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Biomedical subjects

C F Turner

Publications and source records attributed to C F Turner.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Quality of alcohol use histories collected at intake to substance user treatment.

Many survey questions on alcohol require complex cognitive tasks, such as long-term recall, shifting reference periods, and numeric calculation. Moreover, alcohol-related impairment is known to affect cognitive ability. To assess the quality of data on self-reported alcohol use, internal consistency analyses were conducted as part of a comprehensive multisite prospective study of drug user treatment outcome undertaken in 11 cities throughout the United States (DATOS). Contrary to expectation, analyses found high levels of internal consistency. For questions on age of initiation of different types of alcohol use, over 99% of respondents (N = 2,842) reported consistent answers for each pair of logically related questions. Reports of being drunk and of quantity of alcohol consumed were similarly consistent.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Behavioral studies relevant to vaccine trial preparation: an introduction.

Preparations for large-scale trials to test the efficacy of candidate HIV vaccines can benefit in several crucial ways from a targeted program of behavioral and social research. Randomized field experiments testing alternative procedures for the recruitment and retention of subjects can help identify research procedures that will ensure adequate sample sizes while minimizing sample attrition over time. Similarly, assuring that subjects accurately comprehend the potential risks of participation will require more than simply presenting scientifically accurate information. Ensuring both the adequacy and appropriateness of risk communications as well as the accuracy of subject perception of risks (across the social and cultural milieux in which vaccine trials will be undertaken) is a critical task. Ethnographic and behavioral studies can help to ensure that our obligation to obtain truly informed consent from our research subjects is fully met and documented. Monitoring risk behaviors over the course of the vaccine trials could also benefit from strategic investments in new technologies developed by social researchers to permit the collection of sensitive personal data while affording complete privacy to subjects. These new measurement technologies include procedures that permit private data collection (without a human interviewer) in any spoken language and without requiring that subjects be literate.

AIDS Vaccines↗
PubMed1989

Prevalence and patterns of same-gender sexual contact among men.

The prevalence and patterns of same-gender sexual contact among men are key components of models of the spread of HIV infection and AIDS in the U.S. population. Previous estimates by Kinsey et al. from data collected between 1938 and 1948 have been widely criticized for inadequacies of sample design. New lower-bound estimates of prevalence developed from data from a national sample survey conducted in 1970 indicate that minimums of 20.3 percent of adult men in the United States in 1970 had sexual contact to orgasm with another man at some time in life; 6.7 percent had such contact after age 19; and between 1.6 and 2.0 percent had such contact within the previous year. Although these estimates incorporate adjustments for missing data, the likelihood of underreporting suggests that these estimates might be lower bounds on the prevalence of same-gender sex among men. Two sets of alternative estimates are derived to assess the sensitivity of these estimates to the assumptions made in imputing values to missing data. Detailed estimates are presented by frequency of contact, age, education, and marital status; and supporting estimates are derived from a 1988 national survey. Data from both the 1970 and 1988 surveys indicate that never-married men are more likely than other men to have had same-gender sexual contacts within the last year. The 1970 survey also indicates, however, that approximately half the men estimated to have such contacts are found among the more numerous population of currently or previously married men.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

A structured BASIC database computer code for track meet management.

This paper describes a program coded in BASIC, which efficiently provides management of certain track meet functions. In addition to generating heat and lane assignments, recording results, and scoring on an individual and team basis, the program allows coaches and officials to retrieve information on teams, participants, and events which are completed, in-progress, or upcoming. Utilization of the program requires neither computer programming experience, nor any related expertise.

Computers↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sexual behavior in the United States 1930-1990: trends and methodological problems.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Arguments for population-based research on patterns of sexual behavior are reviewed, and survey data are used to illustrate the insights that can be gained from such research. STUDY DESIGN: Reports of sexual behavior obtained in surveys of large probability samples of the U.S. population are analyzed and compared to make inferences about changes in the age of onset of sexual intercourse and the patterns of heterosexual and same-gender sexual behaviors of American men and women who entered adulthood during the period from 1930 to 1990. RESULTS: Strong trends are documented for both a decline in the reported age at first heterosexual intercourse and an increase in the numbers of heterosexual partners reported during adulthood. Similar evidence on patterns of same-gender contact indicate a relatively stable prevalence of reported male-male contact for cohorts of men born from the 1930s through the 1960s. Preliminary analyses suggest, however, that there has been a substantial increase in the proportion of women reporting female-female sexual contact during adulthood. Although the analyses require refinement, it appears that the prevalence of reported female-female contact may have increased by a factor of 3 to 4 for cohorts of women born between the 1930s and the 1960s. CONCLUSIONS: Although the trends in reported behaviors are robust, inferences about behavior, pre se, rest on the assumption that reporting biases were equivalent across cohorts. Methodological challenges in the interpretation of such findings and new technologies for conducting such research are described.

Adolescent↗