Behavioral assessments in Russian addiction treatment inpatients: a comparison of audio computer-assisted self-interviewing and interviewer-administered questionnaires.

Purpose: Assess agreement between reported sex and drug use behaviors from audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI) and interviewer-administered questionnaire (IAQ).

Method: Participants (N = 180) enrolled in an HIV intervention trial in Russia completed ACASI and IAQ on the same day. Agreement between responses was evaluated.

Mitigating risky sexual behaviors among Russian narcology hospital patients: the PREVENT (Partnership to Reduce the Epidemic Via Engagement in Narcology Treatment) randomized controlled trial.

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of a sexual risk reduction intervention in the Russian narcology hospital setting.

Design, Setting And Participants: This was a randomized controlled trial from October 2004 to December 2005 among patients with alcohol and/or heroin dependence from two narcology hospitals in St Petersburg, Russia.

Intervention: Intervention subjects received two personalized sexual behavior counseling sessions plus three telephone booster sessions.

Household food insecurity: associations with at-risk infant and toddler development.

Objectives: In this study, we evaluated the relationship between household food security status and developmental risk in young children, after controlling for potential confounding variables.

Methods: The Children's Sentinel Nutritional Assessment Program interviewed (in English, Spanish, or Somali) 2010 caregivers from low-income households with children 4 to 36 months of age, at 5 pediatric clinic/emergency department sites (in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania). Interviews included demographic questions, the US Food Security Scale, and the Parents' Evaluations of Developmental Status.

Breastfeeding and health outcomes among citizen infants of immigrant mothers.

Objective: To examine the associations between breastfeeding and child health outcomes among citizen infants of mothers immigrant to the United States.

Design/methods: From September 1998 through June 2004, as part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, a sentinel sample of 3,592 immigrant mothers with infants aged 0 to 12 months were interviewed in emergency departments or pediatric clinics in six sites. Mothers reported breastfeeding history, child health history, household demographics, government assistance program participation, and household food security.

Heat or eat: the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and nutritional and health risks among children less than 3 years of age.

Objectives: Public funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has never been sufficient to serve more than a small minority of income-eligible households. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding has not increased with recent rapidly rising energy costs, harsh winter conditions, or higher child poverty rates. Although a national performance goal for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is to increase the percentage of recipient households having > or = 1 member < or = 5 years of age, the association of income-eligible households' receipt of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program with indicators of well-being in young children has not been evaluated previously.

Barriers to following the supine sleep recommendation among mothers at four centers for the Women, Infants, and Children Program.

Objectives: The risk for sudden infant death syndrome in black infants is twice that of white infants, and their parents are less likely to place them in the supine position for sleep. We previously identified barriers for parents to follow recommendations for sleep position. Our objective with this study was to quantify these barriers, particularly among low-income, primarily black mothers.

Racial and ethnic differences in health and health care: lessons from an inner-city patient population actively using heroin and cocaine.

This study describes differences in health care utilization and recorded diagnoses in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of 1175 out-of-treatment patients who screened positive for heroin and cocaine use during an outpatient visit to a drop-in clinic at an urban hospital. Blacks averaged more ED visits than Whites and higher average yearly ED charges than Hispanics (1,991 dollars vs. 1,603 dollars).

Child food insecurity increases risks posed by household food insecurity to young children's health.

The US Food Security Scale (USFSS) measures household and child food insecurity (CFI) separately. Our goal was to determine whether CFI increases risks posed by household food insecurity (HFI) to child health and whether the Food Stamp Program (FSP) modifies these effects. From 1998 to 2004, 17,158 caregivers of children ages 36 mo were interviewed in six urban medical centers.

Racial and ethnic diversity among a heroin and cocaine using population: treatment system utilization.

Knowledge about the meanings and consequences of behaviors associated with drug use among diverse populations is essential for developing effective public health and clinical strategies. In this study we identify racial/ethnic variations in patterns of drug use, Addiction Severity Index (ASI) scores, response to intervention, concordance between self-report of drug use and biochemical confirmation, and treatment system contacts in a sample of 1175 out-of-treatment cocaine and heroin users drawn from a trial of brief motivation in the outpatient clinics of an inner-city academic hospital. Key differences were identified in drug of choice, in all of the ASI domains except medical, in validity of self-report of use, and in rate of treatment contact.

Barriers to following the back-to-sleep recommendations: insights from focus groups with inner-city caregivers.

Background: African American infants have a higher incidence of SIDS and increased risk of being placed in the prone position for sleep.

Objective: To determine new barriers and more information about previously identified barriers that interfere with adherence to the Back-to-Sleep recommendations among inner-city, primarily African Americans.

Design/methods: We conducted 9 focus groups with caregivers of infants and young children from women, infants, and children centers and clinics in New Haven and Boston.

Subsidized housing and children's nutritional status: data from a multisite surveillance study.

Background: A critical shortage of affordable housing for low-income families continues in the United States. Children in households that are food insecure are at high risk for adverse nutritional and health outcomes and thus may be more vulnerable to the economic pressures exerted by high housing costs. Only about one fourth of eligible families receive a federally financed housing subsidy.

Predictors of disclosure of continued cocaine use.

Lack of disclosure of substance use is common in research and treatment settings and is frequently higher at follow-up than at baseline interviews. The aim of this study was to determine predictors of cocaine use disclosure at follow-up among 525 individuals who reported and tested positive for baseline use. Measurements included self-reported quantity and frequency of use, and hair analysis by radioimmune assay.

Brief motivational intervention at a clinic visit reduces cocaine and heroin use.

Background: Brief intervention is effective for alcohol misuse, but not adequately tested in the clinical setting with drug using patients. This study tested the impact of a single, structured encounter targeting cessation of drug use, conducted between peer educators and out-of-treatment cocaine and heroin users screened in the context of a routine medical visit.

Methods: A randomized, controlled trial was conducted in inner-city teaching hospital outpatient clinics with 3 and 6 months follow-up by blinded observers.

Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children participation and infants' growth and health: a multisite surveillance study.

Context: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is the largest food supplement program in the United States, serving almost 7 500 000 participants in 2002. Because the program is a grant program, rather than an entitlement program, Congress is not mandated to allocate funds to serve all eligible participants. Little is known about the effects of WIC on infant growth, health, and food security.

Food insecurity is associated with adverse health outcomes among human infants and toddlers.

The U.S. Household Food Security Scale, developed with federal support for use in national surveys, is an effective research tool.

Hair testing and self-report of cocaine use by heroin users.

Aim: Failure to disclose cocaine use can have a negative impact on medical care and research validity. This study was performed to identify predictors of cocaine non-disclosure among individuals who self-reported heroin use during a medical care encounter.

Design: A prospective comparison of self-report of cocaine use among heroin users and hair analysis for cocaine.

Maternal depression, changing public assistance, food security, and child health status.

Objective: To examine the association of positive report on a maternal depression screen (PDS) with loss or reduction of welfare support and foods stamps, household food insecurity, and child health measures among children aged < or =36 months at 6 urban hospitals and clinics.

Methods: A convenience sample of 5306 mothers, whose children <36 months old were being seen in hospital general clinics or emergency departments (EDs) at medical centers in 5 states and Washington, District of Columbia, were interviewed from January 1, 2000 until December 31, 2001. Questions included items on sociodemographic characteristics, federal program participation and changes in federal benefits, child health status rating, child's history of hospitalizations since birth, household food security status, and a 3-question PDS.

Welfare reform and the health of young children: a sentinel survey in 6 US cities.

Context: Welfare reform under the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act replaced entitlement to cash assistance for low-income families with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, thereby terminating or decreasing cash support for many participants. Proponents anticipated that continued receipt of food stamps would offset the effects of cash benefit losses, although access to food stamps was also restricted.

Objective: To examine associations of loss or reduction of welfare with food security and health outcomes among children aged 36 months or younger at 6 urban hospitals and clinics.

Late Life Function and Disability Instrument: II. Development and evaluation of the function component.

Background: Self-reported capability in physical functioning has long been considered an important focus of research for older persons. Current measures have been criticized, however, for conceptual confusion, lack of sensitivity to change, poor reproducibility, and inability to capture a wide range of upper and lower extremity functioning.

Methods: Using Nagi's disablement model, we wrote physical functioning questionnaire items that assessed difficulty in 48 common daily tasks.

Late life function and disability instrument: I. Development and evaluation of the disability component.

Background: Efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical and community-based interventions designed to impact late-life disability have been hindered significantly by limitations in current instrumentation. More conceptually sound and responsive measures of disability are needed.

Methods: Applying Nagi's disablement model, we wrote questionnaire items that assessed disability in terms of frequency and limitation in performance of 25 life tasks.

Age of drinking onset, driving after drinking, and involvement in alcohol related motor-vehicle crashes.

This study assessed whether persons who begin drinking at younger ages are more likely to report drunk driving and alcohol-related crash involvement over the life course, even after controlling analytically for diagnosis of alcohol dependence, years of drinking alcohol, and other personal characteristics associated with the age respondents started drinking. A national survey asked 42,862 respondents the age that they started drinking, whether they drove after drinking too much, and whether they were in motor-vehicle crashes because of their drinking. This analysis focused on 27,081 (65%), who reported ever drinking in their lifetime.