Rising Proportion of Young Individuals With Rectal and Colon Cancer

Background

Recent trends have identified increasing number of young individuals with rectal and colon cancers. These individuals, who are younger than 50 years old, in most instances would not meet screening guidelines. We aimed to report the characteristics and trend of the rising proportion of young individuals being diagnosed with rectal and colon cancers at our institutions.

Alcohol-related affordances and group subjectivities: A Q-Methodology study

Aims: An Ecological approach to alcohol behaviour focuses on understanding individual–environment transactions, rather than on cognitive antecedents of behaviour. Meaning exists in the interdependence of individuals and their environments, in terms of affordances. Through subjective experience, this study focussed on group viewpoints related to alcohol-related affordances, or opportunities to consume alcohol in shared drinking environments. Methods: Forty students with a range of self-reported drinking behaviours participated in a Q-Methodology study, ranking 60 statements along a symmetrical grid. This varied concourse of alcohol-related affordances was obtained from a previous observation study within licenced premises and a photo-elicitation interview study with drinkers. Findings: Factor analysis and post-sort interviews revealed four subjective perspectives held by groups about their drinking behaviour: 13 participants were aware of contextual influences, but autonomous in their drinking choices; 12 participants were conscious of influences and compliant to their effects; six participants were unaware of influences, but unanimous with their peers; two participants were concerned about acting appropriately in a context by taking up canonical affordances. Conclusions: Grouping subjectivities from a varied concourse of affordances can reveal subjective experience in relation to drinking environments and alcohol behaviour. This conceptual approach for understanding drinking behaviour should be studied further.     

Young Urban Adolescents' Activity Spaces,Close Peers,and the Risk of Cannabis Use: A Social–Spatial Longitudinal Analysis

Background: An understudied, yet important area of youth development research is the examination of how place affects critical psychosocial processes such as identity formation, problem solving, emotional regulation, and in particular with adolescents, belongingness, autonomy, social competency, and behavioral health. A growing spatially informed literature indicates that youth interact with meaningful places as environmental strategies, shaping developmental trajectories related to behavioral health. Objectives: The objective is to investigate the relationship between place preference and health behavior among adolescents, with a focus on substance use behavior, specifically, cannabis use. We theorize that cannabis use is associated with place preference for urban, city types of places, and that this particular place preference interacts with close peer network behaviors. Methods: To understand the role of preferred locations, close peer relations, and mental health on cannabis use, 248 adolescents (ages 13 to 14) were studied longitudinally. Logistic regression models tested the moderating effects of peer network health (sum of close friends risk and protective behaviors) on selecting city locations (urban stress/neighborhoods) as preferred places, and subsequent cannabis use. Results: Results indicated that peer network health moderated the effects of choosing city locations as favorite, increasing the odds of cannabis use more than eight-fold at 24 months. Conclusions: Favorite places located in city environments appear to interact with peer risk behaviors influencing the cannabis use of young urban adolescents, even after controlling for the influence of baseline cannabis use, neighborhood disorder the home neighborhood, age, gender, and mental health effects.     

Descriptive and Prospective Analysis of Young Adult Alcohol Use and Romantic Relationships: Disentangling between- and within-Person Associations Using Monthly Assessments

Background: Prior research on romantic relationships and alcohol use among young adults has not distinguished between differences in patterns of relationship status over extended periods of time and within-person changes in status that only occur for some individuals. Objectives: This study captured between-person differences in relationship patterns, assessed associations between relationship patterns and alcohol use, and examined within-person associations between alcohol use and relationship status changes. In addition, age and sex differences in between- and within-person associations were tested. Methods: We used multilevel modeling of monthly data collected over one year on alcohol use and romantic relationship status from a Seattle area community sample of 620 young adults (ages 18–24). Results: Participants were coded into six relationship pattern groups: (1) single-not-dating (16%), (2) stable-in-a-relationship (30%), (3) single-dating (10%), (4) ended-a-relationship (14%), (5) started-a-relationship (13%), and (6) ended-and-started-a-relationship (18%). Single-not-dating and stable-in-a-relationship groups reported the least drinking across the entire year; the single-dating, ended-a-relationship, and ended-and-started-a-relationship groups reported higher levels of drinking. Examining within-person changes in groups 3–6 revealed increases in drinking associated with months of dating among the single-dating group, months postbreakup among the ended-a-relationship group, and months of breaking up and starting a new relationship among the ended-and-started-a-relationship group. Few differences by age or sex were found for between- or within-person associations. Conclusions: The findings point to heterogeneity in patterns of relationship status over time, differences in relationship patterns associated with variations in drinking, and particular time points of elevated risk for young adults who experience changes in status.     

2011-2015年北京市朝阳区青年学生HIV/AIDS病例流行病学特征分析

目的 分析2011-2015年北京市朝阳区青年学生HIV/AIDS病例的流行特征,为制定学生艾滋病防控策略提供参考。 方法 收集2011-2015年15～24岁学生艾滋病病例报告数据信息,采用描述统计的方法进行分析。 结果 2011-2015年报告青年学生HIV/AIDS 198例,2011-2014年病例数逐年增加,2015年有所降低。报告病例中HIV感染者占94.4%,AIDS占5.6%;本市户籍占31.3%,外省市户籍占68.7%;初中、高中或中专、大专及以上学生所占比例分别为0.5%、10.1%和89.4%。90.9%的病例经男男性接触传播,9.1%经异性性接触传播。自愿咨询检测门诊和医疗机构是最主要的病例发现单位,分别占样本来源的38.9%和34.9%;另外有5.6%的病例通过无偿献血人员检测时被发现。 结论 2011-2015年北京市朝阳区青年学生HIV/AIDS病例以外省市户籍为主,病例中中学生占一定比重,男男性接触是最主要的传播方式。学生艾滋病防控工作应重点放在男男性接触者人群,中学生的防艾宣教不容忽视,宣教工作中应加入血液安全知识。