No abstract

The high risk of burnout in the social work profession is well established, but little is known about burnout's impact on the physical health of social workers. This article examines the relationship between burnout and physical health, using data from a longitudinal study of social workers. California-registered social workers (N = 406) were surveyed annually over a three-year period. Using structural equation modeling, the authors conducted a path analysis to test whether burnout predicted changes in physical health over time.The results showed that social workers with higher initial levels of burnout later reported more physical health complaints. Moreover, higher levels of burnout led to a faster rate of deterioration in physical health over a one-year period.The potential implications for policy and social service organizations are discussed.

We re-examine the pace of rising obesity among Hispanic immigrants and the effects associated with longer duration in the US, or what is referred to as unhealthy assimilation, the convergence of immigrant health to a less healthy native-born standard. Consistent with previous research, we find that across all race-ethnic groups, immigrants tend to be less obese than native-born persons. Second, obesity is clearly on the rise, with obesity rates increasing for both immigrant and native-born populations between 1995 and 2005. However, our findings are that immigrant obesity rises more slowly than for native-born Hispanics in the same age cohort. The significance is that immigrants do not converge to obesity prevalence of the native born as commonly assumed and in fact, the differential is wider in 2005 than it was in 1995. The analysis, which is based on the National Health Interview Survey tracks the obesity rates of different cohort populations observed in repeated cross-sections (1995 and 2005), as both immigrants and the native born grow older and additionally, as immigrants reside in the U.S. longer. More specifically, for immigrants, our study distinguishes the effects of length of U.S. residence (observed at a single point in time) and increasing duration of residence (observed over time). Of crucial importance, we contrast the changes over time for native and foreign-born residents passing through the same age range from 1995 to 2005. Misconclusions of previous research stem from 1) assuming that any change for immigrants equates to assimilation, without regard to native-born change, and 2) an unbalanced analysis that fails to track in parallel the growing obesity of both immigrant and native-born cohorts.

Introduction: The Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (CORD) project links public health and primary care interventions in three projects described in detail in accompanying articles in this issue of Childhood Obesity. This article describes a comprehensive evaluation plan to determine the extent to which the CORD model is associated with changes in behavior, body weight, BMI, quality of life, and healthcare satisfaction in children 2-12 years of age.Design/Methods: The CORD Evaluation Center (EC-CORD) will analyze the pooled data from three independent demonstration projects that each integrate public health and primary care childhood obesity interventions. An extensive set of common measures at the family, facility, and community levels were defined by consensus among the CORD projects and EC-CORD. Process evaluation will assess reach, dose delivered, and fidelity of intervention components. Impact evaluation will use a mixed linear models approach to account for heterogeneity among project-site populations and interventions. Sustainability evaluation will assess the potential for replicability, continuation of benefits beyond the funding period, institutionalization of the intervention activities, and community capacity to support ongoing program delivery. Finally, cost analyses will assess how much benefit can potentially be gained per dollar invested in programs based on the CORD model.Conclusions: The keys to combining and analyzing data across multiple projects include the CORD model framework and common measures for the behavioral and health outcomes along with important covariates at the individual, setting, and community levels. The overall objective of the comprehensive evaluation will develop evidence-based recommendations for replicating and disseminating community-wide, integrated public health and primary care programs based on the CORD model.