Treating substance-using women and their children in public housing: preliminary evaluation findings.

The Key West Housing Authority created SafePort, a residential substance abuse treatment program within public housing to provide drug treatment to parenting women. All family members-women, children, and significant others-receive comprehensive assessments to determine appropriate therapeutic interventions to resolve their problems. Preliminary evaluation findings suggest that women who participate with their children are more likely to remain drug free than are those who participated without their children.

Lymphoma and lymphoid leukemia incidence in Florida children: ethnic and racial distribution.

BACKGROUND: Incidence reports for pediatric lymphoma and lymphoid leukemia in Hispanic subpopulations in the United States are rare. The authors hypothesized that Florida's Hispanic children would have higher risks of lymphoma and lymphoid leukemia compared with non-Hispanic white children. METHODS: All cases of lymphoid leukemia, Hodgkin, non-Hodgkin, and Burkitt lymphoma (SEER International Classification of Diseases for Oncology codes) in children (< 15 years) in the Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS) from 1985 to 1997 were studied. Cases were classified as: 1) white, 2) Hispanic, or 3) black, and stratified by age. Age-adjusted rates for the three race-ethnic groups were calculated. Rates for Hispanics and blacks were compared with whites as standardized rate ratios (SRR) with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: Seven hundred thirty-one incident cases of pediatric lymphoma and 1231 cases of lymphoid leukemia were identified during the study period. For children with lymphoma, the SRR for Hispanics was 1.32 (95% CI, 1.20-1.44), and for blacks, the SRR was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.63-0.72. For lymphoid leukemia, the SRR for Hispanics was 1.29 (95% CI, 1.28-1.30), and for blacks, the SRR was 0.55 (95% CI, 0.54-0.56). Similar rates were found for the Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Incidences of Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma were significantly higher in Florida's Hispanic children, with 30% increased relative risks, compared with whites. Black children had significantly decreased incidences and risk. Results for lymphoid leukemia were similar. Incidence of lymphoma in Florida's Hispanic children (primarily Cuban and Central American origin) differed from similar reports from Texas and California, where Hispanics are primarily of Mexican origin.

Hepatocellular carcinoma incidence in Florida. Ethnic and racial distribution.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the primary form of liver carcinoma, is increasing in incidence worldwide. The increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants in Florida suggest that the rate of HCC in the Hispanic population should be of special concern. This study describes racial and ethnic distribution and trends of incident HCC in Florida from 1985 to 1995. METHODS: A total of 2837 cases of incident HCC from 1985 to 1995 were examined from Florida's incident cancer registry, the Florida Cancer Data System. Age standardized and age specific average annual incidence rates were calculated for the state of Florida by gender and by racial and ethnic group. RESULTS: Over the study period, the average annual incidence HCC rates in Florida among male and female Hispanics and blacks were consistently and significantly twice the rate of white males and females as standardized rate ratios. Males were at least twice as likely to have HCC compared with females in all three racial and ethnic subpopulations. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of HCC in Florida was comparable to the overall U.S. incidence with respect to average annual incidence and gender distribution. Florida blacks and Hispanics are at significantly increased risk for HCC incidence compared with Florida whites. These results have implications for preventive HCC recommendations in growing racial and ethnic subpopulations in the United States.