Objective: Education is inversely associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) risk; however the mechanisms are poorly understood. The study objectives were to evaluate the extent to which rarely measured factors (literacy, time preference, sense of control) and more commonly measured factors (income, depressive symptomatology, body mass index) in…

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States, yet knowledge of CVD risk factors is surprisingly low in college students. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an individualized blood pressure, cholesterol, and CVD education intervention on college freshmen. Methods:…

Statistical methods for sequential meta-analysis have applications also for the design of new trials. Existing methods are based on group sequential methods developed for single trials and start with the calculation of a required information size. This works satisfactorily within the framework of fixed effects meta-analysis, but conceptual…

People with learning disabilities are at increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Research suggests this may be due to inequalities in health status and inequities in the way health services respond to need. Little is known about the most effective way to improve health outcomes for people with learning disabilities. A previously developed…

This paper presents the development, implementation, and assessment of a project-based Bioinstrumentation course. All course lectures and hands-on laboratory activities are related to a central project theme: a cardiac pacemaker. The students create a benchtop cardiac pacemaker by applying instrumentation knowledge acquired in the course to each…

Background: Tobacco is a major cause of cardiovascular disease, and current treatments lack long-term efficacy. Promoting physical activity may be a viable population-level approach to improving cardiovascular health among smokers. Purpose: To characterize smokers engaging in any physical activity based on demographics, quitting behaviors, health…

Little is known about the effect of personalized risk information on risk perceptions over time, particularly among ethnically diverse subpopulations. The present study examines Mexican American's (MAs) risk perceptions for heart disease and diabetes at baseline and following receipt of risk feedback based on family health history. Participants…

Background: Coronary heart disease (CHD) patients require monitoring through ECGs; the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is considered to be the non-invasive gold standard. Examples of incorrect treatment because of inaccurate or poor ECG monitoring techniques have been reported in the literature. The findings that only 50% of nurses and less than…

Background: Although life expectancies in Down syndrome (DS) have doubled over the past 3-4 decades, there continue to be many early deaths. Yet, most research focuses on infant mortality or later adult deaths. Materials and Methods: In this US study, hospital discharge and death records from the state of Tennessee were linked to examine 2046…

Cutting the number of high school dropouts in half nationally would save $7.3 billion in annual Medicaid spending, according to a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. "Well 'and' Well-Off: Decreasing Medicaid and Health-Care Costs by Increasing Educational Attainment" examines Medicaid spending for all fifty states and…

Objective: Health literacy is increasingly recognised as a potentially important patient characteristic related to patient education efforts. We evaluated whether health literacy would predict gains in knowledge after completion of patient education in cardiac rehabilitation. Method: This was a re-post observational analysis study design based on…

Background: Depression, anxiety, diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors are frequent health problems among older people with intellectual disability (ID). These conditions may be bidirectionally related. Depression and anxiety may have biological effects causing glucose intolerance, fat accumulation and also lifestyle changes causing metabolic…

Patient education is an essential part of the treatment of coronary heart disease in cardiac rehabilitation. In Germany, no standardized and evaluated patient education programs for coronary heart disease have been available so far. In this article, we report the evaluation of a patient-oriented program. A multicenter quasi-experimental,…

To overcome barriers to improved outcomes, we undertook an intervention to teach schoolchildren how to detect a stroke and call emergency medical services (EMS). We obtained permission from parents and guardians to use an 8-min puppet show to instruct the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders about stroke detection, symptomatology, and calling EMS. A…

Objective: Our aim was to develop written resource material for use in the "Oral Health Information through Community Pharmacists" project. Poor oral health is associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Many people do not access dental services on a regular basis; however, they may access community pharmacies for help and…