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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of an educational board game for increasing knowledge, positive attitudes-beliefs, and self-efficacy for dengue prevention in a sample of Philippine school children and adolescents. Effective board games are more advantageous than lectures because they are adaptable, inexpensive and foster learning independently of teachers or lecturers. Also tested were relationships between perceived fun by students playing the game and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: A school-based pre-test/post-test experimentally controlled design was employed in a Filipino primary and secondary school population. Findings: The lecture was more effective in increasing knowledge. But neither was more effective than the other in increasing positive attitudes-beliefs and self-efficacy. Both modes produced specifically significant increases in knowledge and self-efficacy only the lecture produced significant increases in attitudes-beliefs. Also, there was a significant relationship between fun and self-efficacy in the game group at the reduced regression model level but not in the presence of all study variables. Research limitations/implications: No long term outcomes or behavioral change outcomes were measured. However, an educational game may increase knowledge and self-efficacy about the dengue fever without the assistance of a teacher or other pre-game instructional aids. In addition, the board game technique is flexible and easily adapted to other community or school health issues. Originality/value: This was the first experimentally controlled study on the use of a game with the topic of dengue. The study on the use of a game was the first to demonstrate a significant increase in self-efficacy as a result of the play of a board game. Original instruments measured self-efficacy related to dengue control and also the variable of fun. (Contains 4 tables.)

The study's goal was to demonstrate the ability of an 8-year-old child to create educational games for the topic of dengue fever control. A naturalistic descriptive case study method was employed. The child had two dengue fever educational game creation activities. The study demonstrated that a child could develop functional games related to dengue fever control. The study however revealed knowledge gaps and mixed methods for dengue fever-related mosquito control. The game constructions were consistent to the child's cognitive level. The case study revealed that a child-centered educational game creation may be both diagnostic for a child's topical knowledge and cognitive development but also serve as a learning tool for children. This activity may also be an informational tool for formative research for dengue fever control. (Contains 2 figures.)

This study examined the use of postgame debriefing of a health educational board game activity on dengue fever in a Filipino student population. The debriefing used a series of specific open-ended questions, exploring students' feelings about the game and game-related questionnaires, students' perceptions of important information about dengue from the game, new information learned about dengue, areas of improvement on students' dengue control skills, and suggested areas of improvement for the game. Eighty-one students in Grade 5, Grade 6, and High School Year 1 participated in the in-school debriefing, conducted by seven Filipino student teachers. Eighty out of 81 students indicated "liking" the game. Reasons for liking the game were divided among responses based on their learning about dengue, and also perceived fun. Dengue control and prevention yielded the greatest category response to the question on perceived important material covered by the game. (Contains 8 tables.)

Interviewed 50 hospitalized suicide attempters and 57 professional caregivers they identified as having been consulted prior to attempts. Approximately one-half of patients directly disclosed suicidal symptoms or intentions, especially to mental health professionals. Few caregivers noted suicidal thinking or probed suicidal symptoms. Data suggest that professionals, especially nonpsychiatric physicians, should be more sensitive to suicide symptoms. (Author/NB)

Traditionally, African Americans have registered lower rates of suicide than other ethnic groups. In the last 20 years this pattern has changed, particularly among young African Americans. To date, the research conducted regarding this phenomenon has been limited for a variety of reasons and previous research has been inconclusive in determining risk factors of African American suicide. The purpose of this paper is to identify risk and protective factors specific to African American suicide. To determine the factors, the 1993 National Mortality Followback Survey was analyzed. The risk factors identified include being under age 35, southern and northeastern residence, cocaine use, firearm presence in home, and threatening others with violence. Some of the protective factors associated with African American suicide include rural residence and educational attainment. These results provide valuable information about completed African American suicides in relation to Whites. Several of these factors are unique to African Americans.

African-Americans have typically registered lower rates of suicide than other ethnic groups. In the last 20 years this pattern has changed, particularly among young African-Americans between the ages of 15 and 19 (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Mortality Statistics, 1998, Atlanta, GA). Today, young African-American males are as likely to commit suicide as their White counterparts. To date, the research conducted regarding this phenomenon has been inconclusive and existing suicide interventions appear to have no effect on reducing this behavior among young African-Americans. This paper synthesizes classical (Durkheim, Suicide, 1979, Free Press, New York) and postmodern (Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, 1992, Sage, London; Bauman, Modernity and Ambivalence, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1991) social theories in order to provide a more complete theoretical explanation for the increase in the suicide rate among adolescent African-American males. Postmodern society is typified by: (1) institutional deconstruction; (2) decreased collectivism; (3) increased normlessness and helplessness; and (4) exacerbated personal risk for stress. It is therefore possible to hypothesize that postmodernity characteristically loosens the bonds between the individual and society, thereby increasing vulnerability to depression, related pathologies (such as substance abuse), and suicide. African-Americans tend to be more affected/vulnerable because they are concentrated in resource-poor, low income areas, and institutions that provided social support (family, religious, community) and protected individuals from societal risk factors, have gradually been dissolving in postmodern societies. We argue that young African-American males of today are more exposed to stressors which increase psychological distress thus increasing depression and related pathological behaviors such as suicide. The main reason behind this increase is found in the inability of institutions to offer protection from psychological distress. Overall, this paper presents a postmodern, macro-level framework to explain the increase in suicide among African-American male adolescents. Keywords: Suicide; African-Americans; Adolescence; Postmodernity

The Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC) is investigated as a tool for explaining and diagnosing suicidal behavior. Investigators found in a sample of 42 hospitalized suicide ideators and attempters, that most patients had progressed through the stages of change as predicted by the TMC, and that ten change processes (psychological states or experiences) defined by the TMC, were used systematically in association with specific stages of change. Women were more likely to report using the change processes than men. Investigators conclude that the TMC holds promise as a tool for understanding suicidal behavior and for designing appropriate interventions.

This project evaluated a self-help manual designed to motivate low-income mothers to breastfeed. The manual communicated simple breastfeeding skills as a low-cost extension of counseling. It was tested in a randomized, two-group pre-/post-test design among 151 low-income pregnant women. Seventy-three treatment women received the manual and standard breastfeeding information; 78 controls received only information. Sixty percent of treatment women initiated breastfeeding compared to 44% of the controls (p = .04). No significant differences in breastfeeding duration were found. Data suggest that the manual was positively associated with breastfeeding initiation, justifying the development of revisions to improve efficacy, especially for breastfeeding duration.

Factors that help determine physicians' practice locations and specialties were listed by students and medical school faculty at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Students, while acknowledging the importance of clinical experiences, said faculty members had little influence on their specialty choices. (Author/MLW)

The distinction between correlational studies and correlational statistics is crucial to an understanding of the type of inferences that can be drawn from research. The complementary nature of correlational and experimental research in theory building is discussed.

Examines the applicability of Transtheoretical Model of Change (TMC) on describing the development of suicidal behavior. Applicability of TMC in identifying stages of suicidal behavior; Tools on treating suicidal behavior; Identification on psychosocial states or experience associated with movement through successive stages.

Reports on a community-based seminar/practicum for public health master's students. Demonstration of relationship between didactic work and community health issues; Students' interaction with community residents in implementing a health-related project; description of a seminar project.

Since the 1960s, there has been a massive effort to reduce suicide mortality in the United States through prevention centers which invite suicidal persons to phone for supportive services. In spite of virtually total lack of evidence concerning the efficacy of these services, they proliferated until, by 1973, nearly every metropolitan area in the United States had al least one. Suicide rates increased slightly throughout this time. We studied 1968 through 197 the years of greatest growth of suicide prevention facilities, comparing suicide rates in counties that added these centers with counties that did not do so. An association of centers with the reduction of suicides in young while females emerged. This finding was replicated on a different set of counties for a different time span. The results are discussed in light of the fact that this group constitutes the major clients of these center. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature dealing with the relationship between value orientations and age suggests that, as people become older, they tend to hold to values characterized as conservative or traditional.This proposition has been tested with data for 178 top leaders in the colombian cities of popayan, cali, and Medellfn.Value orientations in the Time, Activity, Man-Nature, and Relational areas were measured by the kluclchohn instrument; in a rigorous test, modernity of values was equated with the imputed North American middle-class value hierarchy, and in a less rigorous test, with the reputedly dominant North American orientation.The data offer strong support for the hypothesized relationship: in general, being older tends to be strongly correlated with having more traditional as opposed to more modern value orientations.Whether this relationship exists because (1) generational cohorts cling to orientations espoused early in life or (2) aging individuals become more conservative or traditional is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The influence of emotional social support on depression following coronary artery bypass graft surgery was examined in 75 patients. Immediately following surgery, social support was significantly associated with a decline in depression. Subsequently, post-surgery chest pain and perceptions of poor health emerged as the best predictors of continued depression. During the first weeks after surgery it may be that discomfort and pain are expected and tolerated well such that depression is ameliorated by social support. However, after three months, beliefs about physical recovery became the most important determinants of patient psychological status. Clinical implications of these findings are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]