Enhancing awareness and facilitating vaccination among populations at risk for HAV infection are urgently needed. About a third of this sample was vaccinated, and another third reported knowing nothing about hepatitis. Furthermore, many participants reported engaging in behaviors that put them and their sexual partners at risk for hepatitis A infection. The low level of [...]

Sample Demographics
Of the 120 MSM participants who completed the survey, 107 self-identified as African American or black; 5 self-identified as Hispanic or Latino; 4, as Native American; 4, as white. Of the 107 African American participants, the mean (± SD) age was 24.8 ± 5.93 years, with a range of 18 to 50 years. The [...]

Data Collection Procedures
During November 2001, data were collected anonymously in a predominantly African American, “gay” male bar in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. All bar patrons were asked to participate, regardless of gender, by a trained recruiter. In order to ensure informed consent, the recruiter assessed sobriety of potential participants using established criteria. Questionnaires were self-administered and [...]

While the prevalence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection is relatively low in the general population within developed nations such as the United States (US), numerous reports have documented outbreaks of HAV among men who have sex with men (MSM). With an effective two-dose vaccine available, HAV remains an important vaccine-preventable disease in the United [...]

We demonstrated that a multidisciplinary clinic for difficult-to-control blood pressure can be successful in a public health setting serving a disadvantaged minority population. Our success rate over 6 months of 58% compares favorably to the success rate (64%) in a private setting that serves primarily well-educated, Caucasian patients. The fact that eleven subjects of fifty [...]

The characteristics of the first fifty patients enrolled in the clinic are described in Table 1. The typical patient was a 60-year-old diabetic African-American woman with a history of hypertension for 18 years taking 4 different antihypertensive medications, including a diuretic, calcium-channel blocker, alpha-blocker, and ACE-inhibitor. Of the fifty patients, 33 (66%) were female and [...]

A multidisciplinary hypertension clinic was established in the summer of 2000 to treat patients with difficult-to-control hypertension within the Cook County ambulatory health care network. The team of providers included three general internists, a nurse health educator, pharmacist, and dietician. Eligible patients with difficult-to-control hypertension were defined as having blood pressure persistently greater than 140 [...]