Adolescent Health News and Research

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A person's circle of friends may influence his or her weight

A Loyola study of high school students provides new evidence that a person's circle of friends may influence his or her weight.

10 Jul 2012

Research roundup: Crowded emergency departments, expensive HIV drugs, high deductible insurance plans

Skin In The Game: How Consumer-Directed Plans Affect The Cost And Use Of Health Care -- Consumer-directed health plans, which feature lower premiums and higher deductibles than traditional plans, are designed to reduce costs by discouraging unnecessary care. This brief describes a study of more than 800,000 households that switched from a traditional employer-based plan to a consumer-based plan.

7 Jul 2012

Not eating too fast associated with lower body fat levels

A study carried out in Spain reveals that certain healthy habits, like eating more than four times a day or not eating too fast, are associated with lower body fat levels independently of exercise habits during free time.

22 Jun 2012

Alcohol consumption leads to increased social stress and poor grades in teens

Rather than gaining "liquid courage" to let loose with friends, teenage drinkers are more likely to feel like social outcasts, according to a new sociological study.

13 Jun 2012

Adolescent mental disorders have repercussions for addiction

Adolescents with mental health disorders are significantly more likely to become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers than those without mental disorders, experts say.

8 Jun 2012

Young adults, adolescents with mental health disorders more likely to become long-term opioid users

Long-term use and abuse of opioid painkillers, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, has markedly increased in the United States in the last two decades. Of note, prescription opioids constitute 86.9 percent of prescription drug misuse among high school students. And last week in a two-day U.S. Food and Drug Administration public meeting, officials questioned the use of long-term opioids for chronic pain due to a lack of evidence for the effectiveness and concerns about the potential risk for addiction.

7 Jun 2012

Insurance refunds in Arizona; Mass. House passes dementia care standards

Arizona consumers and businesses can expect to collect more than $36 million in refunds this summer from health-insurance companies under new provisions of the nation's health care law, according to two reports.

25 May 2012

Brain cells prune circuits in the brain by eating away excess synapses

We’re born with our brains prewired, but as information comes in from our environment, this circuitry is updated. A study from Boston Children’s Hospital provides a new glimpse of how this happens: Brain cells known as microglia, tuned into the crosstalk between neurons, literally engulf unnecessary connections, known as synapses, and prune them away.

24 May 2012

Social networks influence beliefs regarding safety of influenza vaccines

College students' social networks influence their beliefs regarding the safety of influenza vaccines and decisions about vaccination, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

16 May 2012

Early well-child check-ups can help identify children at risk of emotional, behavioral problems

A new study suggests clinicians might be able to identify children at risk of later emotional or behavioral problems by paying attention to a few key signs during early well-child check-ups. Researchers found that boys with early sleep problems and girls with language and speech delays tended to have more emotional problems in adolescence.

5 May 2012

Girls with high body satisfaction have lower likelihood of unhealthy weight-control behaviors

A study to be published in the June 2012 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health looking at the relationships between body satisfaction and healthy psychological functioning in overweight adolescents has found that young women who are happy with the size and shape of their bodies report higher levels of self-esteem. They may also be protected against the negative behavioral and psychological factors sometimes associated with being overweight.

30 Apr 2012

Youth facing greater health risks today than in past; those in developing world face increasing challenges, Lancet series suggests

"Young people today face greater risks to their physical and mental health than generations past, new research has found, with adolescents in the developing world rapidly acquiring the unhealthy habits of their wealthier counterparts," the Financial Times reports.

27 Apr 2012

New paper provides examples of cost-effective NCD policies and programs

As childhood and adolescent deaths from infectious diseases have declined worldwide, policymakers are shifting attention to preventing deaths from noncommunicable causes, such as drug and alcohol use, mental health problems, obesity, traffic crashes, violence and unsafe sex practices.

25 Apr 2012

New research unable to find either positive or negative impact of WIC on infant health

Existing scientific literature suggests the U.S. government nutritional program known as WIC improves birth outcomes of children, but new research is unable to find either a positive or negative impact on infant health.

18 Apr 2012

Studies determine how geographic location affects physical health

The neighborhoods in which children and adolescents live and spend their time play a role in whether or not they eat a healthy diet, get enough exercise or become obese, concludes a collection of studies in a special theme issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

10 Apr 2012

GYT campaign kicks off National STD Awareness Month

The fourth annual GYT: Get Yourself Tested campaign kicks off National STD Awareness Month (April) with new initiatives on-air, online, and on the ground at college campuses and in more than 5,000 health centers across the nation.

9 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: Obama's 'diatribe' on Ryan budget; President 'recovers' on statements about the court; Other health care mandates

If there's a Laffer Curve for Presidential invective-;some point at which dishonest political abuse yields diminishing returns-;the White House political team must not think their boss has hit it. Even in this hyperpartisan age, President Obama's speech to the Associated Press yesterday was a parody of the form. This was a diatribe that managed to invoke "Social Darwinism" and "a Trojan Horse" in the same paragraph, amid the other high crimes that Mr. Obama says Paul Ryan wants to commit.

5 Apr 2012

Sexually abused young males more likely to cause teen pregnancy

Young males who have been sexually abused are five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy compared to those with no abuse history, according to University of British Columbia research. Sexually abused boys are also three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners and twice as likely to engage in unprotected sex.

5 Apr 2012

Asian Canadian LGB youth more likely to face harassment

Asian Canadian teenagers who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are 30 times more likely to face harassment than their heterosexual peers - a factor that is linked to higher rates of alcohol or drug use, according to University of British Columbia research.

30 Mar 2012

CBIM effective in discouraging adolescent dating violence

Male high school athletes' ability to recognize and intervene to stop dating violence -- the physical, sexual and emotional aggression prevalent in adolescent romantic relationships -- is improved with the intervention of some of the most important role models in young men's lives: their coaches.

27 Mar 2012