Teen Smoking and Birth Outcomes

In the U.S. teen mothers are more likely to give birth to low birth weight babies than non-teen mothers. There is also substantial evidence that smoking is a risk factor correlated with low birth weight. Low birth weight is a costly outcome in both the short and long term for parents, children, and society at large. This paper examines the causal link between teen age smoking behavior and low birth weight. We use a variety of empirical techniques including fixed effects and a matching estimator to identify the impact of smoking on babies of teen and non-teen mothers. We find that both OLS and matching estimator results yield large impacts of smoking on birth weight for teens and adults. However, when we control for unobservables through a fixed effects model, the impact of smoking on birth weight is diminished and there are relatively small differences in the impact of smoking on birth weight between teens and non-teens.

Estimating Differential Responses to Local Fiscal Conditions: A Mixture Model Analysis

Alternative hypotheses exist regarding the impact of local sales and income taxes on local governments' taxing and spending decisions. One hypothesis is that local governments use sales and income taxes to pay for spending increases and leave property tax collections unchanged, while an equally plausible alternative is that local governments use sales and income taxes to reduce property taxes. Traditional models that restrict the impact of these local taxes to be the same across all local governments are not able to capture both types of behavior. The methodological difficulty lies in allowing for differences in behavior with no a priori information on which cities belong in which category. In this article, the authors use panel data to estimate a mixture model of spending and property tax response to the existence of local taxes. These empirical results provide evidence to support both hypotheses. These differences are both substantive and statistically significant

Age-related oculopathies in a nutshell (patient education materials)

Effective doctor-to-patient communication is an essential component of health care which is difficult due to the complicated nature of ocular anomalies. Glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are two very common causes of decreased vision among adults older than 55 years. This thesis outlines the steps in composition and printing of patient-education brochures which can be used to supplement the practitioner\u27s description of the diseases. The brochures contain concise, descriptive statements combined with simple illustrations and are printed with large easy-to-read print, in both English and Spanish. They explain the nature, pathogenesis, treatment, and prognosis of Glaucoma and AM D

Returning findings within longitudinal cohort studies: the 1958 birth cohort as an exemplar

This is the final version of the article. Available from BioMed Central via the DOI in this record.Population-based, prospective longitudinal cohort studies are considering the issues surrounding returning findings to individuals as a result of genomic and other medical research studies. While guidance is being developed for clinical settings, the process is less clear for those conducting longitudinal research. This paper discusses work conducted on behalf of The UK Cohort and Longitudinal Study Enhancement Resource programme (CLOSER) to examine consent requirements, process considerations and specific examples of potential findings in the context of the 1958 British Birth cohort. Beyond deciding which findings to return, there are questions of whether re-consent is needed and the possible impact on the study, how the feedback process will be managed, and what resources are needed to support that process. Recommendations are made for actions a cohort study should consider taking when making vital decisions regarding returning findings. Any decisions need to be context-specific, arrived at transparently, communicated clearly, and in the best interests of both the participants and the study.JE acknowledges the Economic and Social Research Council for their support for CLOSER [ES/K000357/1]. NW acknowledges the support of the JDRF, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) is in receipt of a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award [100140]. 58READIE is supported by the Wellcome Trust [WT095219MA] and the Medical Research Council [G1001799]

Rapid virological surveillance of community influenza infection in general practice

No abstract available

Fast track children's hearing pilot: final report of the evaluation of the pilot

This report presents key findings of the evaluation of the Fast Track children’s hearings pilot in Scotland1. The research was undertaken by staff at the Universities of Glasgow, Stirling and Strathclyde between February 2003 and January 2005

More haste, less speed? : an evaluation of fast track policies to tackle persistent youth offending in Scotland

In 2003 the Scottish Executive introduced a new 'Fast Track' policy on a pilot basis, which was intended to speed up the processing of persistent youth offending cases and reduce rates of persistent offending. Additional resources were provided to promote access to dedicated programmes, as well as quicker assessment, report delivery and decision making. This paper, based on a multi-stranded comparative evaluation, describes how the policy was welcomed by a wide range of practitioners, decision makers and managers involved with children's hearings who mostly thought it was a positive innovation consistent with the hearing system's commitment to a welfare-based approach. 'Fast Track' cases were handled more quickly than others. After two years, however, the policy was discontinued, largely because of negative evidence about re-offending