In order for health program evaluation to keep up with the evolution of disease patterns and epidemiology, a systems approach is proposed. Recommendations are made for the essential element in such an approach, namely, an integrated, comprehensive data base. (Author/AL)

Departments of preventive medicine can survive through unity, which can be achieved through majority agreement on a new and specific definition of preventive medicine. A definition is proposed that is based on a review and analysis of recent progress in the prevention of the major causes of mortality. (MLW)

A four-stage framework for considering the development of public policy in regard to the issue of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infection is offered. The phases are denial, irrationality, acceptance, and the development of a rational response. Federal antidiscrimination policies which include persons with HIV infections as disabled are…

Examines two illness trajectories, Alzheimer's disease and stroke, to illustrate emerging changes in human development over each course of illness and the increasing importance of attachment behavior among ill elders and their family members. Argues that attachment links ailing older people to their environment, and that attachment is vital if…

This paper presents the Institute of Medicine model of the dynamic nature of the disabling process of both primary disabilities and secondary conditions, and the interaction of that process with risk factors and quality of life. The components of a comprehensive disability prevention program are discussed. (Author/JDD)

Reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been tracking the levels of lead, which is linked to increased behavioral disorders, retardation, and anemia in children, in the United States since the 1970s. Provides statistics on the current state of chronic diseases in the U.S. and asserts that there is a need for a nationwide heath…

Explores the reasons that dementia is poorly understood and managed and suggests ways in which obstacles to optimal management of dementia can be overcome through research and through development of evidence-based services. (Author/JOW)

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting nearly 5 million children under the age of 18. Children with asthma account for 3 million hospital visits and 200,000 hospitalizations yearly. This adds up to an estimated $2 billion annually in health care costs (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999). A child with asthma has three…

Rhetorical scholarship criticizes melodrama for its tendency to simplify and reify public controversies and valorizes the comic frame as an ethically superior mode of rhetoric. These judgments are rooted in the discipline's reliance on Burkean categories, a reductionist conception of melodrama, and an implicit assumption that social unification…

This essay explores the intersection of US Empire on HIV/AIDS policies and the politics of "gifting." It does so from an analysis of several key US initiatives: the Project for a New American Century, the US National Security Strategy, and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. History provides numerous examples where US…

Research with older persons suffering from physical illness presents numerous challenges to gerontologists. Issues of conceptualization pertaining to the definition of illness, its location in the research paradigm, and the context in which illness occurs must be addressed prior to dealing with methodological problems. Access to physically ill…

Teen pregnancies and teen sexually transmitted diseases cost society in terms of adding to the tax burden by supporting people who have dropped out of the tax base without a job or education in order to have a baby or repair their health. They also cost because of the loss of human potential of a young life interrupted and cut short with greater…

This document consists of the guidelines of the National Education Association, for use in school districts, colleges, and universities, and of a statement concerning them. The guidelines address such issues as (1) whether students or school employees who have or could transmit Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) should be permitted to…

Hospice care (health care for the terminally ill that emphasizes emotional support for the patient and family) is essential to ease emotional, psychological, and social pain, and can be a factor in addressing spiritual and physical pain. Yet to ease the pain of final illness, therapeutic communication must extend beyond words. Physical contact--in…

The texts of three hearings on issues connected with AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) are recorded in this document. The first hearing concerned the availability and cost of the drug azidothymidine (AZT) for victims of the disease and considered such questions as what a fair price for AZT is, who will pay for people currently being…