"...they should be offering it": a qualitative study to investigate young peoples' attitudes towards chlamydia screening in GP surgeries

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite the known health and healthcare costs of untreated chlamydia infection and the efforts of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme (NCSP) to control chlamydia through early detection and treatment of asymptomatic infection, the rates of screening are well below the 2010-2011 target rate of 35%. General Practitioner (GP) surgeries are a key venue within the NCSP however; previous studies indicate that GP surgery staff are concerned that they may offend their patients by offering a screen. This study aimed to identify the attitudes to, and preferences for, chlamydia screening in 15-24 year old men and women attending GP surgeries (the target group).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We undertook 36 interviews in six surgeries of differing screening rates. Our participants were 15-24 year olds attending a consultation with a staff member. Data were analysed thematically.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>GP surgeries are acceptable to young people as a venue for opportunistic chlamydia screening and furthermore they think it is the duty of GP surgery staff to offer it. They felt strongly that it is important for surgery staff to have a non-judgemental attitude and they did not want to be singled out as 'needing' a chlamydia screen. Furthermore, our sample reported a strong preference for being offered a screen by staff and providing the sample immediately at the surgery rather than taking home a testing kit. The positive attitude and subjective norms demonstrated by interviewees suggest that young peoples' behaviour would be to accept a screen if it was offered to them.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Young people attending GP surgeries have a positive attitude towards chlamydia screening and given the right environment are likely to take up the offer in this setting. The right environment involves normalising screening by offering a chlamydia screen to all 15-24 year olds at every interaction with staff, offering screening with a non-judgemental attitude and minimising barriers to screening such as embarrassment. The GP surgery is the ideal place to screen young people for chlamydia as it is not a threatening place for them and our study has shown that they think it is the normal place to go to discuss health matters.</p

Linking Fearfulness and Coping Styles in Fish

Consistent individual differences in cognitive appraisal and emotional reactivity, including fearfulness, are important personality traits in humans, non-human mammals, and birds. Comparative studies on teleost fishes support the existence of coping styles and behavioral syndromes also in poikilothermic animals. The functionalist approach to emotions hold that emotions have evolved to ensure appropriate behavioral responses to dangerous or rewarding stimuli. Little information is however available on how evolutionary widespread these putative links between personality and the expression of emotional or affective states such as fear are. Here we disclose that individual variation in coping style predicts fear responses in Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus, using the principle of avoidance learning. Fish previously screened for coping style were given the possibility to escape a signalled aversive stimulus. Fearful individuals showed a range of typically reactive traits such as slow recovery of feed intake in a novel environment, neophobia, and high post-stress cortisol levels. Hence, emotional reactivity and appraisal would appear to be an essential component of animal personality in species distributed throughout the vertebrate subphylum

Behavioural indicators of welfare in farmed fish

Behaviour represents a reaction to the environment as fish perceive it and is therefore a key element of fish welfare. This review summarises the main findings on how behavioural changes have been used to assess welfare in farmed fish, using both functional and feeling-based approaches. Changes in foraging behaviour, ventilatory activity, aggression, individual and group swimming behaviour, stereotypic and abnormal behaviour have been linked with acute and chronic stressors in aquaculture and can therefore be regarded as likely indicators of poor welfare. On the contrary, measurements of exploratory behaviour, feed anticipatory activity and reward-related operant behaviour are beginning to be considered as indicators of positive emotions and welfare in fish. Despite the lack of scientific agreement about the existence of sentience in fish, the possibility that they are capable of both positive and negative emotions may contribute to the development of new strategies (e. g. environmental enrichment) to promote good welfare. Numerous studies that use behavioural indicators of welfare show that behavioural changes can be interpreted as either good or poor welfare depending on the fish species. It is therefore essential to understand the species-specific biology before drawing any conclusions in relation to welfare. In addition, different individuals within the same species may exhibit divergent coping strategies towards stressors, and what is tolerated by some individuals may be detrimental to others. Therefore, the assessment of welfare in a few individuals may not represent the average welfare of a group and vice versa. This underlines the need to develop on-farm, operational behavioural welfare indicators that can be easily used to assess not only the individual welfare but also the welfare of the whole group (e. g. spatial distribution). With the ongoing development of video technology and image processing, the on-farm surveillance of behaviour may in the near future represent a low-cost, noninvasive tool to assess the welfare of farmed fish.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal [SFRH/BPD/42015/2007]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Health risk behaviours among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean: a review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this paper was to review and summarize research on prevalence of health risk behaviours, their outcomes as well as risk and protective factors among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Searching of online databases and the World Wide Web as well as hand searching of the <it>West Indian Medical Journal </it>were conducted. Papers on research done on adolescents aged 10 – 19 years old and published during the period 1980 – 2005 were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ninety-five relevant papers were located. Five papers were published in the 1980s, 47 in the 1990s, and from 2000–2005, 43 papers. Health risk behaviours and outcomes were divided into seven themes. Prevalence data obtained for these, included lifetime prevalence of <b>substance use</b>: cigarettes-24% and marijuana-17%; <b>high risk sexual behaviour</b>: initiation of sexual activity ≤ 10 years old-19% and those having more than six partners-19%; <b>teenage pregnancy</b>: teens account for 15–20% of all pregnancies and one-fifth of these teens were in their second pregnancy; <b>Sexually-Transmitted Infections (STIs)</b>: population prevalence of gonorrhoea and/or chlamydia in 18–21 year-olds was 26%; <b>mental health</b>: severe depression in the adolescent age group was 9%, and attempted suicide-12%; <b>violence and juvenile delinquency</b>: carrying a weapon to school in the last 30 days-10% and almost always wanting to kill or injure someone-5%; <b>eating disorders and obesity</b>: overweight-11%, and obesity-7%. Many of the risk behaviours in adolescents were shown to be related to the adolescent's family of origin, home environment and parent-child relationships. Also, the protective effects of family and school connectedness as well as increased religiosity noted in studies from the United States were also applicable in the Caribbean.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a substantial body of literature on Caribbean adolescents documenting prevalence and correlates of health risk behaviours. Future research should emphasize the designing and testing of interventions to alleviate this burden.</p

Children’s Exposure to Violence in Jamaica: Over a Decade of Research and Interventions

Many children in Jamaica are exposed to violence of various forms in settings where they should be protected, namely, their homes, schools and communities. Schools in particular which were once seen as safe havens have been in the media with reports of student on student violence, student on teacher violence, teacher on student violence and community on school violence. This paper presents research findings over the last 15 years out of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica on the nature and prevalence of violence exposure, outcomes and associated risk and protective factors. It also highlights psychologically-driven interventions and policy papers addressing violence exposure coming out of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health, UWI, Mona, during the past decade. Keywords: Children, Jamaica, psychosocial interventions, outcomes, violence exposure "Exposición de los Niños a la Violencia en Jamaica: más de una Década de Investigaciones e Intervenciones" RESUMEN Muchos niños en Jamaica son expuestos a la violencia de varias formas en lugares dónde se espera que tengan protección, es decir, la casa, la escuela y la comunidad. Las escuelas en particular, que una vez fueron vistas como refugios de seguridad, han sido noticia en los medios de difusión, reportando hechos violentos de unos estudiantes sobre otros, estudiantes contra maestros, maestros contra estudiantes, y la comunidad contra la escuela. Este trabajo presenta los hallazgos de la investigación realizada en los últimos 15 años por la Universidad de West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, acerca de la naturaleza y el predominio de la exposición a la violencia, resultados, así como factores de protección y riesgos asociados. También resalta las intervenciones psicológicamente impulsadas y los documentos de políticas que abordan la exposición a la violencia, provenientes del Departamento de Salud de Niño y el Adolescente, UWI, Mona, durante la última década. Palabras claves: niños, Jamaica, intervenciones, hallazgos, exposición a la violenci

Evolution of In Vitro Fertilization at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica

In vitro fertilization (IVF) provides hope for many couples who believed that they could not have children. This paper tracks the development of IVF treatment at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, from its genesis in 2000. It highlights changes over the years in the population seeking IVF at UWI, Mona, and describes clinical services offered to clients, comparing success rates of services internationally. It also reports on seminal research emerging out of UWI, Mona, in the field of assisted reproductive health. The Hugh Wynter Fertility Management Unit (HWFMU), UWI, Mona, leads the way in shaping how society views those challenged with infertility and in its use of assisted reproductive technologies that improve the quality of life for many locally, within the Caribbean and the Diaspora. Keywords: Egg sharing, infertility, in vitro fertilization, psychological counsellin

Evolution of In Vitro Fertilization at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica

In vitro fertilization (IVF) provides hope for many couples who believed that they could not have children. This paper tracks the development of IVF treatment at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, from its genesis in 2000. It highlights changes over the years in the population seeking IVF at UWI, Mona, and describes clinical services offered to clients, comparing success rates of services internationally. It also reports on seminal research emerging out of UWI, Mona, in the field of assisted reproductive health. The Hugh Wynter Fertility Management Unit (HWFMU), UWI, Mona, leads the way in shaping how society views those challenged with infertility and in its use of assisted reproductive technologies that improve the quality of life for many locally, within the Caribbean and the Diaspora. Keywords: Egg sharing, infertility, in vitro fertilization, psychological counselling "Evolución de la fertilización In Vitro en la Universidad de West Indies, Jamaica" RESUMEN La fertilización in vitro (FIV) ofrece esperanza a muchas parejas que una vez creyeran no poder tener hijos. Este trabajo sigue el desarrollo del tratamiento de FIV en la Universidad de West Indies (UWI), Mona, a partir de su génesis en 2000. El mismo resalta los cambios durante los años en la población en busca de FIV en UWI, Mona, y describe los servicios clínicos ofrecidos a los clientes, al tiempo que compara las tasas de éxito a nivel internacional. También reporta acerca de la investigación seminal proveniente de UWI, Mona, en el campo de la salud reproductora asistida. La Unidad de Tratamiento de la Infertilidad Hugo Wynter UTIHEW), UWI, Mona, liderea el camino en cuanto a formar cómo la sociedad ha de ver a aquellos que enfrentan problemas de infertilidad, así como en relación con el uso de las tecnologías de reproducción asistida que mejoran localmente la calidad de vida de muchas personas en el Caribe y en la Diáspora. Palabras claves: compartimiento de óvulos, infertilidad, fertilización in vitro, orientación psicológic