Early sexual initiation: the role of peer norms

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate which components of peer norms influence the process of sexual initiation for young adolescents. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. Fourteen elementary and middle schools in an urban public school district. Participants. The 1389 sixth-grade students who completed the questionnaire at the beginning (time 1) and at the end (time 2) of the school year comprise the study sample. Mean age at time 1 was 11.7 years. RESULTS: Of students entering the sixth grade, 30% (n = 416) reported having already initiated sexual intercourse, 5% (n = 74) reported initiating sexual intercourse during the sixth-grade school year (initiated group), and 63% (n = 873) reported not having initiated sexual intercourse by the end of the sixth-grade school year (never group). Demographic comparisons revealed that students in the initiated group were significantly more likely than students in the never group to be older (11.9 years vs 11.6 years), male (58% vs 37%), African-American (70% vs 51%), attending a poorer school (87% vs 85%), and living in an area with a high proportion of single-parent families (45% vs 41%). Self-reports and reports of peers' participation in nonsexual risk behaviors were more common for students in the initiated group. Students in the initiated group were more likely than students in the never group to perceive: 1) a high prevalence of sexual initiation among peers; 2) social gains associated with early sexual intercourse; and 3) younger age of peers' sexual initiation. Students in the never group were more likely to believe that sexually-experienced 12-year-old boys would be negatively stigmatized compared with students in the initiated group. Three predictive models were developed to test the relationship between peer norms and the process of initiation. These models demonstrate that the strongest predictor of sexual initiation in sixth grade is having high intention to do so at the beginning of sixth grade. The strongest predictor of high intention is belief that most friends have already had sexual intercourse. Perceptions of social gain and stigma for sexually-experienced 12-year-old boys act independently of intention to decrease risk of early sexual initiation. CONCLUSION: Early sexual intercourse is not an unplanned experience for many teens. Decisions about initiation are strongly bound to social context with peers playing an important role in creating a sense of normative behavior. Specific components of peer norms impact the process of sexual initiation in both positive and negative ways. Interventions aimed at delaying the onset of sexual initiation need to focus on cohort norms as well as on an individual's perceptions and behaviors.     

Necrotizing fascitis induced by mosquito bite

Necrotizing fascitis usually occurs after a perforating trauma or sometimes surgery. It is an acute necrotizing process which involves the fascia of the skin. Within one or two days of the causative event the patient experiences pain, oedema and a dusky bluish-red discolouration of the skin with or without bullae formation. These areas become gangrenous usually by the fifth day. Often any specific organisms are not grown on culture, but the common ones that are include beta-haemolytic streptococci, coliforms, enterococci, pseudomonas. Treatment comprises early detection, surgical debridement, intravenous antibiotics and supportive care. We report a case of grossly neglected necrotizing fascitis caused by mosquito bites. Our treatment consisted of intravenous antibiotics, thorough debridement, regular dressings and a split-thickness skin graft. These measures collectively preserved an otherwise hopelessly mutilated upper limb.     

Cognitive complaints in patients after whiplash injury: the impact of malingering

OBJECTIVES—The validity of memory andconcentration complaints that are often reported after a whiplashtrauma is controversial. The prevalence of malingering orunderperformance in post-whiplash patients, and its impact on theircognitive test results were studied.
METHODS—The Amsterdam short term memory (ASTM)test, a recently developed malingering test, was used as well as aseries of conventional memory and concentration tests. The study samplewas a highly selected group of patients, who were examined either aspart of a litigation procedure (n=36) or in the normal routine of anoutpatient clinic (n=72).
RESULTS—The prevalence of underperformance, asdefined by a positive score on the malingering test, was 61% (95% CI:45-77) in the context of litigation, and 29% (95% CI: 18-40) in theoutpatient clinic (p=0.003). Furthermore, the scores on the memory andconcentration test of malingering post-whiplash patients (n=43) andnon-malingering post-whiplash patients (n=65) were compared with thescores of patients with closed head injury (n=20) and normal controls(n=46). The malingering post-whiplash patients scored as low as thepatients with closed head injury on most tests.
CONCLUSIONS—The prevalence of malingering orcognitive underperformance in late post-whiplash patients issubstantial, particularly in litigation contexts. It is not warrantedto explain the mild cognitive disorders of whiplash patients in termsof brain damage, as some authors have done. The cognitive complaints ofnon-malingering post-whiplash patients are more likely a result ofchronic pain, chronic fatigue, or depression.