Inbrief: Nov/Dec 2000

Intervention Focus
	Applied Research Briefs: Fitness
Lee Harrison Mark A. Brennan Alan M. Levine	Physical Activity Patterns and Body Mass Index Scores Among Military Service Members Questionnaires on exercise practices, reasons for exercising, factors that would increase exercise, and demographics were mailed to a stratified random sample of 19,510 active duty personnel in all of the United States military services who were stationed at 38 large military installations and a number of remote locations. Responses were returned by 8,572 (55%). Approximately 63% exercised three times a week for 15-20 minutes, and 15% did not exercise at all. Mean BMI was 25.2. The top five reasons for exercising were to improve physical conditioning, have fun, manage weight, improve appearance and manage stress.
	Smoking Control
Gregory J. Norman Kurt M. Ribisl Beth Howard-Pitney Kim Ammann Howard Jennifer B. Unger	The Relationship Between Home Smoking Bans and Exposure to State Tobacco Control Efforts and Smoking Behavior A telephone survey was conducted among 1315 adult smokers in California as part of the evaluation of the California Tobacco Control, Prevention and Education Program. This study examined the relationship between home smoking bans and adult smokers' exposure to the program. Thirty-two percent of smokers reported hearing about programs to encourage home smoking bans and 28% reported seeing media spots about these programs on TV. Smokers with a home smoking ban were 2.29 times as likely to have heard of the programs and 3.18 times as likely to have seen and talked about a media spot. Those with smoking bans smoked fewer cigarettes per day and had a greater interest in quitting.
	Applied Research Briefs: Smoking Control
Michelle Kegler Vicki Cleaver Beverly Kingsley	The Social Context of Experimenting with Cigarettes: American Indian "Start Stories" Smoking rates among American Indians are higher than any other racial or ethnic group. Focus groups were conducted with 140 American Indian middle school students who were not living on reservations to explore the social context of smoking initiation. Most teens smoked their first cigarettes with friends, siblings or cousins, usually out of curiosity, or in response to peer encouragement. There was no indication of any link between smoking initiation and use of tobacco in traditional ceremonies. Overall, the social context for these teens was very similar to the social context of other teens in the United States.
H. Katherine O'Neill Mary Alice Gillispie Kathleen Slobin	Stages of Change and Smoking Cessation: A Computer-administered Intervention Program for Young Adults Sixty-five college-student smokers were randomly assigned to a four-week computer-administered, stage-based smoking control program or a four-week computer-administered general health education control condition. At post-test, the percentage of students advancing to a higher stage of readiness to change was slightly higher among those in the stage-based program compared to the control condition. At seven month follow-up, both groups reported abstinence rates of approximately 30%. Continuous abstinence for 6 months was 19% for the stage-based group and 14% for the control group at the final follow-up.
Strategies
	Behavior Change
Daniel B. Gold David R. Anderson Seth A. Serxner	Impact of a Telephone-Based Intervention on the Reduction of Health Risks The impact of a telephone-based intervention on 13 health risks was measured using a quasi-experimental pre- and post-measure design involving 607 program participants and 1,134 non-participants from six private and public sector organizations, with follow-up occurring an average of two years later. Participants were 1.8 to 3.5 times as likely to reduce targeted risks in six of the seven areas for which programs were offered. Improvement was also seen among participants versus non-participants in health risk areas not specifically targeted by programs. Overall, program participants reduced overall risks more than non-participants.
Jun Ma Nancy M. Betts Jeff S. Hampl	Clusters of Lifestyle Behaviors: The Relationship Between Cigarette Smoking, Alcohol Consumption and Dietary Intake The relationship between cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary intake, and exercise behavior was analyzed among 6,745 adults and children. Data was collected through a written questionnaire. Men tended to drink and smoke more than women. Smokers and teetotalers tended to be younger, less educated and have lower incomes. Moderate drinkers tended to have the highest incomes. Excessive alcohol use was more common among smokers. Smokers consumed more meat and other high fat foods, and less fruit, vegetables and grains. Exercisers tended to smoke less and drink more than non-exercisers.
	Behavior Change; Medical Self-Care; Nutrition
DeAnn Lazovich Susan J. Curry Shirley A. Beresford Alan R. Kristal Edward H. Wagner	Implementing a Dietary Intervention in Primary Care Practice: A Process Evaluation Physicians in 14 primary care practices were asked to introduce a self-help booklet to promote dietary change during routine appointments. Physicians reported distributing the booklets to 95% of their patients, and 96% of patients reported receiving them, however only 50% of patients reported receiving them from their physician rather than other clinic staff members. Use of the booklet was not related to who distributed the booklet, but it was more likely to be read when the booklet was discussed during the office visit.
	Applied Research Briefs: Behavior Change; Communication
Billie Giles-Corti Robert J. Donovan Shirley Frizzell Geoffrey Jalleh Johanna Clarkson	Increasing the Reach of Health Sponsorship: Using a "Sponsorship Kit" to Promote Heath In Australia, a tobacco tax provides funding for Healthway, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation. Healthway provides sponsorships for the arts and racing and sporting events to replace funds previously provided by tobacco companies. These sponsorships provide visibility for Healthway and positive health messages. Normally, Healthway staff attends these events to help promote health messages. To reduce Healthway staff time spent helping event organizers promote health messages, Healthway developed a sponsor kit of promotional materials which communicate health messages without requiring Healthway staff to attend events. Recognition, awareness, comprehension, and acceptance of health messages was comparable at events that featured Healthway staff versus the sponsor kits, but the average cost of the sponsorship kits was only 40% of the cost when Healthway staff was featured.
	Older Adults; Health Policy
Steven P. Wallace Jennifer R. Levin	Patterns for Health Promotion Programs for Older Adults in Local Health Departments Questionnaires were sent to all 2561 members of the National Association of County Health Officers in 1996; only 492 (19.2%) responded. Almost all departments have health promotion or disease prevention programs available to older adults, but only three-fifths specifically target older adults with these programs. Most of those programs are clinical preventive services, including immunizations.


Abstracts	17 abstracts are featured from a variety of publications.
DataBase: Research and Evaluation Results	Four new studies are critiqued and are added to the DataBase chart.