This study used longitudinal data from 307 mothers with firstborn infants participating in a home-visitation, child-abuse prevention program. A self-report measure of specific constructs the program hoped to affect showed that the retrospective pretest methodology produced a more legitimate assessment of program outcomes than did the traditional pretest-posttest methodology. Results showed that when response shift bias was present, traditional pretest-posttest comparisons resulted in an underestimation of program effects that could easily be avoided by the retrospective pretest methodology. With demands for documenting program outcomes increasing, retrospective pretest designs are shown to be a simple, convenient, and expeditious method for assessing program effects in responsive interventions. The limits of retrospective pretests, and methods for strengthening their use, are discussed.

Disease detection at the molecular level is driving the emerging revolution of early diagnosis and treatment. A challenge facing the field is that protein biomarkers for early diagnosis can be present in very low abundance. The lower limit of detection with conventional immunoassay technology is the upper femtomolar range (10 −13 M). Digital immunoassay technology has improved detection sensitivity three logs, to the attomolar range (10 −16 M). This capability has the potential to open new advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, but such technologies have been relegated to manual procedures that are not well suited for efficient routine use. We describe a new laboratory instrument that provides full automation of single-molecule array (Simoa) technology for digital immunoassays. The instrument is capable of single-molecule sensitivity and multiplexing with short turnaround times and a throughput of 66 samples/h. Singleplex and multiplexed digital immunoassays were developed for 16 proteins of interest in cardiovascular, cancer, infectious disease, neurology, and inflammation research. The average sensitivity improvement of the Simoa immunoassays versus conventional ELISA was >1200-fold, with coefficients of variation of <10%. The potential of digital immunoassays to advance human diagnostics was illustrated in two clinical areas: traumatic brain injury and early detection of infectious disease.

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This study investigates the cumulative impact of sexual abuse in childhood and adult interpersonal violence in the past year on depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample of 265 primarily African American (74%) women. The frequency of depressive symptoms, measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), was highest for women who experienced both forms of victimization. Women who reported greater stress over life's daily hassles reported more depressive symptoms. Women with higher levels of family support and a sense of personal mastery reported fewer depressive symptoms. The final model explained 42% of the variance in CES-D scores. Implications for practitioners are discussed.