Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between child hood and adulthood. Adolescent period starts with puberty. The period during which the capability for sexual reproduction is attained; it is marked by changes in both primary and secondary sexual characteristics and is dated from menarche in…

Over the past half century the gap in mortality across education levels has grown in the United States, and since the mid-1980s, the growth has been especially pronounced among white women. The reasons for the growth among white women are unclear. We investigated three explanations--social-psychological factors, economic circumstances, and health…

Objective: To examine gender differences in the association between beliefs in heart disease preventability and 10-year incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in a population-based sample. Methods: A total of 2,688 Noninstitutionalized Nova Scotians without prior CHD enrolled in the Nova Scotia Health Study (NSHS95) and were followed for 10…

Objective: Smoking continues to be a major global cause of mortality and morbidity. Countries have increasingly adopted the use of images as warnings on cigarette packs. We aimed to investigate the likely differential impact of varied images and messages on sub-groups of the United Kingdom (UK) smoking population. Methods: Forty two images…

Background: School smoking bans give officials the authority to provide a smoke-free environment, but enacting policies within the school walls is just one step in comprehensive tobacco prevention among students. It is necessary to investigate factors beyond the school campus and into the neighborhoods that surround schools. The purpose of this…

Factor score estimation is a controversial topic in psychometrics, and the estimation of factor scores from exploratory factor models has historically received a great deal of attention. However, both confirmatory factor models and the existence of missing data have generally been ignored in this debate. This article presents a simulation study…

Little is known about the health status of and health risks faced by adults with intellectual disability who do not use intellectual disability services. Self-report data collected from 1,022 people with mild intellectual disability in England indicated that people who do not use intellectual disability services are more likely to smoke tobacco…

Objectives: To examine the relationship between a belief about Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety evaluation of cigarettes and smoking risk perceptions. Methods: A nationally representative, random-digit-dialed telephone survey of 1046 adult current cigarette smokers. Results: Smokers reporting that the FDA does not evaluate cigarettes for…

This report examines the rationale for creating a tobacco-free campus to utilize in passing antitobacco policies, and recommendations for overcoming barriers. As with any type of advocacy effort, a variety of impediments exist, including lack of administrative and staff support, absence of student involvement, and sparse resources. A variety of…

People with disabilities (PWD) are 50% more likely to smoke compared with the general population, yet interventions tailored to the needs of PWD remain limited. The authors surveyed directors from a leading disability service organization to assess their delivery of tobacco cessation interventions. Although tobacco cessation was identified as a…

We propose 2 related models for the meta-analysis of diagnostic tests. Both models are based on the bivariate normal distribution for transformed sensitivities and false-positive rates. Instead of using the logit as a transformation for these proportions, we employ the "t"[subscript alpha] family of transformations that contains the log, logit,…

This "Issues in Prevention" focuses on statewide coalitions and state systems. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Statewide Coalitions for Prevention; (2) Louisiana Higher Education Coalition; (3) Statewide Initiative Grantees; (4) The Ohio College Initiative; and (5) Higher Education Center Resources.

The American College Health Association (ACHA) acknowledges and supports the findings of the Surgeon General that tobacco use in any form, active and/or passive, is a significant health hazard. ACHA further recognizes that environmental tobacco smoke has been classified as a Class-A carcinogen and that there is no safe level of exposure to…

This study analyzed data from 118,743 adolescents completing 30 different Global Youth Tobacco Surveys conducted in 15 different Middle Eastern countries between 1999 and 2007 to determine the proportion of young smokers who usually smoked Marlboro, other cigarette brands, or no usual brand smoked in these countries. Marlboro was the most…

Smoke-free air policies have been shown to reduce smoking, but the mechanism of behavior change is not well understood. The authors used structural equation modeling to conduct a theory of planned behavior analysis with data from 395 smokers living in seven Texas cities, three with a comprehensive smoke-free air law and four without a…