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Work-site physical fitness programs. Comparing the impact of different program designs on cardiovascular risks.

The relative impact of three different approaches to physical fitness at the work site on cardiovascular risk reduction is examined, based on before/after health screening of employees, and employees' reports of participation in physical exercise activities. The three approaches tested were: 1) a staffed physical fitness facility, 2) one-to-one counseling with at-risk employees, and 3) a combination of one-to-one counseling with employees plus organization of the work site to encourage peer support and mutual exercise activity at work. A fourth site is used as a control site. The program that was centered around a physical fitness facility had little measurable impact on cardiovascular risks, and showed results similar to those at the control site. Both of the other programs were more effective, with the combination of counseling and plant organization providing the best health outcomes in terms of frequency of exercise, adequacy of blood pressure control (among hypertensives), weight loss (among the overweight), and smoking cessation. These results indicate that systematic, ongoing outreach to enlist employees in various types of exercise programs is more effective than the presence of fitness facilities without such outreach. Moreover, significant increases in frequency of exercise can be sustained without a substantial investment in facilities.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗

Cross-cultural adaptation and evaluation of a home-based program for alcohol use prevention among urban youth: the "Slick Tracy Home Team Program".

The current study describes the extensive cross-cultural adaptation of a brief home-based alcohol prevention program for racially and ethnically diverse sixth grade students and their families, using a randomized controlled trial design involving 60 public schools in the city of Chicago (N = 3,623 students). The adapted program achieved high participation levels (73%) overall, as well as in single parent families, non-English homes, and low-income students, among other at risk groups. Lower levels of factors associated with the onset of alcohol use (i.e., normative expectations and outcome expectations) were achieved in the intervention group compared to the control group. However, no differences were observed for several other protective factors or alcohol use.

Adolescent↗

Advocacy and coverage of needle exchange programs: results of a comparative study of harm reduction programs in Brazil, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ukraine, Russian Federation, and China.

To prevent or mitigate an AIDS epidemic among injecting drug users (IDUs), effective activities need to be implemented on a large enough scale to reach and assist sufficient numbers of drug users and thereby change their risk behaviors related to drug use and sex. Recent work by UNAIDS on "high coverage sites", adopting the above strategies, has shown that one of the key elements in achieving high coverage is ongoing and sophisticated advocacy. High coverage harm reduction sites were studied through literature search and site visits, including key informant interviews, review of service statistics, and data analysis, in order to document the steps that led to scaling up, the way coverage was defined in these sites, and the lessons learned from their efforts. Syringe-exchange programs can achieve high coverage of IDUs. Monitoring to determine regular reach (those who are in regular contact with harm reduction services) should be added to uniform data collection carried out by harm reduction programs. Advocacy is crucial to achieving high coverage.

Bangladesh↗

A planning cycle in the development of a community health program. An intervention program in mother and child care.

The Or Yehuda Intervention Program was developed in accordance with a planning cycle that includes a situation analysis, formulation of objectives, selection of strategies, development of an operational plan, implementation and evaluation, which lead, in turn, to a new situation analysis. The primary aims of the program are to reduce the infant mortality rate in Or Yehuda to the level prevailing in the rest of the area and to promote continuity of care and proper medical management during pregnancy, delivery and the first year of life. Problems in implementation, especially those related to coordination and integration of the several medical facilities involved, the information tools developed, and preliminary results are presented.

Child Health Services↗

Parent Partners: a parent-to-parent support program in the NICU. Part 1: Program development.

Neonatal intensive care units (NICU) face the challenge of developing family-centered systems of service delivery. An important component of family-centered care is parent-to-parent support. A parent-to-parent support program that meets the needs of both parents and staff can be successfully established in the NICU if the principles of planned change are used to guide the process of program development, implementation, and evaluation.

Health Services Needs and Demand↗

Pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiography programs: a call for implementation by emergency medical services systems providing advanced life support--National Heart Attack Alert Program (NHAAP) Coordinating Committee; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); National Institutes of Health.

Emergency medical services (EMS) providers who administer advanced life support should include diagnostic 12-lead electrocardiography programs as one of their services. Evidence demonstrates that this technology can be readily used by EMS providers to identify patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) before a patient's arrival at a hospital emergency department. Earlier identification of STEMI patients leads to faster artery-opening treatment with fibrinolytic agents, either in the pre-hospital setting or at the hospital. Alternatively, a reperfusion strategy using percutaneous coronary intervention can be facilitated by use of pre-hospital 12-lead electrocardiography (P12ECG). Analysis of the cost of providing this service to the community must include consideration of the demonstrated benefits of more rapid treatment of patients with STEMI and the resulting time savings advantage shown to accompany the use of P12ECG programs.

Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary↗

The Ashkelon Hypertension Detection and Control Program (AHDC Program): a community approach to reducing cardiovascular mortality.

BACKGROUND: Blood pressure (BP) reduction is crucial in reducing cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in the community. Subjects aged 20-65 seldom visit the primary care clinics, so they are unlikely to be detected without an active outreach screening program. The aim of the project was to prepare a professional doctor-nurse screening team, who will instruct those found to be at high risk in control of their risk factors, in order to reduce CV morbidity and mortality. METHODS: During a 10-year period (1980-1990), teams examined 12,202 subjects, (mean age 51 +/- 7 years, range 20-65 years) accounting for 23.4% of the total regional population. High risk subjects underwent an intensive CV risk factor control program. RESULTS: Subjects (3,506 or 28.6%) were found to have one or more CV risk factors (hypertension, obesity, smoking, hypercholesterolemia). During an average of 2 years, follow-up BP, weight reduction, and smoking cessation remained statistically significant. Total cholesterol was unchanged. Over this period, the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) in the area for acute MI fell from 100 to 76 (P < 0.01), for CV disease from 129 to 107 (P < 0.0001), and for hypertension from 121 to 87 (P < 0.1 NS). The project saved many life-years at no additional net cost to society, and cost effectiveness analysis showed positive results. CONCLUSIONS: A community approach with mainly nonpharmacological treatment is feasible and cost effective in reducing CV morbidity and mortality.

Adolescent↗

Youth Alternative Sentencing Program: a description and evaluation of an alcohol and marijuana intervention program.

An alternative program was designed for youth who were charged with an alcohol or marijuana offense in San Bernardino County, California. In place of a conviction, the youth could attend an extended educational program that emphasized their ability to change behavior and to understand the consequences of risk-taking behavior. An evaluation was completed by the participants, demonstrating that this population of youth began to experiment with alcohol and marijuana around 12 and 13 years of age. A large number of youths were identified for nontraffic offenses, which offered an opportunity to intervene before members of this population become involved in a motor vehicle crash.

Adolescent↗

Successful program maintenance when federal demonstration dollars stop: the ACCESS program for homeless mentally ill persons.

A major issue that has long dogged federal human services demonstration programs is the perception that when federal dollars end, the programs end-regardless of any proven successes. Access to Community Care and Effective Services and Supports (ACCESS) was a 5-year federal demonstration project to foster partnerships between service providers for homeless people with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorders; and to identify effective, replicable systems integration strategies. After federal funding ended, research teams visited the ACCESS sites to determine which project elements remained and which strategies were used by the sites to continue ACCESS. This article describes ACCESS services and systems integration activities retained by the sites, new funding streams, and strategies used to obtain continued funding.

Community Mental Health Services↗

Baseline assessment of the health status and health behaviors of African Americans participating in the activities-for-life program: a community-based health intervention program.

Obesity is a serious problem in the United States and is associated with hypertension, diabetes, and other health problems such as heart disease and some forms of cancer. There is a higher prevalence of being overweight among African American adults than among their Caucasian counterparts. The objective of this study was to assess baseline health behaviors and health status (hypertension, body mass indices, cholesterol and blood sugar levels) of African Americans participating in a community-based health education and physical fitness program. The sample consisted of 1.34 African American adults (30% males) from a low-income urban area in the Midwest. A health survey was administered to assess their health behaviors and previously diagnosed health problems. Additional data was obtained from health screenings to obtain current information on height, weight, and blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In addition to the sample being markedly overweight and obese (30% and 60% respectively), the results of the health screenings indicated a disproportionate number of participants (62%) with hypertension; 74% of the male participants had high blood pressure. Moreover, the self-reported data suggested that the participants had poor eating habits, sedentary lifestyles, and previously diagnosed health conditions (hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol levels) that were comparable to the results of their health screenings. These findings suggest that culturally-relevant, community-based programs that incorporate both nutritionl education and physical fitness are needed in order to educate and motivate participants to decrease behaviors that put them at risk for obesity and other health related problems.

Adult↗

Evaluation of a worksite injury and illness prevention program: do the effects of the REACH OUT training program reach the employees?

In this article the authors report the findings of a 2-year study evaluating the effectiveness of REACH OUT, a train-the-trainer program developed to assist small businesses comply with California legislation, Senate Bill 198 (1989), requiring employees to implement a worksite Injury and Illness Prevention Program. Data from a case study sample of 8 companies, drawn from 151 Southern California small businesses participating in the larger study, are reported. Diagnostic walk-throughs were performed, and employee surveys collected at the case study companies approximately 2 months before the treatment group received the intervention and again 1 year later. Results indicate that greater corporate compliance led to employees' perceptions of increased health and safety meetings and training sessions, which led to greater employee health and safety knowledge and improved employee health outcomes.

Accidents, Occupational↗

Effects of a family literacy program on low-literate children and their parents: findings from an evaluation of the Even Start family literacy program.

A randomized experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of Even Start, a federally supported family literacy program providing early childhood education, adult education, parenting education, and joint parent-child literacy activities to children and parents from low-literate families. The evaluation of 18 Even Start projects followed 463 families for 2 years and found no statistically significant or educationally important impacts on Even Start families when they were compared with control families on child literacy outcomes, parent literacy outcomes, or parent-child interactions. The study concludes that Even Start projects were able to properly implement family literacy programs, and the observed lack of effectiveness is attributed to a combination of 2 factors: (a) a lack of full participation on the part of families and (b) instructional services that may be ineffective because of the curriculum content or the instructional approach.

Adolescent↗

Hospital bloodborne pathogens programs: program characteristics and blood and body fluid exposure rates.

OBJECTIVE: To describe hospital practices and policies relating to bloodborne pathogens and current rates of occupational exposure among healthcare workers. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Hospitals in Iowa and Virginia were surveyed in 1996 and 1997 about Standard Precautions training programs and compliance. The primary outcome measures were rates of percutaneous injuries and mucocutaneous exposures. RESULTS: 153 (64%) of 240 hospitals responded. New employee training was offered no more than twice per year by nearly one third. Most (79%-80%) facilities monitored compliance of nurses, housekeepers, and laboratory technicians; physicians rarely were trained or monitored. Implementation of needlestick prevention devices was the most common action taken to decrease sharps injuries. Over one half of hospitals used needleless intravenous systems; larger hospitals used these significantly more often. Protected devices for phlebotomy or intravenous placement were purchased by only one third. Most (89% of large and 80% of small) hospitals met the recommended infection control personnel-to-bed ratio of 1:250. Eleven percent did not have access to postexposure care during all working hours. Percutaneous injury surveillance relied on incident reports (99% of facilities) and employee health records (61%). The annual reported percutaneous injury incidence rate from 106 hospitals was 5.3 injuries per 100 personnel. Compared to single tertiary-referral institution rates determined more than 5 years previously, current injury rates remain elevated in community hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare institutions need to commit sufficient resources to Standard Precautions training and monitoring and to infection control programs to meet the needs of all workers, including physicians. Healthcare workers clearly remain at risk for injury. Further effective interventions are needed for employee training, improving adherence, and providing needlestick prevention devices.

Blood-Borne Pathogens↗

The Department of Veterans Affairs' NSQIP: the first national, validated, outcome-based, risk-adjusted, and peer-controlled program for the measurement and enhancement of the quality of surgical care. National VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

OBJECTIVE: To provide reliable risk-adjusted morbidity and mortality rates after major surgery to the 123 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs) performing major surgery, and to use risk-adjusted outcomes in the monitoring and improvement of the quality of surgical care to all veterans. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Outcome-based comparative measures of the quality of surgical care among surgical services and surgical subspecialties have been elusive. METHODS: This study included prospective assessment of presurgical risk factors, process of care during surgery, and outcomes 30 days after surgery on veterans undergoing major surgery in 123 medical centers; development of multivariable risk-adjustment models; identification of high and low outlier facilities by observed-to-expected outcome ratios; and generation of annual reports of comparative outcomes to all surgical services in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). RESULTS: The National VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) data base includes 417,944 major surgical procedures performed between October 1, 1991, and September 30, 1997. In FY97, 11 VAMCs were low outliers for risk-adjusted observed-to-expected mortality ratios; 13 VAMCs were high outliers for risk-adjusted observed-to-expected mortality ratios. Identification of high and low outliers by unadjusted mortality rates would have ascribed an outlier status incorrectly to 25 of 39 hospitals, an error rate of 64%. Since 1994, the 30-day mortality and morbidity rates for major surgery have fallen 9% and 30%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Reliable, valid information on patient presurgical risk factors, process of care during surgery, and 30-day morbidity and mortality rates is available for all major surgical procedures in the 123 VAMCs performing surgery in the VHA. With this information, the VHA has established the first prospective outcome-based program for comparative assessment and enhancement of the quality of surgical care among multiple institutions for several surgical subspecialties. Key features to the success of the NSQIP are the support of the surgeons who practice in the VHA, consistent clinical definitions and data collection by dedicated nurses, a uniform nationwide informatics system, and the support of VHA administration and managerial staff.

Hospitals, Veterans↗

Evaluation of a 16-week critical care internship program using a Staff Development Program Effectiveness Evaluation Tool.

Today's healthcare environment has required innovative, cost-effective ideas for hospitals to recruit and retain nurses in critical care. A critical care internship is a viable option to meet the challenges encountered in educating nurses in today's complex critical care environment. This article provides a description of a Critical Care Internship Program and a method of analysis for utilization of resources, clinical outcomes, and fiscal responsibility using a Staff Development Program Effectiveness Evaluation Tool.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

Evaluation of a comprehensive loving support program among state Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program breast-feeding coordinators.

BACKGROUND: Mississippi was selected as a pilot state in the national breastfeeding promotion campaign titled Loving Support Makes Breastfeeding Work (LSMBW). To reinforce the national LSMBW project, the Mississippi Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Breastfeeding Promotion Project Team developed a comprehensive program that included patient and family education, staff training, public awareness activities, health professional outreach, and partnerships with the community. The program also implemented a breastfeeding-friendly clinic environment project and a videotape project. This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of Mississippi's LSMBW activities among WIC breastfeeding coordinators in the United States. METHOD: The cross-sectional study was performed with the use of a mailed, self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Representatives of 50 state WIC agencies returned the survey. Of these 50 agencies, 36 (72%) had effectively used education materials created by the state of Mississippi. Breastfeeding coordinators reported that among the campaign activities, staff training, community outreach, and peer counseling were most beneficial. They also identified the videotape project developed by Mississippi as useful in addressing barriers to breastfeeding and in training support groups, staff, and health care professionals. CONCLUSION: This study showed that Mississippi's outreach activities and motivational videotape had a positive impact on coordinators' promotion of breastfeeding.

Breast Feeding↗

International comparisons of child injuries and prevention programs: recommendations for an improved prevention program in Germany.

OBJECTIVES: To compare child injury mortality in Germany with that of four neighboring countries, and to examine injury prevention models in these countries with a view to improving prevention programs in Germany. METHODS: Based on official cause of death certificates, child injury mortality rates in Germany are compared with those of Austria, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. The main structures and funding of injury prevention programs in these countries are described. RESULTS: In all five countries, mortality is highest among children aged 1-4 years for home and leisure accidents and drownings. Transport accidents are the main cause of death in the 5-14 age group. Mortality in both age groups has fallen significantly since 1980, most markedly in Sweden and The Netherlands. CONCLUSION: Drawing on the injury mortality data and experience of the comparison countries, the following recommendations are proposed to further reduce home and leisure injuries among children in Germany: (1) establish a soundly funded, central institution responsible for child injury surveillance, research, and the coordination of injury prevention activities, (2) improve product control legislation, and (3) disseminate specific safety information to target groups and the general public.

Accident Prevention↗