Risk and Protective Factors for Drug Use Among Polydrug-Using Urban Youth and Young Adults

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of traditional risk and protective factors for drug use on six different popular drugs on a population that is primarily Black and Latino between the ages of 16 and 24. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the relative importance of risk and protective indexes, and their interaction, in predicting drug use. Findings suggested: (a) traditional risk and protective factors, as well as situationally specific factors such as gang involvement, predicted drug use; and(b) the relative contribution of risk and protective factors toward explained variances differs substantially among the drug outcomes. Thus, risk and protective factors may be operating differently for different drugs, indicating that more research is needed into the meanings associated with the use of particular drugs and the factors that may make youth vulnerable to some drugs but not others

Effect of Indian women’s exposure to warning messages on intention to quit smokeless tobacco

Background: Media campaigns have been shown to affect intention to quit the use of smoked tobacco and quit behaviour among men. However, despite warning messages on tobacco packages and delivered via mass media, such campaigns have had limited reach and effect on women’s use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) and SLT use among Indian women is increasing. This paper explores the association between selected warning messages conveyed through different media mechanisms and intention to quit smokeless tobacco among women of reproductive age in Mumbai.Methods: A cross-sectional community survey was conducted in a representative sample of 409 daily smokeless tobacco (SLT) women users aged 18- 40 years in a low-income community in Mumbai during 2011-2012. The paper utilizes information on socio-demographic characteristics, types of tobacco use, exposure to different types of warning messages and intention to quit collected through a researcher-administered structured questionnaire. Univariate and bivariate analysis were carried out to examine the influence of warning messages on intention to quit SLT use.Results: Half of the women correctly interpreted the image of scorpion on the SLT product as ‘causing cancer’. About 36% women were exposed to warning messages on television and 67% of women intended to quit SLT. Correct interpretation of the significance of the scorpion sign on SLT packets was not significantly associated with intention to quit SLT use. However, the likelihood of intention to quit was significantly higher among those who were exposed to warning messages on television than their counterparts.Conclusions: Since anti-tobacco campaigns on television were significantly associated with the intention to quit but warnings on package tobacco were not, expansion of anti-tobacco messaging on television targeted and tailored to women should further increase quit intentions and over time, with effective cessation programs in place, have an impact on quit behaviour

Multilevel drivers of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome among black Philadelphians: Exploration using community ethnography and geographic information systems

Background: Unequal human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) distribution is influenced by certain social and structural contexts that facilitate HIV transmission and concentrate HIV in disease epicenters. Thus, one of the first steps in designing effective community-level HIV/AIDS initiatives is to disentangle the influence of individual, social, and structural factors on HIV risk. Combining ethnographic methodology with geographic information systems mapping can allow for a complex exploration of multilevel factors within communities that facilitate HIV transmission in highly affected areas. Objectives: We present the formative comparative community-based case study findings of an investigation of individual-, social-, and structural-level factors that contribute to the HIV/AIDS epidemic among Black Philadelphians. Methods: Communities were defined using census tracts. The methodology included ethnographic and geographic information systems mapping, observation, informal conversations with residents and business owners, and secondary analyses of census tract-level data in four Philadelphia neighborhoods. Results: Factors such as overcrowding, disadvantage, permeability in community boundaries, and availability and accessibility of health-related resources varied significantly. Furthermore, HIV/AIDS trended with social and structural inequities above and beyond the community's racial composition. Discussion: This study was a first step to disentangle relationships between community-level factors and potential risk for HIV in an HIV epicenter. The findings also highlight stark sociodemographic differences within and across racial groups and further substantiate the need for comprehensive, community-level HIV prevention interventions. These findings from targeted U.S. urban communities have potential applicability for examining the distribution of HIV/AIDS in broader national and international geosocial contexts

Self-efficacy enhanced in a cross-cultural context through an initiative in under-resourced schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This paper discusses the Khanyisa Programme, an initiative in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where learners from under-resourced schools are supported by teachers and high achievers in Grade 11 and 12 from a previously advantaged state school under apartheid. A qualitative, evaluative study was undertaken to identify key elements in the ongoing success of the programme and collect participant suggestions for improvement. The findings, discussed within the framework of self-efficacy theory, identified enormous gains by Khanyisa learners, leading to vastly improved career prospects

Statistical Power of Alternative Structural Models for Comparative Effectiveness Research: Advantages of Modeling Unreliability

The advantages of modeling the unreliability of outcomes when evaluating the comparative effectiveness of health interventions is illustrated. Adding an action-research intervention component to a regular summer job program for youth was expected to help in preventing risk behaviors. A series of simple two-group alternative structural equation models are compared to test the effect of the intervention on one key attitudinal outcome in terms of model fit and statistical power with Monte Carlo simulations. Some models presuming parameters equal across the intervention and comparison groups were under- powered to detect the intervention effect, yet modeling the unreliability of the outcome measure increased their statistical power and helped in the detection of the hypothesized effect. Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) could benefit from flexible multi- group alternative structural models organized in decision trees, and modeling unreliability of measures can be of tremendous help for both the fit of statistical models to the data and their statistical power

‘Missing out’: Reflections on the positioning of ethnographic research within an evaluative framing

Contemporary approaches to evaluating ‘complex’ social and health interventions are opening up spaces for methodologies attuned to examining contextual complexities, such as ethnography. Yet the alignment of the two agendas – evaluative and ethnographic – is not necessarily comfortable in practice. I reflect on experiences of conducting ethnographic research alongside a public health evaluation of a community-based initiative in the UK, using the lens of ‘missing out’ to examine intersections between my own ethnographic concerns and those of the communities under study. I examine potential opportunities posed by the discomfort of ‘missing out’, particularly for identifying the processes and spaces of inclusion and exclusion that contributed both to my ethnographic experiences and to the realities of the communities engaging with the initiative. This reveals productive possibilities for a focus on ‘missing out’ as a form of relating for evaluations of the impacts of such initiatives on health and social inequalities

Visual Narratives: Exploring the Impacts of Tourism Development in Placencia, Belize

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156219/2/napa12135_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156219/1/napa12135.pd

Opportunities and challenges of the digital lifespan:views of service providers and citizens in the UK

<p>Information about UK citizens’ use of digital technologies is often expressed in statistics – x% lack Internet access; y% get online to engage in online banking, update social media sites, or participate in online auctions. There are many social implications to digital technology use, however – individuals may communicate online as a major way to stay in touch with friends and family, and as Internet access rises and government and public sector budgets shrink, online services become an increasingly attractive way for government and public sector service providers to communicate with citizens. This paper presents selected results of an exploratory study designed to investigate the digital personhood of UK citizens through interviews with participants at three life transitions: leaving secondary school, becoming a parent, and retiring from work. Digital personhood in this paper implies identity information online, and some interaction with others around that information. We then report on our presentation of a selection of these results to thirteen stakeholders who represented UK government departments, public sector organisations, and industry. We found that citizen and stakeholder concerns were quite different, especially at the new parent life transition, and that stakeholders tended to <i>underestimate</i> the willingness and ability of citizens to become involved online with the government and public sector, and <i>overestimate</i> citizens’ vulnerability online. Future research should investigate practical strategies for increasing communication between stakeholders and citizens, and also how to encourage stakeholders to work together to benefit their common clientele – the citizens.</p

Digital Photographic Practices as Expressions of Personhood and Identity:Variations Across School Leavers and Recent Retirees

Over the last two decades, digital photography has been adopted by young and old. Many young adults easily take photos, share them across multiple social networks using smartphones, and create digital identities for themselves consciously and unconsciously. Is the same true for older adults? As part of a larger mixed-methods study of online life in the UK, we considered digital photographic practices at two life transitions: leaving secondary school and retiring from work. In this paper, we report on a complex picture of different kinds of interactions with visual media online, and variation across age groups in the construction of digital identities. In doing so, we argue for a blurring of the distinctions between Chalfen’s ‘Kodak Culture’ and Miller and Edwards’ ‘Snaprs’. The camera lens often faces inwards for young adults: tagged ‘Selfies’ and images co-constructed with social network members commonly contribute to their digital identities. In contrast, retirees turn the camera’s lens outwards towards the world, not inwards to themselves. In concluding, we pay special attention to the digital social norms of co-creation of self and balancing convenience and privacy for people of varying ages, and what our findings mean for the future of photo-sharing as a form of self-expression, as today’s young adults grow old and retire

Materiality in information environments: Objects, spaces, and bodies in three outpatient hemodialysis facilities

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152032/1/asi24277.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152032/2/asi24277_am.pd