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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

The Qingdao Twin Registry: A Focus On Chronic Disease Research, C. Anderson Johnson, Zengchang Pang, Feng Ning, Jennifer B. Unger, Shaojie Wang, Qian Guo, Weihua Cao, Liming Lee Dec 2006

The Qingdao Twin Registry: A Focus On Chronic Disease Research, C. Anderson Johnson, Zengchang Pang, Feng Ning, Jennifer B. Unger, Shaojie Wang, Qian Guo, Weihua Cao, Liming Lee

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

With the changing patterns of morbidity and mortality in China, noncommunicable chronic diseases have become the major threats to the health of the Chinese population. The causes of chronic diseases include genetic factors and behavioral risk factors such as the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and lack of physical activity. Twin studies offer a unique opportunity to disentangle the genetic and environmental risk and protective factors for chronic disease. The Qingdao Twin Registry (QTR) was initiated in 1998 as part of the National Chinese Twin Registry. Over 11,000 pairs of twins and multiples of all …


Cultural/Interpersonal Values And Smoking In An Ethnically Diverse Sample Of Southern California Adolescents, C. Anderson Johnson, Paula Palmer, Jennifer B. Unger, Sohaila Shakib, Peggy Gallaher, Anamara Ritt-Olson, Michele Mouttapa Apr 2006

Cultural/Interpersonal Values And Smoking In An Ethnically Diverse Sample Of Southern California Adolescents, C. Anderson Johnson, Paula Palmer, Jennifer B. Unger, Sohaila Shakib, Peggy Gallaher, Anamara Ritt-Olson, Michele Mouttapa

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

In ethnically diverse school contexts, values from multiple cultures might influence adolescents' attitudes and behaviors. This study developed scales to assess cultural values among Southern California 6- grade adolescents (N=2281) and evaluated the associations between values and smoking. The scales assessed values salient in many Hispanic and Asian cultures: Respect for Adults (e.g., filial piety, respeto). Interpersonal Harmony (e.g., saving face, simpatia), and Differentiated Gender Roles (e.g., machismo). In cross-sectional and one-year longitudinal models. Respect for Adults and Interpersonal Harmony were associated with a lower risk of lifetime smoking. The associations were significant even after controlling for demographic characteristics, friends' …


Motivational Interviewing With Adolescents And Young Adults For Drug-Related Problems, Jerry L. Grenard, Susan L. Ames, Mary Ann Pentz, Steve Sussman Jan 2006

Motivational Interviewing With Adolescents And Young Adults For Drug-Related Problems, Jerry L. Grenard, Susan L. Ames, Mary Ann Pentz, Steve Sussman

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This article reviews studies of brief motivational interviewing (MI) interventions applied to adolescents (ages 13 to 18 years) and young adults )ages 19 to 25 years) using alcohol or other psychoactive substances. An overview of the principles of MI is provided followed by a review of 17 clinical studies reported in the literature. This review revealed mixed findings for the efficacy of brief MI among these populations. However, in 29% of the studies (5 of 17), there was a clear advantage of the brief MI demonstrated compared to standard care or other programming. Components common to successful brief MI interventions …


Word Association Tests Of Associative Memory And Implicit Processes: Theoretical And Assessment Issues, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Jerry L. Grenard Jan 2006

Word Association Tests Of Associative Memory And Implicit Processes: Theoretical And Assessment Issues, Alan W. Stacy, Susan L. Ames, Jerry L. Grenard

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Word association is one of the most commonly used measures of association in cognitive science. These tests have been used to infer association parameters in normative studies, to derive cues and primes used in diverse paradigms (semantic priming, cued recall, illusory memory), to test implicit memory in experimental studies, and to suggest the operation of implicit processes in nonexperimental work. This chapter briefly outlines some of the historical routes and current controversies about association and summarizes basic cognitive research applying associative tests. The authors then describe benefits and limitations of the tests, as well as implications for theory and interventions …


Dynamic Generation Of A Table Of Contents With Consumer-Friendly Labels, Trudi Miller '08, Gondy Leroy, Elizabeth Wood Jan 2006

Dynamic Generation Of A Table Of Contents With Consumer-Friendly Labels, Trudi Miller '08, Gondy Leroy, Elizabeth Wood

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Consumers increasingly look to the Internet for health information, but available resources are too difficult for the majority to understand. Interactive tables of contents (TOC) can help consumers access health information by providing an easy to understand structure. Using natural language processing and the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), we have automatically generated TOCs for consumer health information. The TOC are categorized according to consumer-friendly labels for the UMLS semantic types and semantic groups. Categorizing phrases by semantic types is significantly more correct and relevant. Greater correctness and relevance was achieved with documents that are difficult to read than with …


Health Information Text Characteristics, Gondy Leroy, Evren Eryilmaz '11, Benjamin T. Laroya Jan 2006

Health Information Text Characteristics, Gondy Leroy, Evren Eryilmaz '11, Benjamin T. Laroya

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Millions of people search online for medical text, but these texts are often too complicated to understand. Readability evaluations are mostly based on surface metrics such as character or words counts and sentence syntax, but content is ignored. We compared four types of documents, easy and difficult WebMD documents, patient blogs, and patient educational material, for surface and content-based metrics. The documents differed significantly in reading grade levels and vocabulary used. WebMD pages with high readability also used terminology that was more consumer-friendly. Moreover, difficult documents are harder to understand due to their grammar and word choice and because they …


Using A Digital Library Of Images For Communication: Comparison Of A Card-Based System To Pda Software, Trudi Miller '08, Gondy Leroy, John Huang '05, Serena Chuang '05 Jan 2006

Using A Digital Library Of Images For Communication: Comparison Of A Card-Based System To Pda Software, Trudi Miller '08, Gondy Leroy, John Huang '05, Serena Chuang '05

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Autism spectrum disorder has become one of the most prevalent developmental disorders and one of the main impairments is difficulty with communication. One method of augmentative and alternative communication is the use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to create messages using a series of images printed on cards and organized in binders. We are developing a digital alternative based on an image library that is displayed on a personal digital assistant (PDA). We conducted an initial user acceptance study that compared the effectiveness and usability of both systems. The study showed that the PDA system was able to …