Adolescent reproductive health and awareness of HIV among rural high school students, North Western Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is faced with an increasing problem from HIV infection, and the vulnerability of adolescents is a key concern. There is little information on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of this age group with respect to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and preventive measures. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 260 students from two rural high schools in North Western Ethiopia. We found that although the general awareness of HIV was high, correct knowledge of the virus and its modes of transmission was shown in only 44% of adolescent boys and 41% of adolescent girls. Knowledge of HIV and condoms was lower among students whose parents were farmers, significant so among girls (p=0.02). Use of condoms among sexually active single male students (49%) was insufficient but was higher than among adolescents in many other African settings. Knowledge of STDs was generally low: 82% of adolescent males and 37% of adolescent females had some awareness of STDs. Almost 20% of sexually active males in the study had previously experienced an STD, almost all of whom had visited a commercial sex worker. Targeted interventions are warranted among adolescents and sex workers in Ethiopia complemented by STD treatment services

Effects of Attentional Strategies on Novice Dart Throwing, Quiet Eye Duration and Pupillary Responses

This study examined the effects of focus ofattention (FOA) instructions on learning a dart throwing task,quiet eye duration (QED) and pupillary responses. Thirty-sixnovices (M age ¼ 33.6, SD ¼ 19.7) learned using either (a)internal-focus (arm movement), (b) external-focus (target/dart)or (c) control instructions before completing retention andtransfer tests 10 days later. FOA strategies did not significantlybenefit dart throwing learning or performance. QED was associated with performance in the transfer task, and pupillary constriction occurred during the QED. The content of FOAinstructions may have limited anticipated performance benefitsand reduced the FOA influence on QED. Pupillary constrictionreflected increased cognitive effort during QED, suggesting animportant feature of future precision aiming research

A randomised controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of ice-packs and Epifoam with cooling maternity gel pads at alleviating postnatal perineal trauma

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in Midwifery© 2000. The definitive version is available at http://www.elsevier.comOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of standard regimes (ice packs and Epifoam) at relieving perineal trauma and compare these with a new cooling device (maternity gel pad). DESIGN: A randomised controlled trial involving three treatment groups. The women were free to choose the time of initial application (within four hours after delivery) in all treatment groups and the number of subsequent treatments up to 48 hours after suturing. SETTING: A midwifery unit in the north of England and then continued in the women's own homes. PARTICIPANTS: 120 women who had undergone an instrumental delivery and had a 48 hours post-delivery stay in a postnatal ward. MEASUREMENTS AND FINDINGS: The ordinal scale of none, mild, moderate and severe was used to determine the levels of perineal oedema and bruising at initial assessment (less than 4 hours), 24 hours and at 48 hours, by use of a newly developed visual evaluating tool. Self-assessed pain was recorded using a 10-point visual analogue scale within four hours, at 24 hours, 48 hours, and finally at five days after suturing. Women's opinions as to the effectiveness of their treatment was rated by use of a 5-point scale describing the categories; poor, fair, good, very good and excellent. A high proportion of women had some perineal oedema at initial assessment. A statistically significant difference in the proportion of women with oedema was found between treatment groups at 48 hours (p = 0.01), which was in favour of the maternity gel pad group. This was particularly noticeable for women with initial levels of mild oedema (p = 0.017). Localised treatment with the gel pad caused a significant decrease in reported pain at 48 hours in women who initially demonstrated moderate or severe pain (p = 0.048). A significant increase in the proportion of women with some bruising was seen across all treatment groups from initial assessment, through 24 hours to 48 hours (p < 0.0005). The bruising was significantly less in the gel-pad group in women who initially had no bruising (p = 0.021). There was no statistically significant effect of treatment at other initial levels of severity for oedema, bruising or pain at 24 hours, 48 hours and five days (for pain). Women in the gel-pad group rated the effectiveness of their localised treatment to be significantly higher than women in the other two treatment groups (p < 0.0005). KEY CONCLUSIONS: This trial demonstrated that a high proportion of women experience perineal oedema, bruising and pain following an instrumental delivery, which continues for at least five days for perineal pain, despite oral analgesia. Maternity gel pads, which were specially designed to cool the perineal region, were more effective in alleviating perineal trauma when compared with hospital standard regimens and were more highly rated by women.Elizabeth Clark Charitable Trus

The use of OPTIMAL Instructions and Feedback in Physical Education Settings

In physical education (PE), the use of instruction and feedback are central to children’s motor skill learning. Recently, it has been identified that instruction and feedback which promote OPTIMAL theory motor learning factors (e.g., an external focus of attention, enhanced expectancies and autonomy support) can enhance children’s motor learning. However, it is unclear how PE teachers use OPTIMAL instructional approaches and therefore, was examined in the present study. Verbal statements (n = 5765) from seven PE teachers (Mean age: 39.29 ± 7.19yrs) over 10 PE lessons were collected and thematically analysed. Results indicate that PE teachers use more externally focused (25%) vs internally focused (10%) instructional behaviours. Moreover, PE teachers used instructional approaches that enhanced (35%) as compared to diminished expectancies (8%) in addition to statements which supported (35%) rather than thwarted (23%) autonomy. Overall, PE teachers appear to use instructional behaviours which support OPTIMAL motor learning however, more efforts are needed to improve the provision of optimised instructional behaviours. Additionally, the findings indicate that OPTIMAL instructions and feedback are rarely delivered in isolation and may be influenced by the contextual factors of PE and sometimes conflict in their delivery (i.e., externally focused and autonomy thwarting)