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

Prioritisation of Food Security by Decision makers in the Caribbean, A study of three Caribbean territories: Trinidad and Tobago, Belize and Barbados

The consequences of global food and nutrition insecurity, for example, high and fluctuating food prices would have had an impact on individual countries worldwide. This vulnerability in the Caribbean is, in fact, reflected in the recognition that none of the territories are able to produce all the food that is required to feed their populations and ensure that people lead healthy and productive lives. The extent of this exposure is reflected in the high food import bills of many Caribbean countries. Do policymakers and those who most closely influence them, in terms of their decision making for national food security, identify the impact of global food and nutrition insecurity as a main constraint to enhancing national food security in their countries? Is food security the highest priority of the various objectives of the agriculture sector? Using a qualitative approach to answer the above questions, policy makers, planners and key persons who influence policy makers in three diverse Caribbean countries (Trinidad and Tobago, Belize and Barbados) were interviewed and asked to complete an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) questionnaire to rank their priorities. This paper presents some early results of the AHP analysis in an ongoing PhD study. In terms of the criteria weightings, sustainability of the food supply was judged to be far more significant than the level of external dependency. And whereas economic trade-based food security was scored as the most important objective of agriculture, supporting producers and local agribusiness was the second most important surpassing food self-sufficiency and sustainability of the environment, as well as, maximising employment in the agricultural sector and production for the export trade. These results have implications for the plans and policies designed to enhance the level of food security locally and regionally