Articles: disease.
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Clinical pediatrics · Jul 1988
ReviewAIDS education in the schools: a literature review as a guide for curriculum planning.
As plans for massive public AIDS education grow, pediatricians will become increasingly involved with school systems as consultants and leaders. A review of relevant literature on students' current level of knowledge about AIDS and on educational efforts to date with high-risk groups (homosexuals and intravenous drug users) provides the rationale for school-based AIDS education. Literature describing the approaches used and the impact of programs for sex education, drug abuse prevention, and reduction of prejudice towards the disabled is reviewed to extrapolate that which applies to AIDS education. Important developmental characteristics of adolescents are discussed insofar as they have implications for the planning of AIDS curricula.
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This is a report of a 26-year-old woman who died of a massive intestinal infarction caused by occlusion of the celiac axis and the superior and inferior mesenteric arteries. Autopsy showed intimal hyperplasia and an overlying thrombus that obstructed the lumen of the vessel. ⋯ In this case report we want to emphasize that the association between smoking and oral contraceptives can cause cardiovascular disease in young women. Failure to recognize this fact could result in delayed diagnosis and worsen the prognosis.
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The seasonal variation of coronary heart disease mortality rates in New Zealand is analysed by age, sex and race using monthly national mortality data for the period 1970-83. A 35% variation from the winter peak to summer low is found in the crude mortality rate, but the size of the seasonal variation is age-dependent, being more pronounced in the elderly, and more so in males than in females. ⋯ By partial correlation analysis and by examining the residual correlation after filtering the seasonal variation from both series, it is suggested that the season acts as a confounding factor to cause an apparent association between the two rates. After controlling for season there is a tenuous relationship, but it is apparent only in the elderly.
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Maternal weight gain is one of the most important independent predictors of infant birth weight and interacts with other maternal characteristics, including age, so that infant birth weight reaches a plateau at a higher level of maternal weight gain for young adolescents than for adults. It has been suggested that encouraging young adolescents to gain larger amounts of weight during pregnancy may be one way to decrease their risk of low-birth-weight deliveries. This recommendation may be premature because the mechanisms underlying the interaction between maternal age and weight gain are incompletely understood and may include such diverse factors as incomplete maternal growth, reproductive immaturity, diminished maternal body size, nutritional deficiencies, socioeconomic and behavioral factors, and maternal emotional stress. This review summarizes the literature on adolescent maternal weight gain and infant birth weight and discusses the importance of considering a multifactorial model in reformulating the weight-gain recommendations for pregnant adolescents.