The Migrant Clinicians Network’s
Familias con Voz
(Families with a Voice) project aims to train migrant men and women to become intimate partner violence (IPV) peer educators in their communities. In ...preparation for implementing educational activities, a community survey was conducted with 298 participants in three Texas border counties. Verbal abuse, such as name calling, was the most frequent type of violence reported. Men perceived anger as a cause of partner violence significantly more than women. Only 22% of respondents reported knowing of a shelter they could turn to for help. Surprisingly, a majority of participants cited “seeking help from the police” when asked about ways to decrease partner violence. Survey results offer insight into developing effective intervention programs by capturing the intended audiences’ beliefs and attitudes. Additionally, survey results reveal possible strategies for how to tackle IPV in U.S.-Mexico border migrant farmworker communities.
In the Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration With Photodynamic Therapy (TAP) investigation, verteporfin therapy reduced the risk of at least moderate vision loss (defined as a loss of at ...least 15 letters of visual acuity) in patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). This report presents detailed analyses of 24-month contrast sensitivity outcomes in these patients.
The patients included in the TAP investigation had subfoveal CNV secondary to ARMD and received verteporfin therapy (n = 402) or placebo (n = 207) at the first visit, with retreatment at each 3-month follow-up visit if angiography revealed fluorescein leakage from CNV. Contrast sensitivity was determined at each visit using a Pelli-Robson chart.
At the month 24 examination, verteporfin-treated patients were less likely to lose at least 6 or 15 letters of contrast sensitivity than placebo-treated patients (86 21% versus 94 45%, and 27 7% versus 24 12%, respectively; P < 0.05 for both comparisons). The superiority of verteporfin therapy over placebo was greater in patients with predominantly classic CNV at baseline, although verteporfin-treated patients with minimally classic CNV also had better contrast sensitivity outcomes.
Consistent with visual acuity outcomes, verteporfin therapy reduced the risk of a clinically relevant loss of contrast sensitivity in the total study population, with the greatest effect in patients with predominantly classic subfoveal CNV secondary to ARMD. Verteporfin-treated patients with minimally classic CNV also had better contrast sensitivity outcomes than patients who received placebo. Given the association between contrast sensitivity and visual disability, the beneficial effects of verteporfin therapy on contrast sensitivity outcomes are expected to have a favorable impact on patients' daily activities.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-sponsored Clinical Trial Network (CTN) recently celebrated 10 years of conducting "real world" research into the treatment of addiction. This article ...reviews the history and results of the most recent CTN studies and describes the experiences of one of the 13 participating research affiliates, the Appalachian Tri-State (ATS) Node. We discuss our "bidirectional" collaboration with multiple community treatment programs (CTPs) on research and dissemination activities and include their experiences as a member of our ATS Node.Results of CTN clinical trials have found unexpectedly that treatment as usual (TAU) is often almost as good as evidence-based interventions such as Motivational Interviewing (MI), possibly due to the difficulty in implementing evidence-based practices most effectively among divergent treatment sites and heterogeneous clinical populations. Some expected findings from the reviewed research are that severity of addiction and comorbidity moderate treatment outcomes and must be accounted for in future CTN-sponsored studies. Notwithstanding these results, much has been learned and recommendations are suggested for changes in CTN research designs that will address methodological limitations and increase treatment effectiveness in future CTN studies.
Immunization Registry-Based Recall for a New Vaccine Daley, Matthew F.; Steiner, John F.; Brayden, Robert M. ...
Ambulatory pediatrics : the official journal of the Ambulatory Pediatric Association,
11/2002, Letnik:
2, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Background.—
Immunization recall for specific vaccines may be necessary to “catch up” children with newly available vaccines or recall children after vaccine shortages. The extent to which ...immunization registry–based recall can increase immunization rates for a new vaccine has not been prospectively studied.
Objective.—
To assess the efficacy of letter/telephone recall for immunization with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in an economically disadvantaged urban population.
Design/Methods.—
Randomized controlled trial at an inner-city teaching hospital. Using an immunization registry, we randomly assigned children aged 6 weeks to 22 months unimmunized for PCV7 to an intervention group (n = 610) or a control group (n = 624). The intervention consisted of letter and telephone recall for PCV7 vaccination. Two months after intervention, receipt of 1 or more doses of PCV7 was assessed. Intention-to-treat analysis was used.
Results.—
We were unable to successfully contact 42.3% of the intervention subjects by mail and telephone. In the intervention group, 23.0% (140 children) received PCV7 within 2 months compared with 20.2% (126 children) in the control group (
P = NS). No intervention effect was evident when children were stratified by age. A large proportion of the study population had Medicaid insurance (51.2%) or were uninsured (28.5%), but response to PCV7 recall did not vary by insurance status.
Conclusions.—
Letter and telephone recall for PCV7 vaccine did not significantly increase the rate of PCV7 immunization in an inner-city teaching hospital serving a disadvantaged population. The effectiveness of recall appears to have been limited by the inability to reach many subjects by mail and telephone.
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