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Biomedical subjects

D M Murray

Publications and source records attributed to D M Murray.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1988

A statewide approach to adolescent tobacco-use prevention: the Minnesota-Wisconsin Adolescent Tobacco-Use Research Project.

Adolescent smoking rates remain high and the use of smokeless tobacco is increasing, especially among males. Despite this continuing public health problem and the recent development of more effective prevention programs, few adolescents now participate in such programs at school. Recent legislation in Minnesota established guidelines for tobacco-use prevention programming and provides financial incentives to school districts to use more effective methods. The Minnesota-Wisconsin Adolescent Tobacco-Use Research Project has implemented an evaluation design that will provide data on the efficacy of this statewide approach to the prevention of tobacco use among adolescents. This article describes the current state of tobacco-use prevention programming in Minnesota schools, current efforts to improve on that record, and the research design set up to evaluate these strategies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Smoking prevalence in a cohort of adolescents, including absentees, dropouts, and transfers.

This study reports daily smoking rates among older adolescents obtained by a unique follow-up of a cohort originally identified in the seventh grade. Those no longer in their original school districts were located and interviewed by telephone. Smoking rates among dropouts exceeded 70 per cent in all age-sex groups. Smoking rates among transfers were as high as those among absentees. Including these subgroups raised smoking prevalence rates among older adolescents substantially.

Absenteeism↗
PubMed1988

Parent involvement with children's health promotion: the Minnesota Home Team.

This study compares the efficacy of a school-based program to an equivalent home-based program with 2,250 third grade students in 31 urban schools in Minnesota in order to detect changes in dietary fat and sodium consumption. The school-based program, Hearty Heart and Friends, involved 15 sessions over five weeks in the third grade classrooms. The home-based program, the Home Team, involved a five-week correspondence course with the third graders, where parental involvement was necessary in order to complete the activities. Outcome measures included anthropometric, psychosocial and behavioral assessments at school, and dietary recall, food shelf inventories, and urinary sodium data collected in the students' homes. Participation rates for all aspects of the study were notably high. Eighty-six per cent of the parents participated in the Home Team and 71 per cent (nearly 1,000 families) completed the five-week course. Students in the school-based program had gained more knowledge at posttest than students in the home-based program or controls. Students in the home-based program, however, reported more behavior change, had reduced the total fat, saturated fat, and monounsaturated fat in their diets, and had more of the encouraged foods on their food shelves. The data converge to suggest the feasibility and importance of parental involvement for health behavior changes with children of this age.

Child↗
PubMed1988

Predictors of non-adoption of cigarette smoking following experimentation.

The Childhood Antecedents of Smoking Study (CASS) investigated patterns of cigarette smoking among junior and senior high school students in an upper midwest school district. Four biannual school-based surveys were conducted over two years. A cohort of 72 smokers was identified and followed to determine who continued smoking and who quit. Discriminant analysis was used to study social, psychological, and environmental factors predictive of quitting smoking. Compared to continuing smokers, quitters reported having fewer friends and siblings who smoked, they were less likely to view the cigarette smoker's image as positive, and lived in families where parental involvement with teenagers was high (based on the reports of parents). These results are consistent with the view that social influences are strong determinants of patterns of adolescent smoking behaviour.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Hypertension prevention through nutrition education in youth: a school-based program involving parents.

One approach to the prevention of high blood pressure may be the reduction of sodium intake early in life. To test the effect of nutrition education for salt use in third-grade students (ages 7 to 9), three teaching programs involving a classroom curriculum, a home-based curriculum, or the combination were compared to a control group. Thirty-one schools with 1,839 students were included. Measurements were made at the beginning and end of the school year. Participation rates exceeded 90% for school-based programs and 80% for those at home. Knowledge about salt increased significantly, with the classroom program showing the largest gains. However, reported salting behavior and sodium measured by 24-hr recall and overnight urines failed to show consistent and significant differences between treatments. Further analysis suggested that most ingested salt was hidden in processed foods with only a small fraction added in cooking or at meals (less than 7%). If sodium intake is to be reduced significantly in healthy children, more attention must be paid to hidden sources, particularly processed foods.

Child↗
PubMed1987

The prevention of cigarette smoking in children: two- and three-year follow-up comparisons of four prevention strategies.

Recent studies have suggested that a prevention program that addresses the social influences that encourage smoking can be effective in deterring cigarette use by adolescents. This study presents 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up results from two studies which evaluated three variations of the social influences curriculum and compared them to a health consequences program and a usual-care comparison group. These results suggest that a peer-led, social influences program can restrain smoking among both baseline nonsmokers and baseline experimental smokers at 2 years postintervention. Analyses of attrition data suggest no evidence to threaten the internal validity of these findings, although their generalizability to baseline smokers may be limited.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The validity of smoking self-reports by adolescents: a reexamination of the bogus pipeline procedure.

Cigarette smoking was measured in a naive tenth grade population under conditions expected to influence the student's willingness to admit smoking. All students were tested for smoking both by questionnaire and by expired-air carbon monoxide assessment. The carbon monoxide data were used to test the equivalence of the study groups and to partition the sample into smokers and nonsmokers. Of the smokers those who were advised in advance of the biological test were twice as likely to admit cigarette use in the past week compared to those who were advised of the testing procedure only after they had completed their questionnaire. A live explanation and demonstration of the biological testing procedure proved as effective as a videotaped message. These data support earlier reports of the 'bogus pipeline' effect. Several methodological issues are discussed which may explain previous failures to replicate this finding.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The measurement of substance use among adolescents: when is the 'bogus pipeline' method needed?

The use of objective measures to assess cigarette smoking among adolescents has become commonplace in research studies in recent years. This trend is based on evidence that this so called pipeline methodology can increase the disclosure of socially proscribed behaviors in a setting where adolescents might otherwise feel pressure to deny that they smoke. This paper examines the effects of the pipeline methodology alone and in combination with procedures designed to ensure anonymity on the disclosure of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by young adolescents. The data indicate that the pipeline procedures significantly increase disclosure of tobacco and marijuana use when students are promised confidentiality but not anonymity. However, when anonymity was assured, disclosure of cigarette use was just as high without the pipeline; for marijuana use, disclosure was higher without the pipeline. No effects were observed for alcohol disclosure. These data are interpreted for their implications for prospective and cross sectional studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Predicting experimentation with cigarettes: the childhood antecedents of smoking study (CASS).

In a two-year investigation of cigarette smoking incidence in a population of Minnesota adolescents, the perceived smoking behavior of friends at baseline was a strong predictor of smoking onset. Additional predictors included: siblings' smoking behavior, parents' education level, and seven psychosocial scales including independence and rebelliousness. Smoking prevention strategies which teach youth to cope with social influences are well founded. Results also indicate that younger adolescents may yet be dissuaded from beginning smoking by knowledge of the health consequences of smoking.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Seventh-grade cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use: distribution in a north central U.S. metropolitan population.

Tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use were examined in a seventh-grade population from a north central U.S. metropolitan community. Participation exceeded 94% and biological testing was used to increase the disclosure of drug use during the survey. Drug use was related to age, gender, race, family structure, and parental occupation in a series of logit analyses to identify high-risk groups. While univariate analyses uniformly supported earlier studies, the logit analyses revealed patterns not previously reported and at times contrary to previous reports. Significant associations were observed between drug use and each of the demographic factors; the likelihood of drug use increased by as much as 80-fold in subgroups defined by interactions among these variables. Native Americans, Hispanics, Black females, and adolescents whose mothers held white-collar jobs were substantially more likely to report drug use compared to other groups; females were generally similar to males in their level of use after adjustment for other factors. These results suggest that multivariate analyses which consider higher-order interactions may more adequately model the distribution of drug use in adolescent populations, compared to those based on univariate or first-order multivariate techniques.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Systematic risk factor screening and education: a community-wide approach to prevention of coronary heart disease.

Within a community-wide heart disease prevention effort, it was hypothesized that personalized risk factor screening and education would result in modified health behaviors and reduced risk factor levels for coronary heart disease. Adults from a population sample were randomized to a community-wide screening and education program or were excluded from that program for 1 year. At the end of that year, both groups were measured for risk factor levels and related health behaviors. Those who received the screening and education program had significantly lower risk factor levels and other evidence of health behavior change, including lower blood cholesterol (206.9 vs 211.5 mg/dl), lower diastolic blood pressure (68.7 vs 70.0 mm Hg), lower resting heart rate (71.4 vs 72.7 bpm), and increased selection of low-fat and low-sodium meals in local restaurants. These data suggest that systematic risk factor screening and education may result in lower population risk for coronary heart disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Type A behavior in children: demographic, behavioral, and physiological correlates.

This article provides descriptive data on the Type A behavior pattern from an urban, biracial sample of 8 to 10-year-old children from Minneapolis. Type A behavior was assessed using the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH). High MYTH scores were more prevalent in males relative to females and in black males relative to white males. Parent self-reports suggested that Type A children were more outgoing, talkative, and physically active than Type B children; they were more aggressive in their interactions with others and were more likely to experience a greater number of aversive significant life events than Type B children. No differences in resting heart rate, diastolic or systolic blood pressures were found between Type A and Type B children; there were no differences on measures of the family environment. These results provide additional evidence for the construct validity of the MYTH and offer new information on the correlates of Type A behavior in children.

Blood Pressure↗
PubMed1986

A process evaluation study of peer leaders in health education.

Peer education is an important part of health education programs. In smoking prevention programs, peer leaders are particularly efficacious. Yet, research on peer leaders' perceptions of these programs is minimal. This study assessed the perceptions of elected peer leaders (N = 207) in one seventh grade smoking prevention program and one chemical abuse prevention program in spring 1984. Peer leaders' assessments of the adequacy of their training, the programs' components, the programs' influence on their behavior and attitudes, and the efficacy of the programs were analyzed. Differences between genders and the level of peer leader enthusiasm also were assessed. Further research with peer leaders is suggested as a way to strengthen ongoing health promotion efforts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Dissemination of community health promotion programs: the Fargo-Moorhead Heart Health Program.

Dissemination often is the neglected phase of the development and distribution cycle. While attention has focused on developing and testing new health education and health promotion programs, relatively little effort has been placed on studying how the programs can be disseminated. This paper reviews the dissemination process, identifies factors critical to successful dissemination, uses examples from a community-based heart disease prevention study to illustrate how health promotion programs can be disseminated across a community, and suggests ways these methods might be applied to a community-based approach to adolescent drug use prevention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Cardiovascular responses in type A children during a cognitive challenge.

The few studies which have examined stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity among Type A children have had equivocal results. In the present study, 41 extreme Type A and 46 extreme Type B children were monitored for heart rate and blood pressure during a challenging cognitive task under clear or ambiguous performance standards. Significant heart-rate and blood-pressure responses were observed, but no effects could be attributed to the behavior pattern or performance standards. Type A's were more self-involved, generally attributing their performance to effort. Under ambiguous performance standards, they perceived themselves more negatively and attributed performance to luck and task difficulty. These results do not support the exaggerated cardiovascular response hypothesis but do suggest that Type A children look toward external cues in the evaluation of both themselves and their performance, particularly when the external standards for performance are ambiguous.

Achievement↗
PubMed1985

Assessing needs for youth health promotion.

Children and adolescents recently have become a group targeted for health promotion efforts. It is argued that early behavioral intervention will alter patterns of behavior that might place young people at increased risk for chronic diseases later in life. The Minnesota Heart Health Program is a longitudinal, community-based research and demonstration project to improve cardiovascular health in three north central communities. Reductions in cigarette smoking, improved eating and exercise patterns, and hypertension management are targeted objectives. To design educational interventions for children and adolescents in these areas as part of this program, a behavioral needs assessment was conducted in the communities prior to program implementation. This needs assessment focused on existing behavior patterns, skills related to the targeted behaviors, and environmental influences. This article describes that needs assessment, the results from two of the communities, differences due to gender and age of student, and the implications of the results for designing intervention activities for children and adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The prevention of adolescent drug abuse: implications of etiological, developmental, behavioral, and environmental models.

Nine models for the etiology of drug abuse have been examined. Problem behavior theory, domain theory, and Flay's developmental model suggest that drug use is a functional behavior for adolescents, and that prevention efforts should address this functionality and provide alternative behaviors for drug use rather than simply trying to suppress the underlying need or reason for use. These positions, together with the stages of drug use and stages of antisocial behavior models, place drug use in a developmental context, suggesting that the factors that influence drug use evolve as the child matures through adolescence, and that the developmental period of the adolescent should be considered in any prevention effort. They also suggest that drug use is common for many adolescents in today's culture. There is general support among the models to consider drug use as a part of a larger constellation of behaviors, whether labeled problem behaviors, antisocial behaviors, or by another name. This suggests that prevention programs must treat drug use in its behavioral context as well as its developmental and functional context. Finally, there is strong support for social-environmental factors such as modelling, availability of drugs, and social supports in the development of drug use. Though the various models often use different terminology, there are remarkable similarities in their implications for prevention efforts.

Acting Out↗