Abstrak: Purpose: To determine the biking suitability (i.e., bikeability) of and prevalence of biking in 14 elementary schools representing two extremes of bused students (2.4% vs. 53.6%).
Methods: Street segments (within 0.25-mile radius of school) were scored for bikeability. Bikes in racks per school student population established biking prevalence. Mann-Whitney U-test compared bikeability and prevalence of biking between groups.
Results: A total of 12.5 +/- 2.2 streets per school were assessed. Thirteen schools scored very good (< 3.0) and one scored fair (4.0-4.9). Median bikeability score was 0.69 for the low-busing schools and 0.53 for the high-busing schools (nonsignificant). Median biking prevalence was 3.1% in the low-busing schools and 1.3% in the high-busing schools (p < .05).
Conclusion: Streets surrounding schools were adequate for biking. Biking prevalence was significantly higher in low-busing schools but was relatively low in both low- and high-busing schools. Other factors, including intraindividual, social, school, and community, likely contribute to choice of biking to school.

Abstrak: Purpose: To characterize employers' coverage of clinical preventive services.
Design: Mercer Human Resource Consulting Inc. included questions on clinical preventive services as part of its National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, 2001.
Setting: A national sample of employers of a large, medium, and small number of employees, including governments.
Subjects: Respondents self-identified as most knowledgeable about the organization's health benefits.
Measures: Weighted analyses of responses to eight survey questions on health promotion.
Results: The survey was completed by 2180 employers, and the response rate was 21%. More than 90% of employers included increased productivity and decreased health care costs among their most important reasons for coverage of clinical preventive services. Within health insurance, coverage of physical examinations, immunizations, and screenings generally exceeded 50%, but coverage of lifestyle modification services was less than 20%. Only 20% of employers covered tobacco cessation services, and only 4% of employers provided an "optimal" benefit. We compared employers' offerings with a published ranking, by impact and value, of clinical preventive services. We found the biggest discrepancy in tobacco cessation services and alcohol problem prevention, which ranked high in terms of impact and value but are offered by only 20% and 18% of employers, respectively.
Conclusions: Employers seek financial return from their offerings of clinical preventive services to employees, but they are least likely to offer the services most likely to provide this return.

Abstrak: Purpose: This study examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and cigarette smoking in a large sample of American workers.

Methods: We used data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States. Seventy percent of individuals completed a telephone survey. The present study focused on 2593 individuals working for pay. Measures included depressive symptoms, job level, and current smoking status.

Results: In a logistic regression analysis, depressive symptoms significantly predicted smoking status among workers (p < .01). In follow-up chi2 analyses, the link between depressive symptoms and smoking was consistent across gender (p < .01) and job levels (p < .01).

Discussion: Depressive symptoms among workers present an underlying obstacle to the success of worksite smoking cessation efforts. Findings highlight the need for increased cooperation between workplace mental health and medical health promotion programs and for tailoring smoking cessation programs to depressed workers. Limitations include self-report cross-sectional data and an underrepresentation of minority group members and individuals of low socioeconomic status.

Abstrak: Purpose: To test a theoretically and empirically based model linking potential protective resources (hardiness, coworker and supervisor support) to the outcomes of work stress and job satisfaction and replicating the relationship of work stress to job satisfaction while accounting for the potential influence of negative affectivity.

Design: A cross-sectional research design using survey data collected from two convenience samples.

Setting: Two worksites: (1) a high-tech company and (2) a government agency.

Subjects: High-tech employees (N = 310; response rate, 73.8%) and government agency employees (N = 745; response rate, 49.7%).

Measures: The Dispositional Resilience Scale measured hardiness and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule measured negative affectivity. Coworker and supervisor support were measured using the Coworker Support Scale and the Supervisor Support Scale, respectively. The Perceived Work Stress Scale measured work stress, and a single item from the Job Satisfaction Scale assessed overall job satisfaction.

Results: A multiple-group path analysis examined the proposed model. Similar patterns of association were found for both samples and suggested a more parsimonious model without the path from negative affectivity to job satisfaction. The model supports the protective nature of hardiness and support at work with regard to work stress and job satisfaction.

Conclusion: Explanations of relationships depicted in the model, practical implications for reducing work stress and enhancing job satisfaction, limitations and future directions are discussed.

Abstrak: Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the relative importance of psychosocial variables (i.e., health beliefs, knowledge, barriers) in predicting mammogram receipt compared with providing access through a mobile mammography unit among older women who participated in a mobile mammography intervention.

Design: The data were collected during a randomized trial involving 499 women (60 to 84 years old) recruited from 60 community sites.

Setting: The study was conducted at 60 sites in Los Angeles where seniors gather, including meal sites, senior centers, and recreational clubs.

Subjects: Participants were older women (60 to 84 years old) who spoke English or Spanish, had a telephone, had no significant cognitive deficits, and had not received a mammogram during the past 12 months.

Measures: The baseline survey assessed demographics and psychosocial factors (i.e., health beliefs, knowledge, barriers). A follow-up telephone survey at 3 months assessed mammography receipt.

Results: Results support the importance of behavioral intentions in predicting mammogram receipt, even among women able to access a mammogram through the mobile unit. However, other recognized psychosocial factors failed to predict screening receipt among women randomized to the mobile mammography intervention. Results suggest that the importance of psychosocial predictors might be diminished when a major access barrier has been removed, and they highlight the importance of convenience.

Conclusion: Future interventions should focus on not only removing obvious concrete and psychosocial barriers but also on enhancing convenience.