Understanding Determinants of Cardiovascular Health in a Mexican American Community.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in Hispanic Americans. Social and physical determinants of health unique to this community must be understood before interventions can be designed and implemented. This article describes a CVD risk assessment conducted in a primarily Mexican American community, using Healthy People 2020 as a model.

Does knowledge of coronary artery calcium affect cardiovascular risk perception, likelihood of taking action, and health-promoting behavior change?

Background: Evidence indicates that a healthy lifestyle can reduce cardiovascular disease risk, yet many people engage in unhealthy behaviors. New technologies such as coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening detect atherosclerosis before clinical disease is manifested. Knowledge of an abnormal finding could provide the "teachable moment" to enhance motivation for change.

Cardiovascular risk factors and lifestyle habits among preventive cardiovascular nurses.

Unlabelled: The cornerstone of cardiovascular disease prevention is the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and the identification and reduction of cardiovascular risk factors. Cardiology nurses play a major role in counseling patients about lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors. We used an e-mail survey to elicit self-reported prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and healthy lifestyles among the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (PCNA) members and compared their risk profiles with published data for American cardiologists, the Nurses' Health Study 2, and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey data for women.

The relationships among self-esteem, stress, coping, eating behavior, and depressive mood in adolescents.

The prevalence of adolescent overweight is significant, almost 25% in some minorities, and often is associated with depressive symptoms. Psychological and psychosocial factors as well as poor coping skills have been correlated with unhealthy eating and obesity. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among self-esteem, stress, social support, and coping; and to test a model of their effects on eating behavior and depressive mood in a sample of 102 high school students (87% minority).

Upper-body progressive resistance training improves strength and household physical activity performance in women attending cardiac rehabilitation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of moderate-intensity, progressive, upper-body resistance training (RT) on muscle strength and perceived performance of household physical activities (HPA) among women in cardiac rehabilitation.

Methods: The 10-week, pretest-posttest, experiment randomized women to either usual care (UC) aerobic exercise or RT. Muscle strength for 5 upper-body RT exercises (chest press, shoulder press, biceps curl, lateral row, and triceps extension) was measured using the 1-Repetition Maximum Assessment.