Assessment of Hepatitis B Virus Screening Behaviors among Asian-Americans through the Lens of Social Cognitive Theory.

Background And Purpose: Asian-Americans suffer from significant liver cancer disparity caused by chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Understanding psychosocial predictors of HBV screening is critical to designing effective interventions.

Methods: Chinese-, Korean-, and Vietnamese-Americans in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region (N=877) were recruited from community-based organizations.

Impact of Adding Telephone-Based Care Coordination to Standard Telephone-Based Smoking Cessation Counseling Post-hospital Discharge: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Cessation counseling and pharmacotherapy are recommended for hospitalized smokers, but better coordination between cessation counselors and providers might improve utilization of pharmacotherapy and enhance smoking cessation.

Objective: To compare smoking cessation counseling combined with care coordination post-hospitalization to counseling alone on uptake of pharmacotherapy and smoking cessation.

Design: Unblinded, randomized clinical trial PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalized smokers referred from primarily rural hospitals INTERVENTIONS: Counseling only (C) consisted of telephone counseling provided during the hospitalization and post-discharge.

Cancer survivors in the workplace: sleep disturbance mediates the impact of cancer on healthcare expenditures and work absenteeism.

Purpose: History of cancer is significantly associated with increases in healthcare costs, worse work performance, and higher absenteeism in the workplace. This is particularly important as most cancer survivors return to employment. Sleep disturbance is a largely overlooked potential contributor to these changes.

Predictors of adherence to follow-up recommendations after an abnormal Pap smear among underserved inner-city women.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify cognitive-affective predictors of adherence to initial diagnostic colposcopy and 6-month follow-up recommendations among underserved women.

Methods: A secondary data analysis was completed of a randomized clinical trial assessing tailored telephone counseling for colposcopy adherence after an abnormal screening Pap smear among 210 underserved inner-city women.

Results: Adherence to initial diagnostic colposcopy was significantly associated with greater self-efficacy (OR=1.

Novel Method for Recruiting Representative At-Risk Individuals into Cancer Prevention Trials: Online Health Risk Assessment in Employee Wellness Programs.

Participation in cancer prevention trials (CPT) is lower than 3 % among high-risk healthy individuals, and racial/ethnic minorities are the most under-represented. Novel recruitment strategies are therefore needed. Online health risk assessment (HRA) serves as a gateway component of nearly all employee wellness programs (EWPs) and may be a missed opportunity.

Trouble Sleeping Associated With Lower Work Performance and Greater Health Care Costs: Longitudinal Data From Kansas State Employee Wellness Program.

Objective: To examine the relationships between employees' trouble sleeping and absenteeism, work performance, and health care expenditures over a 2-year period.

Methods: Utilizing the Kansas State employee wellness program (EWP) data set from 2008 to 2009, multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted with trouble sleeping as the predictor and absenteeism, work performance, and health care costs as the outcomes.

Results: EWP participants (N = 11,698 in 2008; 5636 followed up in 2009) who had higher levels of sleep disturbance were more likely to be absent from work (all P < 0.

Associations between Poor Sleep Quality and Stages of Change of Multiple Health Behaviors among Participants of Employee Wellness Program.

Objective: Using the Transtheoretical Model of behavioral change, this study evaluates the relationship between sleep quality and the motivation and maintenance processes of healthy behavior change.

Methods: The current study is an analysis of data collected in 2008 from an online health risk assessment (HRA) survey completed by participants of the Kansas State employee wellness program (N=13,322). Using multinomial logistic regression, associations between self-reported sleep quality and stages of change (i.

Development and preliminary testing of PROGRESS: a Web-based education program for prostate cancer survivors transitioning from active treatment.

Purpose: This formative research study describes the development and preliminary evaluation of a theory-guided, online multimedia psycho-educational program (PROGRESS) designed to facilitate adaptive coping among prostate cancer patients transitioning from treatment into long-term survivorship.

Methods: Guided by the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing Model (C-SHIP) and using health communications best practices, we conducted a two-phase, qualitative formative research study with early stage prostate cancer patients (n = 29) to inform the Web program development. Phase 1 included individual (n = 5) and group (n = 12) interviews to help determine intervention content and interface.

Psychosocial barriers to follow-up adherence after an abnormal cervical cytology test result among low-income, inner-city women.

Objectives: Low-income, inner-city women bear a disproportionate burden of cervical cancer in both incidence and mortality rates in the United States, largely because of low adherence to follow-up recommendations after an abnormal cervical cytology result in the primary care setting. The goals of the present study were to delineate the theory-based psychosocial barriers underlying these persistent low follow-up rates and their sociodemographic correlates.

Methods: Guided by a well-validated psychosocial theory of health behaviors, this cross-sectional, correlational study assessed the barriers to follow-up adherence among underserved women (N = 210) who received an abnormal cervical cytology result.

Tailored telephone counseling to improve adherence to follow-up regimens after an abnormal pap smear among minority, underserved women.

Objective: The present study explored the impact of a tailored telephone counseling intervention on increasing follow-up adherence after an abnormal Pap smear result among low-income, minority women, which may reduce cervical cancer disparity.

Methods: Participants (N=211) were randomly assigned to receive: (1) a telephone reminder that included an assessment of barriers to adherence, as well as counseling tailored to the barriers elicited; (2) telephone reminder and barriers assessment, followed by a mailed home tailored barriers print brochure; or (3) enhanced standard care comprising telephone reminder and barriers assessment. Assessments were obtained at initial contact and 1-week later, as well as at 6- and 12-months after the initial colposcopy.

Adherence to cancer screening guidelines and predictors of improvement among participants in the Kansas State Employee Wellness Program.

Introduction: Employee wellness programs (EWPs) have been used to implement worksite-based cancer prevention and control interventions. However, little is known about whether these programs result in improved adherence to cancer screening guidelines or how participants' characteristics affect subsequent screening. This study was conducted to describe cancer screening behaviors among participants in a state EWP and identify factors associated with screening adherence among those who were initially nonadherent.

Ongoing self-engagement in quit attempts and cessation outcomes among rural smokers who were unable to quit after 2 years of repeated interventions.

Purpose: As many smokers experience repeated failures with cessation attempts, it has been postulated that we may create a cadre of highly resistant smokers who are unlikely to engage in treatment or succeed in quitting. Our purpose was to follow a group of recalcitrant rural smokers and examine their ongoing engagement in smoking cessation activities.

Methods: At the end of a 24-month disease management program for rural smokers, we identified participants who reported ongoing daily smoking despite exposure to 4 previous cycles of smoking cessation interventions.

Change in self-efficacy, autonomous and controlled motivation predicting smoking.

Although motivational interviewing (MI) has been shown to be effective in changing health behaviors, its effects on smoking cessation have been mixed. The purpose of the present study is to assess factors of motivation and self-efficacy as they mediate the relationship between MI and smoking cessation. This is a secondary analysis of an MI based smoking cessation randomized trial.

Family caregivers' attributions about care-recipient behaviour: does caregiver relationship satisfaction mediate the attribution-distress relationship?

Objectives: The relations of caregiver attributions about care-recipient's problem behaviour to caregiving relationship satisfaction and caregiver distress were examined.

Design: This is a cross sectional study. Seventy-five family caregivers of individuals diagnosed with various disabling health conditions were recruited and interviewed.

Paraffin-related injury in low-income South African communities: knowledge, practice and perceived risk.

Objective: To explore what individuals at risk of injury from using paraffin (also known as kerosene) know about paraffin safety, what they do to protect themselves and their families from paraffin-related injury, and how they perceive their risk for such injury. Also, to explore interrelations between these factors and age, sex, education and income.

Methods: A sample of 238 individuals was randomly recruited from low-income housing districts near Cape Town, South Africa in 2007.

An intervention to reduce kerosene-related burns and poisonings in low-income South African communities.

Objective: Unintentional injury rates in low- and middle-income countries are up to 50 times higher than high-income nations. In South Africa, kerosene (paraffin) is a leading cause of poisoning and burns, particularly in low-income communities where it serves as a primary fuel for light, cooking, and heating. This study tested a community-based intervention to reduce kerosene-related injury risk.

Outcome expectancy as a moderator of mental fatigue influence on cardiovascular response.

Female undergraduates performed an easy (fatigue low) or difficult (fatigue high) scanning task and then were presented mental arithmetic problems with instructions that they would earn a high or low chance of winning a prize if they did as well as or better than 50% of those who had performed previously. As expected, blood pressure responses in the second work period rose or tended to rise with fatigue where the chance of winning was high. By contrast, the responses tended weakly to decline with fatigue where the chance of winning was low.

Communal Behaviors and Psychological Adjustment of Family Caregivers and Persons With Spinal Cord Injury.

OBJECTIVE: Examined the influence of mutual communal behaviors on the adjustment reported by persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their family caregivers. Previous research has found that persons who have a history of mutually communal behaviors in relationships may react differently to relationship changes after an acquired physical disability than dyads with few communal behaviors. METHOD: Family caregivers and persons with SCI were administered measures of mutual communal behaviors, depression, and life satisfaction.