Background: Opioid use has reached epidemic proportions in rural communities in the United States and injection of drugs is commonly used. As a result of shared or reusing needles and syringes, the risk for contracting blood-borne diseases is significantly increased. Rural areas face many social and attitudinal barriers regarding syringe exchange…

School enrollment, mobility, and occupation are each important factors to consider when examining HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection risk among youth in sub-Saharan Africa. Through an analysis of narrative life histories from 30 HIV-positive and 30 HIV-negative youth (aged 15-24 years), matched on gender, age, and village and purposively…

Violence exposure is a serious public health concern for adolescents in schools today. Violence exposure can be quite severe and frequent with multiple acts of indirect and direct victimization having lasting effects on the physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being of adolescents. The purpose of the present study is to examine the rates of…

Background: Childhood obesity is a significant but largely "modifiable" health risk, disproportionately affecting socioeconomically disadvantaged, racial/ethnic minority, and rural children. Elementary school-aged children typically experience the greatest increases in excess weight gain and therefore are important targets for reducing…

Background and objective; There is growing recognition that violence against women has a large public health impact, in addition to being a gross violation of women's human rights. The study's aims were: To show the types of domestic abuse encountered by Kurdish women, and study the relationship between them. Methods; The study conducted in the…

Signal detection analysis was used to evaluate a combination of sociodemographic, acculturation, mental health, health care, and chronic disease risk factors potentially associated with diabetes in a sample of 4,505 semirural Mexican American adults. Overall, 8.9% of adults had been diagnosed with diabetes. The analysis resulted in 12 mutually…

The health disparities literature has identified a common pattern among middle-aged African Americans that includes high rates of chronic disease along with low rates of psychiatric disorders despite exposure to high levels of cumulative socioeconomic status (SES) risk. The current study was designed to test hypotheses about the developmental…

Purpose: To assess the associations of the natural environment with obesity and physical activity in nonmetropolitan areas of the United States among representative samples by using 2 indices of outdoor activity potential (OAP) at the county level. Methods: We used the data from 457,820 and 473,296 noninstitutionalized adults aged over 18 years…

Purpose: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the pediatric population is increasing. Barriers, including the lack of consensus of a definition for metabolic syndrome and time constraints for the pediatrician, may limit the identification and diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in children. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the role…

Purpose: We examined the potential association between African couples' concordance on attitudes toward violence (ATV) and risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Method: Analyses included 13,837 couples from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2003 and 2007, from six African countries. Concordance on ATV was defined as both spouses…

Purpose: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health problem, with significant consequences for the mother, infant, and family. Available research has not adequately examined the potential impact of sociodemographic characteristics, such as place of residence, on risk for PPD. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis…

To address increasing rates of overweight and obesity, a population-based telephone intervention was introduced in New South Wales, Australia. The Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service[R] (GHS) offered participants a 6-month coaching program or detailed self-help information. Determining the population reach of GHS is of public health…

Context: The impact of alcohol consumption on risks for injury among rural adolescents is an important and understudied public health issue. Little is known about whether relationships between alcohol consumption and injury vary between rural and urban adolescents. Purpose: To examine associations between alcohol and medically attended injuries by…

The Uniontown, Alabama Community Health Project trained and facilitated Community Health Advisors (CHAs) in conducting a theory-based intervention designed to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) among rural African-American women. The multiphased project included formative evaluation and community organization, CHA recruitment and…

Context: Alcohol consumption is a major public health problem nationally, but little research has investigated drinking patterns by rurality of residence. Purpose: To describe the prevalence of abstinence, alcohol use disorders, and risky drinking in rural, suburban, and urban areas of the United States. Methods: Analyses of the 2001-2002 National…