Environmental Health

OBJECTIVES: To describe the environmental health (EH) demands placed on public health nurses (PHNs) as well as the barriers and facilitators to incorporating EH into PHN practice.
DESIGN AND SAMPLE: A cross-sectional multimode (Web and pencil/paper) survey was used to collect data from PHNs in 1 rural western state. Research participants included 141 PHNs from a total of 228 survey invitations (61% response).

 Patterns of mental health are clearly associated with life circumstances, including educational and economic opportunities, access to safe and supportive neighborhoods, socially structured exposures to stressors and to supportive relationships. In this article, we examine the social and economic correlates of depressive symptoms among African American women residing within a predominantly African American urban neighborhood in Detroit, USA, with relatively few economic resources.

 Qualitative description was used to explore how rural community leaders frame, interpret, and give meaning to environmental health issues affecting their constituents and communities. Six rural community leaders discussed growth, vulnerable families, and the action avoidance strategies they use or see used in lieu of adopting health-promoting behaviors.

 OBJECTIVES: To examine the level of awareness of radon issues, correlates of elective testing behaviors, and the accuracy of risk perception for radon exposures among rural residents receiving public health services.
DESIGN: A cross-sectional design was used in which questionnaire data and household analytic data for radon levels were collected from a nonprobabilistic sample of rural households.

Nurses are increasingly the primary contact for clients concerned about health problems related to their environment. In response to the need for nursing expertise in the field of environmental health, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) have designed core competencies for the nursing profession. The IOM competencies focus on four areas: (1) knowledge and concepts; (2) assessment and referral; advocacy, ethics, and risk communication; and (4) legislation and regulation.

 Objectives: The primary aim of this research was to assess radon awareness and testing across 2 housing types.
Design and Sample: Cross-sectional prevalence study with time trends. National, probabilistic sample of 18,138 and 29,632 respondents from the 1994 and 1998 National Health Interview Surveys, respectively.