What do deaf high school students know about HIV?

Deaf adolescents who use American Sign Language (ASL) as their main communication mode are, like their hearing age peers, at risk for acquiring HIV. Many sources of HIV information (radio and television) are not accessible to these adolescents. Little is known about HIV knowledge base and risk behaviors of this group. The objective of this study was to develop and administer, on laptop computer, an HIV knowledge and risk survey in ASL. Findings among 700 deaf adolescent participants attending high schools for the deaf throughout the United States showed that, on average, students knew correct answers to approximately half (x = 7.2) of 14 knowledge items (median: 7.0; range: 0-14; sd = 3.8) on a highly reliable knowledge scale (α = .83). Knowledge score was found in multivariable analysis to be strongly related to receiving HIV information in school. This population is clearly in need of linguistically and culturally accessible HIV prevention education delivered in school.

Evaluating housing quality, health and safety using an Internet-based data collection and response system: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Typically housing and health surveys are not integrated together and therefore are not representative of population health or national housing stocks. In addition, the existing channels for distributing information about housing and health issues to the general public are limited. The aim of this study was to develop a data collection and response system that would allow us to assess the Finnish housing stock from the points of view of quality, health and safety, and also to provide a tool to distribute information about important housing health and safety issues.

METHODS

The data collection and response system was tested with a sample of 3000 adults (one per household), who were randomly selected from the Finnish Population Register Centre. Spatial information about the exact location of the residences (i.e. coordinates) was included in the database inquiry. People could participate either by completing and returning a paper questionnaire or by completing the same questionnaire via the Internet. The respondents did not receive any compensation for their time in completing the questionnaire.

RESULTS

This article describes the data collection and response system and presents the main results of the population-based testing of the system. A total of 1312 people (response rate 44%) answered the questionnaire, though only 80 answered via the Internet. A third of the respondents had indicated they wanted feedback. Albeit a majority (>90%) of the respondents reported being satisfied or quite satisfied with their residence, there were a number of prevalent housing issues identified that can be related to health and safety.

CONCLUSIONS

The collected database can be used to evaluate the quality of the housing stock in terms of occupant health and safety, and to model its association with occupant health and well-being. However, it must be noted that all the health outcomes gathered in this study are self-reported. A follow-up study is needed to evaluate whether the occupants acted on the feedback they received. Relying solely on an Internet-based questionnaire for collecting data would not appear to provide an adequate response rate for random population-based surveys at this point in time.

[European Antibiotic Awareness Day educational campaign--has it changed public attitudes to antibiotic use in Poland?]

Widespread inappropriate antibiotic use is a global concern for public health care. That is why national and international antibiotic resistance control strategies recommend education of health-care professionals and the public to promote prudent antibiotic use. This paper show the effect of the 2009 public antibiotic campaign in Poland on the knowledge and social attitudes towards use of antibiotics. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and behaviour models of Polish people regarding antibiotics, recommendations for their use as well as sources of information on antibiotics. At the same time the study was aimed at assessing whether actions undertaken during educational campaigns resulted in growing knowledge on the subject of antibiotic use or a change in attitudes towards this group of medicines.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A two-stage survey was carried out from October to December 2009 based on 14 self prepared questions. The survey was carried out by Millward Brown SMG/KRC on the representative sample of 1000 people using CATI - Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews.

RESULTS

In Poland there is still a high percentage of people taking antibiotics. 37% of Polish people used an antibiotic in the last 12 months. Most Polish people--88% use an antibiotic prescribed by a doctor. At the same time Polish people receive antibiotics due to viral infections which should not be treated thus. The results of the survey show that almost half of adult Poles would expect to have an antibiotic prescribed in case of a flu. Over half of Polish people believe that antibiotics kill viruses. Over 1/3 of recipients, who have come across information on prudent use of antibiotics (mostly due to National Program for Antibiotics Protection) claimed to have changed their behavior model regarding this group of medicines.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study show that further and systematic education regarding appropriate antibiotic use is needed.

Student reception, sources, and believability of health-related information

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to identify the health topics students received information about, how students obtained health-related information, and perceived believability of those sources.

PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS

Students (N = 1202) were surveyed using the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) of the American College Health Association.

RESULTS

Nearly half (46%) of the sample reported not receiving any information, whereas only 0.5% received information on all health topics. The Internet was the most common source of health-related information, but, conversely, was perceived as the least believable source. Health center medical staff and university health educators were perceived to be the most believable sources.

CONCLUSIONS

Future practice at the university setting should focus on delivering health information through believable messengers utilizing the most commonly reported sources of information. This may have implications towards how students shape their health-related social cognitions and subsequent behaviors.

Applying the health belief model to examine news coverage regarding steroids in sports by ABC, CBS, and NBC between March 1990 and May 2008

The investigation described here examined ABC, CBS, and NBC news coverage of steroids in sports between March 1990 and May 2008. Employing a framing analysis guided by the health belief model (HBM), coverage of the barriers and benefits of using steroids is reported. Overall, the trend by these three news affiliates was to emphasize the illegality of using steroids, whereas considerably less coverage was devoted to the health costs, in terms of both severity and susceptibility, of using steroids. Furthermore, of the health costs reported, the specific consequences of steroid use varied considerably. The results are reported across four timeframes: 1990-2008, 1990-1996, 1997-2002, and 2003-2008.

Organ donation on Web 2.0: content and audience analysis of organ donation videos on YouTube

This study examines the content of and audience response to organ donation videos on YouTube, a Web 2.0 platform, with framing theory. Positive frames were identified in both video content and audience comments. Analysis revealed a reciprocity relationship between media frames and audience frames. Videos covered content categories such as kidney, liver, organ donation registration process, and youth. Videos were favorably rated. No significant differences were found between videos produced by organizations and individuals in the United States and those produced in other countries. The findings provide insight into how new communication technologies are shaping health communication in ways that differ from traditional media. The implications of Web 2.0, characterized by user-generated content and interactivity, for health communication and health campaign practice are discussed.

Health content in local television news: a current appraisal

While local television news remains an important channel for the dissemination of health information, there has been little systematic examination of health content on those newscasts. This study, designed to update and expand upon earlier efforts, examined 1,382.5 hours of newscasts that aired on seven channels in four markets between December 2004 and June 2005. The four markets were a major-, a large-, a medium-, and a small-size market in the Midwestern United States. In total, 40,112 news stories were coded. About 8.1% of the news stories were devoted to health content. Health stories covered a large array of topics. Physical illnesses/diseases and healthy living issues received the most frequent coverage, while mental health and aging-related content were covered least frequently. Most health stories were neutral in tone and rather brief, with an average duration of less than 1 minute. One in eight (12.4%) health stories provided follow-up options. This is primarily due to an increase in the number of health news stories presented with a website URL compared to previous findings. Market differences emerged, although, interestingly, stations in the larger markets were not the leaders in health coverage.

Evaluation of cancer patient education and services

On their first visit to the Regional Cancer Program, all patients are provided with the "Information for Patients and Families" binder that was designed by an interdisciplinary cancer patient education team. Patients were asked to complete a survey to evaluate the usefulness of this binder. Timely delivery of the "Information for Patients and Families" binder validates a higher level of satisfaction with oncology services because patients are better informed and this translates into a reduction of psychosocial problems. As a result of this study, a decision was made to provide the binder earlier in the patient's journey (e.g., post surgery for thoracic and brain tumor patients).

Awareness about kala-azar disease and related preventive attitudes and practices in a highly endemic rural area of India

This study was undertaken to assess the extent of community awareness and related practices about kala-azar undertaken by them to control the disease, in an highly endemic focus of Bihar, India. A household-based cross-sectional knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) survey consisting of quantitative components on knowledge, attitude, and practices concerning kala-azar was administered to heads-of-household through a semi-structured questionnaire. Data indicated that 61% respondents were illiterate, 4% had correct knowledge that sandfly bites caused kala-azar, 26% do not know any specific transmission agents for kala-azar. A majority (72%) of respondents were not able to recognize sandfly, 33% had no specific knowledge about the symptoms. All of them (100%) believed that this disease could affect his or her family income. Nearly all (95%) were positive that the kala-azar cases could be reduced with implementation of proper health measures. A few (11%) suggested isolation of patients to avoid contacting kala-azar while a high proportion (93%) of respondents favored specific allopathic medicine, and a majority (72%) favored the utilization of the services offered by primary health centers or government hospitals. Just over half (66%) of the respondents were not using any prevention measures to avoid contacting disease. These results could prove to be useful for health planners in developing suitable control strategies.

Can multilingual machine translation help make medical record content more comprehensible to patients?

With the development of electronic personal health records, more patients are gaining access to their own medical records. However, comprehension of medical record content remains difficult for many patients. Because each record is unique, it is also prohibitively costly to employ human translators to solve this problem. In this study, we investigated whether multilingual machine translation could help make medical record content more comprehensible to patients who lack proficiency in the language of the records. We used a popular general-purpose machine translation tool called Babel Fish to translate 213 medical record sentences from English into Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Korean. We evaluated the comprehensibility and accuracy of the translation. The text characteristics of the incorrectly translated sentences were also analyzed. In each language, the majority of the translations were incomprehensible (76% to 92%) and/or incorrect (77% to 89%). The main causes of the translation are vocabulary difficulty and syntactical complexity. A general-purpose machine translation tool like the Babel Fish is not adequate for the translation of medical records; however, a machine translation tool can potentially be improved significantly, if it is trained to target certain narrow domains in medicine.

Analysis model for personal eHealth solutions and services

In this paper, we present a framework for analysing and assessing various features of personal wellbeing information management services and solutions such as personal health records and citizen-oriented eHealth services. The model is based on general functional and interoperability standards for personal health management applications and generic frameworks for different aspects of analysis. It has been developed and used in the MyWellbeing project in Finland to provide baseline for the research, development and comparison of many different personal wellbeing and health management solutions and to support the development of unified "Coper" concept for citizen empowerment.

Persuasion and types of enticements offered by pharmaceutical companies to Gold Coast general practitioners in an attempt to encourage a health website recommendation

This study was undertaken to determine if pharmaceutical companies persuade and offer enticements to Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) general practitioners (GPs), in an attempt to encourage them to recommend health websites to the health consumer. A survey instrument consisting of seven single response questions was mailed to 250 (61%) out of 410 GPs. Questions were designed to measure the percentages (%) and proportions associated with levels of persuasion and types of enticements pharmaceutical companies are offering GPs, in an attempt to encourage them to recommend health websites to the health consumer. The survey instrument allowed participants to indicate their (1) gender, (2) age and (3) years of experience (less experienced <or= 10 years/more experienced >or= 10 years). One hundred and eight (43%) of the 250 GPs returned a completed survey. The return rate for male GPs was 72 (40%) and for female GPs, it was 36 (33%). Sixty-eight (63%) GPs indicated that they actively recommend health websites to their patients [male GPs--48 (71%), female GPs--20 (29%)]. This study highlights that female GPs (80%), those aged between 31 and 40 (77%) and GPs with < 10 years experience (72%) were more frequently targeted by pharmaceutical companies. This study reports that pharmaceutical companies are offering various types of enticements in an attempt to persuade Gold Coast GPs to recommend specific health websites to the health consumer. Further research should explore if similar levels of persuasion and types of enticements are being offered to GPs across Australia.

E-commerce application study and complementary services in the sector of laboratory diagnostics based on consumers' opinion

The field of the Laboratory Diagnostics (in vitro), a sector of the field of health services, constitutes an industrial market that includes activities of research, development, production and products distribution that are designated for laboratory use. These products are defined as techno-medical products including various categories of products such as simple medicines, advanced technological systems, etc. Despite the high performance, the enlargement and the increasing trends of the field, it is not recorded the expected progress in the methods and the ways of promotion, trading and supporting of these products in the market. The present paper aims at the investigation of the consumers' opinion and the specification of those services that are possible to be implemented in electronic services and commerce for a strongly competitive advantage for the enterprises of the sector. The analysis of the findings from the Consumer Purchase Decision Centres (CPDC) shows how important it is to implement web-based applications in the proposed services.

Sterilization by minilaparotomy in south-eastern Nigeria

The study aimed to assess the trend in acceptance and characteristics of acceptors of female sterilization between January 1999 and December 2006 at the University of Nigeria Teaching IHospital, linugu, South-Eastern Nigeria. There were a total of 20,485 new clients, with 212 (1.0%) accepting sterilization between January 1999 and December 2006. There was an initial rise in acceptance from 0.4% in 1999 to 3.0% in 2004, then a decline. 108 (50.9%) were between 35-39 years. 169 (79.7%) had more than five living children. 69 (32.5%) and 76 (35.9%) had secondary and higher education respectively. Health workers were the main source of information. Completed family size was the reason for choosing sterilization in 185 clients (87.3%). 120 (56.6%) were in occupational social class 3.106 (50.0%) did not practice any form of family planning prior to the procedure. 184 (86.8%) had interval sterilization and the rest (13.2%) postpartum. Acceptance of tubal sterilization is still low in our community.

Assessing consumer awareness about mercury in fish

The study discussed in this article was conducted to determine if a retail-based educational campaign would be an effective tool to inform consumers about mercury in fish. In 2005, the Rhode Island (RI) Department of Health, in conjunction with the RI Food Dealers Association, conducted surveys in eight supermarkets to assess consumers' knowledge and awareness of mercury in fish. A presurvey was administered to 523 respondents as they prepared to exit the store June 17-19. During the week of July 11-17, a "Fish Week" educational program was conducted. An identical postsurvey to evaluate the effectiveness of "Fish Week" was administered to 556 customers exiting participating supermarkets on July 21-24. A significant (p < .05) increase occurred in the number of respondents who identified brochures as an information source about mercury in fish. Small, but significant, decreases in awareness and knowledge about mercury in fish issues, however, were unexpected findings that were likely due to factors discussed.

Health and medical blog content and its relationships with blogger credentials and blog host

People may utilize various sources when searching for health information, including blogs. This study sought to describe the nature of non-personal journal health and medical blog posts and the frequency of interactive blog feature use within these blogs, as well as to understand the quality of content found within health and medical blogs as determined by blogger expertise and blog host. A quantitative content analysis was performed on 398 blog posts from a constructed 1-week sample of posts in WebMD, Yahoo!Health Expert Blogs, and independently hosted blogs. Results show most health and medical blog posts highlighted and provided commentary pertaining to medical issues found in external media such as books, television, Web sites, magazines, and newspapers, whereas only 16% contained actual health or medical information. In addition, distinct differences in patterns of content were evident between credentialed and noncredentialed bloggers, as well as different blog hosts.

Examining cross-source engagement with cancer-related information and its impact on doctor-patient relations

Patients may bring unreliable information to the physician, complicating the physician-patient relationship, or outside information seeking may complement physician information provision, reinforcing patients' responsibility for their health. The current descriptive evidence base is weak and focuses primarily on the Internet's effects on physician-patient relations. This study describes how cancer patients bring information to their physicians from a range of sources and are referred by physicians to these sources; the study also examines explanations for these behaviors. Patients with breast, prostate, and colon cancer diagnosed in 2005 (N = 1,594) were randomly drawn from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry; participants returned mail surveys in Fall 2006 (response rate = 64%). There is evidence that both bringing information to physicians and being referred to other sources reflects patients' engagement with health information, preference for control in medical decision making, and seeking and scanning for cancer-related information. There is also evidence that patients who bring information from a source are referred back to that source.

Validating measures of scanned information exposure in the context of cancer prevention and screening behaviors

Individuals may obtain health information, particularly from the mass media, without engaging in purposeful information searches (called scanning). This study used the Seeking and Scanning Behavior Survey of the General Population (SSBG), a nationally representative survey of adults aged 40-70 years (n = 2,489), to validate measures of scanned information exposure about cancer prevention and screening behaviors. Scanned exposure measures concerning specific behaviors (exercise; fruit and vegetable consumption; dieting; and mammogram, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) text, and colonoscopy screening) have good face validity and are convergent across behaviors (mean correlation across six preventive behaviors = 0.50, sd = 0.09). These measures can be discriminated from measures of general media exposure (mean r = 0.23, sd = 0.02) and seeking exposure for the same behaviors (mean r = 0.25, sd = 0.06). Scanned information exposure was associated with weekly volume of newspaper coverage for two of six behaviors, providing additional evidence of nomological validity. Scanned information exposure at the first round of measurement was associated with identical exposure 1 year later (mean r = .41, sd = .04). Scanned exposure measures also were significantly associated with five of the six preventive behaviors. These results provide evidence that scanned information exposure measures are valid indicators of the construct. Researchers might consider their use to capture scanned media influence on cognitions and behaviors.

Cancer prevention information seeking: a signal detection analysis of data from the cancer information service

Communication and health information seeking play a significant role in the promotion of cancer prevention behaviors, including screening. Data from a sample of information seekers who contacted the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Cancer Information Service (CIS; N = 20,412) were split randomly into an exploratory and validation sample to conduct signal detection analysis predicting cancer prevention information seeking. Important predictors of seeking prevention information in the exploratory sample were type of information seeker, communication channel, age, and gender; these findings generally were confirmed in the validation sample. Our findings also reveal important information about the demographic characteristics and communication channel preferences of cancer prevention information seekers.

Conceptualizing dissemination research and activity: the case of the Canadian Heart Health Initiative

Cardiovascular diseases are now the world's leading cause of death. To reduce high rates of such preventable premature deaths, evidence-based approaches to heart health promotion must be disseminated across public health systems. To succeed, we must build capacity to disseminate strategies that are practical and effective. However, we know little about such dissemination, and we lack both conceptual frameworks to guide our thinking and appropriate scientific methodologies. This article presents conceptual and analytic frameworks that integrate several approaches to understanding and studying dissemination processes within public health systems. This work is based on the Canadian Heart Health Dissemination Project, a research program examining a national heart health dissemination initiative. The primary focus is the development of a systematic protocol for measuring levels of capacity and dissemination, and determining successful conditions for, and barriers to, capacity and dissemination, as well as the nature of the relationship between these key concepts.

An analysis of gender differences in self-reported health, use of medicines and access to information sources about medicines among adolescents

Adolescence is a key period in the emergence of gender differences in health that persist into adulthood. Knowledge about health-related gender differences among adolescents could be instrumental in informing policy and practice to effect health improvement among this age group. The main objectives of this study were therefore to investigate gender differences in self-reported health complaints and use of medicines during the preceding 3 months and access to information sources about medicines among adolescents in Malta. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among adolescents attending secondary schools in Malta. A stratified random sample design generated a sample size of 514 students. Common health complaints, use of medicines, and sources of information about medicines were investigated by means of author-designed checklists. The analytical sample was formed from 474 usable questionnaires collected from students aged 14-16 years, of which 53.8% were females. In general, a female excess emerged for health complaints and use of medicines except for sport injuries and use of vitamins. Gender differences were statistically significant for a female excess in the retrieval of information from the package insert (p < .001), parents or adult relatives (p < .01) and friends or schoolmates (p < .05). The findings of this study underscore the need for awareness of gender differences in the health of adolescents among health care providers, policy makers, and educators. An important implication of the findings is that the health needs of adolescents could be more equitably addressed by adopting a holistic patient-oriented approach particular to the health needs of each individual.

Hombres Sanos: exposure and response to a social marketing HIV prevention campaign targeting heterosexually identified Latino men who have sex with men and women

This study examined the reach and impact of a social marketing intervention to reduce HIV risk among heterosexually identified (HI) Latino men who have sex with men and women (MSMW). Repeated cross-sectional intercept surveys were conducted in selected community venues during and after the campaign with 1,137 HI Latino men. Of them, 6% were classified as HI Latino MSMW. On average, 85.9% of the heterosexual respondents and 86.8% of the HI MSMW subsample reported exposure to the campaign. Responses to the campaign included having made an appointment for a male health exam that included HIV testing and using condoms. Campaign exposure was significantly associated with HIV testing behavior and intentions and with knowledge of where to get tested. The campaign reached its underserved target audience and stimulated preventive behaviors. Social marketing represents a promising approach for HIV prevention among HI Latinos, in general, and HI Latino MSMW, in particular.