Factors associated with undernutrition were investigated in a broad community-based sample of 457 homeless adults (344 men and 113 women) who were interviewed and examined in a variety of settings during the summer of 1985. Latent variables representing drug use, alcohol use, a stereotyped homeless appearance, mental illness, poor physical health status, and measured variables of age, sex, income, and number of free food sources were used as predictors of undernutrition. Undernutrition was indicated with three anthropometric measures (weight, triceps skinfold, and upper arm muscle area in the lowest 15th percentile) and one observational measure. Thirty-three percent of the sample was undernourished as defined by at least one of the anthropometric measures. Undernutrition was significantly associated with more drug use, fewer free food sources, less income, and male sex. The findings identify persons at risk for undernutrition and suggest programs to alleviate their hunger, including increased funding for food stamps and other income supports, more free food sources such as shelters and souplines, and drug treatment programs.
Today, hospitals are involved extensively in social marketing and promotional activities. Recently, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that routine testing of hospital patients for human immunodeficiency...
Sociodemographic correlates of drug use among the general household population may have less accuracy and utility for describing risk factors for drug use among non household populations like the homeless and transient. This analysis examines correla...
The National Practitioner Data Bank became operational September 1, 1990, as a flagging system to identify health care practitioners who may have been involved in incidents of medical incompetence. Query volumes have grown substantially over the Data...
de Lissovoy, G; Zenilman, J; Nelson, K E; Ahmed, F; Celentano, D D;
Published Date:
1995 Jul-Aug
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(4):403-409
Description:
Reported cases of congenital syphilis have increased rapidly in recent years. The purpose of this study was to estimate first-year medical care expenditures among 1990 incident cases of infants diagnosed with congenital syphilis. The authors used a s...
HealthScope is a health education based on the Health Belief Model that uses television and print materials. It was designed for a number of agendas--(a) a desire by health educators to provide health information to a broad audience at a reasonable c...
The authors analyzed patterns of criminal and administrative enforcement of the legal minimum age for drinking across 295 counties in four States. Data on all arrests and other actions for liquor law violations from 1988 through 1990 were collected f...
A telephone survey of a random sample of Rhode Island women ages 40 and older residing in minority low-income census tracts--census tracts in the lowest quartile of a variety of socioeconomic indicators in which at least 5 percent of the population w...
Qualitative data on enforcement of the minimum drinking age in the United States were obtained through in depth interviews with law enforcement officers in May and June 1992. Interviews were conducted with 37 supervisory and line law enforcement pers...
Hickey, C A; Cliver, S P; Mulvihill, F X; McNeal, S F; Hoffman, H J; Goldenberg, R L;
Published Date:
1995 Jul-Aug
Source:
Public Health Rep. 110(4):410-418
Description:
Studies of employment-related stress as a risk factor for preterm delivery suggest that contextual factors unrelated to occupation, as well as work-related characteristics, must be examined in assessing this relationship. In this study, the relations...
Over the past 25 years, numerous educational materials and strategies have been developed for the prevention and control of tobacco use. However, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the available materials designed to educate the public to ...
Although evidence is accumulating that needle exchange programs can lower the risk of parenterally transmitted infections, their effectiveness is compromised if they suffer from low client participation. A legal needle exchange in New Haven, CT, has ...
Health care providers have been attempting to meet the special needs of homeless people on a national level since 1984. The need to implement strategies specific to serving the diversity of services required by homeless people has been apparent. To d...
In order to characterize the children who enter emergency shelters in Boston, we reviewed the data collected at intake interviews by the pediatric nurse practitioner visiting 10 family shelters and one hotel in Boston as part of the Boston Health Car...