Kelli A. Komro

Maribet C. McCarty

Jean L. Forster

Therese M. Blaine

Students in 8th, 9th, and 10th grade completed a questionnaire on monthly smoking use, and their parents completed a telephone interview about their education and marital status, smoking attitudes, norms and habits, as well as communication, rules, consequences and access to cigarettes in their home. Complete data was available for 1343 parent-child dyads. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed higher smoking rates among children in higher grades (O.R. = 3.03), parent's permissiveness about adult smoking (O.R. = 1.80), having higher estimates of how many people smoke (O.R. = 1.70), not punishing their teenager for smoking (O.R. = 1.65), adult smokers living in the house (O.R. = 1.99) and having a sibling who smokes (O.R. = 8.95)

Nineteen adults completed a questionnaire to determine the primary impediments preventing them from quitting smoking, selecting from the seven most common impediments: nicotine dependency, stress, anxiety, depression, weight concerns, cohabitation with a smoker, and chemical dependency. Participants then received a year-long intervention designed to address the impediments they identified. Self-reported quit rates were 63.2% at 8 weeks and 42.1% at 12 and 52 weeks. CO measures confirmed quit rates.

A systematic review of empirical studies published in English in the peer-reviewed literature by December 31, 2001, on applications of the Transtheoretical Model to pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention was conducted to determine the validity of applying this model to these issues, the methods used to determine stage members, and the quality of the evidence for the impact of stage-based intervention efforts. Thirty-two articles were found including 9 intervention, 11 stage distribution, and 12 validation studies. Readiness to adopt protective sexual practices was related to age, partner type, gender, self-efficacy, sexual assertiveness, and perceived pros and cons. Conclusions about the effectiveness of applying this framework to healthy sexual practices are difficult because of the differences in methodologies, samples, and target behaviors.

Edwin D. Boudreaux

Karen B. Wood

Dan Mehan

Isabel Scarinci

Cindy L. Carmack Taylor

A total of 515 mostly African-American and female outpatients visiting primary care clinics which served low-income people were interviewed to study the congruence between stage of readiness to change factors related to physical activity and fat reduction. Only 27% of the sample were in the same stage of readiness to change for both exercise and fat reduction, 37% were one stage apart, and 35% were more than one stage apart. Only 9% were in preparation for both behaviors. Relationships between self-efficacy and decisional balance were highly variable.

David M. DeJoy

This commentary argues that improving the basic structure and organizational fabric of an organization should have a higher priority in workplace health promotion programs. A conceptual framework of a healthy work organization is presented, along with a process for expanding the health promotive capacity of the organization.

Abstracts

DataBase: Research and Evaluation Results

Biometric screening is an integral part of most worksite health promotion programs. Is routine biometric testing of asymptomatic healthy adults a good use of scarce health promotion program dollars? Does biometric testing without structured follow-up interventions actually result in healthier people? Does it reduce long-term health costs? The research on biometric screening does not provide as much support to answer these questions as most people think. These and other issues are reviewed, and a framework to construct the most appropriate screening program is described.

Seven abstracts relevant to this topic are provided.