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Family planning information sources and media exposure among Zimbabwean men.

This report describes, for a sample of Zimbabwean men, sources of family planning information, media exposure, media preferences, and whether they would like to learn more about family planning methods. The data are from the 1988 Zimbabwe Male Fertility Survey, a representative sample of 711 currently married men aged 20 and over. The analysis is restricted to the 512 men whose wives were aged 49 and under at the time of the survey. The radio and personal communications, followed by posters and newspapers, are the most frequently reported sources of family planning information. The radio is considered to be the best medium for learning about family planning, followed by community-based distributors. Nearly 85 percent of respondents indicated that they would like to learn more about family planning. Information from men should be included in information, education, and communication programs in order to enhance male involvement in the family planning process.

Adult↗

A peer-led AIDS prevention program for students in an alternative school.

School-based programs designed to measure health risk behavior and reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have not addressed adequately the needs of adolescents outside of main-stream schools. In Florida, these youth represent a sizable proportion of the population and have been shown to be at increased risk for acquiring sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus. This article describes a peer-led STD/HIV intervention for students in a dropout prevention program in Dade Country, Florida. Trained peer counselor/educators (PCEs) led schoolwide activities and classroom sessions covering STD/HIV information, community health resources, communication and negotiation skills, and safer sex strategies. Teachers and students rated the PCEs effective in promoting discussion and serving as sources of information about AIDS and community health resources. Pre/post intervention questionaire results demonstrated an increase in AIDS awareness and discussion among students as well as an increase in condom use. Based on this social influences approach, peer education appears to be a promising health education strategy for students in dropout prevention programs.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

A conceptual explanation of risk-reduction behavior and intervention development.

This study used a new conceptual model of health behavior to examine a specific risk-reduction response. Known to be at risk for fetal abnormalities because of maternal age, 203 women were examined for their acceptance or rejection of an amniocentesis test on the basis of individual characteristics and external significant factors. The multivariate approach to analysis offered a fuller explanation for nonuse of prenatal diagnosis than was previously available. In addition to specific client factors, environmental factors such as financial support for the procedure, multiple information sources, social support, and aspects of the client-provider interaction were determined to be important in explaining client acceptance or rejection of the test. More importantly, the study demonstrated the advantages of using a conceptual model to direct the development of interventions.

Abortion, Induced↗

Older, but not wiser: how men get information about AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases after high school.

CONTEXT: As they reach adulthood, young men are less likely to use condoms and are at increased risk for exposure to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Little is known about which prevention efforts reach men in their 20s. METHODS: Longitudinal data from the 1988, 1990-1991 and 1995 waves of the National Survey of Adolescent Males are used to identify sources of information about AIDS and STDs among 1,290 young men aged 22-26. Information receipt from four main sources, the topics covered by each source and the personal characteristics associated with getting more information are all explored. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of men surveyed discussed disease prevention topics with a health provider in the last year, 48% attended a lecture or read a brochure, 51% spoke to a partner, friend or family member, and 96% heard about AIDS or STDs from the media (e.g., television advertisements, radio or magazine). Excluding media sources, 30% of young men reported getting no STD or AIDS prevention messages in the last year. Being black or Hispanic, having had a physical exam or an AIDS test in the last year, and having discussions about AIDS or STDs with parents or a health care provider in the past were associated with receiving more information. CONCLUSIONS: Although young men who are at higher risk for STD or HIV infection are more likely than other young men to get information about disease prevention, young adult men are much less likely than adolescents to receive AIDS or STD prevention education. More prevention efforts need to be aimed at young adults.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

AIDS-related knowledge and attitude of high school students in Holon, Israel.

Four-hundred-and-eight high school students in the town of Holon, Israel, completed a questionnaire concerning their knowledge of HIV and AIDS, and their attitude towards the disease and the people affected by it. The highest scores for knowledge were amongst the 15-16 age group. Eighty-nine per cent of the students gave correct answers concerning the three major ways of HIV transmission: unprotected sex with HIV positive partner, sharing contaminated needles, and receiving contaminated blood transfusions. Students of the 14-16 age group expressed more tolerant attitude towards AIDS and HIV patients than the 16-18 age group (P < 0.002). Nineteen per cent of the pupils are of the opinion that students diagnosed as HIV positive should not be allowed to continue their regular studies as they can endanger their fellow students. Twenty-eight per cent of the students declared that they would sever their relations with close friends diagnosed as HIV positive. Thirty-six per cent think it is not justified to compel medical staff to treat HIV positive patients. The attitude of the students towards an HIV positive 1-year-old adopted baby was divided as follows: 30 per cent think that the baby should be returned to the agency that handled the adoption, while 48 per cent think that the adopting parents should continue to care for him. The five principal sources of knowledge from which the students have learned about AIDS were: television (93 per cent); newspapers and periodicals (90 per cent); school education and biology classes (40 per cent); parents (39 per cent); and books (popular medical) (36 per cent).

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Family planning practice in central Sudan.

Community and hospital based studies were conducted to assess the major factors related to the practice of family planning during 1989 and 1990 in Central Sudan. The mothers of 1592 births in the community and 1357 births in the hospital were interviewed by trained study workers. Prevalence of contraceptive use prior to current pregnancy was 13.0% and knowledge of a family planning method was 43.0% among hospital women and 51.0% among community women. The major predictors of use of a family planning method were parity, socioeconomic status, knowledge of source of service and maternal age. The average completed family size was 7.7 children and with the exception of a lengthy breast feeding duration, the factors examined favored a high fertility. Women preferred and apparently practiced behaviors conducive to spacing rather than limiting the number of their children. The results between the hospital, the community, and the Sudan Demographic and Health Survey 1989/1990 were consistent suggesting a minimal effect of selection bias and increasing the validity of these findings. Accessible and available family planning services coupled with wider information on family planning through health personnel and the media are needed. In particular, special efforts should be made to reach women of low socioeconomic status.

Adolescent↗

Metabolic profile testing.

Metabolic profiles have been used in efforts to predict periparturient problems and fertility, to diagnose metabolic disease, and to assess nutritional status. Results have been varied. Until knowledge and technology provide improved blood constituent panels, the metabolic profile should not be the first step in the diagnostic process. Rather, such profiles should follow an assessment of management practices and an evaluation of diet. However, these profiles may help to confirm the diagnosis, to convince dairy farmers that management changes are desirable, or to monitor improvement in herd animals. At this point, their major contribution has been to increase our understanding of the factors contributing to changes in blood constituent concentrations, which, in turn, has led to more efficient means of diagnosis. Except in cases of gross mismanagement, these profiles do not offer a "quick fix." In many of the reported cases in which diagnosis of herd problems was attributed to the metabolic profile, the clinician should have been able to identify the problem before the profile was conducted. Profiles are to be recommended when the cause of an existing problem is still not identified or resolved after a complete evaluation. The profile may aid in identifying a factor that has been overlooked. Profiles are not for clinicians who do not have an interest in upgrading their understanding of the factors involved, or who do not have a source of knowledgeable advice.

Animals↗

Social and psychological perspectives on voluntary sterilization: a review.

This paper reviews social science research on the antecedents and consequences of voluntary sterilization. The major conclusions are that socioeconomic status has little impact on the decision to be sterilized and that sterilizations are rare among those without sons and among male non-whites. Significant others are important sources of encouragement and information, and good marital relations increase the likelihood of having the procedure performed. Most acceptors experience no change in sexual activity, quality of marital relationships, or work-related behavior, and few regret their choice. Negative consequences are more likely among those in India, those coerced into having a sterilization, those who did not understand the consequences of the procedure, those with health complications after sterilization, and those couples who have unstable marriages or who disagree about sterilization.

Adult↗

Identifying health-seeking behaviors: a study of adolescents.

While it is known that health-seeking behaviors are influenced by information-seeking behaviors, reported research on adolescents' information-seeking behaviors is minimal. Available definitive information primarily addresses ways in which peers, parents, and health professionals are used as sources of information concerning sexuality. Research is now needed on how adolescents use the media and other sources of health information to effect changes in their lives. The present study sought to determine how adolescents' health-seeking behaviors, which include self-management and information-seeking behaviors, differ according to age, race, socioeconomic status, gender, and religion. The study was based on two assumptions: Self-management and information-seeking behaviors are fundamental to adolescents' health-seeking behaviors, and subjects answer self-management and information-seeking questions in terms of past behaviors and their behavioral intent. Important findings that emerged from this investigation include confirmation of gender as a differentiating variable for the performance of information-seeking behavior and positive health behaviors among black adolescents. Further, subjects reported an overall positive composite of health-seeking behaviors.

Adolescent↗

Adolescent patterns of communication about sexually related topics.

For this investigation, a sample survey of 179 black females, representing 53 family units, provided data for examining familial patterns in the amounts of information received about the menstrual cycle, sex, and contraception among adolescent daughters, mothers, and grandmothers, and the major source of information about these three topic areas. Significant relationships were found within the triads in the amount of information received about the three topic areas, suggesting familial patterns in the amount of information transmitted intergenerationally. This sample was more likely to report mothers as the source of information, suggesting their importance as formal agents of sexual socialization. Although this sample received large amounts of information about the menstrual cycle, sex, and contraception from their mothers, much information that is necessary for sexual health and informed decision making was neglected. The very young mean age (12.3 years) at first intercourse and the low proportion (24.2%) of teenagers using a method of birth control at first intercourse suggested that intergenerational communication about sex and contraception may not be meeting adolescents' needs. Consequently, attention should be focused not only on mothers as agents of sexual socialization of teenagers, but also the quality and impact of that information on the sexual health of teenagers.

Adolescent↗

Characteristics of traditional midwives and their beliefs and practices in rural Bangladesh.

This study has analyzed the characteristics, beliefs and practices of midwives in rural Bangladesh. The midwives were mainly above age 30, married or widowed, and illiterate. Most of them learned their midwifery from informal sources such as female relatives or neighbours. Often, during pregnancy, childbirth, and post-partum period, midwives imposed dietary restriction on the mothers. Similarly, devices used in the cutting of the umbilical cord and placenta were not properly sterilized and potentially dangerous substances were applied at the navel after cutting the umbilical cord or placenta. There was a practice of withholding breast-feeding up to 3 days after the birth of a child. However, there were also some beliefs or practices among the midwives that could be regarded as based on scientific understanding such as the practice of cutting the umbilical cord by boiled razor blade or the belief that child death could occur from tetanus caused by the unsterilized device used in the cutting of the umbilical cord.

Bangladesh↗

Sources of prescription contraceptives and subsequent pregnancy among young women.

For more than four in 10 teenage women who first obtained a prescription contraceptive from a private doctor or family planning clinic prior to pregnancy, marriage or interview in 1979, that method was the first they had ever used. Whites were over two times more likely to have previously used a nonprescription method than were blacks. Blacks, on the other hand, were two times more likely than whites to have been virgins before first using a prescription method. Slightly more than half of all young women who used a prescription method first obtained it from a family planning clinic, and the remainder got it from a private physician. Blacks were much more likely to have gone to a clinic than were whites. Nine in 10 of those who obtained a prescription method chose the pill. Among blacks, there was no appreciable difference between those who got the method from a clinic and those whose source was a private doctor. Whites who obtained their method from a private doctor, however, were somewhat more likely to choose the pill than were those who got it from a clinic. Of all who had been sexually active before ever using a prescription method, about eight out of 10 whites, but only about five in 10 blacks, had previously used a nonprescription method. Overall, there was an interval of about one year between first intercourse and the time the young women first got a prescription method. Among whites, there was no difference in parental education or family stability between clinic and private physician patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗

Factors influencing duration of breast feeding among low-income women.

Forty low-income breast feeding primiparous women were interviewed to determine whether family member and peer attitudes toward breast feeding and available postpartum support were associated with continued or early termination of breast feeding. Mean breast feeding duration equalled 20.5 weeks (range, 1 to 52 weeks). When an outside source of assistance (a doula) was available during the first 2 weeks postpartum, mean duration was 23.4 weeks compared with 12.3 weeks when a doula was unavailable (p less than .05). Breast feeding duration was independent of the doula's attitude regarding breast feeding. Duration of breast feeding was significantly longer for breast feeding women who participated in the USDA Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) than for those who did not participate. All of the women claimed to like breast feeding; 93% of the husbands or boyfriends, 83% of the women's mothers, and 81% of the women's best friends had positive attitudes toward breast feeding. The more breast feeding friends the woman had, the longer she breast fed (r = .32, p less than .05). Termination of breast feeding was not due to perceived negative attitudes of family members and peers regarding breast feeding.

Adolescent↗

Preferred sources of AIDS information, risk perceptions, and risk behaviors among inner-city community college students.

To understand preferred sources of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) information and level of worry about human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among community college students, a survey of 102 students in an inner-city community college was conducted. The survey requested information on preferred sources of information about AIDS, risk behaviors, and level of worry about HIV infection compared with other life risks. Forty-six per cent of respondents had engaged in risk behaviors for AIDS. Of those who were sexually active, 81% acknowledged not always using a condom. Students noted that they were more likely to believe AIDS information from a health professional than from a friend, relative, teacher, clergy, or celebrity. Overall, getting AIDS ranked third on a list of life worries, ranking only behind getting bad grades and the death of a family member. For students who identified themselves as black or Latino, however, getting AIDS ranked first on a list of life risks. For those students who reported highrisk behavior for getting HIV, getting AIDS also ranked first on a list of life worries. We conclude that those students at whom messages about risk status have been targeted are most likely to report being more worried about getting AIDS than about other adverse life events. It remains unclear, however, whether heightened levels of worry about HIV actually translate into changes in risk behavior.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

Some characteristics of tribal peoples.

The study of health and disease in distinctive human groups is an important source of knowledge, and ultimately of understanding. Tribal societies are at the polar extreme from modernized communities. However, with the breakdown of isolation this distinctiveness is being eroded, slowly for genes, more rapidly for ideas and behaviour, and fastest for infective agents of disease. Though comtemporary tribal men cannot be equated with prehistoric men, they resemble them more than do modernized men. Therefore the study of tribal peoples not only widens the range of circumstances in which human adaptability is observed, it throws some light on the evolution of human diseases. This is particularly the case with regard to the study of 'diseases of modern life'. Tribal life is characterized by comparative physical and cultural isolation, simplicity, small group size, low population density and closeness to nature, both physically and conceptually. In spite of rapid change, which itself needs study, there are still situations where what is studied has shown little recent change. In a world where dissatisfaction with life and medicine grows in spite of unparalleled technical success, we should look again at tribal men. There is much to learn from each other's successes and failures.

Animals↗

Addressing human variability in risk assessment--the robustness of the intraspecies uncertainty factor.

Addressing human variability and sensitive subpopulations is one of the challenges of risk assessment and is an important aspect of the Food Quality Protection Act, the law passed in 1996 that regulates food use pesticides in the United States. The intraspecies uncertainty factor is intended to address differences in susceptibility within the human population. This paper examines the history and scientific basis for the intraspecies uncertainty factor. Our best source of knowledge about human variability in the response to chemicals comes from clinical trials of pharmaceuticals. This large body of data allows both qualitative and quantitative characterization of variability in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic parameters in the general population and in subgroups such as children. The preponderance of evidence in the areas of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics supports the routine use of an intraspecies uncertainty factor in the range of 1-10 as being protective of greater than 99% of the human population. The intraspecies uncertainty factor is highly protective of various subpopulations, including infants and children.

Animals↗

Social and behavioral factors associated with high-risk sexual behavior among adolescents.

Relationships among risky sexual behaviors, other problem behaviors, and the family and peer context were examined for two samples of adolescents. Many adolescents reported behaviors (e.g., promiscuity or nonuse of condoms) which risked HIV or other sexually transmitted disease infection. Such risky behaviors were significantly intercorrelated. Consistent condom use was rare among those whose behavior otherwise entailed the greatest risk of infection. In both samples, an index of high-risk sexual behavior was significantly related to antisocial behavior, cigarette smoking, and illicit drug or alcohol use. Social context variables, including family structure, parenting practices, and friends' engagement in problem behaviors, were associated with high-risk sexual behavior. Finally, for sexually active adolescents, problem behaviors and social context variables were predictive of nonuse of condoms. Results were consistent across the two studies and regression weights held up well under cross-validation.

Adolescent↗