scholarly journals Tobacco Prevention Interventions in Adolescents

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amar Kanekar ◽  
Manoj Sharma

Tobacco use is a major public health problem in our society. Tobacco addiction begins in adolescence and majority of smokers start using tobacco in the age group between 11-13 years. There are a number of tobacco prevention strategies targeted towards the youth such as school-based educational interventions, community-based interventions, advertising restrictions on tobacco use, youth access restrictions and public health education. The purpose of this article is to review smoking prevention educational interventions in adolescents conducted either in the school or community setting. In order to collect the materials for the study, a search of CINAHL, MEDLINE and ERIC databases was conducted for the time period 1985-2006. A total of 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. Eight out of the 15 interventions were targeted towards students in grades 6-7 which makes sense as majority of the adolescents start using tobacco in the age group 11-13 years. Nine out of 15 interventions reviewed did not use any behavioral theory. The six articles that used theory used social learning theory, community organizing theory, transactional and systems theory of environmental change and some constructs from transtheoretical model. There is need to explicitly reify behavioral theories by tobacco prevention interventions. Characteristics of the length of the intervention, personnel conducting the intervention, types of activities included in the interventions, and process evaluation results are discussed in the article. Recommendations for developing future educational interventions for preventing tobacco use in adolescents are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sashimali Wickramasinghe ◽  
Nalika Gunawardena ◽  
Dhanusha Punyadasa ◽  
Shanthi Gunawardena ◽  
Champika Wickramasinghe ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Unintentional injuries among adolescents is a major public health problem the world over. A great majority of the annual deaths among adolescents is due to unintentional injuries; it is also the leading cause of death among adolescents in the world. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of injuries and their associated factors among school going adolescents aged 13-17 years using data from the most recent Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) conducted in Sri Lanka. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire, among 3,262 adolescents attending government schools. The sample was selected through a two-staged cluster sampling technique. In the first stage, 40 schools were selected using probabilities proportional to school enrollment size, from all schools in the country that have classes in grades 8-12 . Then, from the selected schools, classes were selected using systematic equal probability sampling with a random start. The weighted prevalence was calculated, and logistic regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the correlates. Results During the 12 months before the survey, 35.8% (95% CI-30.7 - 41.1) of the students reported being seriously injured one or more times. The injuries were more common among males, but were equally common among the two different age groups (13-15 age group vs 16-17 age group). The most common type of injury was cut or stab wounds (5.5%), followed by broken bones/dislocated joints (5.3%). Multivariable analysis revealed that only a few factors were associated with injury, such as being of the male sex, being bullied, being physically attacked, and/or being in a physical fight. Conclusion This study demonstrated that the prevalence of serious unintentional injuries among school going adolescents is a major public health problem in Sri Lanka. This timely and comprehensive survey would help policy makers and researchers identify the unmet needs related to adolescent injuries. Furthermore, evidence generated form the study should be given due consideration when designing school-based interventions to prevent adolescent injuries.


2000 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Coupe

AbstractSuicide is a Māori Public Health Issue. Suicide rates in Aotearoa/New Zealand are amongst the highest in OECD countries in the 15-24 year age group and second only to Hungary in other age groups (WHO, 1996; Disley & Coggan, 1996). Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people under the age of 25 years in Aotearoa/New Zealand and a major public health problem (Coggan, 1997). Approximatel, 540 New Zealanders kill themselves each year (Rose, Hatcher, & Koelmeyer, 1999). The total Māori suicide rate (per 100 000) increased to 17.5 in 1997, compared to non-Māori (13.1), and the Māori youth suicide rate (33.9) far exceeded the equivalent non-Māori rate (24.3), reflecting the disparity between Māori and non-Māori (Ministry of Health, 1997). This paper aims to present epidemiological data on Māori suicide and then use the existing literature to discuss possible reasons for the high Māori rate.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Ruturaj H. Jaiswal

Tobacco use is a multi- dimensional and a worldwide problem with an alarming increase in its incidences. Adolescence continuing use of tobacco is major public health problem in India. The present study was attempted to study the personality traits of tobacco users (TU) than tobacco non-users (TNU) students. The purposive sampling method was adopted to select the sample. The sample consisted of 100 subject with tobacco users (n=50) and non-users (n=50) were selected from different schools and colleges of Jamnagar city of Gujarat state. The tools used were Eysenck’s Personality Inventory, gujarati version. Student-T test was used to analyses the data. The present study revealed that there is significant difference between student tobacco users and non-users on Neuroticism and Extraversion dimensions of personality. Student tobacco users score higher on both dimensions of personality than non-users. Conclusion: when tobacco prevention and intervention program are developed, these personality traits should be consider in addition to physiological aspects.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Coronel-Martínez ◽  
Luis Augusto Moya-Barquín

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) disproportionately affect young people, with more than half of the infections occurring in 15- to 25-year-olds, although as an age group they constitute only 25% of the sexually active population. Adolescents have been considered as a key and vulnerable population; adolescents are considered as marginalized populations (i.e., poor access to adequate health services, social and parental acceptance, stigmatization, among others. Every year, 87 million new cases of gonorrhea are reported worldwide in the population from 15 to 49 years old. In 2016, the estimated global prevalence of CT in 15-to 49-year-old women was 3.8% and in men 2.7%, with regional values ranging from 1.5 to 7.0% in women and 1.2 to 4.0% in men. The worldwide prevalence of HSV-2 among 15–49-year old is 11.3% and for HSV-1 among 0–49-year-old is 67%. These numbers alert us about the increase in the frequency of these diseases among young populations; more open sexual behavior could be an important factor for this increase; the treatment of these diseases is challenging due to the difficulties with detection and treatment; in the case of gonorrhea, it could become a major public health problem due to the emerging antimicrobial resistance; in the case of Chlamydia, despite the effective treatment, reinfection is still a possibility and for genital herpes, the disease can be controlled but not cured. This chapter will describe the most important aspects of these three diseases for supporting the clinicians and researchers about the management of sexually transmitted diseases in the adolescent population.


2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bocar Kouyaté ◽  
Victor Nana

Malaria is a major public health problem in Burkina Faso. Statistics from health facilities in 2006 show that 40.1 percent of medical consultations, 53.4 percent of hospital admissions, and 45.8 percent of deaths are malaria related (2). Malaria among children under 5 years of age accounted for 46 percent of all cases in 2004, 49 percent in 2005 and 48 percent in 2006. In the same age group, malaria was the cause of 66.4 percent of deaths in 2004, 62.0 percent in 2005 and 62.7 percent in 2006.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sashimali Wickramasinghe ◽  
Nalika Gunawardena ◽  
Dhanusha Punyadasa ◽  
Shanthi Gunawardena ◽  
Champika Wickramasinghe ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundUnintentional injuries among adolescents is a major public health problem world over. A great majority of the annual deaths among adolescents is due to unintentional injuries; being the leading cause of death among them throughout the world. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of injuries and their associated factors among school going adolescents aged 13-17 years using the data of the most recent Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) conducted in Sri Lanka.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted, using a self-administered questionnaire, among 3,262 adolescents attending government schools. The sample was selected through a two-staged cluster sampling technique. In the first stage, 40 schools were selected, using probability proportional to school enrollment size, out of all schools that have 8-12 grades in the country. Then, from the selected schools, classes were selected using systematic equal probability sampling with a random start. Weighted prevalence was calculated, and logistic regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the correlates.ResultsDuring the 12 months before the survey, 35.8% (95% CI-30.7 - 41.1) of the students reported being seriously injured once or more times. The injuries were more common among males, but were equally common among different age groups (13-15 age group vs 16-17 age group). The most common type of injury was cut or stab wound (5.5%), followed by broken bone/dislocated joint (5.3%). Multivariable analysis revealed that only a few factors were associated with injury, such as male sex, being bullied, being physically attacked, and/or being in a physical fight.ConclusionThis study demonstrated that the prevalence of serious unintentional injuries among school going adolescents is a major public health problem in Sri Lanka. This timely and comprehensive survey would help the policy makers and researchers identify the unmet needs related to adolescent injuries. Furthermore, evidence generated form the study should be given due consideration while designing school-based interventions in order to prevent adolescent injuries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 2228
Author(s):  
Suman Chirla ◽  
Satish Datla

Background: Diarrhoea is a major public health problem in developing countries. An estimate of 1.5 billion episodes of diarrhoea occurs each year and 3 million children under the age of 5 years die due to diarrhoea. Its effect is particularly devastating on children below 2 years of age, with eighty percent (80%) of deaths due to diarrhoea occurring during the first 2 years of life. Diarrhoeal diseases constitute 18% of under five deaths in Asia-Pacific countries.Methods: The present study was carried out in Anil Neerukonda hospital, Visakhapatnam from July’2015 to July’2017 over a period of 2 years. A detailed clinical study of 100 children between the age group of 6 months to 5 years with acute diorrhea was done. Zinc was given to 50% of cases and was not given to the rest of 50%. Duration of hospital stay (in days) and duration of diarrhoeal episodes (in days) were compared in both the groups.Results: Incidence of acute gastroenteritis was maximum below 2 years of age (77%). Patients administered with Zinc had significantly less duration of hospital stay 3.35 days vs. 5.34 days (in patients who were not administered zinc) with t=8.170 and a strongly significant p<0.001.Conclusions: Incidence of acute gastroenteritis is maximum below 2 years of age. Patients in zinc group had significantly less duration of hospital stay and less proportion diarrhoeal episodes on follow up compared to the non-zinc group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (8) ◽  
pp. 627-631
Author(s):  
Emelda A Okiro ◽  
Noel K Joseph ◽  
Caroline W Gitonga ◽  
Robert W Snow

Abstract Background Anaemia has long been recognised as a major public health problem among young children in lower- and middle-income countries and is an indicator of both poor nutrition and health status. There has been little progress towards improvement of anaemia in part due to its complex aetiology. An added impediment to the progress is that the monitoring of anaemia does not routinely target the whole population, with school-aged children (SAC) largely overlooked. Methods We re-examined data on the prevalence of anaemia among children aged &lt;15 y sampled from 2008–2015 in Kenya. Results Approximately one in four Kenyan children aged &lt;15 y were described as anaemic, including 12% with WHO-defined moderate anaemia and 1% who were severely anaemic. Average haemoglobin concentrations increased with age and the risk of having anaemia decreased with age. However, one in five SAC in Kenya were suffering from anaemia; most were either mild (11.4%) or moderately (10.9%) anaemic. Conclusions The monitoring of anaemia in SAC continues to be a neglected area limiting a careful articulation of the need to target interventions in this age group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sashimali Wickramasinghe ◽  
Nalika Sepali Gunawardena ◽  
Dhanusha Punyadasa ◽  
Shanthi Gunawardena ◽  
Champika Wickramasinghe ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Unintentional injuries among adolescents is a major public health problem the world over. A great majority of the annual deaths among adolescents is due to unintentional injuries; it is also the leading cause of death among adolescents in the world. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of injuries and their associated factors among school going adolescents aged 13–17 years using data from the most recent Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) conducted in Sri Lanka. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire, among 3262 adolescents attending government schools. The sample was selected through a two-staged cluster sampling technique. In the first stage, 40 schools were selected using probabilities proportional to school enrollment size, from all schools in the country that have classes in grades 8–12. Then, from the selected schools, classes were selected using systematic equal probability sampling with a random start. The weighted prevalence was calculated, and logistic regression analysis was conducted in order to determine the correlates. Results During the 12 months before the survey, 35.8% (95% CI-30.7 - 41.1) of the students reported being seriously injured one or more times. The injuries were more common among males, but were equally common among the two different age groups (13–15 age group vs 16–17 age group). The most common type of injury was cut or stab wounds (5.5%), followed by broken bones/dislocated joints (5.3%). Multivariable analysis revealed that only a few factors were associated with injury, such as being of the male sex, being bullied, being physically attacked, and/or being in a physical fight. Conclusion This study demonstrated that the prevalence of serious unintentional injuries among school going adolescents is a major public health problem in Sri Lanka. This timely and comprehensive survey would help policy makers and researchers identify the unmet needs related to adolescent injuries. Furthermore, evidence generated form the study should be given due consideration when designing school-based interventions to prevent adolescent injuries.


1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot J. Schofield ◽  
Selina Redman ◽  
Rob W. Sanson-Fisher

This paper reviews individual and community approaches to smoking prevention. It summarises some behavioural components of individual and group methods of smoking prevention and cessation and points to some of the shortcomings of these approaches. The advantages of community-based interventions for smoking are reviewed and the limitations of past community studies are noted. It is proposed that a community approach to smoking prevention holds considerable promise. Multiple interventions which address smoking as a community issue and the provision of community-based structures and support for smoking cessation are needed to combat this major public health problem.


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