Efficacy of a Standardized Acupuncture Regimen and Amitriptyline Compared with Placebo as a Treatment for Pain Caused by Peripheral Neuropathy in HIV-Infected Patients, 1993-1997

Investigators: Judith Shlay, Bob Flaws, Kathryn Chaloner, Jeffrey Cohen, David Cohn, Marjorie Dehlinger, Shauna Hillman, Mitchell Max, Carol Mesard, Jill Ramser, Patricia Reichelderfer, Jack Rouff, Catherine Salveson, James Sampson, Victoria Taylor

The Efficacy of a Standardized Acupuncture Regimen and Amitriptyline Compared with Placebo as a Treatment for Pain Caused by Peripheral Neuropathy in HIV-Infected Patients was conducted between 1993 and 1997 at 11 units of the Terry Beirn Community Programs for the Clinical Research on AIDS. The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a standardized acupuncture regime and amitriptyline hydrochloride for relief of pain due to HIV-related peripheral neuropathy. 250 HIV-infected patients with lower extremity peripheral neuropathy were randomly assigned to receive either amitriptyline or placebo capsules (once a day) and either acupuncture or needles placed in control points (once or twice a week). The study was a randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial that lasted 14 weeks.

Entre Nous Jeunes

Investigators: Simon-Pierre Tegang, M.Sc., Jean Paul Tchupo, M.A., Gdon Yomi, M.Sc., & Blanche Djofang, B.A.

During the 18-month program, Entre Nous Jeunes utilizes a peer-education strategy to increase contraceptive prevalence and reduce the prevalence of STI/HIV and unintended pregnancies. Young adult peer educators in the community educate youth about HIV prevention and safer sex. Peer educators are trained during a one week-long session for the program. For two years, peer educators engage youth in the community by leading discussion groups, creating and using promotional materials, and referring peers to social and health services. The main objective of the program is for young people who have been exposed to a peer-educator to gain greater knowledge and practice more protective behaviors than those not exposed. The findings indicate the important contribution of the ENJ peer-educator program to the promotion of protective reproductive health behaviors to reduce unintended pregnancies and STIs among adolescents. In particular, the program was significantly associated with greater spontaneous knowledge of modern contraceptives and STI symptoms. Findings also suggest positive intervention effects on contraceptive knowledge for males, and virginity and contraceptive use at last intercourse for sexually active females. Click here to view more detailed information on this program.

Enumeration Districts, 1970, 1980

Investigators: National Opinion Research Center

Enumeration Districts (EDs) are the most basic work units for the Census Bureau. It is the area assigned to a single enumerator. EDs do not cross the boundaries of legal or of statistical areas, but are otherwise drawn so as to be bounded by roads and other natural features. EDs may be redrawn and renumbered for each decennial census. ED-level data are available only in untracted, unblocked areas, i.e., those areas for which tract- and BNA-level data are not available. ED-level data can therefore be used in combination with tract/BNA data to obtain complete national coverage for "neighborhoods" in both urban and rural areas. This dataset includes socio-economic and demographic data for all Enumeration Districts (ED)s in the US. The first data file consists of data from the 1970 Census, and has 69,743 cases and 178 variables. The second covers data from the 1980 Census, and includes 227 variables for 53,658 cases. There is no data for 1990.

Evaluating the Adoption Component of AFL Care Projects, 1989-1990

Investigators: Steven D. McLaughlin and Terry R. Johnson, Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation

The study, Evaluating the Adoption Component of AFL Care Projects, 1989-1990, was designed to determine if any of the actions taken by Adolescent Family Life (AFL) pregnancy counseling programs have an effect on the likelihood that pregnant adolescent clients will elect to place their children for adoption. Since 1982, the AFL Program of the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) has sponsored a number of demonstration projects that provide health, education and social services for pregnant teenagers, teenage mothers and their families. By legislative mandate, each of these projects is required to have an adoption counseling component designed to increase the exposure of clients to the adoption alternative. These projects vary widely in their organizational characteristics, the approaches used to provide adoption counseling, the characteristics of clients served, and the characteristics of the communities within which they operate. They also differ in the percentage of pregnant adolescents served who choose adoption - from 0 to nearly 35 percent. Many factors affect a program's relinquishment rate. Programs serve clients with widely varying individual characteristics, including different intentions regarding the pregnancy when they first make contact with the agency. In addition, because programs operate in very different social contexts, various approaches to pregnancy counseling may result in very different outcomes. Because of these confounding effects, this study collected data on the programs themselves as well as individual-level data from the clients served. This study gathered data on 314 variables from 869 AFL clients from 29 AFL project sites.

Evaluation Tools and Publications

Investigators: Josefina J. Card, Ph.D., Claire Brindis, Dr.P.H., James L. Peterson, Ph.D., & Starr Niego, Ph.D.

This product consists of eight evaluation tools, publications, and resources: (1) Data Management: An Introductory Workbook for Teen Pregnancy Program Evaluators. This publication describes the basic practical steps in conducting the second half of the research process, and covers data coding, data entry, data cleaning, variable creation, and analysis. (2) Evaluation Readiness Assessment Guide: Is Your Program Ready To Evaluate Its Effectiveness? This comprehensive, easy-to-use guide assists programs to determine if their intervention is ready to be evaluated. (3) Guidebook: Evaluating Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs. This is a comprehensive guide to the implementation of evaluation methods into all aspects of teen pregnancy programming. (4) Sourcebook of Comparison Data for Evaluating Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Programs. This Sourcebook is meant to facilitate use of existing data as a source of comparison statistics. (5) HIV/AIDS Prevention Program Archive Evaluation Assistance Kit (HEAK). This kit is a comprehensive questionnaire item bank that can be customized for use with any adult HIV/AIDS prevention program. (6) Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set (PMEDS). This publication provides a core Primary Questionnaire, with optional Supplementary Modules, that can be used for evaluating all teen pregnancy and teen STD/HIV/AIDS prevention programs. (7) Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set Jr (PMEDS Jr). This version of PMEDS is particularly well-suited for programs emphasizing abstinence and programs aimed at younger teens. (8) Prevention Minimum Evaluation Data Set Jr. + (PMEDS Jr. +). This publication is considerably shorter than PMEDS, making it easier for local programs to select questions and develop a survey. It is particularly well-suited for programs emphasizing abstinence and programs aimed at younger teens.

Evaluation of OAPP Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, 1982

Investigators: Martha Burt

This project collected, summarized, and reported data on 31 adolescent pregnancy projects funded by the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs. The purpose of the study was to provide information about how well the programs were meeting legislative and service objectives. The specific issues addressed concerned accountability (both financial and in terms of client targeting), comprehensiveness (i.e., the breadth and concentration of services offered), results of program services, and effects of program structure. Data relating to these issues were obtained from each project through quarterly reporting forms. Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Evaluation of OAPP Adolescent Pregnancy Programs: Individual Level Data I, 1981-1982

Investigators: Martha Burt

The Department of Health and Human Services funds service projects for pregnant and parenting teens, teens at risk of pregnancy, and their families and male partners. This study was designed to evaluate project implementation and the impact of project participation on clients. The data in this file and DAAPPP Data Set No. 34 come from projects' use of a voluntary case management system developed by the Urban Institute. The original data came in 20 separate files, each representing a different project. Each file differed in the number of records used for each case. To facilitate use, DAAPPP merged these files and created a large rectangular file, where each case had the same number of records. DAAPPP Data Set No. 33 contains the information from the one project (198 clients) that had up to 28 records of information per case. The data include information on client entry characteristics, pregnancy outcomes, mother and infant follow-ups, and types of services delivered. This file and the following file (DAAPPP Data Set No. 34) are individual- level data files that can be used in conjunction with DAAPPP Data Set No. 10, which contains program-level information on OAPP adolescent pregnancy programs. Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Evaluation of OAPP Adolescent Pregnancy Programs: Individual Level Data II, 1981-1982

Investigators: Martha Burt

This data file includes individual-level data from 2,104 clients seen in 19 OAPP-sponsored adolescent pregnancy programs. The data include information on client entry characteristics, pregnancy outcomes, mother and infant follow-ups, and types of services delivered. This is the second of two individual-level data files that can be used in conjunction with DAAPPP Data Set No. 10, which contains program-level information on OAPP adolescent pregnancy programs. Note for users of DAAPPP Data Sets #01-B1DAAPPP data sets 01 through B1 are comprised of a User's Guide, SPSS syntax files (*.SPS or *.SPX) and raw data files only. Most of these datasets contain SPSS syntax files that use Job Control Language (JCL) from 1980s versions of SPSS-X. Because the syntax is old, the syntax files require editing to conform to the current syntax standards used by SPSS/Windows or SPSS/Unix. If you require technical assistance in using or editing these syntax files, please contact Sociometrics' Data Support Group at 800.846.3475 or socio@socio.com.

Evaluation of Pregnancy Prevention Programs for Urban Teens, 1981-1984

Investigators: Laurie S. Zabin, Marilyn B. Hirsch, Edward A. Smith and Mark R. Emerson

This study was an evaluation of the effectiveness of a school-based program for the primary prevention of pregnancy among inner-city adolescents. The study was designed and administered by the staff of The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics and Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The project was carried out with the cooperation of the administrators of four schools in the Baltimore school system: two junior high schools and two senior high schools. The program provided the students attending one of the junior high schools and one of the senior high schools with sexuality and contraceptive education, individual and group counseling, and medical and contraceptive services over a period of almost three school years. Students in the remaining two schools received no such services, but provided baseline and end-of-project data, and served as the control sample. An evaluation component was built into the project to assess changes in the knowledge, attitudes and behavior of the school populations.

Evaluation of the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Moxibustion on Acupuncture Point Zhiyin (67 UB) for Correction of Abnormal Presentation, 1995-1996

Investigators: Francesco Cardini, Huang Weixin

The Evaluation of the Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Moxibustion on Acupuncture Point Zhiyin (67 UB) for Correction of Abnormal Presentation was conducted between 1995 and 1996 at two women’s hospitals in the Jiangxi Province of the People’s Republic of China. The study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of moxibustion (burning herbs to stimulate acupuncture points) on acupuncture point Zhiyin (beside the outer corner of the fifth toenail) as a means of promoting inversion of fetuses in breech presentation, by way of increasing fetal activity. The study involved 260 women, pregnant for the first time, in the 33rd week of gestation, and with breech presentation, diagnosed by ultrasound. The pregnant women were randomly assigned to receive either one or two 30-minute moxibustion sessions per day or to receive routine care. The study was a randomized, controlled, open clinical trial that lasted two weeks. All patients were evaluated at baseline, during examinations in the 35th week, and during an after-birth appointment. Patients receiving moxibustion were also evaluated during examinations in the 34th week and if breech presentation persisted, moxibustion was administered for another week. In addition, patients monitored active fetal movements during their duration in the trial.