Formal and informal spiritual assessment.

Spirituality is increasingly recognized as an essential element of health. A novel model of interprofessional spiritual care was developed by a national consensus conference of experts in spiritual care and palliative care. Integral to this model is a spiritual screening, history or assessment as part of the routine history of patients.

Religion, medicine and spirituality: what we know, what we don't know and what we do.

Religion and spirituality have been linked to medicine and to healing for centuries. However, in the early 1900's the Flexner report noted that there was no place for religion in medicine; that medicine was strictly a scientific field, not a theological or philosophical one. In the mid to the latter 1900's there were several lay movements that started emphasized the importance of religion, spirituality and medicine.

A trajectory model for understanding and assessing health disparities in immigrant/refugee communities.

While numerous factors contributing to racial/ethnic health disparities have been identified, the clustering and interaction of these factors as a syndemic or trajectory has not been well-studied (Starfield in Soc Sci Med 64:1355-1362, 2007; Singer in Soc Sci Med 39(7):931-948, 1994). More importantly, for immigrant/refugee populations, the interaction of contributing factors is not documented adequately enough to provide a solid framework for planning, implementation and evaluation of interventions aimed at reducing disparities. In this paper, the authors draw from the literatures on health disparities and immigrant/refugee health, as well as direct program and research experience, to propose an approach for assessment of the diachronic interaction of ecological factors (a trajectory, or "diachronic ecology") contributing to health disparities among immigrant/refugee populations.

The ghost of public health journalism: past, present, and future.

The news industry is undergoing shrinking newspaper circulations, cuts in science and health coverage, and expansion of Internet news sources. We examine the impact of these changes using a case study set in Libby, Montana. In 1999, a Seattle newspaper story focused attention on asbestos exposure and related diseases in this small town.

Investigating the risk of cancer in 1990-1991 US Gulf War veterans with the use of state cancer registry data.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether proportional cancer incidence is greater among Gulf War veterans compared with non-Gulf War veterans.

Methods: Files obtained from the Defense Manpower Data Center included data for 621,902 veterans who were deployed to the Persian Gulf during the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War (August 2, 1990, to March 1, 1991) and 746,248 non-Gulf War veteran controls. Identification of veterans who received a cancer diagnosis between 1991 and 2006 was accomplished through record linkage of the Defense Manpower Data Center dataset with files from 28 state cancer registries and the Department of Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry.

What is inflammatory breast cancer? Revisiting the case definition.

The case definition for inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is controversial. The American Joint Committee on Cancer defines IBC as redness, warmth and edema involving at least half the breast. The SEER program relies on a pathologic finding of dermal lymphatic invasion and recently added those with clinical involvement of more than 3/4 of the breast.

Recent insights in the epidemiology of autoimmune diseases: improved prevalence estimates and understanding of clustering of diseases.

Previous studies have estimated a prevalence of a broad grouping of autoimmune diseases of 3.2%, based on literature review of studies published between 1965 and 1995, and 5.3%, based on national hospitalization registry data in Denmark.

Assessing the need for on-site eye care professionals in community health centers.

Poor vision health severely impacts school and work performance, quality of life, and life expectancy, and results in billions of dollars in medical expenditures each year. While eye and vision problems are often associated with age, low income and racial and ethnic minorities also have elevated risk of eye problems. Federally-funded community health centers, which are mandated to provide comprehensive primary care in underserved communities, are often the only option to improve vision health for low-income residents.

Characteristics associated with retention among African American and Latino adolescent HIV-positive men: results from the outreach, care, and prevention to engage HIV-seropositive young MSM of color special project of national significance initiative.

Background: Surveillance points to an urgent public health need for HIV prevention, access, and retention among young men of color who have sex with men (YMSM). The purpose of this multisite study was to evaluate the association between organizational- and individual-level characteristics and retention in HIV care among HIV-positive YMSM of color.

Methods: Data were collected quarterly via face-to-face interviews and chart abstraction between June 2006 and September 2008.

Barriers to effective self-management in cardiac patients: the patient's experience.

Objective: This paper identifies common obstacles impeding effective self-management among patients with heart disease and explores how for disadvantaged patients access barriers interfere with typical management challenges to undermine patients' efforts to care for their illnesses.

Methods: We convened 33 focus group discussions with heart patients in 10 U.S.

Health-care reform and school-based health care.

There is growing recognition that health and health care at school can significantly impact children's health. From childhood obesity interventions to new immunization mandates, schools are at the forefront of child health discussions. The 2008 presidential campaign and the renewed focus on health-care reform raise the possibility that in 2009 school health will play a larger role in health policy conversations than previously.

Risk factors driving the emergence of a generalized heterosexual HIV epidemic in Washington, District of Columbia networks at risk.

Objectives: Washington, District of Columbia has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the United States, with heterosexual transmission a leading mode of acquisition and African-American women disproportionately affected. The purpose of this study was to examine risk factors driving the emergence of the local epidemic using National HIV Behavioral Surveillance data from the District of Columbia.

Design: The design of the study is cross-sectional.

Etiologic heterogeneity for cervical carcinoma by histopathologic type, using comparative age-period-cohort models.

Background: Cervical carcinomas comprise two main histopathologic types, squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are causative for both types but the respective tumors may have different carcinogenic pathways.

Methods: To assess potential etiologic heterogeneity of cervical cancer by histopathologic type, we examined invasive squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinoma cervical cancer incidence rates in the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.