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Underage kids don't go far to get alcohol
It's not the fake ID that is the gateway to alcohol for kids. It's the
family liquor cabinet. That's the key conclusion of three just-released
surveys on underage drinking, sponsored by the liquor industry, reports
HealthDay.
The surveys of more than 1,000 kids under 18 and 1,600 parents found
that two-thirds of the children and more than half their parents agreed
that the main source of alcohol for underage drinkers came from family
and friends, although the parents tended to report that they were not
providing alcohol.
"We don't absolve the industry of responsibility for preventing underage
drinking, but the parents play a major role and need to understand that
this is where access is taking place," says Ralph S. Blackman, president
of the Century Council, a nonprofit group that conducted the surveys as
part of a national public awareness program to combat underage drinking.
The council is funded by some of America's leading distillers, including
Allied Dome Spirits & Wine North America, Bacardi USA Inc. and
Brown-Forman.
"There's nothing new about this finding," says Phyllis Ellickson,
director of the Center for Research on Maternal, Child and Adolescent
Health for the Rand Corporation. "It would be the logical thing to
expect that, for most kids who are underage, the obvious sources of
alcohol are those around them. Where else are kids going to get liquor
but from friends and family if the system is working?"
Siblings, peers and parents' liquor cabinets — even if the parents don't
know it — are all primary sources of access for kids, Ellickson says.
Programs most successful programs at preventing alcohol and drug use
among youths address this reality, he says.
"That's one of the reasons successful programs focus on helping kids
identify pro-alcohol influences and learn how to resist them," he says.
"It's a reaction to what's going on in their environment."
For the surveys, children ages 10 to 18 and adults, including 700 with
children under age 18, responded through the Internet or by telephone.
Among the kids, only 1 percent of 10- to 12-year-olds reported drinking,
compared with 23 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds and 35 percent of 16- to
18-year-olds. Among those who did drink, 65 percent said they got
alcoholic drinks from family and friends — either from older siblings or
friends, by taking it from their home or a friend's home without
permission or by having parents who allowed them to drink.
From the parents' perspective, 53 percent agreed that friends and family
were the main source of alcohol. However, Blackman says, the parents
rarely took responsibility for kids' access to alcoholic beverages.
"They will acknowledge that it's somebody down the block, or a friend's
parents," he says. "On an individual basis, it never starts at home."
When asked about other ways to get alcohol, parents and children had
different responses. For instance, 7 percent of the children reported
that they got alcohol from a store or bar that doesn't check ID's, while
18 percent of the parents thought that was a source for alcohol.
About 5 percent of the children reported getting liquor from a stranger,
by asking someone to buy them beer, for instance, while 10 percent of
the parents listed that as a means of access.
Only 3 percent of children reported successful use of fake ID's to get
alcohol, but 19 percent of their parents blamed fake ID's for kids'
access to alcohol.
The aim of the program was simply to raise parental awareness, Blackman
says. He says parents need to "be a good role model in terms of their
own consumption and behavior, identify bad behavior, like kids not
getting up in the morning or having their grades slip, and supervise
them."
Source
American children even less active than thought
America's children are more deeply rooted couch potatoes than experts
initially thought. Roughly three of five children ages 9 to 13 report
that they don't participate in sports or other coached physical
activities outside school, according to a first-of-its-kind nationwide
survey of children and their parents to be released today by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About one in four children in that age group had no exercise at all
outside school in the previous week, the study showed. Health experts
said the inactivity was greater than they had expected and was
worrisome. Lack of exercise is a likely contributor to the dramatic
increases in obesity and type II diabetes among American children.
"This whole sedentary lifestyle is a big cultural problem in our
country, and that's what we're up against," said CDC health scientist
Marian Huhman, the lead author in the study, to be published in today's
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The 9-to-13 age is key because that's the most physically active period
of most people's lives, Huhman said. It's also the age when changes in
exercise habits probably would do the most good.
When children hit puberty, "they become physically less active," said
Ruth Saunders, a professor of health promotion at the University of
South Carolina's School of Public Health in Columbia.
"If you start with only a third of them reporting being active in some
structured way at age 13 by the time they finish high school, who is
going to be active?"
The CDC surveyed more than 3,500 families — parents and children — and
found that 39 percent of the children had been involved in organized
physical activity outside school in the past week and 77 percent had
done some kind of physical activity that "got your body moving" in the
previous week. While boys and girls participated in organized physical
activities at the same rate, the study found, boys were more likely to
be active in their free time.
The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points for the
question on coached physical activity and 1.2 percentage points for the
question on free-time physical activity. The survey was conducted
between April and June 2002.
Parents said the main obstacles to their children getting more exercise
were high costs, transportation problems and parents' lack of time.
The study is intended as the baseline for future studies to determine
whether a new CDC advertising campaign called VERB, aimed at persuading
children to be more active, is working.
The CDC has spent $244 million on the effort over the past three years.
Source
Growing up with fewer siblings linked to
greater wealth in adulthood
Recent findings could add new fuel to age old sibling rivalries.
Children from larger families accumulate less wealth in adulthood than
do those from smaller families, according to a study of adults in their
late 30s and early 40s published in the current issue of the journal
Demography.
On average, individuals from "only child" families were the wealthiest
in adulthood, and wealth declined steadily with each additional child in
the family, reports Lisa Keister, an Ohio State University sociologist.
"Family size matters: Siblings dilute the finite amount of money and
time parents can devote to each child, " explained Keister. "Having
fewer resources limits educational attainment, and reduces financial
transfers from parents to children such as help with tuition, a down
payment on a house or inheritances."
She found that individuals from larger families were less likely to own
either a home or stocks as adults and also less likely to receive a
trust fund or an inheritance.
"Inherited wealth, even a small amount of it, can open doors to higher
education and higher paying jobs, reduce the need to acquire debt such
as for school loans, and lead to investment and greater accumulated
wealth in adulthood."
Keister based her analysis on data from the National Longitudinal Survey
of Youth, which regularly interviewed a nationally representative set of
about 10,000 young people between 1979 and 2000. The respondents were
born between 1957 and 1964 and were ages 35 to 43 in 2000.
She found that median net worth (assets minus debts) averaged $62,000
for only children and declined steeply based on family size. On average,
net worth totaled $49,000 for individuals who grew up in two-child
families, $40,000 for those from three-child families, and continued to
shrink as the number of children grew: four ($24,000), five ($17,000),
six ($15,000), and seven or more ($6,000).
Growing up in a family of four or more children seemed to put a person
at a greater economic disadvantage, she noted.
Respondents with college or professional degrees accumulated more wealth
overall, she found, "but even those with advanced degrees accumulate
considerably less total wealth, if they are from larger, rather than
smaller, families."
Median net worth for college graduates from only child households
totaled $140,000. By comparison, net worth averaged $133,000 for those
from two child households and dropped steadily from there: three
children ($119,000), four children ($111,000), five children ($80,000),
six children ($47,000) and seven or more ($38,000).
"Having wealthy parents, earning a college degree, and buying stock all
increased an individual's changes of being wealthier than average in
adulthood," she said. "But those from smaller families still had more of
an advantage." The research was supported by the American Sociological
Association and Ohio State University.
Demography is the peer-reviewed journal published by the Population
Association of America. The full article is available on
Source
Children who shun breakfast 'have slow reaction
times'
Children who shun traditional breakfasts in favour of quick snacks such
as fizzy drinks and chocolate bars are left with the reaction times of a
70-year-old, research claim. Researchers studied the cognitive skills of
a group of nine- to 16-year-olds after they had eaten a complex
carbohydrate meal, such as cereal; a simple carbohydrate breakfast, such
as a glucose drink, or no breakfast at all.
They found that those eating cereals performed better than those eating
less traditional "breakfast" foods or no meal at all. The researchers
from Reading University tested 30 youngsters' attention and memory
skills, such as recalling a sequence of numbers, over four mornings.
They were assessed for speed and accuracy at four intervals during each
morning.
Split into four groups, one set of youngsters had a simple carbohydrate
meal of a glucose drink, two groups had cereal and the last had no
breakfast at all. Each group swapped breakfasts each day.
The study, to be published in the journal Appetite, showed the children
who had a simple carbohydrate meal were reacting at levels normally
associated with someone aged 70 3 hours after eating.
Dr Claire Pincock, of research group CDR, said: "Everyone's cognitive
function declines during the morning but we found that the rate of
decline among kids who ate a complex carbohydrate rich breakfast was
only half of that seen among those who ate a simple carbohydrate
breakfast." Johanna Hignett, a nutritionist with Cereal Partners UK,
which funded the study, said: "When we eat food, we fuel our brain with
energy.
"What this study shows is that a complex carbohydrate-rich breakfast
provides a steady supply of energy which helps to maintain concentration
levels until lunchtime." She said this was the first study to compare
the effect of complex carbohydrate breakfasts with simple ones.
Previous research has shown that teachers are concerned about children
being too tired to concentrate in lessons because they lack energy.
While simple carbohydrates consist of just one or two sugars, complex
carbohydrates are chain-like structures that take longer to be digested,
releasing energy more slowly during the morning.
Research by Taylor Nelson Sofres found that the nine to 16 age group
skipped breakfast 17 mornings out of every 100, and many of the 83 times
they did have a morning meal they made do with a chocolate bar or a
carbonated drink.
Source
Teen substance abuse factors examined
A survey of American children and
parents released Tuesday found a mix of three ingredients in abundance
for many kids can lead to substance abuse: boredom, stress and extra
money.
The annual study by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse also found students attending smaller schools or
religious schools are less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.
Joseph Califano Jr., the center's chairman and president, said 13.8
million teens — about 55 percent of all kids — are at moderate or high
risk of substance abuse.
"Parental engagement in their child's life is the best protection mom
and dad can provide," he said.
The study found that children ages 12 to 17 who are frequently bored are
50 percent more likely to smoke, drink, get drunk or use illegal drugs.
And kids with $25 or more a week in spending money are nearly twice as
likely to smoke, drink or use drugs as children with less money.
Anxiety is another risk factor. The study found that youngsters who said
they're highly stressed are twice as likely as low-stress kids to smoke,
drink or use drugs.
High stress was experienced more among girls more than boys, with nearly
one in three girls saying they were highly stressed compared with fewer
than one in four boys. One possible factor is social pressure for girls
to have sex, researchers said.
Charles Curie, administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, said his agency has found similar risk factors
among American youth.
He said the best thing parents can do to steer their kids away from
drugs and alcohol is to talk to them and stay involved in their lives.
It's also important, he said, to know their children's friends.
But Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said the study
offered nothing new and doesn't address the real problems, such as what
he called the "failed policy" of marijuana prohibition.
"CASA is running headlong from the important implications of their
survey and stressing trivia. That stress and boredom might increase drug
use is about as shocking as warm weather in the summer," said Mirken.
"Why aren't they talking about the fact that despite decades of 'just
say no' propaganda and millions of marijuana arrests, teens are still
saying that marijuana is easier to buy than beer?"
For the first time in the survey's eight-year history, young people said
they are as concerned about social and academic pressures as they are
about drugs. In the past, Califano said, drugs were by far the No. 1
pressure on kids.
There was some encouraging news. The study found that 56 percent of
those surveyed have no friends who regularly drink, up from 52 percent
in 2002. Nearly 70 percent have no friends who use marijuana.
Among the study's other findings:
- The average age of first use of alcohol is about 12, while cigarettes is 12 1/2 and marijuana is almost 14.
- More than 5 million children ages 12 to 17, or 20 percent, can buy marijuana in an hour or less. Another 5 million can buy it within a day.
- Kids at schools with more than 1,200 students are twice as likely as those attending schools with fewer than 800 students to be at high risk for substance abuse.
QEV Analytics surveyed 1,987 children
ages 12 to 17 and 504 parents, 403 of whom were parents of interviewed
kids. They were interviewed from March 30 to June 14. The margin of
error was plus or minus 2 percentage points for children and plus or
minus 4 percentage points for parents.
Source
Understanding and preventing teen suicide
(KidsHealth.org ) When a teen commits suicide, everyone is affected.
Family members, friends, teammates, neighbors, and sometimes even those
who didn't know the person well are united by feelings of grief,
confusion, guilt - and the sense that if only they had done something
differently, the suicide could have been prevented. The reasons behind a
teen's suicide or attempted suicide are often complex. Read this article
to learn about risk factors and warning signs and how to cope with such
a devastating loss.
Suicide statistics
Unfortunately, teen suicide is not a rare event. According to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites)
(CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death for those ages 15 to
24, surpassed only by car accidents and homicide. Suicide rates are on
the rise for younger adolescents as well, with dramatic increases noted
in this age group from 1980 to 1996. Suicide attempts are even more
prevalent, though it is difficult to track the exact rates.
"Suicide rates jump precipitously in the teen years for a number of
reasons," says David Sheslow, PhD, a pediatric psychologist. These
reasons might include greater access to lethal weapons such as firearms
and greater access to drugs and alcohol.
Gender differences affect the means teens use to commit suicide. Girls,
who are about twice as likely to attempt suicide as boys, tend to
overdose on drugs or cut themselves. Boys, who complete suicide more
often than girls, use firearms, hanging, or jumping more frequently.
Because they tend to choose more sudden, lethal methods, boys are three
or four times more likely to succeed in their attempts than girls.
The risk of suicide increases dramatically when kids and teens have
access to firearms at home, and nearly 60% of all successful suicides in
the United States are committed with a gun. That's why it's imperative
that any gun in your home be unloaded, locked, and kept out of the reach
of children and adolescents. Ammunition must be stored and locked apart
from the gun, and the keys for both should be kept in a different area
from where you store your household keys. Always keep the keys to any
firearms out of the reach of children and adolescents.
Risk factors
Now that you're a parent, you might not remember how it felt to be a
teen, caught in that gray area between childhood and adulthood. Sure,
it's a time of great possibility but it can also be a period of great
confusion and anxiety. There's pressure to fit in socially, to perform
academically, and to act responsibly. There's the awakening of sexual
feelings, a growing self-identity, and a need for autonomy that often
conflicts with the rules and expectations set by others. A teen with an
adequate support network of friends, family, religious affiliations,
peer groups, or extracurricular activities may have an outlet to deal
with his everyday frustrations. A teen without an adequate support
network, however, may feel disconnected and isolated from his family and
peer group. It's these teens who are at increased risk for suicide.
Teens who are at increased risk for suicide include those who:
- face problems that are out of their control, such as divorce, alcoholism of a family member, or exposure to domestic violence
- have suffered physical or sexual abuse
- have poor relationships with their parents, lack a support network, are socially isolated, devalued, or rejected
- have a family history of depression or suicide. Because depressive illnesses may have a genetic component, some teens may be predisposed to suffer major depression.
- experience the feelings of helplessness and worthlessness that often accompany depression. A teen, for example, who experiences repeated failures at school, who is overwhelmed by violence at home, or who is isolated from peers, is likely to experience such feelings. "If a teen sees himself as inadequate and worthless and he believes the future is unchangeable, these are clear warning signs of possible trouble," says Dr. Sheslow.
- are dealing with homosexual feelings in an unsupportive family or community or hostile school environment. Several studies have reported greater rates of suicide attempts among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth than among their heterosexual peers.
- use alcohol or drugs in an attempt to numb their pain. Substance abuse is a major risk factor for suicide.
- express their feelings violently
- have had a previous suicide attempt
Warning signs
Teens are most likely to consider suicide at certain times in their
lives, particularly if they have suffered a loss or rejection. Failures
at school, breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, the death of a
loved one, their parents' divorce — all of these risk factors can be
triggers for dangerous behavior. Seek professional help if your child
experiences serious mood changes that last more than a couple of weeks.
Don't wait. The American Psychiatric Association recommends seeking help
if your teen:
- withdraws from friends and family
- shows an inability to concentrate
- sleeps too much or too little
- talks of suicide
- has dramatic changes in personal appearance
- loses interest in favorite activities
- expresses hopelessness, helplessness, or excessive guilt
- exhibits self-destructive behavior (such as reckless driving, drug abuse, or promiscuity)
- seems preoccupied with death
- bequeaths his favorite possessions
Seek professional help as soon as
possible if your teen says he is thinking about suicide. Contrary to
popular belief, people who talk about suicide are likely to follow
through. Pay attention to phrases such as, "It's no use, I'd be better
off dead." Also be suspicious if a child who has been very depressed
suddenly becomes extremely cheerful or hopeful. This intense mood swing
may indicate that he believes suicide will be a solution to all his
problems.
Source
Anorexia striking young kids
Anorexia nervosa — an eating disorder usually associated with teenage
girls and young women — is striking younger and younger children every
year, according to Australian researchers. The average age of children
with the illness dropped from 14 1/2 years in 2001 to 12 years now, an
Australian nationwide study found. The Australian Pediatric Surveillance
Unit surveyed all paediatricians in Australia over a 12-month-period to
June.
Adolescent specialist Dr Michael Cohen, who worked on the study, said
doctors had treated 8-year-old children with anorexia — and that he had
once treated a four-year-old boy. The report found that high-achieving
children from successful, middle-class families were most vulnerable to
the disorder.
"These are people that place inordinate pressure upon themselves," Cohen
said. "It's a pattern to cope with this stress."
Everyday stresses felt by both genders
Anorexia is no longer only a reaction to media images of slim women, but
to everyday stresses felt by both genders, Cohen said. The report said
eating disorders ranked as Australia's third worst health problem for
girls under 18, trailing obesity and asthma.
While girls remain worst affected, the number of boys succumbing to the
disorder had risen in the past two years, Cohen said. About one in 250
girls under 18-years old are affected and one in 1 000 boys.
The disorder put children at risk of permanent physical damage at a
critical growing time, and could result in later infertility, stunted
growth and brittle bones as well as death, he said.
A "growing sophistication"
Child psychiatrist Sloane Madden, who headed the study, told The
Australian newspaper that there is a "growing sophistication" among
young children. "They describe feeling 'fat' and a desire to look like
models and actresses," he said. The study coincides with reports about
an eight-year-old girl who was being marketed as an adult model by her
parents.
The report drew the ire of Australia's minister for Children and Youth
Affairs, Larry Anthony, who said the photos — of a sultry, heavily
made-up girl — were not "appropriate."
Source
Girls smoking almost as much as boys
(Health Newswire) A major survey has revealed that almost as many young
girls are smoking as young boys, with significant implications for
anti-tobacco strategies.
The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) studied tobacco use among over
one million adolescents in more than 150 countries.
The study found that, in people aged 13 to 15, there was no gender
difference for cigarette smoking at over 50 per cent of 120 sites
surveyed. In addition, the survey also showed that there was no
difference for non-cigarette tobacco products — spit tobacco, bidis and
water pipes — in 70 per cent of 117 sites.
Students at public and private schools answered questionnaires at 25
sites in Africa, 42 in the Americas, 14 in the eastern Mediterranean,
eight in Europe, 22 in South-east Asia and 10 in the Western Pacific.
The findings were revealed at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health
in Helsinki, Finland.
Experts said the survey results could have major implications for
projections of future tobacco-related deaths and therefore global
tobacco control. Current predictions of tobacco deaths are based on the
assumption that women are only about 25 per cent as likely as men to
smoke.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Vera da Costa e Silva, project manager
for the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said,
“These findings could appreciably raise the projection of tobacco
related deaths per year. National governments can help address this now
through gender sensitive education and awareness programmes.”
Dr Charles Warren, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s
lead scientist on the survey, said, “First, programmes specific to
gender must be developed which emphasise the serious health consequences
of tobacco use, especially the risk of poor reproductive health and
health risks to infants exposed to tobacco toxins during pregnancy.
“Second, the widespread use of other tobacco products in addition to
cigarettes in many countries means that tobacco control programs must be
broad in scope.”
Source
Study links skipping breakfast with child
obesity
A new study of children's eating habits has found those who skip
breakfast are more likely to be heavier than those who eat a morning
meal.
A survey of almost 5,000 school students by the University of Sydney
found one in four overweight children and two in five overweight high
school students have not eaten a proper meal before school.
Dr Tim Gill, from the University's Centre for Public Health Nutrition,
says those children who are skipping breakfast could be doing long-term
damage.
"We're suggesting that these children who skip breakfast are more at
risk of developing weight problems," he said.
"And certainly studies that have been done on adults show quite clearly
there's a much greater risk, four times the risk, of being overweight if
you actually skip breakfast as an adult and I think this is starting to
show in children now as well."
Source
Routine screening for obesity urged for kids
(Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle) At 4
months old, Tobey Solomon of San Francisco is 22 inches long and weighs
16 pounds — she's average in height but among the heaviest of infants
her age. Her parents have been told those numbers mean little now, but
they welcome a new medical policy to be announced today by the American
Academy of Pediatrics: All children should have their body-mass index
evaluated every year to prevent obesity.
"If they are going to be more in tune to the body-mass index as a
prevention for obesity, that is a great idea," said Tobey's mother, Lisa
Solomon, a business consultant. "It is one more check and balance to
make sure children are developing healthy habits. My understanding is
that traditionally, doctors haven't been that involved nutritionally."
In its first-ever policy statement exclusively focused on identifying
and preventing childhood obesity, the American Academy of Pediatrics
asks pediatricians to go beyond their routine tracking of height and
weight. The group wants doctors to use the body-mass index — a ratio of
weight to height. The body-mass index (BMI) is widely used to define
overweight and obesity.
The new policy, titled "Prevention of Pediatric Overweight and Obesity,"
says that doctors should think about obesity problems when evaluating
children's growth and that significant changes in a child's index should
be recognized and addressed before the child becomes severely
overweight.
In the policy, the American Academy of Pediatrics advocates that
pediatricians help parents, coaches and others who influence youth to
discuss health habits as part of their efforts to control weight
problems and obesity.
The new policy was devised against a background of a dramatic rise in
childhood obesity. Data included in the policy statement show that the
number of overweight and obese children has doubled in the past two
decades. Currently, 15.3 percent of 6- to 11- year olds and 15.5 percent
of 12- to 19- year olds are at or above the 95th percentile for
body-mass index.
It has become such a problem that the surgeon general declared childhood
obesity a national epidemic in 2002. And childhood obesity has brought
traditionally adult ailments to children, including diabetes and hip
problems.
In California, more than a quarter of children ages 9 to 17 are
overweight, some by only 10 or 20 pounds, some by 100 pounds or more.
Certain groups, such as African Americans, Latinos and poor whites, are
even heavier. The policy recommends that pediatricians identify and
track patients at risk by virtue of family history, birth weight,
socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural or environmental factors and calculate
and plot the body-mass index once a year in all children and
adolescents, using changes to identify rate of excessive weight gain
relative to linear growth.
But the policy goes further to say that pediatricians should also
promote healthy eating patterns and physical activity and encourage
parents to limit television and video time to a maximum of two hours per
day. It also says that they should encourage and support mothers to
breast-feed, which studies have shown may reduce the risk for children
to become overweight or obese.
Junk food a culprit
Doctors say that obesity has
become a growing problem as children eat more junk food and exercise
less, falling victim to fast-food advertising and plunking themselves
down in front of the television or computer for hours on end.
Dr. Robert Saffa, a pediatrician with the Town and Country Pediatric
Medical Associates in San Francisco and Mill Valley, says he sees
overweight children in his practice "all the time."
He has not used the body-mass index as a regular diagnostic tool, but he
believes it is a good idea.
"By tracking this year by year now, we hope we will have a better
reading on physique and have a better read on the big picture," Saffa
said. "Over time as we track it, it may be a useful, focused way to look
at the problem."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a child in
the 95th percentile or above for body-mass index is overweight, and a
child between the 85th percentile and the 94th percentile is at risk of
becoming overweight.
A 2-year-old boy with a body-mass index of 19.3 would be in the 95th
percentile, as would a 13-year-old with a body-mass index of 25.1.
According to the Associated Press, people with a body-mass index of 30
or above are considered obese, and those with an index between 25 and 30
are considered overweight. A person who is 5 foot 5 weighing 150 pounds
would have a body- mass index of 25. At a weight of 180 pounds, the
index would be 30.
The policy says that some parents may not recognize or accept the
potential risks of their child's becoming overweight and that
intervention — before obesity has become severe — will most likely be
more successful.
However, Dr. Lindy Woodard, a pediatrician and homeopathic practitioner
in Mill Valley, says that most of the time a doctor can just look at a
child and see if there is a problem.
"It just seems like another worthless number and another way to make
kids feel bad about themselves," Woodard said. "You can identify the
propensity early without a number."
She said it was more important for doctors to start talking with parents
and children about nutrition and healthy habits from day one.
"By the time you are being concerned about a number like that, you have
set some pretty bad habits," Woodard said. However, she agrees that
obesity is a major problem in the United States and around the world.
"We are advertising at kids for all the wrong foods," she said. "We have
parents working so there is nobody home making a meal and sitting down
with the kids to eat. Kids are eating way too many carbs. They need to
not be propped in front of the TV or the computer."
Source
Mental woes rife among America's youth
(By Amanda Gardner — HealthDay Reporter) America's young people seem to
be suffering from a disproportionate level of major depressive episodes,
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse problems.
In a new study appearing in the August issue of the Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, about 16 percent of boys and 19
percent of girls met the current criteria for diagnosis for one of these
three disorders.
Even with such high percentages, the findings are not surprising, says
Dr. Jon A. Shaw, professor and director of child and adolescent
psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "It doesn't
tell us anything we didn't already know, but it's nice to have a
substantiation," he says.
"It's clear that it's not a rare event. There are substantial numbers of
teenagers out there who are developing these problems," adds study
author Dean Kilpatrick, a professor of clinical psychology and director
of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the
Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. "The fact that they
still had them is also very distressing, because it's suggesting that a)
most of these things don't appear to go away spontaneously; and b) the
current rates indicate haven't gotten any treatment or effective
treatment. There's a mental health burden on teenagers."
In truth, there is very little information on these disorders in
children and adolescents, Shaw says. This is precisely why this study
was undertaken. The study authors were particularly interested in how
interpersonal violence might be associated with these three disorders.
To this end, they interviewed 4,023 adolescents aged 12 to 17 by phone,
asking structured questions about their family, any history of trauma —
including sexual and physical assault — as well as the three disorders
being studied.
Overall, 15.5 percent of boys and 19.3 percent of girls had at least one
of the three diagnoses (PTSD, major depressive disorder or substance
abuse).
About twice the proportion of girls over boys met the criteria for PTSD
and major depressive episode, while boys were slightly more likely to
meet the criteria for substance abuse. Some 6.3 percent of girls met the
criteria for PTSD versus 3.7 percent of boys in the previous six months.
Almost 14 percent of girls met the criteria for major depressive
disorder versus 7.4 percent of boys in the same time period. The
prevalence of substance abuse/dependence among boys was 8.2 percent and
6.2 percent among girls for the previous 12 months.
Almost three quarters (71.5 percent) of participants with PTSD had
either major depression or substance abuse, meaning that only 28.5
percent had PTSD only. Of those with major depression, 39.4 percent had
either PTSD or substance abuse/dependency, and 61.6 percent had the
depression only. And of those with substance abuse/dependency, 32.1
percent had either PTSD or major depression, while 67.9 percent had the
abuse/dependency on its own.
Interpersonal violence (experiencing sexual or physical assault or
having witnessed violence) significantly increased the risk for these
disorders. Kilpatrick says the witnessed violence was the most
surprising part of the study. "You think of some high-crime areas in
which people are witnessing some pretty serious violence as something
you would expect. But this is a representative sample of all teenagers
throughout the entire U.S., and you're finding that 40 percent of them
have witnessed in person some pretty serious violence," he says. (The
study found that 47.5 percent of respondents had some kind of exposure
to violence.)
While the sample was considered to be representative, Kilpatrick did
point out some limitations with the methodology, namely that
participants "self reported" all the information and that all
interviewees were contacted by phone. That means homeless youth and
adolescents residing in institutions or in homes without telephones
could not be reached.
The findings speak to the challenges of adolescent and child psychiatry
in general.
"The main thing is identifying people who have problems like this,
helping match them up with resources and recognizing that these are
complex issues," Shaw says. "You don't just treat the PTSD alone.
Seventy-five percent will have additional psychiatric or psychological
problems, and one has to be sensitive to context, family, community.
We're just now beginning to understand how ethnicity and culture
interact with response to traumatic situations."
The issues are extremely complicated ones. "Trauma, like beauty, is in
the eye of the beholder. One man's stress is another's challenge," Shaw
continues. "Perceived stress is almost as important as actual stress.
These are very complex issues and, if you look at homogenized data like
this, you get a very thin veneer impression of what's going on out there
— but it's a signal."
Certainly, the issues are complex for individuals who are suffering any
one of these disorders. "There's nothing about these problems that
improves your ability to concentrate, do your schoolwork, work
productively at jobs, and all of that," Kilpatrick says. "If it's
affecting the education of our future adults, then that's a problem.
It's not true that everyone is a completely dysfunctional basket case,
but it is true that it's going to be harder for these people to be
productive citizens — not to mention the fact that many of them are
suffering."
An interesting, and heartening, by-product of the study was the number
of participants who said that they would like to be involved in future
follow-ups: 98 percent. "I attribute that to the fact that these issues
are very relevant to American families and to adolescents themselves,"
Kilpatrick says. "It suggested to me that these topics were of great
interest to adolescents because this is a big part of their lives,
unfortunately."
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