The neighbourhood social environment and alcohol use among urban and rural Scottish adolescents

Funding for the Scottish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children was provided by NHS Scotland. This work was also supported by the 600th Anniversary Ph.D. Scholarship which was awarded to Gina Martin by the University of St Andrews.Objectives This research examined the relationship between neighbourhood social environmental characteristics and drinking outcomes among a sample of urban and rural adolescents. Methods From a sample of 1558 Scottish secondary schoolchildren, surveyed as part of the 2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, we modelled three drinking outcomes on a variety of neighbourhood conditions, including social cohesion, disorder, alcohol outlet density, deprivation, and urban/rurality. Nested and cross-classified multilevel logistic regressions were specified. Results An urban-to-rural gradient was found with non-urban adolescents exhibiting higher odds of having ever drank. Neighbourhood social cohesion related to having ever drank. Among drinkers, those living in accessible small towns had higher odds of weekly drinking and drunkenness compared to urban areas. Higher odds of drunkenness were also found in remote rural areas. Those residing in the least deprived areas had lower odds of weekly drinking. Conclusions In Scotland, inequalities exist in adolescent alcohol use by urban/rurality and neighbourhood social conditions. Findings support regional targeting of public health efforts to address inequalities. Future work is needed to develop and evaluate intervention and prevention approaches for neighbourhoods at risk.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

La salud pública en las facultades de medicina y escuelas de enfermería de Cataluña: La visión del alumnado

Introducción. La influencia de la formación universitaria sobre el futuro ejercicio profesional de la salud pública (SP) se desconoce. Dada la marginalidad de la SP en el sistema sanitario, se pretende conocer el peso del área de conocimiento en las titulaciones de ciencias de la salud y la percepción de los estudiantes de los últimos cursos de medicina y de enfermería sobre la SP. Sujetos y métodos. El estudio consta de dos partes: la descripción de la oferta formativa de asignaturas del área de conocimiento de la SP y la valoración que merecen estas asignaturas a una muestra de 361 estudiantes de medicina y de enfermería, mediante un cuestionario, objeto de análisis univariado. Resultados. Diez de las doce titulaciones de ciencias de la salud impartidas en nueve universidades catalanas ofrecen asignaturas del área de conocimiento con un peso entre 3 (CTA UB) y 32,5 (enfermería comunitaria UdL) créditos. Los estudiantes no tienen una clara percepción de la naturaleza de la SP. No obstante, la valoración de los estudiantes de enfermería es sistemáticamente mejor que la de los de medicina. La SP no despierta particulares expectativas de dedicación profesional, ni especial interés entre los estudiantes de medicina. Conclusión. Si bien el estudio se fundamenta en una primera aproximación, limitada a una muestra de conveniencia, y con toda la prudencia en la interpretación de los resultados, se reafirma la hipótesis de que las asignaturas del área de conocimiento de SP no estimulan a los estudiantes a plantearse en el futuro el ejercicio profesional de la SP

Future intentions and beliefs about roll-your-own cigarettes in adolescents Intenciones de futuro y creencias sobre el tabaco de liar en población adolescente

Objective: To determine the predisposition to use roll-your-own (RYO) cigarettes and the beliefs about RYO cigarettes of all the students of 3°-4° of ESO during the years 2016-17 and 2018-19. A cross-sectional study. Setting: Bisaura High School from Sant Quirze de Besora. Primary Health Care in the Catalan Health Institute, Catalunya, Spain. Participants: 111 3rd and 4th of ESO (14-16 years). Main measurements: Dependent variables used were future intentions of smoking and beliefs regarding RYO cigarettes. Independent variables were sex, course and ever smoked. The prevalence of the different dependent variables was described and compared according to the different independent variables with Pearson's Khi-square test. Results: 26.6% of the adolescents intended to smoke in the future of which 17.4% intended to smoke RYO cigarettes and 13.8% manufactured cigarettes (MC). Around 30% of adolescents express at least one wrong belief regarding RYO cigarettes. For example, the 26.7% believed that smoking RYO cigarettes generated less addiction than MC and the 32.1% that was less harmful. Those who had smoked at some time in their life had a greater intention to smoke in the future (54.5%), to smoke MC (27.3%) and RYO cigarettes (40.9%) than those who had never smoked (7.7%, 4.6% and 1.5% respectively) (p < 0.005). Some misconceptions differed depending on whether adolescents had ever smoked in life, sex and course. The boys believed that smoking RYO cigarettes was more natural than smoking MC (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Educational activities to improve the information that young people have regarding RYO cigarettes are needed