A rat subchronic study transcriptional point of departure estimates a carcinogenicity study apical point of departure.

Considerations of human relevance and animal use are driving research to identify new approaches to inform risk assessment of chemicals and replace guideline-based rodent carcinogenicity tests. Here, the hypothesis was tested across four agrochemicals that 1) a rat 90-day transcriptome-based BEPOD is protective of a rat carcinogenicity study and 2) a subchronic liver or kidney BEPOD would approximate a cancer bioassay apical POD derived from other organs and a rat subchronic BEPOD would approximate a mouse cancer bioassay apical POD. Using RNA sequencing and BMDExpress software, liver and/or kidney BEPOD values were generated in male rats exposed for 90 days to either Triclopyr Acid, Pronamide, Sulfoxaflor, or Fenpicoxamid.

Rural people who inject drugs: A cross-sectional survey addressing the dimensions of access to secondary needle and syringe program outlets.

Objective: To better understand issues related to access to injecting equipment for people who inject drugs (PWID) in a rural area of New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Design: Cross-sectional face-to-face survey using convenience and snowball sampling.

Setting: Six regional and rural population centres in Northern NSW, within the Hunter New England Local Health District.

Self-image differences as related to body image of students in a middle school.

Objective: To examine whether gender and ethnic self-image differences exist among Asian and white adolescents within the context of body image.

Methods: One hundred seventy-seven students in a Midwestern US middle school were surveyed on self-image. Analyzed using 2-way ANOVA by gender and race.

Evaluating the economic loss of caregiving for palliative care patients.

Objective: Our aim is to provide a unified measure of the economic burden faced by families during the palliative phase of care and to compare this measure to Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off.

Methods: Samples of palliative care patients living at home and their main informal caregivers were recruited in five Canadian urban regions. Interviews were performed every two weeks until the patient's passing, up to a maximum of six months.

Measurement challenges of informal caregiving: a novel measurement method applied to a cohort of palliative care patients.

Informal caregiving is a complex concept, and inconsistencies are found in the literature regarding how to measure it. The differences in tasks included in the definition of caregiving, as well as the different methods used to measure caregiving time may explain the huge variations in results found in the literature. The current paper aimed to lay out the challenges of how to calculate the time spent by informal caregivers on providing care and assistance to an ill person at home.

The trajectory of palliative care costs over the last 5 months of life: a Canadian longitudinal study.

Objective: This study aimed to highlight the trajectory of palliative care costs over the last five months of life in five urban centres across Canada.

Subjects: The study sample was comprised of 160 terminally ill patients and their main informal caregivers.

Research Design: A first interview took place in the patient's home, and subsequent follow-up interviews were conducted by telephone at two week intervals until the patient's passing.

Developing and validating the French-Canadian version of the practitioner and organizational telehealth readiness assessment tools.

Only one telehealth readiness assessment tool, that of Jennett et al., covers all types of telehealth projects, regardless of health-care provision context. However, this instrument is only available in English and has not undergone psychometric evaluation.

Telehealth readiness assessment tools.

In planning a telehealth project, a readiness assessment can help to improve the chances of successful implementation by identifying the stakeholders and the factors that should be targeted. We conducted a literature search and identified six questionnaires on readiness that can be used when implementing telehealth projects. Only one of them was sufficiently generic to be used with all kinds of telehealth projects and with different groups of participants (patients and public, health-care practitioners and organization personnel like health-care managers and technical support managers), but it had rather limited psychometric evaluation.

The attractive female body weight and female body dissatisfaction in 26 countries across 10 world regions: results of the international body project I.

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites.

Costs associated with resource utilization during the palliative phase of care: a Canadian perspective.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate prospectively the resource utilization and related costs during the palliative phase of care in five regions across Canada.

Subjects: A cohort of 248 patients registered in a palliative care program and their main informal caregivers were consecutively recruited.

Research Design: A prospective research design with repeated measures was adopted.

Introducing quality improvement methods into local public health departments: structured evaluation of a statewide pilot project.

Objective: To test the feasibility and assess the preliminary impact of a unique statewide quality improvement (QI) training program designed for public health departments.

Data Sources/study Setting: One hundred and ninety-five public health employees/managers from 38 local health departments throughout Minnesota were selected to participate in a newly developed QI training program and 65 of those engaged in and completed eight expert-supported QI projects over a period of 10 months from June 2007 through March 2008.

Study Design: As part of the Minnesota Quality Improvement Initiative, a structured distance education QI training program was designed and deployed in a first large-scale pilot.

Impact of a national campaign on hospital readmissions in home care patients.

Objective: Assess impact of nationwide home health quality improvement campaign to reduce acute care hospitalization of home health recipients.

Design: Observational pre-post comparison of self-selected participating and non-participating agencies' quality performance; survey to determine uptake of program materials.

Setting: US home health care agencies.

Resources for health promotion: rhetoric, research and reality.

Background: Canadian political discourse supports the importance of health promotion and advocates the allocation of health resources to health promotion. Furthermore, the current literature frequently identifies financial and human resources as important elements of organizational capacity for health promotion. In the Alberta Heart Health Project (AHHP), we sought to learn if the allocation of health resources in a regionalized health system was congruent with the espoused support for health promotion in Alberta, Canada.

Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign: the journey and potential impact on clinical practice.

Home health agencies are in a position to respond to patient and healthcare system needs by implementing strategies targeted at reducing avoidable hospitalizations. Many different interventions exist that home care agencies can use in achieving the national goal to reduce avoidable acute care hospitalizations. This article provides an overview of the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign and the efforts directed toward this initiative.

Baseline assessment of organizational capacity for health promotion within regional health authorities in Alberta, Canada.

This paper provides a baseline profile of organizational capacity for (heart) health promotion in Alberta's regional health authorities (RHAs); and examines differences in perceived organizational health promotion capacity specific to modifiable risk factors across three levels of staff and across capacity levels. Baseline data were collected from a purposive sample of 144 board members, senior/middle managers and service providers from 17 RHAs participating in a five-year time-series repeated survey design assessing RHA capacity for (heart) health promotion. Results indicate low levels of capacity to take health promotion action on the broader determinants of health and risk conditions like poverty and social support.

The development of measures of community capacity for community-based funding programs in Canada.

Improving community capacity for influencing actions on the determinants of health is an immediate outcome of many Public Health Agency of Canada-funding community-based programs. Despite the importance of this outcome, it has been difficult to measure and describe the contribution of funding programs to improving community capacity. This paper reports on a study conducted to develop and establish the psychometric properties of scales that measure community capacity to address health issues in the context of federally funded community-based programs.

An examination of the stages of change construct for health promotion within organizations.

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine the organizational stages of change construct of the transtheoretical model of behavior change.

Design/methodology/approach: Data on organizational and individual stages of change for tobacco reduction, physical activity promotion, and heart healthy eating promotion were collected from service provider, senior management, and board level members of provincial health authorities across three data collection periods.

Findings: Results revealed significant correlations between individual and organizational stages of change for management level respondents, but inconsistent relationships for service providers and no significant correlations for board level respondents.

The personal costs of caring for a child with a disability: a review of the literature.

This article presents a review of the literature published from 1989 to 2005 for articles that examined the economic burden incurred by families as a result of caring for a child with disabilities. The review was performed according to a comprehensive economic conceptual model developed by the authors and to the guidelines set out by Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment. The analysis indicated that the burden incurred by these families can be substantial, especially among families who care for a child with a severe disability.

Identifying factors associated with regular physical activity in leisure time among Canadian adolescents.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors explaining regular physical activity among Canadian adolescents.

Design: A cohort study conducted over a period of 2 years.

Setting: A French-language high school located near Québec City.

[French-Canadian validation of the MOS Social Support Survey].

Background: The MOS Social Support Survey was developed for patients who participated in the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS), a two-year study on persons who suffered from chronic illness. There are a number of advantages to using the MOS Social Support Survey, especially with those persons who suffer from chronic illness: it is easy to understand, is relatively short, is multidimensional, can be completed by the patient without assistance and has good psychometric properties.

Objective: The goal of this study was to establish a French-Canadian version of the MOS Social Support Survey and to verify its psychometric properties following the cross-cultural translation and validation procedures proposed by Vallerand.

Development of measures of individual leadership for health promotion.

Purpose: This purpose of this research was to develop and establish psychometric properties of scales measuring individual leadership for health promotion.

Design/methodology/approach: Scales to measure leadership in health promotion were drafted based on capacity assessment instruments developed by other provinces involved in the Canadian Heart Health Initiative (CHHI), and on the literature. Content validity was established through a series of focus groups and expert opinion appraisals and pilot testing.

Development of measures of organizational leadership for health promotion.

This study describes the development and psychometric evaluation of four scales measuring leadership for health promotion at an organizational level in the baseline survey (n=144) of the Alberta Heart Health Project. Content validity was established through a series of focus groups and expert opinion appraisals, pilot testing of a draft based on capacity assessment instruments developed by other provinces involved in the Canadian Heart Health Initiative, and the literature. Psychometric analyses provided empirical evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the organizational leadership scales.

Gender differences in senior management decision making in the New England Area Health Service.

Data from a questionnaire administered to senior managers in the New England Area Health Service (NEAHS) was used to examine gender differences in decision-making processes. The study found that female managers were more likely to report that they included staff in decision-making processes. The small size of the population restricted the statistical analysis; more meaningful findings may result if the study were to be repeated using a larger population of senior managers.

Towards the development of scales to measure 'will' to promote heart health within health organizations in Canada.

This paper describes the development and psychometric evaluation of scales measuring the dimensions of 'will' (belief, confidence, prior action and desire) for heart health promotion specifically and health promotion in general at both an individual and organizational level. Content validity was established through a series of focus groups and expert opinion assessments, based on a compilation of capacity-assessment instruments developed by other provinces involved in the Canadian Heart Health Initiative and the literature. Psychometric analyses of questionnaire data provided empirical evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the 16 individual and 21 organizational level 'will' scales.

Issues in measuring health promotion capacity in Canada: a multi-province perspective.

Significant international progress has been made researching and addressing the economic and social burden of cardiovascular disease, advanced particularly by international conferences and subsequent declarations, and the Canadian Heart Health Initiative (CHHI). The implementation focus of the CHHI on building capacity for heart health promotion is paralleled by efforts to measure capacity. Through the collective experience of Heart Health Programs in Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, critical issues in measuring health promotion capacity are identified and strategies for addressing them are presented.