BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic description of long-term adverse health effects of childhood sexual abuse is lacking, despite estimates that perhaps 30 percent of adults have experienced sexual assault in childhood. METHODS: In an adult cohort enrolled to investigate causes of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus, we identified current behaviors affecting risk of infection that were associated with a history of early sexual abuse. One hundred and eighty-six individuals provided information on the occurrence of abuse and subsequent sexual and drug using activities. RESULTS: Approximately half of the women and one-fifth of the men reported a history of rape during childhood or adulthood. Twenty-eight percent of the women and 15 percent of the men recalled that they had been sexually assaulted during childhood. People who reported childhood rape compared with people who did not were four times more likely to be working as prostitutes (90 percent confidence interval = 2.0, 8.0). Women were nearly three times more likely to become pregnant before the age of 18 (90% CI = 1.6, 4.1). Men who reported a history of sexual abuse had a twofold increase in prevalence of HIV infection relative to unabused men (90% CI = 1.0, 3.9). CONCLUSIONS: The disturbing prevalence of early sexual abuse and its possible health-related consequences call for prompt and routine investigation of sexual abuse histories. Identification of sexual victimization may be an important component for management of risk factors for human immunodeficiency virus.

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BACKGROUND. Dietary intervention to reduce fat consumption and increase fiber consumption has been recommended by the National Cancer Institute, but there is little evidence concerning the effectiveness of self-help materials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate such self-help materials, introduced by a nurse in a primary care setting. METHODS. A randomized controlled trial involving 242 subjects was conducted in two primary care clinics in Chapel Hill, NC, in 1987. Changes in fat and fiber consumption in the intervention and control groups during the 3-month interval between interviews were compared using analysis of covariance. RESULTS. The estimated reduction in fat was 3.8g larger for the intervention group than for the control group, but the confidence interval included zero. For those individuals who had some responsibility for meal preparation there was a larger difference (-6.9g) in favor of the intervention group, although the difference using calorie-adjusted values was -3.8g with a 95% confidence interval (-7.1, -0.4). The differences for fiber change were smaller. CONCLUSIONS. We found significant small but consistent differential changes associated with a minimal self-help intervention, but we cannot rule out the possibility of some response bias. Nonetheless, this study demonstrates that the use of self-help materials for dietary change is feasible, and may be effective.

These findings suggest that this brief transitional intervention is feasible and promising, although further investigation is warranted. Study findings also support the need for transitional interventions to address the service disconnects at the time of discharge for people with severe mental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record

Consumers of chlorinated drinking water have a small excess of bladder cancer. Risk may have been underestimated because of confounding and misclassification of exposure status. To address these problems, we undertook a case-control study. Detailed residential histories were obtained by telephone interviews with informants of 614 individuals who died of primarily bladder cancer and 1,074 individuals who died of other causes. Their surface water has been disinfected with chlorine or a combination of chlorine and ammonia (cloramine) since 1938. The mortality ratio for bladder cancer among individuals who resided only in communities supplied with drinking water disinfected with chlorine, relative to individuals who resided only in communities supplied with drinking water disinfected with chloramine, was 1.6 (95% confidence interval = 1.2-2.1), using all controls; when the comparison group was restricted to individuals who died of lymphoma, the mortality odds ratio was 2.7 (95% confidence interval = 1.7-4.3).