The impact of a health campaign on hand hygiene and upper respiratory illness among college students living in residence halls

Hand hygiene is a key element in preventing the transmission of cold and flu viruses. The authors conducted an experimental-control design study in 4 campus residence halls to determine whether a message campaign about hand hygiene and the availability of gel hand sanitizer could decrease cold and flu illness and school and work absenteeism. Their findings indicate that students who were exposed to the message campaign and provided with gel hand sanitizer increased their knowledge about the potential health benefits of hand washing and sanitizer use; they reported higher rates of hand washing and using sanitizer than did the control group. These students also experienced fewer cold and flu illnesses during the study than those in the control group and missed fewer class or work engagements because of colds or flu. Conducting a health promotion campaign in residence halls may therefore help prevent colds and flu and decrease absenteeism on university campuses.     

Trends and transitions from secondary school: insights from a boarding school for disadvantaged New Zealand youth

Engagement in further education, employment or training following the completion of compulsory schooling is an important predictor of adult life adjustment. As a key microsystemic context, supportive school environments can facilitate positive transitions, especially for disadvantaged youth who are at higher risk of underachievement and not engaging in further education, employment or training (NEET) in emerging adulthood. The present research consists of quantitative and qualitative analyses of secondary data of three student cohorts from a New Zealand boarding secondary school for males from disadvantaged backgrounds to investigate positive transition outcomes and experiences. The quantitative study (N = 178) compared participants’ educational attainment and NEET status across cohorts and with national statistics. Results showed that participants’ achievement and transition outcomes were consistently superior to the national comparison. The qualitative study (N = 38) examined the subjective experiences of a subsample of participants who transitioned to tertiary study and apprenticeship courses. These findings highlight the importance of cultivating students’ holistic development during the secondary school years. Implications for secondary schools are discussed.     

The impact of mental illness on employment: consumers' perspectives

This paper is based on a qualitative study of employment for people with mental illness. Forty-one consumers of mental health services were interviewed to obtain their perspectives on employment. One of the major issues they discussed was the ways in which mental illness affected their employment experiences. These effects were complex and interrelated and varied between individuals depending on their unique characteristics and circumstances. Participants described effects relating to the need to maintain mental health, difficulties with work performance, and work confidence and work goals. Understanding consumers' perspectives on how mental illness affects employment is necessary for practitioners and researchers seeking to explain or improve consumers' employment outcomes.     

Community health workers on a college campus: Effects on influenza vaccination

Objective: To assess the impact of a campus community health worker program (HealthPALs) on student influenza vaccination. Participants: Undergraduate students at a northeastern US university (enrollment 6650), influenza seasons 2011–2012 through 2015–2016. Methods: Study design: Difference-in-differences analysis of student vaccination at campus dormitory influenza clinics during intervention vs. baseline. Intervention: In the first intervention year, HealthPALs conducted in-person peer outreach at several campus dormitory flu clinics. Subsequent years, HealthPALs conducted an enhanced intervention, with the addition of a personalized, dormitory-specific social media campaign appealing to students' community identity. Results: The initial intervention increased vaccinations by 66% (IRR = 1.66, 95%CI 1.39-1.97) at intervention clinics relative to control. The enhanced intervention increased vaccinations by 85% (IRR = 1.85, 95%CI 1.75-1.96).

Conclusion: Community health workers can be a highly effective, low-cost strategy for increasing influenza vaccination among college students. This model could also be used to address other campus health challenges where student engagement is key.     

The transition in Estonian society and its impact on a girls' reformatory school

The process of transition in Estonia has been accompanied by a conflict between the desire to adopt Western models of welfare in terms of values, beliefs, and ideology, and the actual attitudes, habits, lifestyles, knowledge, and work skills inherited from the former Soviet system. How is the general process of transition reflected in the K. Special School, which has existed since the Soviet era? This article attempts to show what is going on at the institution, how 'new' and 'old' ideas and methods of operation that are used by staff coexist, and the consequences of that coexistence. In the totalitarian Soviet system, the institution under study was an organic part of the system. So far, the intention of combining welfare ideology with a total institution has not produced the expected results. To achieve real change, the institution should be thoroughly reorganized - it should cease to be a total institution. This is not only true for Estonia - studies on Western total institutions reach the same conclusion (see, for instance, Kelly 1992; Wardhaugh et al . 1993). The empirical data presented here were gathered in 1997 during fieldwork that formed part of an ethnographic research project.     

The impact on taxpayer costs of a jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness

Mental illness is prevalent among those incarcerated. Jail diversion is one means by which people with mental illness are treated in the community – often with some criminal justice system oversight – instead of being incarcerated. Jail diversion may lead to immediate reductions in taxpayer costs because the person is no longer significantly engaged with the criminal justice system. It may also lead to longer term reductions in costs because effective treatment may ameliorate symptoms, reduce the number of future offenses, and thus subsequent arrests and incarceration. This study estimates the impact on taxpayer costs of a model jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness. Administrative data on criminal justice and treatment events were combined with primary and secondary data on the costs of each event. Propensity score methods and a quasi-experimental design were used to compare treatment and criminal justice costs for a group of people who were diverted to a group of people who were not diverted. Diversion was associated with approximately $2800 lower taxpayer costs per person 2 years after the point of diversion (p < .05). Reductions in criminal justice costs drove this result. Jail diversion for people with mental illness may thus be justified fiscally.     

Looking at discipline,looking at labour: photographic representations of Indian boarding schools

Native American children were subjected to a rigidly enforced regime of acculturation in a federally funded system of Indian boarding schools. This paper explores the peculiar iconography of photographs of these Indian schools, hundreds of which can now be found in Internet archives. The advent of searchable photograph archives on the Internet makes possible new forms of visual ethnography analogous to a kind of archeology. Photographs can be examined and meanings imputed based on documentary evidence and theoretical understandings. First, a brief introduction to Indian schools will be provided. Then I will examine four documentary projects, each of which had its own representational agenda: first, Richard Pratt's use of photographs as a propaganda-of-the-image to garner support for Carlisle and other Indian schools; second, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) documentation efforts that included panorama photographs and a collection of shots from the Pacific Northwest by Ferdinand Brady that emphasize labour; third, Frances Benjamin Johnston's photographs representing Indian schooling as progressive education; and finally a recently discovered album of vernacular photographs from the Sacaton school in Arizona. The goal will be to describe the ‘circumstances and milieus' in which the photographs were made. In the conclusion I will turn to issues of sociological theory and meaning.     

The impact of schools and school programs upon adolescent sexual behavior

Because most youth are enrolled in school for many years before they initiate sex and when they initiate sex, schools have the potential for reducing adolescent sexual risk-taking. This paper reviews studies which examine the impact upon sexual risk-taking of school involvement, school characteristics, specific programs in school that do not address sexual behavior, and specific programs that do address sexual risk-taking. Multiple studies support several conclusions. First, involvement in and attachment to school and plans to attend higher education are all related to less sexual risk-taking and lower pregnancy rates. Second, students in schools with manifestations of poverty and disorganization are more likely to become pregnant. Third, some school programs specifically designed to increase attachment to school or reduce school dropout effectively delayed sex or reduced pregnancy rate, even when they did not address sexuality. Fourth, sex and HIV education programs do not increase sexual behavior, and some programs decrease sexual activity and increase condom or contraceptive use. Fifth, school-based clinics and school condom-availability programs do not increase sexual activity, and either may or may not increase condom or contraceptive use. Other studies reveal that there is very broad support for comprehensive sex- and HIV-education programs, and accordingly, most youth receive some amount of sex or HIV education. However, important topics are not covered in many schools.     

The impact of school and college expenditures on the wages of southern and non-southern workers

Based on previous evidence of diminishing earnings returns to greater educational expenditures, the hypothesis that southern schools and colleges have greater returns than non-southern schools and colleges is tested but is not accepted. Per pupil expenditures for both school and college, however, significantly raise earnings for southern male full-time workers. The elasticity of expenditure with respect to the wage for high school graduates is 0.1212 for southerners and 0.0360 for non-southerners, and the elasticity for college expenditure is 0.0468 for southerners and 0.0260 for non-southerners. The author is grateful to Philip R. P. Coelho, W. Lee Hansen, Wayne H. Joerding, Victor J. Tremblay, and an anonymous referee for helpful suggestions and to the Mississippi Research and Development Center for support of this research.     

School students' views on school councils and daily life at school

This article reports a survey conducted in schools in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during 1997–8 with 2,272 students aged seven to 17 years. The 24‐page booklet questionnaire included six groups of questions about school councils. The question of whether pupils who have a council see it as effective was cross‐tabulated with a range of other questions, in order to examine associations between students' views about their school councils with their views on other aspects of school. About half the students reported that they had a school council. Of these, the ones who thought their council was effective generally had positive views about their school's social and academic activities, whereas the ones who said their council was ineffective generally had more negative attitudes. Some schools find that creating an effective school council can considerably improve standards of behaviour, but this process has to involve further changes in systems and relationships in the school. Simply introducing a token council can increase students' scepticism. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of school furniture on fourth grade children's on-task and sitting behavior in the classroom: a pilot study

Schoolchildren spend much of their day sitting in classroom furniture that is often too large or too small. To assess the impact of the size and fit of school furniture on the sitting and task behaviors of schoolchildren, 63 fourth-graders were observed while seated in 2 different sizes, types, and arrangements of furniture in their classroom. A correlated group design was used to compare the sitting and task behaviors of the students while seated in their traditional classroom furniture consisting of tables and chairs, and while sitting in smaller, appropriately sized desks and chairs, arranged in clusters and then in rows. The results indicate that the children sat better and were on task more when seated in the smaller furniture, as indicated by a significant main effect for condition, F = 51.478 (4, 330), p<0.05. There was no difference in sitting and task behaviors with the new furniture arranged in clusters compared to rows. Girls showed a slightly greater improvement compared to boys, and there was a significant correlation between better sitting positions and being on-task (r = 0.549, p<0.01). These findings indicate that students would likely benefit from sitting in smaller furniture that fits their size better.     

Banning alcohol in a major college stadium: impact on the incidence and patterns of injury and illness

To evaluate the effect of banning alcohol on the incidence of injuries and illness among spectators, we reviewed 4 years (1983 to 1986) of medical incident reports from a major collegiate football stadium. At no time had alcoholic beverages been sold inside the stadium, but before 1985, fans were allowed to bring alcohol into the stadium. In 1985, this practice was banned. During the study period, 340 medical incidents (M = 12.6/game) were reported. Several alterations of specific injury/illness patterns were noted after initiation of the ban: heat-related illness occurred more frequently before initiation of the ban, whereas extremity injuries and syncope (fainting from coronary insufficiency) occurred with greater frequency afterwards. The injury/illness rates per 10,000 fans were 2.95 in 1983, 2.45 in 1984, 1.92 in 1985, and 3.48 in 1986. There was no significant change in the overall incident rate after the ban. Evaluation of medical incidents revealed an alteration in specific injury/illness patterns but no change in overall incidence after institution of the ban. Future investigations are needed to elucidate more clearly the impact of banning alcohol on injury/illness rates and patterns at mass gatherings.     

Experience with a drug screening program at a school of pharmacy

Abstract Substance use and abuse among pharmacy students is a concern of pharmacy schools, boards of pharmacy, and training sites alike. Pharmacy students must complete approximately 30% of their academic coursework in experiential settings such as community pharmacies, hospitals, and other health systems as part of any accredited pharmacy school's curriculum, and these training sites are starting to require drug testing of pharmacy students as part of their contractual agreements with schools of pharmacy. The authors describe the implementation of a mandatory random urine drug screening program at their school as well as the changes that occurred owing to assessment of the program. The authors report the basic results to date of the drug screening program. The authors also speculate on secondary benefits of the drug screening program. Finally, the authors describe current and future evaluations that they are undertaking regarding this program.     

Predictors of vaccination rates during a mass meningococcal vaccination program on a college campus

Factors contributing to students' compliance with mass vaccination programs during meningococcal outbreaks have not been well described. A 1997 mass vaccination campaign at Michigan State University provided an opportunity to study such factors. Of 34,024 students in the target population, 17,538 (51.5%) were vaccinated in 5 days. Vaccination rates were higher for women (47.9%) than for men (43.1%) and higher for on-campus residents (65.3%) than for off-campus residents (35.6%). For each year of students' age beyond 19, the adjusted odds of vaccination were reduced by 0.82. Adjusted odds ratios for vaccination, with White students as the reference group at 1.0, were 1.33 for Asian American students, 0.97 (not significant) for Hispanic students, 0.82 for African American students, and 0.80 for Native American students. Students from the Colleges of Business, Engineering, Communication, and Natural Science had the highest vaccination rates; those from the College of Arts and Letters had the lowest rates.     

Long-term impact of a district-wide school/community-based substance abuse prevention initiative on gateway drug use

This study examined long-term effects of a school/family/community substance abuse prevention partnership intervention lead by a Midwestern school district. Previous findings suggested that the program contributed to decreased tobacco and marijuana, but not alcohol, use prior to and after implementation between 1987 and 1991. The current study examined 8th-12th grade student drug use prevalence data from 1991 and 2003 to determine whether previous program effects were sustained. With one exception, reported lifetime and monthly cigarette use decreased below 1991 levels for all grades. Lifetime and monthly alcohol use decreased below 1991 levels for most grades, a result not previously detected. While still below national rates, reported lifetime use of marijuana increased for all grades over time. The intervention was effective in reducing cigarette and alcohol use over time and in suppressing marijuana use levels below national rates; however, these gains tended to erode in later high school grades.     

Assessing the effects of a school-based intervention on unscheduled school transfers during elementary school.

Raising Healthy Children is a cluster-randomized study of a school-based intervention aimed at preventing problem behaviors among children recruited into the project in the first or second grade of elementary school. Multilevel analysis was used to compare students in intervention and control schools with respect to whether they transferred out of their original schools. Students in intervention schools were less likely to transfer within the first 5 years of the project. A multilevel discrete-time survival model that included both time-varying and contextual variables revealed that the difference in hazard of transfer was greatest in the earlier years of the project.     

The impact of early life-course transitions on equality at work and home

This paper investigates two aspects of the paid employment relationship between female and male partners aged 23. It is argued that in order to understand women's position in the home and the labour market it is necessary to consider employment relationships in the context of the household. The impact of children on women's labour force participation is already well known and in this paper we show that marriage also has an independent effect on hours worked. The second aspect of the paper concerns the relative financial contribution of each partner to the family income from their labour market earnings. It is recognised that power and equality within the home are to some extent derived from the relative contribution of partners to the family income. It is shown that women are economically dependent on men even in the early stages of their partnership before children and that this dependence is greater among women with children.