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Deals with the position paper presented to the President's Committee on Health Education in Boston, Massachusetts on January 6, 1972 concerning health promotion in the U.S. Basis of the health promotion recommendations of the paper; Importance of having a massive consumer health education effort; Establishment of state health education training centers.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Department of Sociology, The university of Rochester, October, 1966. The paper was written while the author was on leave of absence from the Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, as a visiting scholar at the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University. This investigation was supported in part by a Public Health Service fellowship MH 23,804-01 from the National Institute of Mental health. Much of the background for this paper was obtained while the author was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences, Stanford University (1964-1966) and the Laboratory for Social Research, Stanford University (1966-1967). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health planning in this paper is considered as a developmental process in which different types of planning appear at different times. These types are discussed and the place in the complex health care system developing in the United States is assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictions that measles would be eradicated through vaccination have not been fulfilled. The reasons for this failure are analyzed in this paper, and the possibilities for successful action against measles are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following six papers examine a broad range of disease processes and relevant social conditions, such as urban living, social disorganization, poverty, socioeconomic status, and emotional conflict and instability, and show that much illness and death is caused, directly and indirectly, by social and personality factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a contract with the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, Contract OE 5-10-292. The author is grateful to Professors Hubert M. Blalock, Jr., David Elesh, and David Heise for comments on an earlier version of this paper. However, the author takes full responsibility for errors that remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion of the orientation of mental health professionals toward human services in the U.S. The author in this paper has traced the development of ideology among mental health professionals and has concluded that a more inclusive human service belief system is developing among mental health and other community caregivers. Growing out of the community mental health ideology which gained prominence during the nineteen sixties, the human service orientation is seen as potentially playing a major role in rationalizing and justifying an even more expanded pattern for organizing comprehensive integrated programs of service for the nineteen-seventies.

This paper examines the potential of a Cooperative Extension Service to create a new context for the provision of health education services and offers a plan for the use of this potential in the health education of the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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What changes in public health nursing service in the home have taken place as result of crisis situations in various American cities? This paper based on mail questionnaire responses presents some tentative answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper on ‘Cats and Childhood Leukemia’ the authors found that children 1–14 years of age have roughly a double relative risk of leukemia if they were reported to have been exposed to a cat which was sick or died. This finding, based on the childhood leukemias of the Tri-State Survey, has now been confirmed by a similar finding in approximately 1,400 adult cases and adult random-sample controls. A somewhat stronger relationship was found for exposure to ill or dead canaries and parakeets. An equivocal relationship was found for pet dogs. Degree of relationship depends on type of leukemia. These findings do not necessarily conflict with the data for earlier negative reports. It is shown that unless the health status of the pet is included in the analysis, the relationships will be missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the use of simulation modeling technique to support the management of family planning programs, using data in an organized way for problem diagnosis, forecasting and the examination of alternative strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information related to economics that appeared in the 1911 issue of the journal "American Economic Review." An explanation of the change in type on the cover page of the current issue is due to the readers of the journal. The general title of the publications of the Associations is "Bulletin of the American Economic Association," and the Bulletin will carry a serial number. The Bulletin includes the journal, which appears four times a year, the papers read at the annual meeting, and the Handbook. As the Bulletin is the inclusive title of all the publications, it must, in accordance with postal regulations, appear in a type appropriate to such preeminence. The International Congress of Hygiene and Demography had been invited by the Congress of the United States to hold its Fifteenth Session in this country and will convene at Washington under the honorary presidency of U.S. President William Howard Taft September 28, 1912. More than a score of foreign countries have already accepted the invitation of the United States to be represented at the Congress. The Congress will be divided into nine sections, among which are to be noted the sections on industrial and Occupational Hygiene, Hygiene of Traffic and Transportation, and Demography. In connection with the Congress there will be an exhibition of state, municipal and volunteer work in public health and vital statistics. This exhibition will be under the charge of Dr. J.W. Schereschewsky of the United States Public Health Service.

Prior to passage of the National Mental Health Act in 1946 there existed, within the U.S. Public Health Service, a Division of Mental Hygiene whose responsibility was largely confined to research on narcotic addiction and to administration of the two U.S. Public Health Service Hospitals at Lexington, Kentucky and Fort Worth, Texas, which are primarily concerned with treatment and care of narcotic addicts. Although on paper the Division had some responsibility for research into nervous and mental diseases, the research program was never really implemented by an adequate allotment of funds. The act of 1946 constituted a declaration of intent to provide funds for a broad program of research, training and aid to States for the development of means of dealing with mental health problem. A brief review of the evidence presented and the individuals and groups participating in Congressional hearings which resulted in the final formulation of the Act reveals at least four forces which helped to convince the Congress that action in this field on the part of the federal government was imperative.

The demographic transition is an historical feature of population change. In Western Europe it took from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty years for individual countries to move through the transition from a high birth rate and high death rate to a low birth rate and low death rate. That historical movement was facilitated by a lower birth rate to start with, by opportunities for emigration, and by the slow and gradual introduction of public health measures that lowered the death rate. In the developing countries, this situation is different by a major order of magnitude, birth rates are higher at the outset, migration is no outlet for population pressures these days, and public health measures have been introduced relatively suddenly and effectively. The result is heavy population growth, so heavy as to be a major burden to countries seeking to modernize their economic and social establishments. The implications are clear, as a report of the National Academy of Sciences of the U .S. concludes, "Not only must the current continued increase in the rate of population growth cease, but this rate must decline again. There can be no doubt concerning this long-term prognosis: either the birth rate of the world must come down or the death rate must go back up."

This paper examines the availability of subsidized family-planning services to poor and near-poor fertile women aged 18 to 44, not desiring pregnancy, in the United States. Examination of data leads to the conclusion that subsidized services are inadequate; that neither state nor local governments are meeting the need; that hospitals and other public health facilities are providing negligible services; that the federal government, despite stated policy favoring the availability of family-planning services to all who want them, is providing minimal funding for the initiation and support of programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A selective systematic overview is provided of the literature on the utilization of health and welfare services that appeared in the United States and Europe, mainly within the last two decades. Methodological questions that appear to characterize much of the work to date, are discussed and analytically distinct approaches or research strategies in the study of utilization behavior are presented. The paper traces the emergence of work in this area, questions the wisdom of investigators proceeding along traditional research lines, and highlights a number of promising new possibilities for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death rate variations for the United Kingdom and the United States are spatially compared by means of maps. The data mapped include death rates from all causes, and infant mortality. In the United Kingdom, the association between high death rates and areas of industrialization, exploitation, and dense population is very marked. Such an association is somewhat less definite in the United States where the high rates associate more easily with areas of poor socio-economic circumstances such as Indian reservations, Spanish-American districts, and most particularly, the high-proportion Negro areas of the South. In both countries, however, longevity in rural areas and in urban places of limited industry is likely to be greater than in areas not having these attributes. The quality, of biostatistics in the United Kingdom has been superior to the United States. The recently launched National Health Survey, however, promises to greatly improve the biostatistic position of the United States. The special contribution of medical geography is the mapping technique and the interpretations which potentially it allows. At the national scale the sensitivity limits of such an approach must be recognized and there can be no simple explanation of apparent mortality patterns. Such maps as these are designed to focus on areas where detailed studies may be of benefit in substantiating cause-and-effect relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the satisfactory results that can be obtained when local health departments communicate and cooperate with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this paper argues that we need a national system for collection of health data which will meet the needs of planners, evaluators and investigators at local, state and federal levels and that national health insurance legislation should require the collection of these data as well as the facts needed for fiscal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues concerning the training and deployment of social work manpower in the U.S. Manpower problems involved in providing health and medical care services to the total population of the country has, for the first, been recognized by health professionals, the consumers of services and policy-makers. Another concern in the country's health system is the significant changes in the organization and structure of the health and mental health services, which will have great impact on the ultimate delivery of service.

The article offers information on the challenges faced by the American Public Health Association on the development of the association's Medical Care Section in the U.S. On November 10, 1948, the American Public Health Association's Governing Council voted to approve the petition requesting the establishment of a Medical Care Section. In 1972, the association expanded their health services because of the changes on their needs and demands. In 1920, the association created a committee to study the municipal health departments and determine the extent of variation on the health services and procedures offered in a specific community.

The article expresses the author's appreciation and gratitude to the members and friends of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the "American Journal of Public Health" for extending help to the organization and its publication. According to the author, the contributions, which are expressed in many ways such as reviewing books and papers, providing consultation, and calling attention to various public health developments, are great benefit to the journal.

Data are available to study the variation in mortality in this country occurring month by month for fully six decades. Death rates by month have been computed and published for the expanding death-registration area of the United States of 1900-1932 and for the complete nation (48 States and ultimately 50 States) from 1933 to the present. Even a cursory glance at the available data leads to the obvious conclusion that a definite pattern of seasonal variation of deaths exists. This seasonal swing is characterized by a high death rate in the early part of the year dropping to a trough in the summer months, and rising again during the latter part of the year. The general pattern is well recognized, as are similar seasonal curves for various causes of death. Despite the apparent wealth of statistical material at hand relatively little analytical matter has been produced in this country measuring seasonality of mortality as compared with the wide range of data compiled for statistical series portraying the nation's economic operations. Yet seasonal variation is receiving increasing attention in the evaluation of statistics of vital events. The very factors which make seasonal indices so valuable to economists and analysts also have proved to be of service to demographers and public health researchers. Seasonal adjustments provide refined information about current trends; they separate the seasonal components of statistical data from cyclical and irregular fluctuations; they provide indices with which to measure the significance of month to month change. Seasonal variation in the crude birth rate has been analyzed for the period 1933-40 using the link relative method [1]. Seasonal indices for 1948-54 were prepared with the aid of Univac, the high-speed electronic computer of the United States Bureau of the Census, using an adaptation of the standard ratio to moving average method [2]. The indices prepared by the Bureau of the Census became the basis for the regular computation of seasonally adjusted figures of births by the National Vital Statistics Division, U. S. Public Health Service 131. Similarly, marriage data published by the National Vital Statistics Division have been "deseasonalized" with the aid of methods developed by the Bureau of the Census [4]. This paper presents the results of an effort made with the assistance of Univac to eliminate seasonal variation from mortality data. Some of the particular problems encountered in adjusting mortality data, and the attempts to surmount these are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an ecological analysis of urban mortality rates in the U.S. According to the authors much of the work taking account of the health factors has been done in a comparative perspective with the general conclusion being that improved health conditions and services and not pure economic factors have been the main influence in lowering mortality in the developing nations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ecological correlates of neighborhood mortality levels in a large urban center. The focus is upon the identification of the relative contribution of demographic, environmental, and social organizational variables to the explanation of differences in urban subarea death rates. The authors take as their starting point the works of those social scientists who have clearly demonstrated the relationship of ecological phenomena to differential urban mortality. Past studies have shown the importance of a large number of specific variables in explaining differential aggregate community mortality levels. These specific variables may be grouped into three gross categories, such as demographic, environmental, and social organizational.

The article focuses on the development of neighborhood health center approach to health care delivery in the U.S. The neighborhood health centers have proliferated under a variety of federal grant-in-aid programs and private sources of support. It was mentioned that neighborhood health center approach demands an increasing emphasis on cost-effective management of neighborhood health centers and increased revenue generation activities. In addition, changes in federal health service funding policies have necessitated a reevaluation of sources of future support for neighborhood health centers.

Presents several letters to the editor. Comment on the two "planning" articles "The Application of a Model for Health Care Service in a Rural Setting," by Rhesa L. Penn and "Changing State Laws Regulating Health Manpower," by Steven Mosow, published in the January 1973 issue of the "American Journal of Public Health"; Discussion of an article related to the lactose intolerance in the nonwhite population, published in the November 1972 issue of the "American Journal of Public Health"; Focus on the association between abnormal lactose tolerance tests and milk rejection in Negroes.

The article focuses on research into the translation of social science theory into field action using fluoridation of water as an example. It states that despite the preventative abilities that water fluoridation has on dental caries, many American communities resist having it implemented as of 1966. It examines the relationship between implementing fluoridation and on translating social science, theory, and concept to practice in public health.

In this paper the authors have estimated the amount by which the United States cigarette consumption has been affected by cigarette advertising and by the health scare over smoking. During 1953-1970 the health scare depressed cigarette consumption considerably more than cigarette advertising boosted it. Section I presents econometric estimations of the demand function for cigarettes, incorporating econometric corrections for multicollinearity. Section II gauges the comparative effects of advertising and the health scare. On these results, section III evaluates whether the recent Congressional ban of broadcast advertising of cigarettes will promote public health by reducing cigarette consumption. Although the advertising elasticity of demand was positive, it was quite small. More importantly, however, the ban also eliminated the health-scare-oriented antismoking commercials, which the Federal Communications Commission had forced broadcasters to air in proportion to cigarette commercials. Since the health scare has been the relatively stronger influence, the net effect of the ban may be to increase consumption, not decrease it. Ban advocates disregarded the interconnection of cigarette and antismoking commercials; the United States cigarette manufacturers apparently were not confused about the interconnection. Finally, the probable anti-competitive effects of the ban are noted in section IV.

This article analyzes the economic aspect of health service efficiency in the United States. Martin Feldstein's "Economic Analysis of the British National Health Service" is the most important contribution to the economics of medical care because of the author's understanding of the basic problems of health care, the institutional setting, and the economic tools he uses and develops for estimating the functional relations in health care. This paper attempts to summarize Feldstein's contributions and put them into perspective with recent similar investigations. One of the more important aspects of Feldstein's contribution is his use of econometric techniques and his occasional contribution to their development. The review concentrates on the estimates and their implications. The quality and importance of Feldstein's contribution can best be described by noting the abundance of new ideas he presents. In the course of the investigation Feldstein summarizes much of the recent literature on the estimation of production functions and other estimation procedures.

The article discusses public health aspects of radioactive wastes in the U.S. With the plausible growth in the industrial use of nuclear energy, it will be necessary from a public health standpoint, to consider possible exposures from substantial quantities of radioactive wastes in addition to exposure from all sources of radiation, both natural and man-made. In this paper, the author discusses the several sources of radioactive wastes in a qualitative fashion and reviews quantitatively the sources that may lead to significant exposures at some future date.

The article discusses the study on the implications of solid disposable diapers as potential source of viruses to the public health in the U.S. The results from the study showed that 0.6 to 2.5 percent of solid waste was soiled disposable diapers because about 33 percent of the diapers contained fecal matter and each pound has an average of 60 grams of feces. Furthermore, there were nine diapers which contained viruses out of the 84 fecally contaminated disposable diapers being tested. Poliovirus 3 was found from disposable diapers and echovirus 2 was recovered from two maximum enteric virus.

This article presents a list of recent books and articles on economics. Some of the books listed are "Health Resources in the United States: Personnel, Facilities, and Services," by George W. Bachman; "Welfare Economics and the Theory of the State," by William J. Boul; "The Scandinavian Labor Movement," by Walter Galenson; "Housing Market Behavior in a Declining Area," by Leo Grebler; "A Survey of Contemporary Economics," edited by Bernard F. Haley; "Federal Finance and Underdeveloped Economy," by Baljit Singh, etc.

This article examines in depth the methods implemented by the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District in controlling emissions into the atmosphere. The two sources, stationary and motor vehicles, are discussed, as well as legislation which has been enacted to control pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]