american journal of public health

Study Says Not Enough Time for Preventive Care

Primary care physicians do not have the time to offer needed preventive health care to their patients, says a new Duke University Medical Center study. According to the study published in the April 2003 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, providing the recommended preventive maintenance for patients would take an estimated 7.4 hours out of a primary care physician’s day, leaving approximately 30 minutes for critical and chronic disease care.

Urban gay men as likely to be battered as heterosexual women

A new study shows that one in five urban gay men is battered by his partner, showing that homosexual men are just as likely as heterosexual women to be victims of domestic violence. This study, the first of its kind, appears in the December issue of American Journal of Public Health. “While decades of research has yielded valuable information about violence among heterosexual partners, until now very little has been known about violence among same-sex partners,” said Michael Relf, assistant professor at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies and a lead author of the study. “This study shatters the myth that men are able to protect themselves from violence perpetuated by other men. We now know that domestic violence is an equal opportunity epidemic.”