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Spending on non-traditional media such as point-of-purchase advertising and promotions continues to increase. Pro-alcohol messages are a concern since, alcohol advertising is positively associated with drinking and related problems. This is one of the first studies that assesses alcohol advertising and promotions at retail outlets. Within a census of alcohol outlets in 10 ethnically diverse urban California communities, alcohol advertising was found to be prevalent in stores and on the outside of restaurants and bars. Independently owned stores had the highest prevalence of advertisements. Alcohol and alcohol advertisements were commonly placed where youths were likely to see them. Models of color and cultural icons were frequently used to target advertisements to specific ethnic groups. Point-of-purchase advertising appears to be used to aggressively market alcohol and contribute to a pro-alcohol environment. Efforts to decrease and counteract this largely unregulated form of alcohol advertising seem warranted.

The article looks into the material covered in the journal "Textiles of the Daic Peoples of Vietnam" relating to those Daic peoples living adjacent to and east of the Red River in Vietnam. It is said that the people have changed regarding their elements of dress from the years ago wherein the general trend is towards greater use of commercial fabrics and fabrics that are more brightly colored. Most of the ethnic groups still retain distinctive dress traditions in the form of female attire on special occasions. Moreover, the Central and Southwestern Tai peoples are associated with tubeskirts and wrap-around skirts who are found in the inland.

Objectives. The aims of this study were to understand the attitudes of local law enforcement staff regarding policies to reduce youth access to tobacco, to determine what proportion of these agencies have conducted unannounced compliance checks in the past year, and to examine factors associated with conducting compliance checks.Methods. A written questionnaire was completed by 182 law enforcement officials representing 200 cities and counties in California (some officials represented multiple jurisdictions). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with conducting compliance checks.Results. Only 36% of local enforcement agencies reported conducting one or more compliance checks in the previous year. Agencies were more likely to conduct compliance checks if they perceived fewer barriers to enforcement, reported more frequent collaboration with other community agencies to enforce youth access laws, and believed that youth access to tobacco is a problem in their community.Conclusions. Because active enforcement of youth access laws using unannounced compliance checks has been shown to reduce the rate of illegal tobacco sales to minors and may reduce youth smoking, efforts to increase the level of enforcement should be promoted. These study results may be used to inform efforts to encourage local agencies to enforce existing youth access laws.

Purpose. To examine the relationship between home smoking bans and adult smokers' exposure to the statewide California Tobacco Control Program (TCP) and their cigarette smoking behavior.Design. Cross-sectional survey that was part of the statewide Independent Evaluation of the California Tobacco Control, Prevention and Education Program.Setting. Random telephone interviews within 18 California counties.Subjects. A representative sample of 1315 adult smokers, aged 25 years and older.Measures. The telephone survey included questions about smoking behavior, quitting smoking, exposure to tobacco control program components, home smoking rules, and attitudes related to tobacco use and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).Results. Smokers with a home smoking ban were twice as likely (OR = 2.29; 95% CI 1.22, 4.29) to have heard of TCP community programs and three times more likely (OR = 3.18; 95% CI 1.34, 7.57) to have seen and talked about the ETS media spot than smokers with no home smoking policy. Multivariate regression models indicated that having a home smoking ban was related to smoking fewer cigarettes per day and greater interest in quitting smoking compared with smokers with no smoking rules in the home (p < .05).Conclusions. These findings suggest that smokers reporting exposure to the California TCP were more likely to have restrictive home smoking policies and that more restrictive home smoking policies were associated with reduced smoking behavior.

This article reviews school-based violence-prevention interventions published from 1993 through 1997. All of the interventions fitting the inclusion criteria involved classroom-based curricula; about one third included efforts to change the broader school environment or other settings where youth spend their time. Modest intervention effects in knowledge, attitudes, and aggressive, violent and prosocial behavior were reported. Elementary school interventions and programs focusing on the broader school environment appeared more successful in changing violence-related behavior. School-based health-promotion programs that integrated the community and home in other health areas were used to illustrate the potential success of more comprehensive interventions. A proposed framework for future comprehensive violence-prevention intervention research composed of three physical settings (school, home, and community) and three types of environments (information, social, and physical) is presented and discussed.

Background.This paper addresses the question of whether individuals who are most in need of household and car smoking bans, such as individuals with children living at home or who have many friends who smoke, are the ones who have them.

This study reports on job satisfaction from a survey of 132 home health aides using Locke's Action Tendency Interview Schedule. The major findings were that respondents who had been employed in home health care for five years or less were more satisfied than those who had been working in the area for a longer period and that there were no differences in job satisfaction by age.

Abstract:Faced with the national epidemic of gun violence, legislators should be especially sensitive to their constituents' support for various policy options. This support is best evidenced by well-conducted public opinion polls. We review public opinion polls on gun policy since 1987. Although the public support for a number of promising interventions targeting the design and manufacture of firearms has not been meaningfully investigated, strong support is evidenced for most other gun-control options. The public also believes, contrary to Supreme Court rulings, that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects a broad individual right to bear arms.

To the Editor.—We report a case in which soft-tissue calcinosis was demonstrated with computed tomographic (CT) scanning after unsuccessful visualization with plain roentgenograms.Report of a Case.—An 11-year-old black girl with dermatomyositis was treated at the Scott and White Clinic in Temple, Tex, for five years. In the fall of 1981 she had developed proximal muscle weakness, adenopathy, polyarticular arthritis, low-grade fever, and skin lesions consisting of numerous atrophic violaceous papules on the knuckles of both hands (Gottren's papules) and a heliotrope rash of the periorbital region. The diagnosis of dermatomyositis was confirmed with an elevated creatine kinase level of 292 units/L (292 U/L) and a muscle biopsy in January 1982 that showed chronic inflammatory changes and perivascular deposition of IgG. Between January 1982 and June 1983 she was treated with prednisone, 10 to 40 mg/d, with moderate improvement in her muscle weakness.In June 1983 she began