Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Multicenter StudyImplementation and impact of anti-smoking interventions in three prisons in the absence of appropriate legislation.
To assess the acceptability and impact of anti-smoking policies in three prisons in Switzerland. ⋯ Reinforcement of non-smoking rules was possible in only one of the three prisons but had an impact on exposure to tobacco smoke and medical help to quit. Implementing anti-smoking policies in prisons is difficult in the absence of appropriate legislation.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
ReviewNeural systems underlying motivated behavior in adolescence: implications for preventive medicine.
Although a time of increased independence and autonomy, adolescence is also a time of vulnerabilities, through increased risk-taking and the emergence of psychopathology. Neurodevelopmental changes during this period may provide a neurobiological basis for this normative rise in deleterious behaviors. Thus, the objective of this review was to identify neurodevelopmental processes underlying the emergence of risk-taking and psychopathology in adolescence, and discuss implications of these findings for prevention. ⋯ Understanding developmental and contextual factors that influence functioning in motivational neural circuits can inform research on adolescent risk-taking, and may provide targets for novel preventions, for example through the use of incentives to reduce deleterious outcomes.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Childhood sexual abuse and risk for initiating injection drug use: a prospective cohort study.
This study examined whether childhood sexual abuse predicts initiation of injection drug use in a prospective cohort of youth. ⋯ Childhood sexual abuse places drug users at risk for initiating injection. Addiction treatment programs should incorporate services for survivors of childhood maltreatment.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
Overweight and reduced heart rate variability in British children: an exploratory study.
To investigate the associations between heart rate variability (HRV) and weight status in children. ⋯ This exploratory study suggests that HRV is reduced in overweight/obese children.
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Preventive medicine · Nov 2012
ReviewAre cultural values and beliefs included in U.S. based HIV interventions?
To determine the extent to which current United States based human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevention and risk reduction interventions address and include aspects of cultural beliefs in definitions, curricula, measures and related theories that may contradict current safer sex messages. ⋯ human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interventions need to move beyond targeting specific populations based upon race/ethnicity, gender, sexual, drug and/or risk behaviors and incorporate cultural beliefs and experiences pertinent to an individual's risk. Theory based interventions that incorporate cultural beliefs within a contextual framework are needed if prevention and risk reduction messages are to reach targeted at risk populations. Implications for the lack of uniformity of cultural definitions, measures and related theories are discussed and recommendations are made to ensure that cultural beliefs are acknowledged for their potential conflict with safer sex skills and practices.