Six revealing lectures on current issues
in health promotion
The University of California has teamed with Health Net, a California HMO, to offer six new lectures in the nationally acclaimed Wellness Lecture Series.
Delivered by distinguished University faculty selected by a Universitywide steering committee, these lectures will be presented at the six University of California health sciences campuses. The series showcases new research and findings on the following topics:
"Media Advocacy: A Strategy for Advancing Policy and Promoting Health" - Lawrence Wallack, Dr. P.H., Professor, UC BerkeleyEach lecture is videotaped and available for purchase in VHS format. Highly viewable and relevant to today's evolving health care field, the videotapes are designed for broadcast within a one-hour time slot. They are also ideally suited for presentation in educational seminars or for personal use."Heart Disease in Women: Myths and Controversies" - Amparo C. Villablanca, M.D., Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC Davis
"The Hardiness Enhancing Lifestyle Program (HELP) for Improving Physical, Mental, and Social Wellness" - Salvatore R. Maddi, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, UC Irvine
"A Research Trajectory on Health Promotion Among Impoverished Women of Color" - Adeline M. Nyamathi, Ph.D., Associate Professor, UC Los Angeles
"Prevention, Policy, and Paradox: What Is the Value of Future Health?" - Theodore G. Ganiats, M.D., Associate Professor, UC San Diego
"Race and the Cancer Research Literature: The Impact on Health Care Delivery and Policies" - Mack Roach III, M.D., Assistant Professor, UC San Francisco
Rich with innovative approaches and insights based on current research, the series is a must for health professionals, health sciences professors, hospital staffs dedicated to promoting continuing education, and students interested in careers in the health sciences.
Individually or as a six-lecture series, the lectures are also available as audio cassettes.
Sorry, the program materials for the 1994 Wellness Lecture Series are no longer available.
Brief abstracts of the six 1994 University of California/Health Net Wellness Lectures, culled from excerpts of the original papers, follow:
Lawrence Wallack, Dr. P.H.
Professor, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Media advocacy is an innovative strategy to advance public policy. Its purpose is to promote public health goals by strategically using the media, especially the news media, to apply pressures for changes in policy.
Research suggests that while personal knowledge about health is important, power over the policy environment is key. Health status improvement comes not so much from filling the knowledge gap as addressing the power gap.
Media advocacy focuses on social, political, and economic issues rather than lifestyle and personal health problems. Its three specific goals are setting the agenda, shaping debate, and advancing a policy approach over time.
Children and youth, health department directors, community members, physicians, parents, and others have served as media advocates across the nation. Their successes have brought attention to the role of media advocacy in the "new" public health.
Dr. Wallack is director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group, which conducts research and training in the use of media to promote healthy public policies. He has lectured extensively on policy issues related to mass media and health promotion.
Amparo C. Villablanca, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine
Heart Disease is the leading killer of women in the U.S. today, accounting for approximately 500,000 deaths annually. Among women, heart disease accounts for more than twice the number of deaths from breast, lung, uterine, cervical, and ovarian cancers combined.
Despite this, few laypersons or even health professionals perceive heart disease to be the major health care concern for women. The myth that coronary heart disease is not an equal opportunity killer for men and women persists despite more than 15 years of data to the contrary.
To date, relatively little information is available on the influence of gender on heart disease risk factors and related variables. This fact raises a number of scientific, medical, and ethical questions.
It is clear that a fundamental change must occur in our approach to women's health care and disease prevention to address a problem that could have significant implications for health care cost and delivery.
Dr. Villablanca lectures extensively on cardiovascular disease in women and is interested in all aspects of preventive cardiology. She was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of the California Dept. of Health Services' Office of Women's Health
Salvatore R. Maddi, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, UC Irvine School of Social Ecology
The stressfulness of modern life has reached crisis proportions, as the megatrends fueling social and environmental change accelerate. If poorly managed by individuals, this rising tide of stress will increasingly undermine wellness, leading not only to illness but to socially destructive behavior as well. Cancer, depression, and violence are examples of such underminings.
What can be done? Exclusive emphasis on after-damage efforts at disease treatment and behavior control is too costly and ineffective. Emphasis needs to shift to prevention, but mere information dissemination will not suffice.
A comprehensive lifestyle program is needed to integrate coping, social support, relaxation, exercise, nutrition, and addition control. The Hardiness Enhancing Lifestyle Program (HELP) is one such program that is currently being implemented and evaluated in schools, companies, and outpatient clinics.
Dr. Maddi is renowned for his theoretical and research work on hardiness, creativity, existential psychology, and personality. He is founder of a psychological consulting company that specializes in health planning assessment and training.
Adeline M. Nyamathi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, UC Los Angeles School of Nursing
Homeless and impoverished women now represent the fastest growing category of AIDS victims in the United States. Despite this, few health research studies have focused on homeless women, particularly women of color, who are disproportionately affected.
In response to the need for such research, a study was initiated to assess a specialized and traditional nurse counseling program targeted toward African-American and Latina women at risk for AIDS. The results showed meaningful and lasting behavior change in this population, underscoring the urgent need for AIDS prevention programs targeted at homeless women. This is especially true for impoverished women of color, for whom health care may be difficult to access.
The window of opportunity for developing policy aimed at primary prevention will not be open indefinitely. The time to act is now.
Dr. Nyamathi has focused her recent research on health issues related to homeless and drug-addicted women of color. She is faculty chair of the UCLA Latino Advisory Board and chair of the UCLA School of Nursing's Acute Care Section.
Theodore G. Ganiats, M.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, UC San Diego School of Medicine
One of the keys to health policy research is the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of clinical practice and prevention programs. Given that these evaluations influence health policy decisions, the principles behind them must be sound.
However, shortcomings in current methods of "discounting" health outcomes have caused evaluations to be skewed. "Discounting" is the quantification of the present value of a future outcome. It is based on the premise that people generally value future results less than present ones. Thus, when evaluating a health program, an investigator devalues or "discounts" future outcomes.
New research has shown that there is justification for "discounting" some future health outcomes at lower rates, which may improve the cost-effectiveness of prevention programs. This could change public health policy and shape the way health care is delivered in the next century.
Dr. Ganiats focuses his research on medical decision-making, especially the assessment of health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness. He serves as vice-chair of his department and is director of the UCSD Health Outcomes Assessment Program.
Mack Roach III, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, UC San Francisco School of Medicine
Hundreds of papers in the medical literature have referred to race as a factor in cancer survival. Implicit in many studies is the premise that race is a "real" biologic factor, that it must be considered separately from tumor- or treatment-related factors.
However, extensive review of the available published data, as well as analysis of new findings, leads to the conclusion that race does not appear to be a major independent factor in cancer survival. Instead, an epidemiological phenomenon can be linked to the perceived discrepancies in cancer survival rates.
This leads to the conclusion that money spent studying cancer survival as a function of race might be better spent studying differences in quality of health care and other factors. Future wellness research should attempt to identify the real factors that lead to differences in cancer survival.
Dr. Roach is a recipient of the 1994-97 American Cancer Society Development Award. He has published widely on cancer-related topics, particularly prostate, lung, and breast cancer and the significance of race in cancer survival.
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