African American organ donor registration: a mixed methods design using the theory of planned behavior.

Context: A large racial disparity exists in organ donation.

Objective: To identify factors associated with becoming a registered organ donor among African Americans in Alabama.

Methods: Concurrent mixed methods design guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior to analyze African Americans' decisions to become a registered organ donor by using both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) methods.

Perceptions of harm to health from cigarettes, blunts, and marijuana among young adult African American men.

Objectives: To assess perceptions and knowledge of health effects of smoking tobacco, blunts, and marijuana among adult African American (AA) men aged 19-30 in five Black Belt counties of rural Alabama.

Methods: Cross-sectional study using interviewer-administered oral surveys.

Results: Four hundred and fifteen participants completed surveys.

Sexual violence and associated factors among women in HIV discordant and concordant relationships in Uganda.

HIV serodiscordance is a sexual partnership in which one partner is infected with HIV while the other is not. Managing emotional and sexual intimacy in HIV serodiscordant unions can be difficult due to concerns about HIV transmission and the challenge of initiating and maintaining safe sex. In situations where couples are jointly aware of their HIV status, women in serodiscordant unions may face increased risk of partner violence.

Spiritual health locus of control and health behaviors in African Americans.

Objective: To examine relationships between spiritual health locus of control beliefs and various health behaviors.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of a national sample of African Americans assessed spiritual beliefs, fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and alcohol consumption.

Results: Active spiritual beliefs were positively associated with fruit consumption and negatively associated with alcohol consumption.

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) exposure and diabetes: results from the Anniston Community Health Survey.

Background: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) manufactured in Anniston, Alabama, from 1929 to 1971 caused significant environmental contamination. The Anniston population remains one of the most highly exposed in the world.

Objectives: Reports of increased diabetes in PCB-exposed populations led us to examine possible associations in Anniston residents.

Patterns of blunt use among rural young adult African-American men.

Background: Blunts are hollowed-out cigars or leaf tobacco filled with marijuana. Use of blunts has increased since the 1990s and, in 2005, 3.5% of all American youth were estimated to have used blunts in the past month.

Self-perceived lactose intolerance results in lower intakes of calcium and dairy foods and is associated with hypertension and diabetes in adults.

Background: Self-perceived lactose intolerance may result in adverse dietary modifications; thus, more studies are needed to understand the prevalence of self-perceived lactose intolerance and how it relates to calcium intake and selected health conditions.

Objective: The objective was to examine the effects of self-perceived lactose intolerance as it relates to calcium intake and specific health problems that have been attributed to reduced intakes of calcium and dairy foods in a nationally representative multiethnic sample of adults.

Design: This was a cross-sectional study in a national sample of 3452 adults.

Tobacco use among rural African American young adult males.

Objective: Tobacco-related disease is a primary source of mortality for African American men. Recent studies suggest that alternative tobacco products may have supplanted cigarettes as the most common products used by young African Americans. Effective cessation strategies require community-specific prevalence data.

Blood pressure in relation to concentrations of PCB congeners and chlorinated pesticides.

Background: Residents of Anniston, Alabama, live near a Monsanto plant that manufactured polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 1929 to 1971 and are relatively heavily exposed.

Objectives: The goal of this study was to determine the relationship, if any, between blood pressure and levels of total serum PCBs, several PCB groups with common actions or structure, 35 individual PCB congeners, and nine chlorinated pesticides.

Methods: Linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationships between blood pressure and serum levels of the various contaminants after adjustment for age, body mass index, sex, race, smoking, and exercise in 394 Anniston residents who were not taking antihypertensive medication.

Experience of sexual violence among women in HIV discordant unions after voluntary HIV counselling and testing: a qualitative critical incident study in Uganda.

HIV-serodiscordant relationships are those in which one partner is infected with HIV while the other is not. We investigated experiences of sexual violence among women in HIV discordant unions attending HIV post-test club services in Uganda. A volunteer sample of 26 women from three AIDS Information Centres in Uganda who reported having experienced sexual violence in a larger epidemiological study were interviewed, using the qualitative critical incident technique.

Vaginal douches and other feminine hygiene products: women's practices and perceptions of product safety.

Objective: Use of vaginal douche products has been linked with a variety of reproductive health problems; nonetheless, the practice of douching persists. The goals of this study were to 1) determine the use of vaginal douches and other feminine hygiene products, 2) ascertain how safe women think vaginal douche products are, and 3) evaluate women's readiness to stop douching.

Methods: A random-digit-dial computer-assisted telephone survey was conducted among US women between the ages of 18 and 44.