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Abortion practices and attitudes in cross-cultural perspective.

This article presents an overview of abortion practices and attitudes in primitive societies and in Western civilization. The changing positions of the major world religions and nations are provided. Attention is given both to restrictions on abortion and to its active promotion, as exemplified by current conditions in the People's Republic of China. A brief history of abortion in the United States is presented, following by the results of two major polls on consumer attitudes. The latter data indicate a growing liberalization of abortion attitudes and an association between such liberal beliefs and the following factors: age under 40 years, higher education, non-Catholicism, irregular church attendance, and positive attitude toward sex education in the schools and availability of contraceptives for teenage girls. It is also shown that people who strongly oppose abortion are more likely than advocates of abortion to lend financial or other forms of tangible support to their cause.

Abortion, Induced↗

Attitudes of medical professionals toward euthanasia.

This is a pilot study of the attitudes of health care professionals toward euthanasia, and how those attitudes are affected by religion, previous experience in withdrawing care, and years in the health care profession. The data are drawn from a sample of 63 oncology professionals in the Midwest. The findings suggest that Protestants tend to support euthanasia more than Catholics; those with high religious commitments tend to disagree based on professional norms; agreement with euthanasia is inversely related to years in the profession; and those with previous experience tend to disagree with euthanasia based on legal/self-interest reasons. However, further research with larger cross-cultural samples is needed to confirm these findings.

Adult↗

Gambling participation and pathology in the United States--a sociodemographic analysis using classification trees.

This article describes an analysis of gambling and gambling pathology from a telephone survey of 2631 U.S. residents, using Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID). Catholics were more likely to have gambled (92%) than Protestants (78%), and elderly Protestants were the least likely (55%) group to have gambled. Among past-year gamblers, men gambled more often (74 times) than women (46 times). The most frequent gamblers were divorced, widowed, or cohabiting men (125 times). Minorities were much more likely than whites to be problem gamblers (PGs). Nonpoor, married, or widowed whites were the least likely to be PGs.

Adolescent↗

Body and soul. A dietary intervention conducted through African-American churches.

OBJECTIVES: Body and Soul was a collaborative effort among two research universities, a national voluntary agency (American Cancer Society), and the National Institutes of Health to disseminate and evaluate under real-world conditions the impact of previously developed dietary interventions for African Americans. METHODS: Body and Soul was constructed from two successful research-based interventions conducted in African-American churches. Components deemed essential from the prior interventions were combined, and then tested in a cluster randomized-effectiveness trial. The primary outcome was fruit and vegetable intake measured with two types of food frequency questionnaires at baseline and 6-month follow-up. RESULTS: At the 6-month follow-up, intervention participants showed significantly greater fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake relative to controls. Post-test differences were 0.7 and 1.4 servings for the 2-item and 17-item F&V frequency measures, respectively. Statistically significant positive changes in fat intake, motivation to eat F&V, social support, and efficacy to eat F&V were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that research-based interventions, delivered collaboratively by community volunteers and a health-related voluntary agency, can be effectively implemented under real-world conditions.

Black or African American↗

Correlations between estimated and true dietary intakes: using two instrumental variables.

PURPOSE: We describe a new application of the method of triads that allows an estimate of the correlation between a dietary questionnaire measure (Q) and true intake (T). METHODS: Three surrogate variables Q, M, and P are observed where M and P are both instrumental (often biological) variables. A reference dietary method (R) is not required. The variables M and P may be concentration rather than recovery biomarkers. Estimating equations produce Corr(Q,T), Corr(M,T), Corr(P,T), conditional on assumptions about error correlations. Correlations between errors in both Q and a reference dietary measure can also be estimated if R is available. A small validation study of California Seventh-day Adventists provided food frequency, repeated 24-hour dietary recalls (R), and biological data (blood, overnight urines, and subcutaneous fat). RESULTS: Values of Corr(Q,T) ranged between 0.40 and 0.66. Values of Corr(R,T) were higher, between 0.48 and 0.83. Estimated correlations between errors in R and Q were all positive. CONCLUSIONS: When carefully chosen, M and P, rather than M and R, should better satisfy assumptions about error correlations. Food frequency data and repeated 24-hour recalls both provide estimates of T, but the latter has greater validity. Standard errors suggest that for good precision Corr(Q,T) requires large validation studies (2000-3000 subjects).

Adult↗

Recruiting blacks to the Adventist health study: Do follow-up phone calls increase response rates?

PURPOSE: To determine whether follow-up phone calls improve response rates to a long questionnaire among black and white subjects. METHODS: Forty black and 39 white Seventh-day Adventist churches were randomized to experimental or control status in a 2:1 ratio favoring the intervention, which is a follow-up phone call to certain church members. Subjects selected from each church were those who had signed up for the Adventist Health Study-2 but not returned a questionnaire 3 months after promotion began. Further returns from a church over the next 3 months, and this increment as a proportion of baseline response, were assessed using t-tests and Poisson regression, respectively. RESULTS: Comparing black experimental and control churches, the mean difference was 5.5 returned questionnaires per church (p < 0.01). Among white churches the mean difference was 3.0 (ns). The baseline-adjusted increment, however, was greater by a factor of 3.37 (95% confidence interval, 1.92, 5.93) in the black experimental relative to control churches, but among white experimental churches was 13% (ns) lower than controls. This difference in response by ethnic group was statistically significant (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Follow-up phone calls improved response rates among black subjects only.

Black or African American↗

The Methodist Hospital CCU: a Beacon unit of excellence.

This article features the Coronary Care Unit of The Methodist Hospital of Houston, Texas. This unit was one of the first Beacon Critical Care Units recognized by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. This article focuses on how to achieve this award. The Coronary Care Unit nursing infrastructure is described, and specific unit examples are included.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

A cohort study found that earlier and longer Seventh-day Adventist church membership was associated with reduced male mortality.

OBJECTIVE: Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church generally adopt a healthy lifestyle, which is reflected by favorable mortality rates. The purpose of this study was to estimate relative mortality rates among persons joining the church in adult life compared with members of the same age who joined in childhood. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A cohort of 29,871 Seventh-day Adventist church members in California was followed for 12 years. A total of 5,109 deaths occurred during follow-up. RESULTS: In men, the relative mortality at the time of entry into the church showed a curvilinear relation with age, with a maximum of about 2 for entry at age 50-60. For most ages at entry, the relative mortality first declined with increasing membership duration but later stabilized. Men joining at age 50 experienced a 15-25% reduction in relative mortality after 10 years of membership. Women joining after age 50 had a somewhat higher mortality than those who joined in childhood, with no subsequent short-term change. CONCLUSION: The pronounced drop in relative mortality among men entering the church may reflect the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Adult↗

Divergent risk of multiple sclerosis in two anabaptist communities in America.

A lowered risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) has been reported in the Hutterite community residing mainly in southern Canada. In another anabaptist community, the Old Colony Mennonites (OCM), settled in Canada and spread to Latin America, only a large pedigree with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases, including type I diabetes and three cases of MS, was reported. The prevalence of MS in the pedigree (3,158 per 100,000), even when observing its confidence interval, seems rather high, and the MS prevalence in the Mennonite general population is assumed at least to be equal to the Canadian rates. Based upon an extended study of the literature, the hypothesis that smoking and curing with nitrate/nitrite plays any role, by interaction with inflammatory intestinal changes in childhood infections, is supported. In addition, tobacco smoking and short-term breast-feeding as possible risk factors are also in line with a higher MS risk in OCM, whereas insecticides and herbicides can be excluded as risk factors in MS.

Americas↗

Religion and women's health in Ghana: insights into HIV/AIDs preventive and protective behavior.

Since the late 1970s when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were identified in Africa, there has been an upsurge of research on the epidemic. Although religious involvement may be germane to AIDS protective and risk behavior, few of these studies deal with religion and AIDS. This article contributes to the discourse on religion and health in Africa by analysing the interrelationship between religion and AIDS behavior in Ghana, a West African country at the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, and one where religious activities are more pronounced. We explore whether a woman's knowledge of HIV/AIDS is associated with her religious affiliation, and whether religious affiliation influences AIDS preventive (protective) attitudes. Findings from our analysis of Ghanaian data indicate that religious affiliation has a significant effect on knowledge of AIDS. However, we did not find religious affiliation to be associated with changes in specific protective behavior, particularly the use of condoms. The limitations and implications of the study are discussed, promising directions for further research on religion and AIDS protective and risk behaviors are also discussed, and the design and development of culturally sensitive programs to help in the ongoing AIDS prevention efforts in the region are proposed.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Religion and preventative health care utilization among the elderly.

Evidence supporting a relationship between religion and physical health has increased substantially in the recent past. One possible explanation for this relationship that has not received much attention in the literature is that health care utilization may differ by religious involvement or religious denomination. A nationally representative sample of older adults was used to estimate the effects of religious salience and denomination on six different types of preventative health care (i.e. flu shots, cholesterol screening, breast self-exams, mammograms, pap smears, and prostate screening). Findings show that both men and women who report high levels of religiosity are more likely to use preventative services. Denominational differences show that affiliated individuals, especially those who are Jewish, are significantly more likely to use each type of preventative care than non-affiliated individuals. The results of this study open the door to further exploration of this potentially important, but relatively neglected, link between religion and health.

Activities of Daily Living↗