Group items tagged

Many older adults in Medicare managed care programs have low health literacy, and this may affect use of preventive services. Objectives. To determine whether older adults with inadequate health literacy were less likely to report receiving influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations, mammograms, and Papanicolaou smears than individuals with adequate health literacy after adjusting for other covariates. Research Design. Cross-sectional survey; home interviews with community dwelling enrollees. Subjects. Medicare managed care enrollees 65 to 79 years old in four US cities (n = 2722). Measures. Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and self-reported preventive service use. Results. In bivariate analyses, self-reported lack of preventive services was higher among individuals with inadequate health literacy than those with adequate health literacy: never had an influenza vaccination: 29% versus 19% (P = 0.000); never had a pneumococcal vaccination: 65% versus 54% (P = 0.000); no mammogram in the last 2 years: 24% versus 17% (P = 0.017); never had a Papanicolaou smear: 10% versus 5% (P = 0.002). After adjusting for demographics, years of school completed, income, number of physician visits, and health status, people with inadequate health literacy were more likely to report they had never received the influenza (OR, 1.4% 95% CI, 1.1-1.9) or pneumococcal vaccination (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.7), and women were less likely to have received a mammogram (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.0-2.2) or Papanicolaou smear (OR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.0-3.1). Conclusions. Among Medicare managed care enrollees, inadequate health literacy is independently associated with lower use of preventive health services. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

Using a nationally representative sample of 13,609 kindergarten children in 2,690 classrooms and 788 schools from the base year of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, along with three-level hierarchical linear models, this study investigates the impact of early literacy instruction on kindergarten children's learning, as measured by direct cognitive test scores, indirect teacher ratings of children's achievement in language and literacy, and indirect teacher ratings of children's approaches to learning. Two composite measures of phonics and integrated language arts are constructed from teachers' reports of their instructional practices. Findings show that classroom mean outcomes were significantly higher when classroom teachers reported using both integrated language arts and phonics more often. However, children with low initial performance benefited less from integrated language arts instruction, as measured by direct measures of achievement; such differential effects of instruction were not observed for teacher ratings of children's achievement and learning style. Policy implications of the findings are discussed. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

In this study 538 collegiate athletes were asked how they were perceived and treated by faculty and other non athlete students. 33% reported they were perceived negatively by professors and 59.1% by students, Only 15% reported positive perceptions.

This article describes a study taken of 176 college students to evaluate their patterns of marijuana use as well as its positive and negative effects. Its results found two types of users those that smoked casually and rarely bought product and those that smoked on a regular daily basis. There were both positive and negative effects reported but there were far greater positive reports than negative. The study also described indicators of dependence as well as the tendency of more regular problematic users to combine marijuana use with tobacco and alcohol. This article is helpful because it gives insight to the opinions of those people that actually use the drug being called into question. It addresses both positive and negative effects of use that gives readers a well rounded amount of information on both sides of the argument. It also sheds light how most people that smoke marijuana are at higher risk of using alcohol and tobacco.

This article focus is on women and the 2000 Senate election. This focus on campaign strategies and the media women use when running for a position. Women usually take up more of the electoral voting then men. Women take up 55% percent of all elections and are more likely to be persuaded by campaign strategies because they often make their choice about who they are going to vote for more quickly than men. To attract women votes, candidates for a position often focus on education, health care and childcare. This article will be valuable to my research because it shows what candidates focus on in the media and campaigning when looking at women. It also shows that candidates pay more attention to women when campaigning earlier in their career. It also will help in explaining why candidates emphasize part of their campaign on certain issues to target women.

This article reports on a small-scale study which examined the home literacy practices of a group of 3 and 4 year-old children in a working-class community in the north of England and explored how far these practices were reflected in the curriculum of the nursery the children attended. The data illustrate that there was a dissonance between out-of-school and schooled literacy practices and that there was more evidence of nursery literacy practices infiltrating the home than vice versa. Children's literacy practices in the home were focused on media and popular cultural texts and the article argues for greater recognition of these contemporary cultural practices in early years policy documentation and curriculum guidance. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

The authors report on the results of a telephone survey of 1,001 employees of seven large corporations conducted for the Business Roundtable as part of its public policy program. A set of 20 questions keyed to the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics was embedded in the survey. A measure of economic literacy was constructed from the survey results. Greater economic literacy was associated with more overall education, more college economics coursework, high incomes, and being male. An examination of individual test questions revealed that previous college economics had substantial effects on employees' current economic literacy. (Abstract from JSTOR.) This journal, The Journal of Economic Education, may be worth checking out for those studying financial literacy.

The article highlights findings of a report released by the National Collegiate Athletic Association indicating that scholarship athletes continue to graduate at historic levels. An increasing number of black men's and women's basketball players, and more white men's and women's track-and-field athletes, are completing their degrees within six years.

This paper is a report of a reviews discussed the psychometric propertied of instruments used in health care education. This will measure the attitudes and health care of the children.

The article reports on the new arrival the for use of medical marijuana, for things such as chronic pain and nausea. Like the other 10 states in the U.S. marijuana would only be available to patients through a doctor's prescription. States such as Alaska have dismissed the law but were the first state to legalize marijuana possession for persons over 21. This article is evidence that America is slowly reforming marijuana laws but very slowly. This shows that many states need to rethink medical marijuana policies. I can use this in my paper for support of states and their social take on legalization of medical marijuana.

The number of Americans studying in China increased by 25 percent last year, according to a new report.

Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Hours" and other works, was artist-in-residence recently at the University of Maryland at College Park. This is part of a conversation he had with reporter Valerie Strauss about young people and literature.

College men report that they want women to drink less. I suggest that, if this article is of interest to you, you seek out the original study from Loyola Marymount University.

This article is about two teachers who used the literary devices associated with poetry to teach scientific writing to their students. The result was that students learned more about writing poetry and writing scientific reports. This article would be helpful for students researching the teaching of literacy using uncommon methods.

The author reports on the study "To Read or Not to Read," which was released by the United States National Endowment for the Arts. The study found that Americans read less in 2007 compared with previous years. The study found that reading abilities for teenagers and adults have declined, whereas reading abilities for younger children have increased. The impact which the decline in reading abilities has had on American workers is discussed. The author states that the amount of time which people read on a daily basis has declined. (Abstract from EBSCO.)

The latest NCAA graduation success rate report shows UD in the top 10 nationally with Notre Dame, Duke and Northwestern, among others.

Many patients misunderstand the written questions American doctors have them answer before physical exams, a finding that calls into question the usefulness of these screening tools, new reports say.

This article focuses on the implementation of early financial programs for young children. Financial literacy is a skill which all individuals will need throughout their life. Studies have found that individuals who received financial education in high school reported an increase up to 1.5% in their assets when compared to individuals who did not receive any education. While adding these course is certainly beneficial there are still a number of challenges. There is a cost to create such programs and some school districts are already facing budget problems.

This article is about an experiment/ study that was conducted about health literacy and adolescents. The study was conducted in Australia. It tested the mental health literacy of adolescents and the effected that SMS messages had on them. The study did not have exact outcomes and more research has to be done in order to report exact information.

This article addresses how the media pays more attention to an election when there is more diversity in the race, gender being one of them. If a female is running against a male more attention is likely to be displayed about the election. This specific article addresses women running for Mayor and the different media coverage they receive. It also talks about women running for senate and how they often have negative press coverage. Coverage of women politicians is different than those of men. Geographically, women are not covered (media) the same in every state and this also effects if a women has a chance at winning. This article will help me greatly in my paper because it research specific elections and shows results from many different polls. Since it addresses different races, such as Senator and Mayors and their races, I can use this information for an example to show people how women are not covered the same in media coverage during a political election. I can also use this article to show how when a women is running against a man, there is different emphasis on certain issues.