Mushrooms and Health

NUMEROUS varieties of edible mushrooms are highly beneficial to health. Mushrooms enhance the mental and physical development of children and are highly beneficial to recovering cancer patients. People have developed an affinity for the taste of mushrooms and have in turn developed numerous recipes for cooking same. Pine mushrooms are commonly found in northeast China. with locals, especially women and children, heading to forests to collect same following periods of rain.     

Perceived Job Insecurity and Health: Do Duration and Timing Matter?

I examine whether the health penalties of perceived job insecurity are influenced by the duration of the experience and the age at which it is encountered. Analyses of a national panel data set of Americans (N = 1,065) reveal a decrease in health among workers reporting persistent exposure to the threat of job loss; however, these health penalties are experienced unevenly across age groups, with young workers (18–34) reporting the fewest health penalties in response to persistent insecurity. In contrast, while insecure middle‐aged and older workers report similar levels of psychological distress and self‐rated health, the former are more adversely affected with respect to their emotional well‐being. I discuss potential cohort and life stage interpretations for these age patterns in the stress of insecure work.     

Herpes: Coping and Caring—A Total College Health Program

Abstract

This article seeks to assist college health nurses in developing appropriate protocols for patient care. In addition, the authors outline factors influencing protocol content, design, and development and describe steps in creating individualized protocols by practice setting. To provide college health nurses with a basic understanding of protocols, the authors offer definitions and examples of appropriate and inappropriate use, and show how protocols can influence the delivery of patient care. Although protocols may provide college health nurses with directives for managing specific health problems, they require a sophisticated level of judgment and skill in their implementation.     

Health Journalists and Three Levels of Public Information: Issue and Agenda Disparities?

This is a 2-phase study of the sources of information health journalists use and rely upon for writing health news stories. The 1st phase of the study includes both depth interviews and an online survey with 188 health journalists. Phase 2 of the study extends the findings from Phase 1, with particular attention paid to the roles of public health information officers at 3 government levels: local, state, and federal. Results from this study suggest that a monolithic, “1-size-fits-all” media relations model for public information officers is not adequate in the current health news environment. Findings explore differences in perceptions of the value of public information sources at 3 levels and suggest that some bureaucratic inefficiencies may interfere with more effective source/subsidy–provider relationships.     

Low Birth Rate and Women's Health

CHINA has achieved remarkable results in birth control since adopting a basic state policy of family planning to control the birth rate and increase the population quality. According to the "1997 Statistic Bulletin for National Economy and Social Development," a document recently issued by the State Statistics Bureau, China maintained a low birth rate of 16.57 per thousand in 1997—a natural population growth of one percent. Women of child-bearing age now average about two births each, a decrease from six in 1970.     

Women and Children's Health in Tibet

AS a doctor in the management of maternity and children's hygiene in the Tibet Autonomous Region for nearly 20 years, I would like to present a brief introduction of the situation of Tibetan women and children's health, as well as the related services. Prior the Liberation in Tibet, this region coveting over 1.2 million square kilometers, had few health care facilities for women and children. Such activities were carried out by three Tibetan medical institutions, a small number of folk doctors of Tibetan medicine, and a few private clinics. Under the feudal serf system in Tibet, women who gave birth were discriminated against because it was considered an obscene act. Women could not give birth in their tent homes, but were instead forced to seek shelter in cow stalls or sheepfolds no matter how severe the weather. Women and children at the time had no rights to health care. Countless women and children died of birthing complications or     

Motherhood and Family Health Advocacy in Nutrition and Exercise: “Doing the Tradition”

Studies tend to subsume women’s routine family healthcare responsibilities under the larger heading of “household labor.” This study argues that, women’s—and particularly mothers’—family healthcare work in the area of diet and physical activity represents a distinctive area for critical family communication research with potentially serious psychological, emotional, and physical consequences for women and their families. Interviews (N = 30) with young adult-family member dyads supported this assertion. Interview data illustrated that mothers struggled to fulfill incongruous health goals for themselves and their family members, and did so at the expense of their familial relationships (particularly with children) and their own health. Moreover, dyadic data analysis highlighted how young adults ascertained and carried on the “tradition” of the established mother-as-healthcare-provider role. Implications for theory and future research directions conclude this study.     

Intersectionality and Black Women’s Health: Making Room for Rurality

Black women have poorer health compared to their White counterparts in a range of health outcomes, including breast cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease. The health disparities literature has largely treated women as a monolithic group, assuming that health practices and treatments are equally applicable and effective for all women. This approach, which places too much emphasis on gender, risks masking the unique experiences of various women based on other social categories. This article argues that in order to advance Black women’s health, an intersectionality approach should be incorporated into health research and practice. This approach, however, should go beyond the usual intersection of race and gender to include rurality. The article builds this argument on the fact that Black women living in rural areas have unique experiences that intersect with their gender, race, and class status. Benefits for embracing the intersectionality approach are discussed.     

Alcohol and Sexual Health Behavior: “What We Know and How We Know It”

Alcohol, despite salutary associations with sexuality, has been implicated in sexual health problems. This review examines the relationship between alcohol and outcomes related to sexual health. Methodological considerations limiting causal assertions permissible with nonexperimental data are discussed, as are advantages of experimental methods. Findings from laboratory experiments are reviewed evaluating causal effects of acute alcohol intoxication on a variety of outcomes, including sexual arousal, sexual desire, orgasm, and sexual risk behaviors related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Several variables exerting mediating and moderating influences are identified. It is concluded that acute alcohol intoxication is capable of exerting a causal impact on multiple constituent components of sexual responding related to sexual health. Both alcohol expectancy and alcohol myopia theories have been supported as explanations for these causal effects. Furthermore, for sexual risk behavior, noteworthy recent developments include research highlighting the importance of women’s sexual victimization history and men’s condom use resistance. Limitations and implications associated with this body of research are also discussed.     

Protect the Health of Women and Children

CHINA has reached its present standard of maternal and child health by constant effort. Before the founding of New China in 1949, Chinese women's life expectancy was only 37.6 years. A girl born today can expect to live an average of 72 years. Hygienic practices barely existed for mother and children in the early 1950s, said a health worker who remembers that period. Maternal mortality was high as a result of traditional midwifery practices, which often caused childbed fever. Infant     

Health care proxies: whom do young old adults choose and why?

Dying persons are encouraged to name as durable power of attorney for health care (DPAHC) someone who will thus be empowered to make end-of-life treatment decisions for them in the event that they become incapacitated. We use data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study to investigate whether and whom older adults designate as their DPAHC. DPAHC appointments are affected by recent hospitalizations, personal beliefs (including religion, fear of death, and the belief that doctors rather than patients should control health care decisions), and personal experience with the recent painful death of a loved one. The selections of DPAHC designees are generally consistent with the hierarchical compensatory model: Married persons overwhelmingly name their spouses, while unmarried parents appoint their children. Women are more likely than men to rely on children. Parents of one or two children tend to bypass their children for another relative. Unmarried, childless persons show considerable heterogeneity in their choices. We discuss implications of these findings for health care policy and practice.     

Early Sexual Initiation and Mental Health: A Fleeting Association or Enduring Change?

The present research examined how the within‐person association between sexual initiation and internalizing symptoms decays over time, using data with annual measurement occasions across adolescence (N = 1,789) and statistical models of within‐person change. Sexual initiation was associated with increased levels of internalizing symptoms for early‐initiating girls (ninth grade, approximately age 15), but not for on‐time‐initiating girls or for boys. The association between girls' early sexual initiation and internalizing symptoms declined precipitously over time. Indeed, 1 year after sexual debut, early‐initiating girls were similar to on‐time or noninitiating girls on internalizing symptoms, suggesting early sexual initiation does not produce lasting detriments to girls' mental health. Findings inform how researchers perceive sexual initiation, both as a developmental milestone and as a prevention target.     

Population Development and Reproduction Health Education in Tibet

MY ancestors have lived in Lhasa, Tibet, for generations. I have personally witnessed the great changes in modern Tibetan society. The total population of the region has doubled since 1951. The Fourth National Census in 1990 revealed that the human fertility rate in the Tibet Autonomous Region was 27.60 per thousand, the natural population growth rate 18.40 per thousand, and the total fertility rate of women at childbearing age 4.22.     

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Effects on Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes

Although a number of studies examined the implications of marital disruption for adolescent well-being, few studied the implications of marital relationship quality on health outcomes for children in married-couple families. The present study examines how parent marital quality among intact families interacts with the quality of parent–adolescent relationships to predict physical health, mental health, and substance use in middle adolescence and early adulthood. The study uses data from the NLSY97 cohort, a nationally representative sample of adolescents who are being followed into adulthood. Predictors include the quality of the parent marital relationship, the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship, marital structure, and a number of contextual covariates and control variables. Combined parent marital quality and parent–adolescent relationship groups were developed using latent class analyses and were used to predict positive and negative health behaviors during the teen and early adult years. Results indicate that adolescents in families experiencing poor marital quality fared worse on physical health, mental health, and substance use outcomes. In addition, adolescents who reported poor relationships with at least one of their parents fared worse on outcomes. Adolescents whose parents have low-quality relationships and also have poor parent–adolescent relationships tended to fare least well across health measures. Adolescents whose parents have a high-quality relationship and who have a good parent–adolescent relationship with both parents consistently had the best outcomes. Overall, poor relationships consistently undermine mental health, physical health, and substance use. Family religious activities also consistently predict better health outcomes.     

Health Insurance and Risk of Divorce: Does Having Your Own Insurance Matter?

Most American adults under 65 obtain health insurance through their employers or their spouses' employers. The absence of a universal health care system in the United States puts Americans at considerable risk for losing their coverage when transitioning out of jobs or marriages. Scholars have found evidence of reduced job mobility among individuals who are dependent on their employers for health care coverage. In this study, the author found similar relationships between insurance and divorce. She applied the hazard model to married individuals in the longitudinal Survey of Income Program Participation (N = 17,388) and found lower divorce rates among people who were insured through their partners' plans without alternative sources of their own. Furthermore, she found gender differences in the relationship between health care coverage and divorce rates: Insurance‐dependent women had lower rates of divorce than men in similar situations. These findings draw attention to the importance of considering family processes when debating and evaluating health policies.     

Women's Choice:Smoking or Health?

“Only 7 Percent of womensmoke”said Professor Zhang Yifang,secretary general of the ChineseSmoking and Health Association,“which is low compared to 61 percentof men.Most Chinese women do notsmoke,an advantage that can be usedin promoting their role in the fight to     

New Law Protects the Health of Mothers and Infants

CHINA celebrates International Children's Day this year with the implementation of a law protecting the health of the country's mothers and infants. The Law of the P.R.C. on the Protection of Mothers and Infants, passed on October 27, 1994, during the 10th Session of the 8th Standing Committee of National People's Congress, was publicly issued on the No.33 Command of the President of the P.R.C. and will go into effect June 1, 1995. This first law specifically concerned with the protection of the health of women and children is expected to play an important role in the overall improvement of the health of the Chinese people, the quality of the population, the advancement of the society, and the overall happiness among families. The law stresses the promotion of maternal and child hygiene