Predictors of non-adoption of cigarette smoking following experimentation.

The Childhood Antecedents of Smoking Study (CASS) investigated patterns of cigarette smoking among junior and senior high school students in an upper midwest school district. Four biannual school-based surveys were conducted over two years. A cohort of 72 smokers was identified and followed to determine who continued smoking and who quit.

Four- and five-year follow-up results from four seventh-grade smoking prevention strategies.

Recent studies have suggested that a prevention program that addresses the social influences that encourage smoking can be effective in deterring cigarette use by adolescents. This study presents 4- and 5-year follow-up results from two studies which evaluated three variations of this social influences model and compared them to a health consequences program and an existing-curriculum condition. The results suggest that a seventh-grade program, built around the social influences model and taught jointly by same-age peer leaders and local classroom teachers, may reduce 4-year weekly- and daily-smoking cumulative incidence rates, providing the first evidence for any long-term effects for the social influences model.

Beliefs among black and white adults about causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease: the Minnesota Heart Survey.

We assessed beliefs about the symptoms, causes, and prevention of cardiovascular disease in population-based surveys of black and white Twin Cities adults in 1985-86. Whites had a generally higher awareness of heart attack symptoms than did blacks; 72% of blacks and 85% of whites mentioned chest pain as a likely symptom. Sixty-five percent of blacks and 76% of whites correctly offered at least one of the three major, modifiable risk factors (smoking, hypertension, and high cholesterol in blood or diet) as likely causes of cardiovascular disease.

Smoking prevalence in a cohort of adolescents, including absentees, dropouts, and transfers.

This study reports daily smoking rates among older adolescents obtained by a unique follow-up of a cohort originally identified in the seventh grade. Those no longer in their original school districts were located and interviewed by telephone. Smoking rates among dropouts exceeded 70 per cent in all age-sex groups.

Hypertension prevention through nutrition education in youth: a school-based program involving parents.

One approach to the prevention of high blood pressure may be the reduction of sodium intake early in life. To test the effect of nutrition education for salt use in third-grade students (ages 7 to 9), three teaching programs involving a classroom curriculum, a home-based curriculum, or the combination were compared to a control group. Thirty-one schools with 1,839 students were included.

Cardiovascular risk factor change--1973-74 to 1980-82: the Minnesota Heart Survey.

Reductions in population risk factor levels, including blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and cigarette smoking may be associated with the observed decline in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rates. However, few recent population-based comparisons of risk trends are available. To evaluate changes in these risk characteristics in the recent period, data were compared from two surveys performed in the same metropolitan area using similar methods.

The prevention of cigarette smoking in children: two- and three-year follow-up comparisons of four prevention strategies.

Recent studies have suggested that a prevention program that addresses the social influences that encourage smoking can be effective in deterring cigarette use by adolescents. This study presents 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up results from two studies which evaluated three variations of the social influences curriculum and compared them to a health consequences program and a usual-care comparison group. These results suggest that a peer-led, social influences program can restrain smoking among both baseline nonsmokers and baseline experimental smokers at 2 years postintervention.

Relationships among type A behavior, employment experiences, and gender: the Minnesota Heart Survey.

Previous studies indicate that Type A behavior is more prevalent among men than women. This sex difference may reflect variations in men's and women's job experiences, some of which may act as catalysts for Type A behavior. This study examines the relationship of Type A behavior (measured by the Jenkins Activity Survey) to men's and women's work hours, occupational mobility, and job-related interactions, using data from a population-based survey of 2512 employed men and women conducted in Minneapolis-St.

Nutrient intake in a metropolitan area, 1973-74 vs 1980-82: the Minnesota Heart Survey.

Trends in dietary intake in the Twin Cities metropolitan area were measured by comparing data from two independent surveys conducted in 1973-74 and 1980-82. Dietary information was collected by 24-h recall and coded by a single coding center. For men reported caloric intake declined significantly and fat, protein, and carbohydrate each declined approximately 6%; changes in reported dietary intake for women were smaller and mostly nonsignificant.

Predicting experimentation with cigarettes: the childhood antecedents of smoking study (CASS).

In a two-year investigation of cigarette smoking incidence in a population of Minnesota adolescents, the perceived smoking behavior of friends at baseline was a strong predictor of smoking onset. Additional predictors included: siblings' smoking behavior, parents' education level, and seven psychosocial scales including independence and rebelliousness. Smoking prevention strategies which teach youth to cope with social influences are well founded.

Systematic risk factor screening and education: a community-wide approach to prevention of coronary heart disease.

Within a community-wide heart disease prevention effort, it was hypothesized that personalized risk factor screening and education would result in modified health behaviors and reduced risk factor levels for coronary heart disease. Adults from a population sample were randomized to a community-wide screening and education program or were excluded from that program for 1 year. At the end of that year, both groups were measured for risk factor levels and related health behaviors.

Marital status and cardiovascular risk: the Minnesota Heart Survey and the Minnesota Heart Health Program.

The relationship between marital status and cardiovascular risk was examined among 7,849 midwestern men and women in a community-based study. Separated/divorced persons report the highest rates of hospitalization for heart attack/stroke. Married and widowed persons report lower and intermediate rates, respectively, of such hospitalization.

[Prevention and treatment of hypertension at the population level: the Minnesota Heart Health Program].

The Minnesota Heart Health Program is a ten year research and demonstration trial for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease. Community wide prevention and control of hypertension is among the major goals of this study. Systematic population screening for hypertension, mass media campaigns, adult and youth education programs, physician and health professional programs, and community organization efforts are part of the multiple strategy approach to prevention.

[Primary prevention of hypertension in childhood (the population approach)].

A substantial prevalence of clinical hypertension with a large portion of the adult population requiring daily antihypertensive medication makes this disease an important public health problem. The known and unknown side effects of life-long pharmacologic therapy directs searches for methods of prevention. Because the origins of high blood pressure are found in children, at a point in life where health habits are established, preventive programs directed to youth seem particularly relevant.

Community-wide prevention strategies: evaluation design of the Minnesota Heart Health Program.

The Minnesota Heart Health Program (MHHP) is a community-based research and demonstration program designed to accelerate population-wide changes in coronary risk factors and disease. MHHP is on-going in three pairs of communities in Minnesota, North and South Dakota. To strengthen inference of program effects, its basic design involves elements of control, repetition, sensitive trend measurements and evaluation of the effects of program components.

Community-wide prevention of cardiovascular disease: education strategies of the Minnesota Heart Health Program.

The Minnesota Heart Health Program (MHHP) is a research and demonstration project of population-wide primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Study goals are to achieve reductions in cardiovascular disease risk factors and morbidity and mortality in three education communities compared with three reference communities. The program in the first of the three intervention communities, Mankato, has been operating for 3 of the planned 5 years.

Population strategies to enhance physical activity: the Minnesota Heart Health Program.

A population-wide, community-based program in cardiovascular disease prevention, the Minnesota Heart Health Program (MHHP), has been designed to promote more frequent and vigorous physical activity in North American communities, along with improved eating and smoking patterns. The physical activity component of this broad-based education strategy is based on the facilitation which physical activity provides to lowering of other risk characteristics for heart disease and its enhancement of other healthy behaviors and on the potential for prevention of elevated risk in the first place. The rationale for a population strategy to complement medical approaches to prevention is that exercise patterns are largely socially learned and culturally determined.

Characteristics of participants and nonparticipants in a community cardiovascular disease risk factor screening: the Minnesota Heart Health Program.

This research attempts to characterize participants and nonparticipants in a cardiovascular risk screening and education program in terms of their beliefs about personal susceptibility to heart disease, integration into the community, and general pattern of health-promoting behaviors. Telephone surveys were conducted with 76 participants and 76 nonparticipants in the risk factor screening. Participation was strongly related to several health-promoting behaviors (dental checkups and seat belt use) and several measures of integration into the community.

Smoke exposure in pipe and cigar smokers. Serum thiocyanate measures.

Pipe or cigar smoking traditionally has been considered a less risky alternative to cigarette smoking. Some surveys and experimental studies have suggested, however, that former cigarette smokers who switch to cigars and/or pipe (CP) are more likely to inhale then CP users who never smoked cigarettes; but this relationship has not been consistently noted. To clarify smoke-exposure levels from CP smoking, smoking histories and serum thiocyanate (SCN) levels were studied in 9,106 adults aged 25 to 74 years in population-based surveys of seven upper Midwestern communities.

The primary prevention of high blood pressure: a population approach.

This article presents our view of the evidence and strategies for the primary prevention of high blood pressure. We (a) attempt to indicate where the potential for prevention, along with relative safety, is sufficient for action, and (b) provide an outline of our ideas and experience in communicating these strategies. We believe that a unified preventive message and plan to control and prevent high blood pressure in whole communities is possible.

Leisure time physical activity and its relationship to coronary risk factors in a population-based sample. The Minnesota Heart Survey.

Energy expenditure in leisure time physical activity was measured using the Minnesota Leisure Time Physical Activity Questionnaire in a probability sample of 25- to 74-year-old residents of the seven-county metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Geometric mean estimates of leisure time physical energy expenditure were 193 kcal per day for men and 111 kcal per day for women.

The random-zero versus the standard mercury sphygmomanometer: a systematic blood pressure difference.

The random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers are used frequently, and sometimes interchangeably, in epidemiologic studies. To determine whether there is a systematic difference between them, the authors measured systolic, fourth-phase, and fifth-phase diastolic blood pressures using both sphygmomanometers simultaneously in a series of six experiments. For most experiments, the system for simultaneous blood pressure measurements employed one cuff connected to both sphygmomanometers, which were carefully calibrated and read by two trained technicians using a double stethoscope.