Although prior research has found that homes containing firearms and illicit drug and ethanol users are more likely to be the scene of a homicide than homes that do not contain these elements, the authors studied homicides on the streets as well as in homes so as to assess the role of firearms, cocaine, and ethanol in both settings. Using the files of the Chief Medical Examiner, the authors reviewed all 4,468 homicides occurring in New York City in 1990 and 1991. The most frequent places of occurrence were the streets and other outdoor places (49.6 percent) and the victims' homes (19.3 percent). Firearms were the cause of death for 49.6 percent of homicides in the home and 80.3 percent of those on the streets. Use of cocaine and ethanol was found more frequently among victims killed on the streets than those killed at home. In addition, victims killed on the streets were more likely to be male, ages 15-24 years, and African American. Further research in regard to prevention and intervention strategies is needed, keeping in mind the different patterns of homicide on the streets compared with those occurring in other settings.
The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides supplemental food, nutrition and health education, and social services referral to pregnant, breastfeeding, and post-partum women, and their infants and young child...
Despite a growing body of anecdotal evidence suggesting the spread of firearms to suburban juvenile populations, most studies of firearm activity by juveniles focus either on urban youth or on nationally representative samples that blur urban and non...
Leland, N L; Petersen, D J; Braddock, M; Alexander, G R;
Published Date:
1995 Jan-Feb
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(1):53-58
Description:
This study used the 1983-86 U.S. Linked Live Birth-Infant Death Files to examine variations in pregnancy outcomes among 38,551 U.S. resident black and white adolescents ages 10 through 14. The birth rate was 4.29 per 1,000 for blacks, more than 7 tim...
This comparison between public health departments in the United States and in the Canadian Province of Ontario addresses the funding and staffing and the size and program content of local health departments after Canada's national health reform provi...
Yeager, K K; Anda, R F; Macera, C A; Donehoo, R S; Eaker, E D;
Published Date:
1995 Jan-Feb
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(1):100-102
Description:
Using linear regression, the authors demonstrated a strong association between State-specific coronary heart disease mortality rates and State prevalence of sedentary lifestyle (r2 = 0.34; P = 0.0002) that remained significant after controlling for t...
Valdiserri, Ronalrd O.; Gerber, A. Russell; Dillon, Beth A.; Campbell, Carl H.;
Published Date:
1995 Jan-Feb
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(1):47-52
Description:
The characteristics of clients reporting no health insurance were compared with those reporting any health insurance at publicly funded human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counseling and testing sites in the United States during 1992. Thirty of 65 fun...
Silverman, B G; Gross, T P; Kaczmarek, R G; Hamilton, P; Hamburger, S;
Published Date:
1995 Jan-Feb
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(1):42-46
Description:
Data on pacemaker implantation were obtained from the Medical Device Implant Supplement to the 1988 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative, population-based survey of 47,485 households (122,310 persons). The survey yielded an e...
One of the national objectives in "Healthy People 2000" is for members of the public to increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables to five or more servings daily. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) began a nationwide campaign to achieve thi...
Rates of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease have risen sharply in recent years among Navajo Indians, the largest reservation-based American Indian tribe, but the association between the two conditions is not entirely clear. Rates of card...
Animal bites are a reality of life throughout the world. They arise out of an imperfect relationship with domestic animals and wildlife. Most bite injuries are preventable. The principal approaches to community-wide bite prevention programs include r...
The latest revision of the birth certificate features a new checkbox format designed to collect more effectively information for public health research. One of the new checkbox items, medical risk factors for this pregnancy, is designed to collect in...
Of 391 patients with sickle cell disease known to the health care facilities of the University of South Alabama, 194 patients used these facilities in 1989. In that year, 33.5 percent of patients seen at the University of South Alabama did not attend...
Krakauer, H; Bailey, R C; Cooper, H; Yu, W K; Skellan, K J; Kattakkuzhy, G;
Published Date:
1995 Jan-Feb
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(1):2-12
Description:
The Health Care Financing Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services has carried out for several years the systematic assessment of variations over time and among geographic locales in patterns of care and patterns of outcomes expe...
We hypothesize that crack cocaine is independently associated with smear-positive tuberculosis (TB). In a case-control study of TB in London, 19 (86%) of 22 crack cocaine users with pulmonary TB were smear positive compared with 302 (36%) of 833 non-...