Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Peer violence perpetration and victimization are the most common types of violence among youth. This study determined the associations among violent attitudes toward peers, involvement in peer violence perpetration, and experience with peer violence victimization among boys and girls in a high-risk, urban community. Analyses were based on data from the 2004 Youth Violence Survey, which was administered to over 80% of public school students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 12 (N = 4,131) in a disadvantaged, urban, school district in the USA. ⋯ However, stratified analyses for boys and girls show that attitudes supporting boys hitting boys increased the odds of peer violence perpetration for girls only after controlling for potential confounders (AOR, 1.49; 95% CI = 1.05, 2.13). The findings demonstrate that there are important differences between boys and girls in terms of their associations with violent attitudes and involvement in actual violent behaviors. However, additional research is needed to determine how attitude modifications can be incorporated into youth violence prevention programs.
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Adolescents tend to experience more problems with sleep loss as a natural consequence of puberty, whereas teens from impoverished urban areas are likely to witness neighborhood violence and/or engage in risk behaviors that may affect sleep. Data from the Mobile Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of impoverished inner-city African-American adolescents (1998-2005; N = 20,716; age range = 9.75-19.25 years), were used to compare paired years of annual surveys elicited by questions about how sleep was affected when bad things happen to friends or family. ⋯ Conversely, seeing someone cut, stabbed, or shot, using alcohol, worry, and internalized anger were associated with sleep disturbance in a latter year. Although a limited measure of sleep disturbance was used, these findings support further research to examine sleep disturbance and risk behaviors among low-income adolescents.
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Prescription medication borrowing can result in adverse health outcomes. We aimed to study the patterns of borrowing prescription medications in an adult urban population seeking healthcare in the outpatient, emergency, and inpatient units of an urban medical center. Participants indicated whether they (1) had a primary care doctor, medical insurance, a prior history of substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, or chronic pain; and (2) had borrowed a prescription medication. ⋯ Only a third of those who borrowed medications had informed their primary medical providers of the behavior. In conclusion, borrowing prescription medications is a common behavior in the population studied. Further research is warranted into interventions to reduce such use, especially the impact of methods to improve the convenience of contacting licensed medical providers.