OBJECTIVE: To examine self-reported risks for tuberculosis (TB) infection relative to recalled receipt of TB risk assessments and skin testing in a cohort of urban adolescents. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Survey of ninth graders and their parents from 3 inner-city public high schools. Students and parents were asked about TB ...

Previous research shows that success in touch-typing training does not ensure its continuation into everyday use. It is postulated that an important contributor to this problem is melioration--that is, maximizing local rates of reinforcement. In the context of typing, melioration implies an intuitive tendency to choose typing strategies that lead ...

Newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is one of the major achievements of preventive medicine, as the condition occurs frequently (1/4000 newborns) and results in brain damage if not detected and treated in the first few days of life. Measurement of T4 and/or TSH in dried blood spots collected on ...

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a common cause of birth defects and neuropsychiatric impairment. Identification of affected people is crucial for early entry into intervention programs and for the development of prevalence estimates. The objective of this project was to determine if screening for FAS in a community elementary school-based ...

The idea of screening for distress in oncology populations is not new. Many recommendations have been made regarding the need for routine screening, and methods have been suggested for accomplishing this. However, a synthesis of this body of research is not readily available. This paper summarizes the literature documenting the ...

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether newborn screening by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) is cost-effective versus not screening and to define the contributions of disease, test, and population parameters on the decision. METHODS: A decision-analytic Markov model was designed to perform cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses measuring ...

Determining how to effectively operate security devices is as important to overall system performance as developing more sensitive security devices. In light of recent federal mandates for 100% screening of all checked baggage, this research studies the trade-offs between screening only selectee checked baggage and screening both selectee and non-selectee ...

Laboratory data obtained from blood analysis by an electronic cell counter is a routine test along with physical evaluation. We assessed the hematological characteristics of schoolchildren to establish the prevalence of anemia in Istanbul. The study was performed on 1,600 students between the ages of 6-16. Hematological parameters of all ...

The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program provides funding to tribes and tribal organizations to implement comprehensive cancer screening programs using a program model developed for state health departments. We conducted a multiple-site case study using a participatory research process to describe how 5 tribal programs implemented screening ...

Chlamydia trachomatis infection in college students has not undergone a detailed large-scale evaluation. The authors undertook a cross-sectional study of 4,086 students enrolled on the campuses of California State University, Sacramento, and 3 local community colleges from fall 2000 through spring 2002. They used an outreach screening model to determine ...

Students are becoming the majority of new amphetamine users in Thailand. This study compared urinalysis results with peer responses to individual characteristics related to substance use with the aim of identifying "at-risk" students. A randomly selected group of students from a public high school in northern Thailand was asked to ...

It has been shown that detecting and treating children with hearing loss at an early age will improve their speech and language development. The implementation of universal hearing screening programs is therefore one of the major goals in pediatric audiology. One problem of present screening programs is high lost to ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether a large-scale memory-screening program for community-dwelling elders would be successful in identifying individuals with a high probability of dementia in need of further assessment that would result in the earlier diagnosis of dementia. DESIGN: A descriptive study of experience with a volunteer sample. SETTING: Ten sites ...

AIM: This preliminary study was devised to ascertain whether students considered that they had an adequate view of demonstrated procedures, while observing these directly at the workbench, or indirectly on a remote plasma screen. In addition, this study sought to identify whether the students observing remotely believed that they had ...

OBJECTIVE: Although vision screening for preschool children is recommended for detecting amblyopia, many pediatric and family medicine practices do not screen preschool-aged children. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a training program for primary care clinical staff on vision screening behavior and attitudes. METHODS: All ...

In 2000, the National Kidney Foundation implemented the Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP 2.0) to increase awareness of kidney disease among those at highest risk, and improve outcomes through early detection and referral for care. The KEEP 2.0 screening program identified significant numbers of persons with reduced kidney function, with ...

Cervical screening in Australia is a successful public health initiative. Since the introduction of the National Cervical Screening Program in 1991, there has been a significant fall in incidence of and mortality from cervical cancer. Laboratory quality procedures are critical to ensuring optimal outcomes. Laboratory accreditation procedures are being reviewed ...

A number of USDA-ARS programs directed at overcoming impediments to the use of biocontrol agents on a commercial scale are described. These include improvements in screening techniques, taxonomic studies to identify beneficial strains more precisely, and studies on various aspects of the large-scale production of biocontrol agents. Another broad area ...

OBJECTIVES: To compare the cost of diagnosing cystic fibrosis (CF) through a newborn screening program with the traditional method and to estimate the cost of CF diagnosis if a national newborn screening program is implemented. STUDY DESIGN: Surveys were conducted to determine the annual number of sweat tests in 1991 ...

OBJECTIVE: To improve general practitioners' knowledge and skills about diabetic retinopathy. SETTING: An upskilling program of 11 Sydney (New South Wales) GPs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Level of competency determined by an educational assessment before and six weeks after the program. RESULTS: Mean scores for multichoice questions increased from 53% before ...

This article describes the evolution of a Community-Based Stroke Risk Screening and Education Program at a 400-bed regional medical center located in southeastern Alabama. The author outlines the implementation of a case management-oriented program developed to target the specific high-risk populations residing in this rural area. Retrospective chart reviews were ...

In Bahrain and neighbouring countries inherited disorders of haemoglobin, i.e. sickle-cell disease, thalassaemias and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, are common. As part of the National Student Screening Project to determine the prevalence of genetic blood disorders and raise awareness among young Bahrainis, we screened 11th-grade students from 38 schools (5685 ...

Tay-Sachs Disease (TSD) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder. TSD is prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, and carrier screening programs have been implemented worldwide in these communities. A screening program initiated in 1997 involving the Melbourne Jewish community (Australia) incorporated education, counselling and carrier testing of high-school students aged ...

Taiwan was an endemic area for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and related liver diseases cause a significant drain of public resources. To control the endemic, a nation-wide newborn vaccination program was started in 1985. We reviewed the results of the annual survey for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) performed in ...

Following the death of an unvaccinated 16-year-old school student with isoniazid resistant pulmonary tuberculosis, extended screening of sixth formers took place to identify further cases of tuberculosis and to establish the need for BCG vaccination. Eight hundred and four 16-19 year olds in the school underwent Heaf testing and completed ...

Approximately 1800 workers in pipe manufacturing plants in the United States may have been exposed to beta-napthlyamnine between 1970 and 1996. Once the chemical was detected, the contaminated additive in the resin was identified and discontinued. A bladder cancer-screening program was initiated in 1999. An annual two-stage screening program was ...

BACKGROUND: Persons with chronic esophageal reflux are at increased risk for the development of Barrett's esophagus and adenocarcinoma. Recently developed ultrathin endoscopes are less expensive and better tolerated than standard endoscopes, they can be used without sedation, and are sensitive and specific for Barrett's esophagus. The cost-effectiveness of one-time screening ...

The EC50 values for a training set of 66 ecdysteroids and 97 diacylhydrazines were measured in the ecdysteroid-responsive Drosophila melanogaster BII cell line, a prototypical homologous inducible gene expression system. Each of eight superimposition hypotheses for the folded diacylhydrazine conformation was evaluated and ranked on the basis of CoMFA and ...

Currently little research exists examining the theoretical underpinnings of self-mutilation (SM) in community samples of adolescents. Two models, the hostility and anxiety reduction models, were simultaneously tested in order to determine whether SM in adolescence was characterized by greater feelings of anxiety and hostility. Four hundred and forty students were ...

Newborn screening for early diagnosis of many preventable diseases is already an established program in developed countries as well as in some countries in Asia. With the control of infectious and communicable diseases, the Bangladesh government is now giving more attention to the preventive aspect of health. The country is ...

Newborn screening aims at the earliest possible recognition of disorders so that intervention with effective treatment can prevent the most serious consequences of the disorder. However, of several thousand known genetic disorders, therapy is presently available for only a small proportion of them. Newborn screening was first applied to phenylketonuria ...

Newborn screening began in the early 1960s and during the four decades it has existed, has become a recognized vital public health prevention program. It has evolved conceptually from a laboratory test for a single disorder, phenylketonuria, to a comprehensive 6-part public health system of education, screening, follow-up, diagnosis, management, ...

Neonatal screening in Taiwan started as a pilot program in 1981. The coverage rate increased to 90% in 1990, and is currently more than 99%. Five diseases are covered in the screening program including congenital hypothyroidism, phenylketonuria, homocystinuria, galactosemia, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. A monitoring system was established at the ...

A post-offer screening program jointly developed by the Occupational and Physical Therapy Departments (University of Illinois at Chicago) was first implemented in March 1998. A total of 712 screens were completed from 3-01-98 through 2-28-01. A quasi-experimental design was utilized to analyze changes in Workers' Compensation costs between the three-year ...

Newborn screening is a medical intervention. For every program, there should be evidence of its effect and effectiveness. The four questions to be addressed, very broadly, are: What is the effectiveness for case-finding (sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value)? What are the benefits of early detection versus clinical detection? What ...

OBJECTIVE: Determine the rates of follow-up for abnormal mammograms and see how they compare with rates of similar programs elsewhere. DATA: Records from 1990-2000 of the Breast Cancer Awareness Program were analyzed and reviewed to determine follow-up rates. RESULTS: The follow-up rate for all 11 years was 85%; during the ...

Newborn screening began in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1960's as local and pilot programs and implemented as country or state-wide programs around 1970. There are five programs covering all Australia and one for New Zealand. All screening programs are fully government funded, as is treatment for the conditions ...

BACKGROUND: Flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) has a higher degree of sensitivity for detecting colorectal neoplasia in the left side of the colon than Hemoccult (H-II). However, no randomized controlled trial has compared a single FS screening with a H-II screening program (annual or biennial) despite the well-documented mortality reduction from colorectal ...

The nationwide neonatal screening of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency in Taiwan was started on July 1, 1987. The effective collection rate has reached more than 96% of all newborns since 1993 and the overall incidence rate of G6PD deficiency was about 2%. This screening program has 3 screening centers and ...

The cervical cancer screening programs (CCSP) have not been very efficient in the developing countries. This explains the need to foster changes on policies, standards, quality control mechanisms, evaluation and integration of new screening alternatives considered as low and high cost, as well as to regulate colposcopy practices and the ...

A newborn mass-screening program for the early detection of phenylketonuria, maple syrup urine disease, homocystinuria, galactosemia, congenital hypothyroidism, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, using filter paper blood specimens, was started throughout Japan in 1977. The total number of newborns screened by March 2000 reached 29,657,738; this represents 95% of the newborns during ...

The purpose of this chapter is to review the principles of quality monitoring for newborn screening programs at both a hospital and a public health level. The focus is on quality assurance in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI). The chapter addresses the need for a systems approach to quality, ...

Neonatal screening is a new concept in Bangladesh. Currently a pilot program is ongoing where newborns are screened for congenital hypothyroidism (CH). In a country like Bangladesh, where people are still fighting childhood problems like malnutrition, diarrhea and other communicable diseases with a high infant and child mortality rate, instituting ...

Four million babies are born annually in the US. There are 51 separate laws mandating universal screening and each has its own restrictions. Forty-nine programs allow the parents to "opt out" of testing (dissent), and 2 programs allow the parents to "opt in" (consent). The extent to which these decisions ...

Newborn screening policy for Australia and New Zealand is developed by a committee of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Division of Pediatrics. Each program policy varies according to the local laws and customs. The residual dried blood spot policy recommends that each ...

To determine the incidence of galactosemia (GAL) in the Philippines and to determine whether newborn screening for GAL is cost-beneficial from a societal perspective, cost-benefit analysis was performed. Newborn screening for GAL was done after the 24th hour of life using the Beutler test. Patients screened positive were recalled for ...

BACKGROUND: A school-based sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening program was implemented in eight New Orleans public high schools to detect chlamydia and gonorrhea. GOAL: The goal was to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness of replacing non-school-based screening with the school-based screening program. STUDY DESIGN: A decision-analysis model was constructed to compare ...

AIMS: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of the current screening programme on Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) in relatives of diagnosed FH-patients in The Netherlands. METHODS AND RESULTS: Data from 2229 screened FH-relatives, including age, sex, risk factor status and screening outcome, were combined with the Framingham risk function and national disease-specific cost ...

NMR-based screening has become a powerful method for the identification and analysis of low-molecular weight organic compounds that bind to protein targets and can be utilized in drug discovery programs. In particular, heteronuclear NMR-based screening can yield information about both the affinity and binding location of potential lead compounds. In ...

A well designed post offer screening program including PDA, clear acceptable criteria, physical screening, standardized objective tests, and occupational and job specific tests can substantially decrease the number of injuries and resulting costs. The results of a study suggest post offer screening makes a difference on post hire injury and ...