Disease Prevention Initiatives Research Articles

New Jersey health promotion and disease prevention initiative.

Health promotion is a major component of the rhetoric about health care reform at a national level. However, it is likely that the benefit packages included in any congressional legislation will be limited and unsatisfactory, thus compelling the states to take the lead. New Jersey is the first state to enact a comprehensive health promotion and disease prevention law; this legislation has the potential to change medical practice in the state.

Future Challenges in Wales

Heartbeat Wales is the first national heart disease prevention initiative of its kind in the UK. Describes the progress which has been achieved since the programme was launched in 1985. Gives details of how alliances have been forged with commerce and industry with the objective of promoting improvements in nutrition.

Researching communication approaches to heart disease prevention

TO develop an effective coronary heart disease (CHD) prevention initiative, the Health Education Board for Scotland considered it important to understand first the relevant issues when viewed from the consumer perspective. The Advertising Research Unit at the University of Strathclyde was commissioned to carry out the formative research for, and initial monitoring of, the initiative. This paper focuses on the communi cation research aspects of these formative stages and demonstrates the decision-making role a compre hensive research strategy can play in developing ef fective health communication programmes.

Data requirements to measure progress on the objectives for the nation in health promotion and disease prevention.

The Reagan Administration has adopted the policy guidelines developed over the previous few years in the disease prevention and health promotion initiative of the Carter Administration. Broad national consensus had been sought in the formulation of 226 measurable objectives for the decade. We classify the prevention objectives according to their position in an implied causal chain: 1) improved programs, 2) increased public and professional awareness, 3) reduced risk factors, and 4) improved health status. Prior to 1980, the data systems and periodic surveys sponsored by federal agencies and national organizations covered only four of the 42 objectives in the public and professional awareness category, whereas at least half of the objectives in each of the other three categories were covered by available national data sources, mostly federal. Sample surveys are needed to measure the majority of the currently unmeasured objectives in all four categories. Private and state health interview surveys are needed to supplement the federal capacity, especially in the face of federal cutbacks in survey capacity.

Disease prevention and health promotion initiatives: some legal considerations.

Public health programs to prevent disease and promote health are constrained by legal doctrines that protect individuals from intrusive regulation of their health-influencing behaviors. This paper outlines the parameters of acceptable interventions in the context of antismoking legislation and motorcycle helmet safety laws. The authors discuss recent court decisions challenging the constitutionality of these laws and identify criteria the courts apply in reviewing governmental attempts to protect the public from disease or trauma.