Drug Court Graduation Rates: Implications for Policy Advocacy and Future Research

Drug courts offer treatment as an alternative to incarceration for criminal offenders with a history of substance abuse. This study contributes to the existing literature by using logistic regression analyses to predict graduation outcomes for participants of a drug court located in a major metropolitan area of Texas. The most predictive variables of graduating the drug court were being employed or being a student at the time of admission, having fewer positive drug tests, and being White. Implications for policy advocacy and future research are discussed, focusing specifically on the finding of racial disparities in graduation outcomes.     

Cardiovascular Consequences of Binge Drinking: An Integrative Review with Implications for Advocacy,Policy, and Research

Worldwide, binge drinking is a major public health problem. The popularized health risks associated with binge drinking include physical injury and motor vehicle crashes; less attention has been given to the negative effects on the cardiovascular (CV) system. The primary aims of this review were to provide a summary of the adverse effects of binge drinking on the risk and development of CV disease and to review potential pathophysiologic mechanisms. Using specific inclusion criteria, an integrative review was conducted that included data from human experimental, prospective cross‐sectional, and cohort epidemiological studies that examined the association between binge drinking and CV conditions such as hypertension (HTN), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and arrhythmias. Studies were identified that examined the relationship between binge drinking and CV outcomes. Collectively, findings support that binge drinking is associated with a higher risk of pre‐HTN, HTN, MI, and stroke in middle‐aged and older adults. Binge drinking may also have adverse CV effects in young adults (aged 18 to 30). Mechanisms remain incompletely understood; however, available evidence suggests that binge drinking may induce oxidative stress and vascular injury and be proatherogenic. Public health messages regarding binge drinking need to include the effects of binge drinking on the CV system.     

Advocacy and ageing

Advocacy sounds like a complex and esoteric process, and 1 am not sure if the word means much to the lay person. However, in reality it is likely that each one of us has acted as an advocate in some sense. Simply defined, advocacy is ‘an act of pleading for, supporting or recommending’ (The Macquarie Dictionary, 1988, p. 70) the cause of another person. In general terms, an advocate is someone who ‘pleads a case’, who takes the side of another person or group of people and represents their interests. Advocacy is essentially the very ordinary process of standing up for the rights of others who are being unfairly treated (Parsons, 1994). Lawyers, unions and human service workers all act as advocates in the course of their work, as do the rest of us in everyday life.