Examines cultural factors associated with pregnancy among Hispanic adolescents, highlighting policy areas within the health care delivery system that must be addressed. The paper discusses migratory patterns and service needs, acculturation and pregnancy, valuing of children, access to health services, the role of the health practitioner, and…

PATCH (Planned Approach to Community Health), a cooperative program of technical assistance from the Centers for Disease Control, strengthens state and local health departments' capacities to plan, implement, and evaluate community-based health promotion activities for priority health problems. The article describes its origin, concepts, and…

Analysis of data from the management systems of San Francisco and Santa Clara counties (California) reveals ethnic differences among 26,708 public mental health service users. Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans used less emergency and inpatient, but more outpatient, care than whites. Blacks used more emergency and less outpatient care. (SLD)

The Department of Community Health and Family Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine developed a curriculum component integrating epidemiologic concepts into a third year family medicine clerkship through a small-group project on a specific condition likely to be encountered by primary care physicians in community practice. (MSE)

The experience of the Harvard University School of Public Health with use of cases for promoting faculty discussion of teaching is described. It is concluded that the technique provides a forum for faculty to examine their own perspectives and gain insight from other teachers in the same institutional setting. (MSE)

Discusses the career and contributions of Modjeska Simkins, a black female teacher in South Carolina who became active in public health and civil rights. Throughout her career Simkins used her home in Columbia, South Carolina as an office. That home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (MJP)

As there have been few science-based evaluations of secondary prevention programs, the Federal Office of Public Health in Switzerland carried out a national program evaluation at 12 sites in the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland to study the question, "What works in secondary prevention?" These 12 centers offer different…

This study revealed factors associated with reproductive health risk behavior among high school students in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The survey was conducted among high school students from grades 9 through 12 at 2 schools in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. The questions asked inquired about knowledge, attitude, and…

Violence exposure among rural youths is a significant public health problem, yet little research has been conducted on violence in this setting. This study explored rural youths' direct and indirect experience of violence in the neighborhood, school, and home. The author used hierarchical regression analyses to explore youth violence exposure,…

On 16 January 2002, the United Kingdom House of Commons Select Committee published a report entitled "Tackling Obesity in England". Drawing on insights from the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu and Foucault, this article will suggest that the report provides an example "par excellence" of the way in which "the body" (our…

Background: There are some indications that maternal lifestyle during pregnancy (smoking and stress) contributes to symptoms of ADHD in children. We prospectively studied whether prenatal exposure to maternal smoking and/or stress is associated with ADHD symptoms and diagnostic criteria (according to DSM-IV) in 7-year-olds. Methods: Nulliparous…

The rapid growth of the HIV epidemic in China has raised a number of concerns among health care providers, governmental agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This article (a) briefly discusses the HIV epidemic in China, (b) explains why Chinese NGOs need to join the fight against the epidemic, (c) describes the development of an…

Objective: This study evaluated the effects of a national interdisciplinary faculty development program, Project MAINSTREAM, on creating curriculum enhancement in health professional education. Method: Thirty-nine faculty completed a two-year, part-time fellowship program featuring interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring, training meetings, and…

Objective: The research objective was to identify how healthy eating was understood in a disadvantaged community and how barriers to healthy eating might be overcome. Design: Participatory action research. Setting: Communities in Gurnos, Merthyr Tydfil, one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Method: Trainees on a participative methods course…

This article focuses on psychosocial barriers to sexual health and their implications on the design and delivery of mass media-based public health campaigns. A family planning campaign that attempted to address barriers to seeking sexual health information and services by promoting positive attitudes toward couple's communication about sexual…