Perinatal Depression: Challenges and Opportunities.

Perinatal depression (PND) is a major depressive episode during pregnancy or within 4 weeks after childbirth up to a year. Risk factors for PND include stressful life events, history of depression, poor social support, unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, poor relationship quality, current or previous abuse, and low socioeconomic status. This mental disorder has been shown to have negative effects on mothers' quality of life and their intimate relationships, birth outcomes, and breastfeeding likelihood, as well as long-term effects on children's cognitive and emotional development.

Weight loss goals among African-American women with type 2 diabetes in a behavioral weight control program.

African-American women with type 2 diabetes experience limited weight loss in behavioral weight control programs. Some research suggests that overly ambitious weight loss expectations may negatively affect weight losses achieved but it is unknown whether they affect weight loss among African-American women. The current study examined personal weight loss goals and expected satisfaction with a reasonable weight loss among African-American women with type 2 diabetes starting a behavioral obesity treatment.

African Americans' responses to genetic explanations of lung cancer disparities and their willingness to participate in clinical genetics research.

Purpose: To assess whether reactions to genetic explanations for disparities in lung cancer incidence among family members of African American patients with lung cancer are associated with willingness to participate in clinical genetics research.

Methods: Data are reported for 67 self-identified African Americans aged 18 to 55 years who completed a telephone survey assessing reactions to explanations (i.e.

Responses to online GSTM1 genetic test results among smokers related to patients with lung cancer: a pilot study.

Providing smokers with personal genetic test results indicating increased lung cancer risk may increase uptake of effective smoking cessation services. Using the internet may increase reach and enable real-time assessment of how people process genetic risk information away from the clinic setting. We therefore explored smokers' responses to Web-delivered GSTM1 genetic test results indicating higher or lower lung cancer risk.

Stress, race, and body weight.

Objective: Stress has been identified as a significant factor in health and in racial/ethnic health disparities. A potential mediator in these relationships is body weight.

Design: Cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between stress, race, and body weight were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of overweight and obese women with Type 2 diabetes (n = 217) enrolled in a behavioral weight loss program.

Too many referrals of low-risk women for BRCA1/2 genetic services by family physicians.

The increasing availability and public awareness of BRCA1/2 genetic testing will increase women's self-referrals to genetic services. The objective of this study was to examine whether patient characteristics influence the referral decisions of family physicians when a patient requests BRCA1/2 genetic testing. Family physicians (n = 284) completed a Web-based survey in 2006 to assess their attitudes and practices related to the use of genetics in their clinical practice.

The feasibility of online genetic testing for lung cancer susceptibility: uptake of a web-based protocol and decision outcomes.

Purpose: To examine the feasibility of offering genetic susceptibility testing for lung cancer (GSTM1) via the Internet to smokers who were blood relatives of patients with lung cancer. Outcomes include proportion who logged on to the study website to consider testing, made informed decisions to log on and to be tested.

Methods: Baseline measures were assessed via telephone survey.