Teen Health

A study suggests that school-based prevention programs begun in elementary school can significantly reduce problem behaviors in students. Fifth graders who previously participated in a comprehensive interactive school prevention program for one to four years were about half as likely to engage in substance abuse, violent behavior, or sexual activity as those who did not take part in the program.

June is Adolescent Immunization Month. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend that pre-teens get several vaccines at their 11 or 12 year old check-up:

· Tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis [also called whooping cough]vaccine (Tdap)

Helping middle school students with their homework may not be the best way to get them on the honor roll. But telling them how important academic performance is to their future job prospects and providing specific strategies to study and learn might clinch the grades, according to a research review.

Being overweight — or simply believing they are overweight — might predispose some U.S. teens to suicide attempts, according to a new study.

The study looked at more than 14,000 high school students to determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and suicide attempts, as well as the relationship between believing one is overweight — whether true or not —and suicide attempts.

Doctors can do a better job of diagnosing whooping cough among teens, an age group with a growing incidence of the illness, according to a University of Michigan study.

In a national study of primary care physicians, U-M researchers found that nearly 1 out of 7 physicians were not able to recognize whooping cough in a standardized adolescent case patient. The study will appear in an upcoming edition of Preventive Medicine.

The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program has been found to help teens who possess a tendency toward drug abuse and other risky behavior. According to researchers at the University of Georgia, some adolescents possess the short allele form of 5-HTTLPR, a gene that contributes to engaging in risky behaviors such as drug abuse, binge drinking, and poor self-control. The gene is found in forty percent of individuals.

A family-based prevention program designed to help adolescents avoid substance use and other risky behavior proved especially effective for a group of young teens with a genetic risk factor contributing toward such behavior, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), components of the National Institutes of Health, supported the study, which appears in the May/June issue of Child Development.

Children who can stay focused and don’t sweat the small stuff have a better shot at good health in adulthood -- and this is especially true for girls, according to a new study.

“Certain characteristics already evident early in life are likely to spark positive or negative emotions, and also influence biological and behavioral responses to stress,” said lead author Laura D. Kubzansky, PhD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. “Some traits may contribute to developing healthier behaviors and better social relationships, and ultimately more resilience in mid-life.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) will join the rest of the nation in observing National Healthy Schools Week from April 27 through May 2, 2009. The DPH encourages schools to implement and maintain the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Tools for Schools program as a main strategy for addressing school indoor environment quality (IEQ) issues.

A new study finds that one in ten youths, aged 8 to 18, show unhealthy and pathological signs of video game addiction. Researcher Douglas Gentile, from Iowa State University, found that 8.5 percent of 1,178 youths studied are addicted to video games, using the same standards for addiction used for pathological gamblers.