than students earning lower grades. Results are discussed in terms of providing college students and faculty with recommendations about learning strategies and time spent studying.

Achievement↗
PubMed2006

Heavy drinking in college students: who is at risk and what is being done about it?

Problem drinking and related consequences are a major social issue plaguing college campuses across the United States. Each year, alcohol is responsible for fatalities, assaults, serious injuries, and arrests that occur among college students. The authors review and discuss the risk factors, drinking patterns, and consequences that are relevant to the general student population. In addition, the authors highlight individuals at an increased risk of experiencing alcohol-related problems, such as Greek-letter social organization members and student athletes. The authors also discuss the interventions that attempt to reduce risky drinking and related problems in these subgroups as well as the future directions for research.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Developmental considerations for substance use interventions from middle school through college.

This article summarizes a symposium organized by Dr. Elizabeth D'Amico and presented at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Vancouver, Canada. The four presentations illustrate the importance of creating substance use interventions that are developmentally appropriate for youth. They represent innovative approaches to working with preteens, teenagers, and young adults. Dr. D'Amico's paper describes her research on the development of a voluntary brief intervention targeting alcohol use among middle school students. Findings indicated that by using school and community input, she was able to obtain a diverse a sample of youth across grades, sex, ethnicity, and substance use status. Dr. Ellickson's paper describes her research on Project ALERT, a school-based prevention program for middle school youth. Her findings indicate that Project ALERT worked for students at all levels of risk (low, moderate, and high) and for all students combined. Dr. Wagner's Teen Intervention Project was a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of a standardized Student Assistance Program for treating middle and high school students with alcohol and other drug problems. The study provided a unique opportunity to begin to examine how development may impact response to an alcohol or other drug intervention. Dr. Turrisi's paper examined processes underlying the nature of the effects of a parent intervention on college student drinking tendencies. Findings suggested that the parent intervention seems to have its impact on student drinking by reducing the influence of negative communications and decreasing the susceptibility of influences from closest friends. Dr. Kim Fromme provided concluding remarks.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Examination of the short-term efficacy of a parent-based intervention to prevent skin cancer.

The research evaluated an intervention strategy designed to prevent skin cancer in young adolescents. The intervention used parents as change agents to effectively communicate the risks of skin cancer and encourage their children to avoid high-risk sun-related behaviors while increasing positive sun-safe behaviors. Three hundred and forty parents in two regions of the United States were educated about the dangers of risky sun behaviors and how to convey information about skin cancer prevention to their children. Parents were then encouraged to talk with their children about these issues over a 1-month period prior to the onset of summer. Following this time period, children whose parents received and implemented the intervention materials were compared with a control sample of 129 children. These two groups were matched on age, gender, and school on number of sunburns and sunburn severity, attitudes and beliefs, and sunbathing behavior. Children in the treatment condition differed significantly from controls in the predicted directions on all outcome variables. The findings are discussed in terms of reducing skin cancer risk behaviors of children via parent-based intervention approaches.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Progressing from light experimentation to heavy episodic drinking in early and middle adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have examined psychological variables related to changes in drinking patterns from light experimentation with alcohol to heavy episodic drinking in early and middle adolescence. The present study examined parental and peer influences, gender and grade level as predictors of such changes in adolescent alcohol consumption. METHOD: Approximately 1420 light drinkers were analyzed from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Heavy episodic drinking activity was assessed 1 year later. RESULTS: Gender differences in transitions to heavy episodic drinking were observed, with males being more likely than females to make a transition. Parent parameter setting and communication variables, as well as peer variables at different grade levels, buffered these gender differences. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who are light experimenters represent a high-risk group as a consequence of their initial consumption tendencies. Some of these adolescents graduated beyond simple experimentation and moved into patterns of consumption that could be considered dangerous. Our analyses implicated an array of parental-based buffers: parent involvement in the adolescent's life, development of good communication patterns and expressions of warmth and affection. Minimizing associations with peers who consume alcohol may also have a buffering effect. There was evidence that these buffers may dampen gender differences not so much by affecting female drinking tendencies as by keeping males at reduced levels of alcohol consumption comparable to those of females.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Examination of the efficacy of an appearance-focused intervention to reduce UV exposure.

This study designed and implemented an appearance-based skin cancer prevention intervention in college-aged females. One hundred and forty-seven respondents were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment respondents received a short workbook describing the appearance damaging effects of indoor tanning. At short-term follow-up (2 weeks later) treatment respondents had significantly more negative attitudes toward indoor tanning, and reported fewer intentions to indoor tan. At 2-month follow-up, treatment respondents reported indoor tanning one-half as much as control respondents in the previous 2 months. This appearance-based intervention was able to produce clinically significant changes in indoor tanning use tendencies that could have a beneficial effect on the future development of skin cancer.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

College binge drinking: what is it? Who does it?

This article presents research included in the symposium at the 2001 Research Society on Alcoholism meeting in Montreal, Canada. James Lange was the organizer and provided the introduction of this article. Gayle Boyd was the chairperson, and Mary Larimer was the discussant. The presentations were (1) Defining binge-drinking quantities through resulting BACs, by James E. Lange and Robert B. Voas; (2) Environmental predictors of heavy episodic drinking events, by John D. Clapp; (3) Parents' continuing role in college binge drinking, by Rob Turrisi, Racheal Taki, and James Jaccard; and (4) Motivations of binge drinkers, by Mark B. Johnson, Robert B. Voas, and James E. Lange. The summary and discussion were provided by Mary Larimer.

Alcohol Drinking↗