Predictors of School Violence Perpetration and Victimization: Effects of Drug Use and Sociodemographic Characteristics

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 6391 7th- and 8th-grade students in 72 public schools in six Brazilian cities. A confirmatory...     

Risk of bias in randomized controlled trials of psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa and binge eating

Purpose

In the context of Cochrane systematic reviews/meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials, risk of bias (RoB) is assessed using categorical indicators (low, unclear, or high RoB). This study sought to evaluate the indicators of the Cochrane RoB tool available for construct validity as applied to randomized clinical trials of psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa and binge eating.

Investigating the Measurement Invariance and Method-Trait Effects of Parent and Teacher SNAP-IV Ratings of Preschool Children

Child Psychiatry & Human Development - The Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham scale version IV (SNAP-IV) is widely used to assess symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and...     

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder dimensionality: the reliable ‘g’ and the elusive ‘s’ dimensions

The best structural model for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms remains a matter of debate. The objective of this study is to test the fit and factor reliability of competing models of the dimensional structure of ADHD symptoms in a sample of randomly selected and high-risk children and pre-adolescents from Brazil. Our sample comprised 2512 children aged 6–12 years from 57 schools in Brazil. The ADHD symptoms were assessed using parent report on the development and well-being assessment (DAWBA). Fit indexes from confirmatory factor analysis were used to test unidimensional, correlated, and bifactor models of ADHD, the latter including “g” ADHD and “s” symptom domain factors. Reliability of all models was measured with omega coefficients. A bifactor model with one general factor and three specific factors (inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity) exhibited the best fit to the data, according to fit indices, as well as the most consistent factor loadings. However, based on omega reliability statistics, the specific inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity dimensions provided very little reliable information after accounting for the reliable general ADHD factor. Our study presents some psychometric evidence that ADHD specific (“s”) factors might be unreliable after taking common (“g” factor) variance into account. These results are in accordance with the lack of longitudinal stability among subtypes, the absence of dimension-specific molecular genetic findings and non-specific effects of treatment strategies. Therefore, researchers and clinicians might most effectively rely on the “g” ADHD to characterize ADHD dimensional phenotype, based on currently available symptom items.     

Predicting latent classes of drug use among adolescents through parental alcohol use and parental style: a longitudinal study

Purpose

The present study examined the roles of parental alcohol use and parental style as predictors of adolescent patterns of drug use.

Methods

6391 students in the 7th and 8th grades at 72 Brazilian public schools participated in a three-wave randomized controlled trial to evaluate a school drug-use prevention program. Patterns of drug use were identified through two latent class analyses using measures of the adolescents’ past-year drug use. Multinomial logistic regression analyses examined whether parental alcohol use and parenting style at baseline predicted patterns of drug use in waves 2 and 3 of the study after controlling for sociodemographic covariates.

Results

In each of the two waves, three latent classes of drug use were identified among the students, defining three different groups of individuals: (1) abstainers/low users, (2) alcohol users/binge drinkers, and (3) polydrug users. First, parenting style (especially monitoring) was the strongest predictor for the prevention of polydrug use among adolescents. Second, occasional alcohol use by parents can act as a central predictor for adolescent alcohol use and binge drinking. Above all, maternal episodes of drunkenness were involved in the predictive models for both drug use classes in both waves.

Conclusion

Parental alcohol use and parenting style seem to be important predictors of adolescent’s likelihood of belonging to different latent classes of drug use. This conclusion may point to the importance of considering the inclusion of parenting skills and parental alcohol use within the scope of adolescents’ preventive interventions.

     

Association of sulfonylureas with the risk of dementia: A population-based cohort study

Background

Sulfonylureas are oral glucose-lowering medications positioned as a second-line therapy for type 2 diabetes. Evidence relating them to cognitive decline has been mixed. The objective was to determine whether sulfonylurea use was associated with a differential risk of dementia compared with dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitor use.

Methods

Using administrative data from residents in Ontario, Canada, adults aged ≥66 years who were new users of a sulfonylurea or a DPP4 inhibitor from June 14, 2011, to March 31, 2021 entered this population-based retrospective cohort study. Dementia was ascertained using a validated algorithm for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Propensity-score weighted Cox proportional hazards models were used to obtain adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and confidence intervals (CI) for time to incident dementia. The observation window started at 1 year after cohort entry to mitigate protopathic bias due to delayed diagnosis. The primary analysis used an intention-to-treat exposure definition. A separate propensity-score weighted analysis was conducted to explore within-class differences in dementia risk among sulfonylurea new users selected from the primary cohort.

Results

Among 107,806 DPP4 inhibitor new users and 37,030 sulfonylurea new users, sulfonylureas compared with DPP4 inhibitors were associated with a higher risk of dementia (18.4/1000 person-years; aHR [95% CI] = 1.09 [1.04–1.15]) over a mean follow-up of 4.82 years from cohort entry. Glyburide compared to gliclazide exhibited a higher dementia risk (aHR [95% CI] = 1.17 [1.03–1.32]).

Conclusion

New use of a sulfonylurea especially glyburide was associated with a higher dementia risk compared with new use of a DPP4 inhibitor in older adults with diabetes.