Womens knowledge of and attitudes towards emergency contraception in Hong Kong: questionnaire survey

OBJECTIVE. To study the level of knowledge of and attitude towards emergency contraception in a group of women requesting the termination of pregnancy. DESIGN. Structured questionnaire survey. SETTING. Family Planning Association and university teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS. Two hundred women who requested the termination of an unplanned pregnancy between May 1997 and March 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES. Demographic data, basic knowledge of contraception, reasons for terminating the pregnancy, and knowledge and usage of emergency contraception. RESULTS. A sustantial proportion (33.0%) of women was ignorant of the existence of emergency contraception. Only 10.0% of women had used emergency contraception before and only 2.5% had used it in an attempt to prevent this pregnancy. Of the 134 women who knew about emergency contraception, the main reason (41.8%) for not using it was risk-taking behaviour. More nulliparous women (88.5% versus 57.6%; P<0.001) and women younger than 20 years (84.0% versus 61.3%; P<0.01) had heard of emergency contraception. Women who were educated beyond secondary school level (71.0% versus 37.5%; P<0.01) and unmarried women compared with married, cohabiting, or divorced women (87.1% versus 49.5%; P<0.001) were also more likely to have heard of emergency contraception. Women younger than 20 years were more likely to have used this form of birth control in the past (18.0% versus 7.3%; P<0.05). CONCLUSION. There is a need to improve women's education about emergency contraception in Hong Kong.published_or_final_versio

H5N1 Influenza Vaccine Formulated with AS03A Induces Strong Cross-Reactive and Polyfunctional CD4 T-Cell Responses

Objective Adjuvantation of an H5N1 split-virion influenza vaccine with AS03(A) substantially reduces the antigen dose required to produce a putatively protective humoral response and promotes cross-clade neutralizing responses. We determined the effect of adjuvantation on antibody persistence and B- and T-cell-mediated immune responses. Methods Two vaccinations with a split-virion A/Vietnam/1194/2004 (H5N1, clade 1) vaccine containing 3.75-30 mu g hemagglutinin and formulated with or without adjuvant were administered to groups of 50 volunteers aged 18-60 years. Results Adjuvantation of the vaccine led to better persistence of neutralizing and hemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies and higher frequencies of antigen-specific memory B cells. Cross-reactive and polyfunctional H5N1-specific CD4 T cells were detected at baseline and were amplified by vaccination. Expansion of CD4 T cells was enhanced by adjuvantation. Conclusion Formulation of the H5N1 vaccine with AS03(A) enhances antibody persistence and induces stronger T- and B-cell responses. The cross-clade T-cell immunity indicates that the adjuvanted vaccine primes individuals to respond to either infection and/or subsequent vaccination with strains drifted from the primary vaccine strain

Effect on human attention of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones

This study examined the effect of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human attention. Three measures of attention were administered to 72 teenagers, 37 of whom were mobile phone users. The results showed that the mobile phone users performed better on one of the three measures of attention than did the non-mobile phone users. The results suggest that exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones may have a mild facilitating effect on attention functions, which is consistent with previous observations that exposure to the electromagnetic field has a facilitating effect on cognitive processing. The possibility that mobile phone users may be naturally better at multiple tasking tasks was discussed. © 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effect on human attention of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones

This study examined the effect of exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones on human attention. Three measures of attention were administered to 72 teenagers, 37 of whom were mobile phone users. The results showed that the mobile phone users performed better on one of the three measures of attention than did the non-mobile phone users. The results suggest that exposure to the electromagnetic field emitted by mobile phones may have a mild facilitating effect on attention functions, which is consistent with previous observations that exposure to the electromagnetic field has a facilitating effect on cognitive processing. The possibility that mobile phone users may be naturally better at multiple tasking tasks was discussed. © 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.link_to_subscribed_fulltex