This prospective study with extended follow-up of a large cohort of elderly women has identified crash risk factors that can be measured in the clinical setting. Further study is needed to determine if interventions aimed at these risk factors can decrease the risk of motor vehicle crashes.

No abstract

Self-reports on alcohol use collected via school-based questionnaires, telephone surveys, and household interviews are central measures in many studies in the alcohol field. The validity of such self-reports remains an issue. Use of biological pipeline procedures is one way in which the quality of self-reports might be improved. The current study tested the effectiveness of a saliva test pipeline procedure in increasing drinking disclosure rates among adolescents in the sixth and eighth grades. Two sixth-grade classes from each of 14 elementary schools (n = 828) and four eighth-grade classes from each of 8 middle schools (n = 754) were selected. Half of the classes in each school were assigned to the pipeline condition and half to the control condition. Each student in the pipeline condition was asked to provide a saliva sample via dental roll before completing a questionnaire that all students (pipeline and control) received. Pipeline students were told that "some of the saliva we collect today will be tested in a laboratory and will provide a biological measure of alcohol use." Sixth- and eighth-grade students exposed to the alcohol procedure reported 5 to 7% higher alcohol use prevalences than students in the control group. While the pattern of improved reporting under the pipeline condition held across four alcohol-use measures and two grade levels, the effect was statistically significant for only one measure. The pipeline procedures used here had small effects on adolescent self-reported alcohol use.

Occupational and residential environments overlap on agricultural operations, placing children/youths as well as adults at risk. This study was conducted to determine the short- and long-term physical, psychosocial and economic consequences of injuries occurring among children/youths living in operation households and the associated burden on the overall operations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska Midwestern states characteristic of major types of United States agricultural production. From a random selection of 32 000 agricultural operations, generated from the states operations by the United States Department of Agriculture, 1474 eligible agricultural households participated. Baseline and follow-up data on physical and mental health, agricultural and other injury disability and economic status, were collected by trained interviewers using computerised assisted telephone interview data collection instruments; two 6-month injury data collection periods followed baseline collection. Among all household members, a total of 584 injuries were incurred with 250 related to their own agricultural operation. Respective child/youth case and control households, identified for these two 6-month periods were: (1) 100 cases (122 injuries), 366 controls; (2) 115 cases (138 injuries), 414 controls. Follow-up evaluation data were collected annually for each set, for the subsequent 2 years. Analyses focus on short-/long-term consequences, by examining changes between baseline, and follow-up data, comparing case and control households. Confounders are selected for multiple logistic regression analyses using directed acyclic graphs; reweighting adjusts for response and eligibility biases. Results of this effort address a serious deficiency in knowledge about the burden of agricultural and other injury consequences.