We have developed a lecture and laboratory curriculum for introducing beginning undergraduate Biology students to chemical structure-function relationships. The laboratory portion of this curriculum employs cheminformatics software that provides instant feedback to help students develop an understanding of the relationship between structure and hydrophobicity. To evaluate the effectiveness of this ...

The National Cross-Site Evaluation is a large multisite evaluation (MSE) of 48 substance abuse prevention programs, 5,934 youth participating in programs, and 4,539 comparison youth programs. Data included a self-report questionnaire administered at 4 points in time, detailed dosage data on over 217,000 program contacts, and detailed site visit information. ...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a substance abuse-preventive intervention using CD-ROM technology among adolescents in the sixth and seventh grades (12- to 13-years-old). The CD-ROM program used interactive audio and video content to teach social resistance skills, general personal and social competence skills, ...

Prevention programs for eating disorders have been targeted both at primary prevention, through minimizing risk and enhancing protective factors, and secondary prevention, through the early identification of individuals displaying sub-clinical forms of eating disorders. Primary prevention programs with elementary school children have been found to change knowledge effectively, change attitudes ...

Early intervention and prevention in schizophrenia is just over 10 years old. The assumption guiding this field is that intervention is likely to be most effective if it begins before psychosis sets in, ie, during the prodromal phase. Although a substantial number of prodromal treatment programs have been initiated around ...

BACKGROUND: Implementing programs that target primary prevention of chronic diseases is critical for at-risk populations. Pasos Adelante, or "Steps Forward," is a curriculum aimed at preventing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases in Hispanic populations. Pasos Adelante is adapted from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's cardiovascular disease ...

This study is a cluster randomized controlled trial of the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP; H. J. Markman, S. M. Stanley, & S. L. Blumberg, 2001). Fifty-seven religious organizations (ROs), consisting of 217 newlywed couples, were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 intervention conditions: PREP delivered by university clinicians ...

Many social programs and programs for prevention of drug use are designed to affect a wide variety of targets, including individuals, families and neighborhoods, and organizations such as schools, companies, or hospitals. The nature of the intervention and the design of the particular study determine the choice of the appropriate ...

OBJECTIVE: To develop data collection methods suitable to obtain data to assess the costs, cost-efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of eight types of HIV prevention programs in five countries. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Primary data collection from prevention programs for 2002-2003 and prior years, in Uganda, South Africa, India, Mexico, and Russia. STUDY ...

Panel data were analyzed to determine whether funding for collaborative juvenile crime prevention programs reduced arrests in California counties. Because the data were a population (i.e., all 58 counties in the state), regression results were summarized descriptively, and special attention was given to the direction and magnitude of key coefficients. ...

The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) provides funding for prevention education to nearly every school district in the nation. Recent federal policy requires SDFSCA recipients to implement evidence-based prevention programs. This paper reports the extent to which North Carolina public school districts implement evidence-based substance use prevention ...

BACKGROUND: In April of 2003, The Micronutrient Initiative, in collaboration with several other organizations, convened a group of knowledgeable scientists and policy experts to discuss ways to accelerate the global pace at which countries implement effective and sustainable programs to prevent folic acid-preventable birth defects and other folate-deficiency diseases. Programs ...

The Body Logic Program for Adolescents was developed as a two-stage intervention to prevent the development of eating disorder symptoms. Preliminary results indicate that this program shows promise as an effective prevention effort. The current article provides a detailed description of the protocol for implementing Body Logic Part I, a ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of the Preventing Recurrence of Thromboembolic Events through Coordinated Treatment (PROTECT) Program on achievement of its eight secondary prevention goals at the time of discharge. METHODS: Achievement rates for the eight program goals at time of discharge were compared in all patients discharged from a ...

We present a program evaluation of the Phillips Lead Project, a 5-year study of the effectiveness of culture-specific, peer education in maintaining low blood lead levels of children in an inner-city neighborhood. We conducted focus groups to understand how project participants felt about the various strategies employed by the Lead ...

This article provides an update on evidence-based practices and interventions in school settings, with a specific focus on prevention and intervention programs that can be delivered within a three-tiered intervention framework. First, the sources of evidence-based intervention programs including clinical and school psychology task forces, the National Reading Panel, the ...

OBJECTIVES: To test whether Stepping On, a multifaceted community-based program using a small-group learning environment, is effective in reducing falls in at-risk people living at home. DESIGN: A randomized trial with subjects followed for 14 months. SETTING: The interventions were conducted in community venues, with a follow-up home visit. PARTICIPANTS: ...

Travelers and clinicians should be able to understand how malaria is transmitted, identify key risk factors associated with malaria, know how to prevent malaria, and recognize the symptoms associated with malaria. It is essential to provide accurate information about malaria, prevention, and treatment. All travelers should understand the importance of ...

OBJECTIVES: We examined the effectiveness of community-level HIV prevention programming for men who have sex with men. METHODS: We used multilevel methods to examine unprotected intercourse by bisexual men (n = 1016) with male and female partners in geographic regions with and without HIV prevention programming. RESULTS: Men living in ...

Inner-city youth are at high risk for dropping out of high school. Within this article, risk factors associated with dropout and strategies for effective prevention and intervention are reviewed. An example of a school-based drop-out prevention program is highlighted. The FUTURES Program is a school-based drop-out prevention program designed to ...

CONTEXT: In the United States, the pregnancy rate and birthrate of Hispanic teenagers are higher than those of other races and ethnicities. Although recommendations for culturally appropriate pregnancy prevention programs are commonplace, little is known about how practitioners address such recommendations. METHODS: In individual interviews, 58 teenage pregnancy prevention practitioners ...

BACKGROUND: An approach to fall prevention was conducted under the assumption that all inpatients are at risk for falls and that all employees within the hospital setting have a role in fall prevention. FALL PREVENTION PROGRAMS: Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago), a 725-bed tertiary care academic medical center, recently updated a ...

The increase in allergic disease in western, industrialized countries has been phenomenal. Although the reasons for this increase are unknown, it is clear that the primary management of allergies is prevention. There is now significant epidemiologic data suggesting that a program designed and focused on prevention will have a significant ...

BACKGROUND: Robberies are the leading motive for work-related homicide and assault. Interventions to reduce robberies and related injuries have been limited to convenience stores, and evaluations have not addressed compliance as a factor in program effectiveness. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A total of 314 intervention and 96 control businesses were included in this ...

During recent years, an increasing number of reports have been published in which the observed caries-preventive effect of fluoride has been lower than could have been expected on the basis of the earlier literature. The current low levels of caries occurrence and the widespread use of fluoridated toothpastes as well ...

Liquor store employees experience disproportionately higher rates of workplace injury death than employees in any other retail setting. However, efforts to introduce workplace violence prevention programs into liquor stores have been minimal. This study examines the effectiveness of a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design intervention in reducing criminal activity in ...

OBJECTIVES: This study determined 4-year postintervention effects of Safe Dates on dating violence, booster effects, and moderators of the program effects. METHODS: We gathered baseline data in 10 schools that were randomly allocated to a treatment condition. We collected follow-up data 1 month after the program and then yearly thereafter ...

Prevention research continues to focus on school-based substance use programs aimed at adolescents. These programs are designed to reduce substance use and risk behavior by targeting key mediators, such as normative beliefs, which in turn reduce substance use. All Stars is a newly developed program that was recently evaluated in ...

In 1999, we began a community-based randomized controlled prevention trial in Chennai, which aims to test the efficacy of HIV prevention messages disseminated through members of an individual's social group called community popular opinion leaders, or CPOLs. We targeted patrons of 100 bars or wine shops in the city of ...

BACKGROUND: Ankle sprains are the most common form of acute injury in volleyball. A prevention programme consisting of technical training, proprioceptive training, and external support was previously designed to reduce the rate of ankle sprains in volleyball players. OBJECTIVE: To investigate which of these three interventions is the most effective ...

Few prevention studies have examined the degree to which different measures of program implementation adherence predict youth outcomes. The current study was conducted with rural middle school youth participating in a longitudinal school-based preventive intervention program. Study participants' average age at the pretest assessment was 12.3 years. The association between ...

This meta-analysis of eating disorder prevention programs found that intervention effects ranged from an absence of any effects to reductions in current and future eating pathology. Certain effects persisted as long as 2 years and were superior to minimal-intervention control conditions. Larger effects occurred for selected (vs. universal), interactive (vs. ...

Diffusion of Innovation Theory describes the typical course by which innovations become standard practice. Research-based prevention programs are one such innovation. These programs have passed through the early phases of diffusion-innovation development and adoption by progressive schools that seek out innovations. With one quarter of the nation's schools having adopted ...

The new frontier for prevention research involves building a scientific knowledge base on how to disseminate and implement effective prevention programs with fidelity. Toward this end, a brief overview of findings from the Blueprints for Violence Prevention-Replication Initiative is presented, identifying factors that enhance or impede a successful implementation of ...

In this article, the author describes a suicide prevention program for the elderly in Japan carried out in a small town, Nagawamachi, Aomori. Because of the recent sharp increase in this town in the rate of suicides, we started to develop a suicide prevention program with the goal of trying ...

HIV incidence is rising more rapidly in some areas of Central and Eastern Europe than anywhere else in the world. Carrying out effective HIV prevention programs requires the presence of "bridges" that can reach community populations most vulnerable to the disease. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are in a natural role to ...

OBJECTIVES: We examined the effectiveness of the Signs of Suicide (SOS) prevention program in reducing suicidal behavior. METHODS: Twenty-one hundred students in 5 high schools in Columbus, Ga, and Hartford, Conn, were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by students in both groups approximately 3 ...

A dynamic tension has developed in prevention science regarding two imperatives: (a) fidelity of implementation-the delivery of a manualized prevention intervention program as prescribed by the program developer, and (b) program adaptation-the modification of program content to accommodate the needs of a specific consumer group. This paper examines this complex ...

Given the quickly changing landscapes of both global HIV infection and the HIV prevention literature, it has become increasingly difficult to identify or design an effective HIV prevention program. The authors discuss methods of selecting an appropriate program so that readers can critically evaluate the literature and create a suitable ...

OBJECTIVE: This was to determine the prevalence of suicidal behaviours prior to and during the first year of treatment in a comprehensive early psychosis program (EPP) and to identify predictors of suicidal behaviour. METHOD: In a cohort study of 238 subjects, patients were assessed at initial presentation to an EPP ...

School psychologists have been called upon to take a leadership role in school-violence prevention, but little is known about their involvement in this issue, especially in states where school shootings have occurred. The current study surveyed 258 Michigan school psychologists about their role in prevention of school violence. Analysis suggested ...

After a caries decline of about 80% in children in Western Europe and other industrialized countries, there should be critical debate about the best way for future caries prevention. Multiple fluoride use played an important role in caries reductions achieved in the 1980s and 1990s, but it also resulted in ...

This study investigates the relative roles of school district and school-level decision-makers in the implementation of effective substance use prevention curricula. Drawing on a "Site-Based Management" approach to effective decision-making, we hypothesized that schools whose personnel played active decision-making roles would be more likely to implement effective curricula than those ...

This paper provides an overview of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, a 5-year project to compare the effects of a universal intervention (all students and teachers) and a targeted intervention (family program for high-risk children) on reducing aggression and violence among sixth graders. First, the paper describes the role of ...

This article examines the challenges faced by developers of youth drug abuse prevention programs in transporting scientifically proven or evidence-based programs into natural community practice systems. Models for research on the transfer of prevention technology are described with specific emphasis given to the relationship between efficacy and effectiveness studies. Barriers ...

This article describes and evaluates the Go Grrrls Program, a preventive intervention specifically designed for early adolescent girls. The 12-session curriculum was designed to address developmental tasks considered critical for healthy psychosocial development, such as achieving competent gender role identification, establishing an acceptable body image, developing a positive self-image, forming ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of an older adult falls-prevention program and describe compliance with the program. METHODS: The No More Falls! program was evaluated by comparing outcomes of program participants and nonparticipants from the same health care system and by comparing outcomes in pre- and postintervention periods. RESULTS: Program ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The importance of wellness and prevention in medical education is well documented. This report discusses the educational innovations in wellness and prevention that were implemented as part of the Undergraduate Medical Education for the 21st Century (UME-21) project. METHODS: Eight partner schools and four of the 10 ...

This paper discusses the procedures and measures that were developed and utilized to evaluate the impact of the GREAT (Guiding Responsibility and Expectations in Adolescents Today and Tomorrow) programs in the Multisite Violence Prevention Project (MVPP). First, we describe the three different samples used to examine the impact of the ...

This article describes the research design of the Multisite Violence Prevention Project (MVPP), organized and funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC's objectives, refined in the course of collaboration among investigators, were to evaluate the efficacy ...