Nasal Airway Dysfunction in Children with Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate: Results of a Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study, with Anatomical and Surgical Considerations.

Background: The aesthetic aspects of the cleft lip nasal deformity have been appreciated for over a century, but the functional implications have remained largely underappreciated or misunderstood. This study describes the frequency and severity of nasal obstructive symptoms among children with cleft lip and/or cleft palate, addressing the hypotheses that age, cleft type, and severity are associated with the development of nasal obstructive symptoms.

Methods: Children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or cleft palate and a comparison group of unaffected children born from 1997 to 2003 were identified through the North Carolina Birth Defects Monitoring Program and birth certificates.

Issues involved in the phenotypic classification of orofacial clefts ascertained through a state birth defects registry for the North Carolina Cleft Outcomes Study.

Background: Epidemiologic studies involving birth defects are extremely sensitive to phenotype accuracy and precision. We devised a case review and classification protocol for a project to study school achievement in children with idiopathic, nonsyndromic orofacial clefts to improve the reliability of phenotypic classification from the statewide birth defects registry.

Methods: Surveillance-program abstraction data and medical records at the birth or treating hospitals were used when available.

Stigma experiences in youth with facial differences: a multi-site study of adolescents and their mothers.

Objectives: To describe stigma experiences of adolescents with congenital and acquired facial differences.

Design: Used baseline cross-sectional stigma-related responses from a four site (Seattle WA, Galveston TX, Chicago IL and Chapel Hill NC) US study enrolling 185 English speaking, US participants ages 1118 years old with facial differences (60% male; 80% congenital conditions). Closed-ended, self-administered questions drawn from the Youth Quality of Life Instrument Facial Differences Module (YQOL-FD) determined perceptions of stigmatization.

Comparing MSM in the southeastern United States who participated in an HIV prevention chat room-based outreach intervention and those who did not: how different are the baseline HIV-risk profiles?

Chat room-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention interventions are being implemented to reduce the risk of HIV exposure, infection and reinfection among men who have sex with men (MSM). However, little is known about how participants in chat room-based prevention interventions differ from their online non-participating peers. This analysis compared the baseline risk profiles of participants in an HIV prevention intervention ('active recruitment') to their chat room peers who did not participate in the intervention ('passive recruitment').

Using community-based participatory research to develop a chat room-based HIV prevention intervention for gay men.

Background: Although seeking sexual partners on the Internet is an identified risk factor for HIV and sexually transmitted disease infection among gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM), the medical literature lacks descriptions of the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions for reducing infections among men who seek sexual partners online.

Objectives: We sought to fill this gap by describing Cyber-Based Education and Referral/Men for Men (CyBER/M4M), an intervention designed to reduce HIV exposure and transmission among gay men and MSM who use geographically defined chat rooms.

Methods: CyBER/M4M was developed by a community-university partnership that included gay men who had experience with seeking sexual partners online, and representatives from community-based organizations, the local public health department, two universities, and national organizations with expertise in community-based participatory research (CBPR) and HIV prevention.