International journal of adolescent medicine and health
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Int J Adolesc Med Health · Oct 2007
Hemoglobin status of non-school going adolescent girls in three districts of Orissa, India.
Anemia is a major public health problem in young children and pregnant women in SouthEast Asia, but a paucity of data on anemia in adolescent girls in India. Studies are lacking on the entire non-school going adolescent population. ⋯ The mean Hb concentration was 9.7 +/- 1.4 g/dL (range, 4.5-13.4 g/dL). Of the total adolescent girls, 1869 (96.5%) were anemic (Hb < 12.0 g/dL), of which, 45.2%, 46.9% and 4.4% had mild, moderate, and severe anemia, respectively. A significant curvilinear relation was found between Hb concentration and age, with the nadir of the curve occurring in the 12-14 years age group. Girls from Bargarh district had significantly lower mean Hb levels than those from the Jajpur and Khurda districts. Significant positive associations were found between Hb concentration and pre-menarche, community, education levels of girls and their parents' family income, body mass index, and mid-upper arm circumference. This study revealed that prevalence of anemia was extremely high in non-school going adolescent girls (most were moderately anemic) and stressed the need for more research and public health interventions.
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Int J Adolesc Med Health · Oct 2007
Young adults' judgments of the costs and benefits of smoking: The predictive efficacy of different outcome weightings in behavioral decision making.
Given the public health burden of smoking and the knowledge that many smokers begin during adolescence and young adulthood, understanding how decisions about smoking behaviors are made is of considerable importance. Most health decision-making models relevant to understandingbenefits smoking behavior posit that beliefs about the costs and of smoking are an important influence on decision making. However, these models differ in how other factors (e.g., outcome importance, perceived positivity or negativity of outcome) are weighted in cost-benefit analyses. ⋯ Number of consequences listed, consequences weighted by importance, by positivity/negativity, and by an importance, x positivity/negativity interaction were examined as predictors of both current smoking status and reported intentions to smoke in 5 years. Both importance and positivity/negativity (but not their interaction) predicted current smoking status, whereas importance alone was the strongest predictor of future smoking intentions. This suggests the possibility that different decision-making processes might underlie future behavioral intentions relative to those that guide current behavior.