Underride safety protection: benefit-cost assessment of rear-impact guards for the North Dakota farm truck fleet.

Objective: The North Dakota Legislature recently passed a law exempting the state's agricultural truck fleet from a federal safety program requirement for rear-guard equipment on large trucks. This equipment has been shown to reduce crash severity when a passenger vehicle collides with the rear of the truck. This study uses truck fleet, truck crash, and injury severity data to estimate the public safety benefit derived from passenger-vehicle underride protection during rear-end crashes involving large agricultural trucks in North Dakota.

Using HIV voluntary counseling and testing data for monitoring the Uganda HIV epidemic, 1992-2000.

Objective: To assess trends in the prevalence of HIV infection among voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clients in Uganda and to describe the utility of VCT data for monitoring the HIV epidemic in 1992-2000.

Methods: We analyzed routinely collected data from first-time VCT clients not reporting illness as a reason for testing. We developed a model adjusting for test site, couple testing, and premarital testing, assessed trends in adjusted prevalence of HIV infection and shifts in age-specific peak prevalence, and compared antenatal clinic (ANC) surveillance data and VCT prevalence trends.