Health promotion

Exposure to indoor radon and tobacco smoke have a synergistic effect, meaning that the combined risk for lung cancer is more than additive. In a rural, high-radon geographic state, this concern led to a coalition approach to encourage radon testing for Montana residents. A one- page radon background and risk document was included in the orientation packets for “Quit Line” enrollees attempting to quit smoking cigarettes. Free radon kits were sent to interested individuals. Data collection began January 1, 2014 and ended May 15, 2014.

OBJECTIVE(S): This study examined the health status of women with a recent history of incarceration and explored if/how women were accessing health care resources at the time immediately following release.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE: This mixed methods study utilized two phases: (1) a quantitative survey; and (2) qualitative interviewing. Thirty-four women (18 years of age and older, released from incarceration in the last 12 months) participated in the quantitative phase; 11 of those completed the qualitative interviews.

Although the number of Hispanic women attending postsecondary institutions has significantly increased in the past decade, knowledge about their use of campus health services to address sexuality-related issues remains low. Increased information about this population is crucial given that sexual health indicators have shown Hispanic women in college to be at a greater risk for negative sexual health outcomes compared with their white counterparts.

Childhood obesity is a growing problem. As more researchers become involved in the study of parenting influences on childhood obesity, there appears to be a lack of agreement regarding the most important parenting constructs of interest, definitions of those constructs, and measurement of those constructs in a consistent manner across studies. This article aims to summarize findings from a working group that convened specifically to discuss measurement issues related to parental influences on childhood obesity. Six subgroups were formed to address key measurement issues.

Tami Thomas, PhD, CPNP, RNC, answers questions related to the importance of vaccinating boys and men to prevent the human papillomavirus. This article was funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

 Reforms in the public health infrastructure such as those called for in recent Institute of Medicine reports require stakeholder engagement on different levels than traditional grass-roots community work. The Turning Point Initiative, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, involves 21 state-wide partnerships established for systems change and focused in specific areas of public health innovation and policy development.

  Objective

  Objective: To describe a process for developing low-literacy health education materials that increase knowledge and activate patients toward healthier behaviors.