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This article describes the results from two studies of Chinese Americans. In one study, a convenience sample of patients completed face-to-face interviews to assess smoking patterns in the home, knowledge of tobacco, and ways in which health interventions could be communicated to the community. The other study involved two focus group discussions with the primary purpose of learning how spouses, health care workers, and the media can participate in smoking cessation interventions. A convenience sample of 795 patients at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in New York City's Chinatown was interviewed using face-to-face interviews. The focus group discussions were conducted using 15 volunteers. One discussion was conducted in Mandarin and the other in Cantonese. Although 92.7% of the respondents prefer people not smoke in the home, only 21% ban smoking with few exceptions. The focus group participants indicated that often the smoker is the oldest male and he also is the person who establishes the rules. Nearly half of the respondents receive most of their health-related information from their physician, and the focus group participants stated that physicians are highly regarded in their culture. Finally, the majority of respondents receive health-related information from Chinese language media. These results will assist in the planning of a smoking cessation intervention targeting Chinese Americans. The physician represents a key player in any intervention, and public health antismoking messages may be communicated effectively through Chinese language media

Trying to head off concern over Senator John Kerry's planned shoulder surgery this week, his campaign on Monday released a letter from his doctor attesting to Mr. Kerry's ''excellent health'' and arranged for his orthopedist to answer questions about Wednesday's scheduled procedure. In both the teleconference and the letter, Mr. Kerry's doctors emphasized his vigor and active lifestyle, and said there was no connection between the tendon tear in his right shoulder and last year's bout with cancer. Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, his primary physician, said Mr. Kerry's latest blood and X-ray tests, taken last month, showed no evidence that the cancer had recurred or spread. At a youth forum in Sacramento, Senator John Kerry sat yesterday next to Becky Chavez, a niece of the farm labor leader Cesar Chavez. Mr. Kerry read to the students from a biography of Mr. Chavez. (Photo by Associated Press)

In both the teleconference with reporters and the widely circulated letter, [John Kerry]'s doctors emphasized his vigor and active lifestyle, and said there was no connection between the tendon tear in his right shoulder and last year's bout with cancer. Dr. Gerald J. Doyle, his primary physician, said Kerry's latest blood and X- ray tests showed no evidence that the cancer had recurred or spread

Since researchers began exploring the topic in the late 1950s, some studies have suggested there is a slight risk while others have shown none. Although there is no scientific explanation for such a link, supporters of the higher risk findings have theorized that the breast cancer somehow resulted from a sudden change in a woman's hormonal balance after an abortion

To help resolve the conflict, Dr. Valerie Beral led a team of epidemiologists at the University of Oxford in England that asked authors of all earlier studies on the abortion-breast cancer link to provide their original data. Authors of virtually all studies collaborated, and the new analysis included some previously unpublished studies, the Oxford scientists said. Their report appears in a journal, The Lancet. The Oxford team analyzed data from 44,000 women who provided information about abortions before they developed breast cancer and data from 39,000 women who were asked about abortions after breast- cancer diagnosis. Studies that reported a link between abortions and breast cancer had not asked women about abortions before they developed breast cancer, Beral said

To help resolve the conflict, Dr. Valerie Beral led a team of Oxford epidemiologists that asked authors of all earlier studies on a link between abortion and breast cancer to provide their original data. Authors of virtually all studies collaborated, and the new analysis included some previously unpublished studies, the scientists said. Their report appears in the journal Lancet. Earlier studies showed that women with breast cancer were more likely to report induced abortions than women who did not have breast cancer. Experts say that many people who develop a serious disease seek explanations for it, and acknowledging an abortion is more likely among women with breast cancer