Random-digit-dialing (RDD) surveys are typically conducted using only the telephone survey mode of data collection. However, because RDD survey response rates have been declining over the past ten years it is important to examine alternatives to the single-mode approach. This paper describes a test of one multi-mode alternative conducted as part of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System...

PURPOSE We describe the prevalence, types, duration, frequency, and severity of intimate partner violence ("partner violence") in older women. DESIGN AND METHODS We randomly sampled a total of 370 English-speaking women (65 years of age and older) from a health care system to participate in a cross-sectional telephone interview. Using 5 questions from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance S...

High blood cholesterol (HBC) is a major risk factor for heart disease. One of the national health objectives for 2010 is to reduce the percentage of adults aged > or = 20 years with total blood cholesterol levels of > or = 240 mg/dL (objective 12-14). One strategy for achieving this objective is to increase awareness of HBC. State-specific data allow state health departments to monitor progress...

OBJECTIVE This study is a descriptive investigation of trends in BMI in the USA over time, across race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) groups, and across different datasets. METHODS The study analyzes micro-level data from three widely used cross-sectional US health datasets: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the National Health Interview Survey ...

Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is responsible for approximately 440,000 deaths each year. One of the national health objectives for 2010 is to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults to < or = 12% (objective 27.1). To examine the prevalence of smoking for the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC)...

Asians and Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) are fast-growing U.S. minority populations at high risk for type 2 diabetes. Although national studies have described diabetes prevalence, incidence, and risk factors among Asians and NHPIs compared with non-Hispanic whites, little is known about state-level diabetes prevalence among these two racial groups, or about how they differ...

Heart disease and stroke, the principal causes of cardiovascular disease (CVD), are the first and fifth leading causes of death among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) (1,2). Risk factors for CVD frequently cluster, which may increase CVD risk multiplicatively (3). To characterize the prevalence of risk factors for CVD (i.e., hypertension, current cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, ...

In Europe, chronic diseases are also responsible for the majority of deaths, and the most important risk factors for chronic diseases (obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, hypertension, tobacco use, alcohol use) are few and largely preventable (2). To assess the impact of health promotion and disease prevention programs and to identify subgroups at greatest risk, the World Health Organizatio...

INTRODUCTION Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs) and health systems may provide timely, reliable data to guide the development and distribution of public health resources to promote healthy behaviors, such as quitting smoking. The objective of this study was to determine if PBRN data could be used to make neighborhood-level estimates of smoking prevalence. METHODS We estimated the smokin...

INTRODUCTION Rural populations face numerous barriers to health, including poorer health care infrastructure, access to care, and other sociodemographic factors largely associated with rurality. Multiple measures of rurality used in the biomedical and public health literature can help assess rural-urban health disparities and may impact the observed associations between rurality and health. Fur...