Hayes, Janice S.

The purpose of the study is to determine if the American Heart Association Heart Power Kit influences knowledge of cardiovascular risk. The efficacy of showing this program to a class of fifth grade students was compared to the efficacy of not showing it. The participants of the study were twenty-seven children, ages ten to twelve in two separate classes. Each class completed the A Heart Smart cognitive pre-test and post-test at the beginning and end of six months. The experimental group received the educational program; the control group did not. Data were analyzed by t-test at the .05 significance level. There was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental, not the control group (t = 1.07, df = 28, p = >.30). The results of the post-test showed an increase in knowledge after the program in the experimental group and no increase in knowledge in the control group.

This study examined the relationship between ethnicity and parents' compliance with immunizations of their children. Recent studies have shown that compliance rates for immunizations of children who were two years of age were below the standards set by the American Academy of Pediatrics due to both health system barriers and family/child barriers. A survey of pediatric patients was conducted utilizing a convenience sample of 66 parents of children between the ages of twenty and twenty-eight months. The subjects were interviewed to determine factors affecting immunization compliance, including cultural factors consistent with the theoretical framework of Madeline Leininger. The statistical analysis of the sample responses revealed an ethnically diverse sample of two year old hospitalized children whose immunization compliance was 53%. No statistically significant correlations (≤0.05) were noted among the socioeconomic, system barriers, or educational barriers when compared among the ethnic groups in the study, however trends were demonstrated.

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the outcome of adolescent trauma victims with positive toxicology screening who were involved in motor vehicle crashes. This was a retrospective study conducted at an urban Level I trauma center. A sample of 134 subjects with positive toxicology screen, ages 15 to 25, for the period January 1993 to December 1996, were included in the study. Outcome, sex, age, injury severity score, length of stay, and hospital cost were analyzed by multiple regression. A significant relationship between sex, age, injury severity, length of stay, and hospital cost was established (p $<$.0001). Subsequently, Spearman's correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between outcome, injury severity, discharge, and hospital cost (p $<$.05).

The purpose of the study was to test experimentally the effectiveness of a presurgical teaching intervention on reducing the anxiety of children undergoing outpatient surgery and in facilitating the children's emotional adjustment during the postsurgical period. The efficacy of a child teaching session combined with a parent teaching session was compared with the efficacy of a parent only session. The participants of the study were 33 children, ages 4 to 12, and their parents. Two weeks following the child's surgery, the parents assessed the child's postsurgical adjustment by completing the Post Hospital Behavior Questionnaire (PHBQ). Data was analyzed by t-test using.05 as the significance level. Results of the t-test showed no significant difference between the experimental and the control groups (t = 1.910, df = 27, p =.067). However, both groups showed behavioral upset on the PHBQ following surgery (control group = 87.75, experimental group = 84.46). This increased behavioral upset suggests that surgery is anxiety producing in children. The trend toward lower scores in the experimental group indicated less behavior upset and therefore less anxiety for the children receiving the teaching intervention.