Predictors of risk-based medical follow-up: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to conduct an intervention study designed to assess the effectiveness of using a newsletter to increase medical follow-up in pediatric cancer survivors at risk of selected treatment complications.

Methods: Survivors participating in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study who were at least 25 years of age and at risk of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, or osteoporosis related to previous cancer treatment were randomly assigned to receive a newsletter featuring brief health risk information or a newsletter including an insert providing more comprehensive health risk information. A follow-up survey distributed 24 months after the newsletter intervention assessed predictors of medical follow-up.

A comparative study of sociocultural factors and young adults' smoking in two Midwestern communities.

Young adults were the only age group to defy the downward trend in cigarette use seen in the 1980s and 1990s. To help explain this phenomenon, we conducted an exploratory study to examine the association between the sociocultural contexts of young adults' everyday lives and their smoking attitudes and behaviors. "Context" was operationalized by (a) including students and nonstudents in the study population, and (b) selecting two distinctly different areas of Minnesota for examination.