To understand why some states have enacted relatively stringent laws to control smoking in public places while others have not, we examined the political evolution of tobacco control initiatives in six states: New York, Minnesota, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Arizona. Taken together, the case studies demonstrate the difficulties inherent in enacting strong statewide tobacco control legislation. More important, several unmistakable themes emerge from these case studies, shedding light on the barriers to greater legislative success. These themes include the manner in which the legislative debate is framed by antismoking advocates and the tobacco industry, the relative dearth of leadership provided by medical and health organizations, the role of public opinion, and the complex interaction that exists between statewide antismoking legislation and local antismoking ordinances. Understanding how these issues affect legislative outcomes may help antismoking advocates enact future statewide tobacco control initiatives. It may also present lessons applicable to future battles over other public health legislation.

Knowledge of how the characteristics of prenatal care affect women's satisfaction can help increase use of care and ultimately improve perinatal outcomes.

Given that the assessment of multiple dimensions of health/well-being can create respondent burden, assessment scales that are both effective and brief hold great attraction. In this study, we used Cronbach's alpha and correlational methods, including factor analysis, to evaluate the performance of four short scales measuring psychosocial aspects of well-being (depression, quality of life, sense of coherence, social support) in two samples of community-dwelling persons aged 75 and over (n = 414, n = 50). All four scales exhibited good range, high internal consistency, strong temporal reliability, and reasonable levels of construct validity. We conclude that they are practical contributors to measuring health in community-based older adults.

Knowledge of the care characteristics that impact low-income pregnant women's satisfaction can be utilized to alter service delivery to increase use of prenatal care and ultimately to improve perinatal outcomes.