(Embargoed Until: 3 P.M. (CT), Monday, July 5, 2004)
(Embargoed Until: 3 P.M. (CT), July 5, 2004)
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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, July 5, 2004
To contact David H. Jernigan, Ph.D., call Nicole King at 202/687-0884.
To contact editorialist Ralph Hingson, Sc.D., call Jodi Petrie at 617/638-5432.
GIRLS MORE LIKELY THAN BOYS TO BE OVEREXPOSED TO ALCOHOL ADS IN MAGAZINES
CHICAGO—In 2002, underage youth saw more alcohol advertising than adults in magazines, and girls were even more exposed to this advertising than boys, according to a study in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Background information in the article states: "Underage drinking is a serious public health problem in the United States, associated with lower educational attainment, greater likelihood of attempting suicide or of engaging in risky sexual behavior, and increased risk of drinking-driving mortality compared with the population 21 years and older." In 2002, alcohol companies in the U.S. spent $1.9 billion on magazines, newspaper, television, radio, and outdoor advertisements, 21.1 percent of which was used in magazines advertising.
David H. Jernigan, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and colleagues investigated adolescent girls' and boys' (ages 12 to 20 years) exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines compared to alcohol ad exposure for men and women (ages 21 to 34, and 21 years and older). The researchers examined readership data from 2001 and 2002 for 103 national magazines in which a total of 6,239 alcohol advertisements appeared. The advertisements were divided according to alcohol type: beer and ales, distilled spirits, low-alcohol refreshers (LARs, i.e. sweet-flavored alcoholic beverages, alcopops, alcoholic lemonades), and wine.
The researchers found that in 2002 underage youth (12 to 20 years of age) in the U.S. saw 45 percent more beer and ale advertising; 12 percent more distilled spirits advertising; 65 percent more LAR advertising; and 69 percent less advertising for wine than men and women of legal drinking age. From 2001 to 2002, both girls' and boys' exposure to alcohol advertisements decreased in every alcohol category except LAR advertisements, which increased by 216 percent and 46 percent respectively. For underage boys, 13 brands (11 distilled spirits and two beers) accounted for half of their alcohol advertising exposure, while 16 brands of alcohol (14 distilled spirits, one beer, and one LAR) accounted for half of the advertising exposure to underage girls.
The authors write: "In the context of youth generally being more likely per capita than the legal-age audience to see magazine advertising for beer and ale, distilled spirits, and LARs, perhaps the most striking finding of our analysis is the level or overexposure experienced by girls." They state in conclusion: "Exposure of underage girls to alcohol advertising is substantial and increasing, pointing to the failure of industry self-regulation and the need for further action."
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:629-634. Available post-embargo at archpediatrics.com)
Editor's Note: This research was supported by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, Pa., and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ.
EDITORIAL: ADOLESCENT EXPOSURE TO ALCOHOL ADVERTISING IN MAGAZINES
In an accompanying editorial, Ralph Hingson, Sc.D., from the Boston University School of Public Health, stresses the dangers of underage drinking.
"The declining age of first alcohol consumption and the percentage of high school students engaging in frequent heavy drinking of 5 alcoholic beverages or more per occasion should be of considerable concern," Hingson writes. "...relative to nondrinkers, those frequent heavy drinkers are much more likely to engage in a variety of behaviors that endanger their health. Forty-one percent of high school frequent heavy drinkers report driving after drinking…Annually, 7,000 persons younger than 21 years die from alcohol-related injury. Moreover, many of the people harmed by underage drinking are not the drinkers themselves." He continues: "...alcohol is a if not the leading contributor to the leading causes of death among young people in the United States and is a factor in more than 50,000 alcohol-related injury deaths annually"
Hingson concludes: "Are these advertising and promotional practices contributing to the declining age of alcohol use initiation, which in turn increases the risk of alcohol dependence and other alcohol problems affecting drinkers and people with whom they come in contact both during adolescence and adulthood? The effect of all of this advertising and promotion on attitudes and expectancies toward alcohol use among both youth and adults merits additional research, as does the possibility of a link to increased consumption or a lack of decline in consumption, despite the loss of thousands of lives annually among adolescents and adults to alcohol-related injuries."
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:702-704. Available post-embargo at archpediatrics.com)
For more information, contact JAMA/Archives media relations at 312/464-JAMA (5262) or e-mail mediarelations{at}jama-archives.org.
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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, July 5, 2004
To contact corresponding author Jonathan M. Ellen, M.D., call Jessica Collins at 410/516-4570.
PARENTAL SUPERVISION MAY REDUCE THE RISK FOR CERTAIN SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES IN ADOLESCENTS
CHICAGO—African American female adolescents who reported that they had high levels of parental supervision had reduced incidence of gonorrhea and chlamydia infections than their peers who reported low parental supervision, according to an article in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to the article, the highest rates of gonorrhea (GC) and chlamydia (CT) infections are seen in female adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, with disproportionately high rates in African Americans. Understanding how family life affects the acquisition of STDs among African American females may be helpful to craft interventions to reduce STD acquisition among these adolescents.
Julie A. Bettinger, Ph.D., of The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., and colleagues studied the effect of high levels of perceived parental supervision and communication (as reported by adolescents) on GC and CT infection in 158 adolescent females (97.1 percent African American) aged 14 to 19 years (average age, 17.1 years).
Participants were recruited from two urban health clinics - one was a public STD clinic and the other was a hospital-based adolescent medicine clinic. All participants had vaginal or anal intercourse with an opposite sex partner within the three months preceding enrollment in the study, completed an interview on perceived parental supervision and communication, and provided a urine sample for laboratory testing for GC and CT at the beginning of the study. Information on parental characteristics was also collected at the beginning of the study. Six months later, participants provided a second urine sample for GC and CT screening.
The researchers found that fewer than 20 percent of the participants' parents were married or living together. The prevalence of GC and CT at the beginning of the study was 30.5 percent (85 of 279 total participants) and the incidence at six months was 20.9 percent (33 of 158 participants who completed the follow-up portion of the study six months later). The researchers found that high levels of perceived parental supervision were linked with reduced GC and CT infections, but high levels of parental communication (talking about STDs) were not.
"Our prospective results showed that high levels of perceived parental supervision led to a reduction in the laboratory-confirmed incidence of GC and CT in African American female adolescents, regardless of their age," write the authors.
"Parental involvement as a strategy for promoting protective behaviors among adolescents is increasingly a subject of research, and our results provide further evidence that interventions designed to increase parental involvement may affect not only adolescent behavior but disease acquisition as well," the researchers write.
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:666-670. Available post-embargo at archpediatrics.com)
Editor's Note: This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, Md; and a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, Rockville, Md.
For more information, contact JAMA/Archives media relations at 312/464-JAMA (5262) or e-mail mediarelations{at}jama-archives.org.
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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, July 5, 2004
To contact Beth E. Molnar, Sc.D., call Kevin Myron at 617/432-3952.
To contact editorialist Philip J. Cook, Ph.D., call Karen Kemp at 919/613-7394.
CHICAGO TEENS LIVING IN SAFER NEIGHBORHOODS LESS LIKELY TO CARRY CONCEALED FIREARMS
CHICAGO—Chicago children and adolescents living in neighborhoods that are safer, more cohesive, and less disordered are less likely to carry firearms, according to a new study in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Under federal law, individuals younger than 18 years are prohibited from owning handguns and in most states from carrying concealed weapons. Nonetheless, data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and other studies indicate high levels of self-reported gun carrying among American youth," the article states.
Beth E. Molnar, Sc.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues analyzed data from 1,842 children between the ages 9 and 19 living in 218 Chicago neighborhoods, and identified whether neighborhood characteristics have an effect upon the tendency of a youth to carry a concealed firearm, beyond neighborhood economic differences and individual and family risk factors for carrying. Data for the study came from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods and were collected between 1995 and 2000.
"In this study 4.9 percent of males and 1.1 percent of females....reported having carried a concealed firearm," at some point during their lifetime, authors found. "Restricting the current analysis to youth aged 14 to 18 years, the prevalence of having carried a gun was 9.3 percent among males and 1.8 percent among females."
Researchers also found that children and adolescents are more likely to carry a concealed firearm if they live in a Chicago neighborhood that has certain identifiable characteristics that may foster a fear of being victimized.
"We found that youth in safer and less disordered neighborhoods were less likely than youth in unsafe and more disordered neighborhoods to carry concealed firearms," the authors write.
In conclusion the authors write, "Decreasing the degree to which a community is burdened by threatening or hostile behavior by adults, reclaiming the number of public spaces available for children to play in and supporting adults who are willing to intervene in the lives of their community's children may positively alter the social dynamics that currently contribute to concealed firearm carrying by youth"
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:657-664. Available post-embargo at archpediatrics.com)
Editor's Note: This study was supported by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta) to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Funding for the PHDCN was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Chicago, Ill.), the National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, Md.), and the National Institute of Justice (Washington, D.C.).
EDITORIAL: YOUTH'S INVOLVEMENT WITH GUNS
In an accompanying editorial, Philip J. Cook, Ph.D., of Duke University, Durham, N.C., writes, "Adolescents in cities where gun ownership is prevalent were much more likely to carry one than adolescents with similar personal and household characteristics in cities where gun ownership is relatively rare. (On the other hand, there was no statistical relationship between gun-ownership prevalence and the likelihood of carrying another type of weapon.) The most plausible reason for this pattern of gun involvement is that youths found it easier to acquire a gun - to buy, borrow, or steal one - where guns are more common. Gun ownership matters."
Dr. Cook concludes: "The evidence suggests that reducing gun prevalence would help constrain youths' urge to seek self-protection in this fashion, as would reducing the levels of neighborhood violence and disorder that provide much of the underlying motivation."
He writes that "These results [by Molnar et al] provide some guidance for policymakers seeking to develop interventions that will reduce gun involvement by youths."
(Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2004;158:705. Available post-embargo at archpediatrics.com)
For more information, contact JAMA/Archives media relations at 312/464-JAMA (5262) or e-mail mediarelations{at}jama-archives.org.
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EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 3 P.M. (CT), MONDAY, July 5, 2004
To contact Ghanshyam N. Pandey, Ph.D., call Sharon Butler at 312/355-2522.
ACTIVITY OF ENZYME THAT AFFECTS MOOD DECREASED IN BRAINS OF TEENAGE SUICIDE VICTIMS
CHICAGO—The activity of a brain enzyme known to affect mood may be decreased in teens who commit suicide, according to an article in the July issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
According to the article, approximately 30,000 people die of suicide in the United States annually, and suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers. While there is some understanding about the psychological and psychosocial factors associated with teenage suicide, little is known about neurobiological factors that may contribute to teenage suicide. An enzyme in the brain called protein kinase C (PKC) has been linked with mood disorders, and it is the target of some mood-stabilizing drugs.
Ghanshyam N. Pandey, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues investigated whether there was any link between changes in PKC and teenage suicide.
The researchers examined the brains of 17 teenage suicide victims and compared them to 17 brains of teenagers without psychiatric illness who did not commit suicide as their cause of death (control subjects). The brains were obtained from the Brain Collection Program of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, in collaboration with the Medical Examiner's Office of the State of Maryland). PCK activity was measured from samples of PKC taken from each brain.
Of the 17 suicide victims, nine had a history of mental disorders, and eight had no history of mental disorders, although two had a history of alcohol or drug abuse. There were 16 males and one female in the control group, and among suicide victims, ten were male and seven were female.
The researchers found that protein kinase C activity was statistically significantly decreased in measurements in certain brain areas in teenage suicide victims' brains compared with measurements from the brains of control subjects.
"Because many physiologic functions are mediated through [PKC activity] and because PKC is a target for the therapeutic action of psychoactive drugs, our findings indicate that the pathogenesis of teenage suicide may be associated with abnormalities on PKC and that PKC may be a target for therapeutic intervention in patients with suicidal behaviors," the authors write.
(Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004;61:685-693. Available post-embargo at archgenpsychiatry.com)
Editor's Note: This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, Rockville, Md., and by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, New York, N.Y. (Dr. Dwivedi).
For more information, contact JAMA/Archives media relations at 312/464-JAMA (5262) or e-mail mediarelations{at}jama-archives.org.
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