"I'm not being rude, I'd want somebody normal" Adolescents' perception of their peers with Tourette's syndrome; an exploratory study

Background: Tourette’s syndrome (TS) is a highly stigmatised condition, and typically developing adolescents’ motives and reason for excluding individuals with TS have not been examined. Aims: The aim of the study was to understand how TS is conceptualised by adolescents and explore how individuals with TS are perceived by their typically developing peers. Method: Free text writing and focus groups were used to elicit the views of twenty-two year ten students from a secondary school in South East England. Grounded theory was used to develop an analytical framework. Result: Participants’ understanding about the condition was construed from misconceptions, unfamiliarity and unanswered questions. Adolescents who conceived TS as a disorder beyond the individual’s control perceived their peers as being deprived of agency and strength and as straying from the boundaries of normalcy. People with TS were viewed as individuals deserving pity, and in need of support. Although participants maintained they had feelings of social politeness towards those with TS, they would avoid initiating meaningful social relationships with them due to fear of “social contamination”. Intergroup anxiety would also inhibit a close degree of social contact. Participants that viewed those with TS as responsible for their condition expressed a plenary desire for social distance. However, these behavioural intentions were not limited to adolescents that elicited inferences of responsibility to people with TS, indicating that attributional models of stigmatisation may be of secondary importance in the case of TS. Implications for interventions to improve school belonging among youths with TS are discussed

The health impact of remarriage behavior on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: findings from the US longitudinal survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major disease among adults, and its deterioration was reported to be associated with psychological imbalance. Meanwhile, bereavement and divorce have proven harmful to the health status of a surviving spouse. But few studies have been conducted to evaluate the remedial effect on survivors' health outcome by remarriage after bereavement. The present study thus examined the associations between remarriage and the onset of COPD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Our cohort was drawn from Health and Retirement Study participants in the United States, and consisted of 2676 subjects who were divorced or bereaved from 1992 to 2002. We then followed them for up to 11 years and assessed the incidence rate of COPD using a Cox proportional hazard model after adjusting for marital status, age, gender, education and the number of cigarettes smoked.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among all subjects, 224 who remarried after bereavement or divorce tended to be younger and more male dominated. Remarriage after bereavement/divorce was associated with significantly decreased risk of COPD onset for overall subjects [hazard ratio (HR): 0.51, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.28-0.94], female subjects [HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.13-0.98], and for those under 70 years old [HR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.17-0.79].</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study investigates the impact of remarriage on health outcome based on a large-scale population survey and indicates that remarriage significantly correlates with reduced risk of COPD incidence, even after adjusting smoking habit.</p