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AJPH NEWS Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL July 29, 2002, 4:00 PM (ET)
CONTACT: For copies of articles, call Natalie Raynor, (202) 777-2511

All articles are online at www.ajph.org

American Journal of Public Health: August 2002 Highlights

• Adults caring for ill spouses even more likely to suffer depression and anxiety than those caring for parents
• Nursing homes are racially segregated
• Anti-drug campaigns help reduce cocaine and marijuana use among adolescents
• Women and their babies need follow-up care long after delivery
• Motorcycle helmet laws save lives and prevent traumatic brain injuries

The articles highlighted below appear in the August 2002 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of the American Public Health Association.

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Adults caring for ill/disabled spouses even more likely to suffer depression and anxiety than those caring for parents
In a four-year study of middle-aged and older women, those who provided care for an ill or disabled spouse were almost six times as likely to suffer depressive or anxious symptoms as were those who had no caregiving responsibilities. Women who cared for ill parents were twice as likely to suffer from depressive or anxious symptoms as non-caregivers. Researchers "observed a marked increase in risk among women who provided 36 or more hours per week of spousal care, indicating that there may be a threshold of time involvement beyond which likelihood of mental health impairment rapidly escalates." Also, it may not be enough to simply offer respite care to give caregivers a break. Psychological distress caused by grief about a loved-one's illness or impending death needs attention - a critical issue because "most U.S. women will provide informal care at some point during their lives."
[From: "Reverberations of Family Illness: A Longitudinal Assessment of Informal Caregiving and Mental Health Status in the Nurses' Health Study." Contact: Eric Rimm, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health Department of Nutrition, eric.rimm{at}channing.harvard.edu

Nursing homes are racially segregated
A recent survey of 193 licensed residential care/assisted living facilities and 40 nursing homes found that blacks tend to live in majority-black institutions and whites in predominently-white ones. More study is needed, researchers say, to determine whether this racial separation is due to socioeconomic factors, facility policies, or resident choice, and whether it translates into inequality of care. Historically, blacks have used long-term care facilities much less than whites, but increasingly this gap is narrowing. Black residents of long-term care facilities differ somewhat from whites, however; for example, black residents are more often mentally retarded and/or have difficulty moving around. In this study, facilities with a predominantly black population tended to have lower ratings for cleanliness/maintenance and lighting; however overall quality of care was not assessed.
[From: "Distribution of African Americans in Residential Care/Assisted Living and Nursing Homes: More Evidence of Racial Disparity?" Contacts: Philip Sloane, MD, MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, psloane{at}med.unc.edu; Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sheryl_Zimmerman{at}unc.edu, and Daniel Howard, PhD, Shaw University, howardd{at}shawu.edu.]

Anti-drug campaigns help reduce cocaine and marijuana use among adolescents
Anti-drug advertising reduces teen drug use, according to a new study that looked at adolescent drug use and exposure to the national advertisements of the Partnership for Drug-Free America. Researchers used a detailed behavioral model that looked at the relationship between adolescents' recall of anti-drug advertising and their probability of using marijuana, cocaine or crack. Self-administered questionnaires completed in 1987-1990 were analyzed, including a time period before the PDFA began airing and publishing its anti-drug ads. While the ads prevented drug use among those not already using marijuana or cocaine, they had little impact on current users.
[From: "Assessing the Impact of Antidrug Advertising on Adolescent Drug Consumption: Results From a Behavioral Economic Model." Contact: William P. Puutsis Jr., London Business School, bputsis{at}london.edu.]

Women and their babies need follow-up care long after delivery
Even as prenatal care is improving for mothers nationwide, children whose mothers had health problems after birth are likely to have developmental delays and other health issues, according to a new study. The problem is especially pronounced among low-income women and their children. Those women who smoke, are in poor physical health, or depressive symptoms after pregnancy more often have children with health and behavior problems and language delays at 3 years of age. Earlier studies have shown similar results, but this is the first to track child and maternal health for three years after birth. Results came from data from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey and its 1991 Longitudinal Follow-Up. "Although the child health community has long supported the provision of health services to women while they are pregnant, these findings imply the need to expand that commitment beyond the prenatal period, the investigators said."
[From: "Women's Health After Pregnancy and Child Outcomes at Age 3: A Prospective Cohort Study." Contact: Robert S. Kahn, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, robert.kahn{at}chmc.org.]

Motorcycle helmet laws save lives and prevent traumatic brain injuries
Maryland reinstated a controversial motorcycle helmet law in 1992, and statistics show that law has saved lives and prevented traumatic brain injuries. After the mandatory helmet law was enacted, motorcycle deaths dropped 56 percent. Researchers said their findings were consistent with those found during studies in California and Louisiana. While motorcycle helmets have been proven to greatly reduce fatalities, 28 states weakened their helmet laws between 1975 and 1983.
[From: "Autopsy Study of Motorcyclist Fatalities: The Effect of the 1992 Maryland Motorcycle Helmet Use Law." Contact: Kimberly M. Auman, MS, National Study Center for Trauma and EMS, University of Maryland, kmitchel{at}som.umaryland.edu.]

The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly Journal of the American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world and the foremost publisher of public health-related books and periodicals promoting high scientific standards, action programs and policy for good health. The Journal is online at www.ajph.org.

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