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A blog is an online journal that is updated regularly and usually maintained by a single author. Roughly 8 to 9 percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. maintain a blog, which is about 12 million people. This study examines the most prevalent motivations for adults in the U.S. to maintain a specific type of blog â the personal journal blog. The personal journal blog is defined as a blog maintained by one person and containing mostly personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings. An online survey of 127 personal journal bloggers who updated their blog at least every 4-5 days was conducted in December 2007 and January 2008. Participants in the survey represented a wide range of ages, geographical locations, and educational achievement levels, with most being 25 â 44 years old, female, White, and having at least some college education. Results indicate that the two most prevalent motivations for adults in the U.S. to maintain a personal journal blog are: (a) to entertain oneself and (b) to clarify thoughts and/or emotions. Survey participants also responded to questions regarding their feelings about blogging. Implications for the field of counseling and future research on the topic are addressed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1982. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-192). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1983. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-87). Also available on the World Wide Web.

PURPOSE: The Center for Minority Health (CMH) in the University of Pittsburghs Graduate School of Public Health established The Healthy Black Family Project, a program designed to increase awareness of the contribution of family health history to the development of chronic diseases. We assessed the impact of a family health history session on African Americans risk perceptions for the development of chronic diseases, which result from interactions between genes and the environment. The public health significance of this study was to delineate how participants perceived risks for developing chronic diseases (i.e., cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc.) would shape risk-reducing behavior modifications and utilization of preventive services. METHODS: Participants (n=175) completed interviews to create a family health history (or pedigree), a schematic representation of health history information in a family. Of these individuals, a total of 125 participants completed surveys that assessed their perceptions of risk for nine chronic diseases. For the purpose of this study, statistical analysis was limited to colorectal cancer (CRC) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Assessments of risk perception before and following the family health history sessions were calculated to assess changes in accuracy of risk. RESULTS: Overall, participants appeared to understand the contribution of general risk factors (i.e., smoking) to disease development. However, participants were less knowledgeable about risk related to family health history. Of the 125 participants, sixty-nine percent (n=86) and eighty-five percent (n=107) overestimated the lifetime risks to develop colon cancer for women and men in the general population, respectively. Similar trends were observed for heart disease. More participants were accurate about their risk perceptions for colon cancer than for heart disease in both the pre- and post-family health history session. Among the participants whose perceptions changed, inaccurate perceptions for colon cancer and heart disease prior to the family health history interview were significantly more likely to become accurate for colon cancer (p=0.028) and heart disease (p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The family health history is an effective tool in identifying at-risk individuals and promoting accurate risk perceptions. Encouraging the use of family health history and providing accurate risk perceptions can lead to healthy behavior modifications that may decrease racial and ethnic health disparities.

Background: Advances in ultrasound technology have revolutionized obstetrical care and have resulted in a greater number of cases of cleft lip with or without cleft palate diagnosed prenatally by ultrasound. This study investigated the experience of receiving a diagnosis of clefting in the prenatal or postnatal period. Methods: Open-ended interviews were conducted with 20 parents of children with cleft lip with or without cleft palate. Of these parents, 12 experienced a prenatal diagnosis of their child's cleft, while eight received the diagnosis at birth. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative description approach with an emphasis on thematic analysis. Common themes emerged from participant's responses to questions regarding the delivery of the diagnosis, preparation for the birth of their child, advantages and disadvantages of prenatal diagnosis, use of the Internet, views on abortion, interaction with other parents, among other issues. Findings: Preliminary findings were synthesized into themes that included "shared parental experiences," "coping," "preparation," "disadvantages," and "alternative perspectives." These overarching themes were divided into subthemes. Advantages cited for prenatal diagnosis included having the time to psychologically adjust to the diagnosis, to become informed, to educate other children, to opt for additional testing, and to plan for the baby's needs. Some participants felt a drawback of prenatal diagnosis was an emotional disruption of the pregnancy, while other participants found no disadvantages. All participants in the prenatal group indicated they were glad they learned of the cleft before the birth of their child. Some participants in the postnatal group would have rather received the diagnosis prenatally, while others were satisfied learning of the diagnosis in the delivery room. Interpretation: There seemed to be greater similarities than differences between the two groups of participants. Parents seemed to be affected more by how the diagnosis was delivered than the timing of the diagnosis. A prenatal diagnosis of a cleft may have a negative impact on the pregnancy, nonetheless parents seemed to want this information. High-resolution ultrasound has become standard of care for many pregnant women. Understanding the consequences of prenatal diagnosis is an important contribution to the field of public health.

Background: Velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS) is a congenital malformation syndrome with an estimated prevalence of 1:4,000 livebirths. Most cases are caused by a common 3 Mb deletion at 22q11.2. This syndrome exhibits wide inter- and intra-familial variability in phenotypic features including physical, developmental, neurological, and neuropsychiatric manifestations despite the general uniformity in deletion size. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to seek explanations for the differences in the reported prevalence rates of various findings; to more accurately estimate the prevalence of each of the nine traits examined; to provide insight into future research; and to improve the ability for genetic counselors and clinicians to provide more appropriate services and offer appropriate resources. Methods: A PubMed search was performed for keywords associated with VCFS. After an exhaustive search, twenty-nine articles were included. Nine traits of interest were chosen along with five predictor variables. From the articles, prevalence data was abstracted, overall prevalence data was calculated, and unweighted and weighted regression analyses were performed. Results: Ascertainment bias may be associated with the prevalence of ADHD; the prevalence of males does not appear to play a role in the discrepant data; the number of years ago a study was published is associated with prevalence of ADHD, cleft palate, palatal findings and VPI; age range is associated with the prevalence of congenital heart defects; having a de novo deletion is significantly associated with the prevalence of cleft palate and SMCP; and geographical location is significantly associated with the prevalence of palatal anomalies. Overall prevalence rates are as follows: ADHD 17.2%, CHD 73.5%, cleft palate 11.6%, submucosal cleft palate 17.0%, velopharyngeal insufficiency 35.1%, any palatal anomaly 54.1%, any psychiatric disorder 34.4%, schizophrenia 12.6%, and hypotonia 64.5%. Conclusions: Due to small sample sizes, it is difficult to draw conclusions on the presented data; however, this analysis provides useful insight into future avenues of research especially with regards to behavioral and psychiatric illnesses. Many findings, especially psychiatric illnesses, associated with VCFS, pose a significant public health burden thus it would be of public health significance to find answers to some of the questions addressed in this study.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease affecting approximately one million individuals in the United States. Individuals with lupus are at an extremely increased risk (up to 50-fold) to develop coronary heart disease (CHD) compared to the general population. Traditional risk factors are insufficient to explain the increase in risk. The presence of anti-phospholipid antibodies (seen at a higher rate in SLE patients than in the general population) is suspected to play a role. CHD is the leading cause of death for both men and women of all ethnic groups in the United States. Understanding the genetic causes of CHD in high risk populations, such as individuals with SLE, can help facilitate the understanding of CHD in the general population. Due to the large public health significance of CHD, investigating the contributing factors and disease etiology could have a major impact on risk assessment and possible treatment of CHD. One gene involved in lipid metabolism, a major part of the development of atherosclerotic plaques and CHD, is paraoxonase-1 (PON1). PON1 encodes the enzyme paraoxonase, which inhibits the oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) to help prevent its uptake by macrophages, thereby reducing the incidence of atherosclerotic plaques. Eight genetic variants in the PON1 gene were examined to determine their impact on SLE disease status, the presence of anti-phospholipid antibodies (APA), and PON activity. Polymorphisms in PON1 were not found to have a significant impact on SLE disease status or the presence of APA, however three of the polymorphisms studied were found to have a significant impact on PON activity. While SLE and CHD are complex diseases, likely resulting from gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, the identification of these associations between PON1 polymorphisms and PON activity may help to clarify the role of PON in CHD development and possibly lead to more accurate risk assessment and/or the investigation of treatment options for this common disease.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that targets the vascular system, and can result in premature atherosclerotic vascular disease. The causes of SLE and many of the SLE associated problems, such as thrombosis, anitphospholipid syndrome, and atherosclerosis, which are significant public health concerns, are thought to be multifactorial, or caused by interactions of many environmental and genetic factors. Several genes have been proposed and studied in conjunction with these manifestations. This study focuses on one of these genes, apolipoprotein H (APOH gene, beta-2-GPI protein). The effects of several polymorphisms within the coding region in the APOH gene have been studied; however, possible effects of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the promoter region have not been characterized. In this study, 6 SNPs in the APOH promoter were genotyped in 381 SLE women and 497 healthy women controls. This study aimed to determine the association of these polymorphisms with the occurrence of SLE, with the plasma levels of beta-2-GPI, and with the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (APA). It was hypothesized that the genetic variation in the promoter region of the APOH gene may affect the risk of SLE and may do so through an effect on plasma beta-2-GPI levels or through its influence on APA. Among whites, the risk of SLE was modestly affected by the -1219 SNP (p = 0.057). While in blacks, the -759 SNP (p = 0.022) and the -700 SNP (p = 0.035) showed association with SLE. The haplotype pattern in whites was associated with SLE risk (p = 0.00015). The -643 SNP showed a modest effect on plasma beta-2-GPI levels in white SLE cases (p = 0.096) and black controls (p = 0.081). Significant differences were seen between antibody negative and all antibody positive groups in whites for the -1284 SNP (p = 0.02) and the -759 SNP (p = 0.046). These results suggest that genetic variation in the APOH promoter may affect SLE risk, beta-2-GPI levels, and the occurrence of antiphospholipid antibodies.