The influence of three mass media campaigns on variables related to adolescent cigarette smoking: results of a field experiment

BACKGROUND

This paper reports findings from a field experiment that evaluated mass media campaigns designed to prevent cigarette smoking by adolescents.

METHODS

The campaigns featured radio and television messages on expected consequences of smoking and a component to stimulate personal encouragement of peers not to smoke. Six Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the Southeast United States received campaigns and four served as controls. Adolescents and mothers provided pretest and posttest data in their homes.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The radio campaign had a modest influence on the expected consequences of smoking and friend approval of smoking, the more expensive campaigns involving television were not more effective than those with radio alone, the peer-involvement component was not effective, and any potential smoking effects could not be detected.

Staying fit and staying well: physical fitness as a moderator of life stress

Previous research suggests that physical fitness moderates the adverse effects of stressful life events. However, a reliance on self-reports of fitness and health may limit the validity of prior investigations. The present research tested the stress-buffering effect of fitness with subjective and objective indicators of exercise, fitness, and physical well-being. For self-reports of health, both self-reports of exercise and objective measures of fitness showed the buffering effect; however, only objective fitness levels buffered stress when visits to a health facility were considered. Additional evidence indicated that this effect was largely independent of measures of psychological distress. Implications for understanding the link between fitness, stress, and health status are discussed.

Efficacy trial of a parenteral gonococcal pilus vaccine in men

A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind efficacy trial of a purified gonococcal pilus vaccine composed of a single pilus type was tested in 3123 men and 127 women volunteers. Either 100 micrograms of vaccine or a placebo was given intradermally on day 1 and day 14. Each group was evenly matched with respect to age, sex, prior history of a sexually transmitted disease, sexual exposure during the study and attrition from the study. None of the women volunteers acquired gonorrhoea during the trial. In the male volunteers, 108 vaccine and 102 placebo recipients acquired gonorrhoea 15 days or later after the initial immunization. Vaccines developed a sustained ELISA antibody response to homologous and heterologous pili, but the latter titres were approximately 40% as high as the homologous pilus antibody rises. There were, however, no increases in inhibition of attachment antibody (IEA) titres. Local antibodies (semen) against homologous and heterologous strains were also elicited (ELISA). The vaccine was safe and did not alter the clinical expression of disease. This gonococcal pilus vaccine composed of a single pilus type failed to protect men against gonococcal urethritis.

Staying fit and staying well: Physical fitness as a moderator of life stress

Previous research suggests that physical fitness moderates the adverse effects of stressful life events. However, a reliance on self-reports of fitness and health may limit the validity of prior investigations. The present research tested the stress-buffering effect of fitness with subjective and objective indicators of exercise, fitness, and physical well-being. For self-reports of health, both self-reports of exercise and objective measures of fitness showed the buffering effect; however, only objective fitness levels buffered stress when visits to a health facility were considered. Additional evidence indicated that this effect was largely independent of measures of psychological distress. Implications for understanding the link between fitness, stress, and health status are discussed.

Avascular necrosis of the hip in a man with HIV infection

The development of an osteonecrotic (avascular necrosis) hip joint in a patient with symptomatic CDC Stage 1V C2 disease is reported. The diagnosis was aided by radiological assessment and confirmed by radioisotope bone scan. This case serves as yet another musculoskeletal manifestation in association with HIV infection.

A validity problem in measuring exposure to mass media campaigns

Recognition of radio and television messages included in three mass media campaigns designed to keep adolescents from starting to smoke cigarettes was measured in six treatment and four control cities (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas) in the southeastern United States. The telephone survey of 574 randomly selected adolescents found high recognition of campaign messages even in the areas where the campaigns had not been broadcast. Campaign messages that differed significantly from other anti-smoking messages were less likely to be falsely recognized. These results reinforce the need to include true control groups in mass media evaluations and to construct distinctive messages if exposure is an important aspect of campaign evaluation.

Television and adolescent sexuality

Existing studies of the sexual content of television programming and advertising and the effects of this content on adolescent viewers are reviewed. Content studies show that the frequency of sexual references have increased in the past decade and are increasingly explicit. Studies of the effects of this content, while scarce, suggest that adolescents who rely heavily on television for information about sexuality will have high standards of female beauty and will believe that premarital and extramarital intercourse with multiple partners is acceptable. They are unlikely to learn about the need for contraceptives as a form of protection against pregnancy or disease. Suggestions for future research and trends in television programming policies are explored.

The cost of good fortune: when positive life events produce negative health consequences

Previous research regarding the effects of positive life events on physical health has been inconclusive. We tested the hypothesis that positive life events have a detrimental effect on health only among people with negative self-views. This prediction derives from an identity disruption model of stress, which holds that an accumulation of life events that are inconsistent with the self-concept leads to physical illness. To test the hypothesis, we conducted two prospective studies in which positive life events and self-esteem were used to predict the development of illness over time. In accordance with predictions, both studies showed that desirable life changes were associated with increases in illness only among subjects with low self-esteem; among subjects with high self-esteem, positive life events were linked to better health. Implications for understanding the manner in which life events affect health are considered.

A study of the relation between intraocular pressure and aqueous humor flow in the pigment dispersion syndrome

Forty subjects with pigment dispersion syndrome with and without intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation were compared with 40 age-matched controls. Intraocular pressure, resistance to outflow, and the rate of flow of aqueous humor were compared. Eyes with higher IOP and higher resistance to outflow were found to have a normal rate of aqueous flow. The results are interpreted as demonstrating that moderate and chronic elevation of IOP in the adult human eye does not induce a chronic compensatory reduction of aqueous humor flow.

Dependency, self-criticism, and depressive attributional style

Dependency and self-criticism have been proposed as independent factors in depression. Investigated whether depressive individuals characterized by dependency and self-criticism, respectively, differ with regard to internality of causal attributions for negative events. Sixty psychiatric outpatients completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, the semantic differential, and the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Dependency and self-criticism correlated positively with internality and with each other (p less than .0001). Findings did not support the specificity of dependency and self-criticism as subtypes of depression.

The cost of good fortune: When positive life events produce negative health consequences

Previous research regarding the effects of positive life events on physical health has been inconclusive. We tested the hypothesis that positive life events have a detrimental effect on health only among people with negative self-views. This prediction derives from an identity disruption model of stress, which holds that an accumulation of life events that are inconsistent with the self-concept leads to physical illness. To test the hypothesis, we conducted two prospective studies in which positive life events and self-esteem were used to predict the development of illness over time. In accordance with predictions, both studies showed that desirable life changes were associated with increases in illness only among subjects with low self-esteem; among subjects with high self-esteem, positive life events were linked to better health. Implications for understanding the manner in which life events affect health are considered.

Dependency, self-criticism, and depressive attributional style

Dependency and self-criticism have been proposed as independent factors in depression. Investigated whether depressive individuals characterized by dependency and self-criticism, respectively, differ with regard to internality of causal attributions for negative events. Sixty psychiatric outpatients completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, the semantic differential, and the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Dependency and self-criticism correlated positively with internality and with each other (p less than .0001). Findings did not support the specificity of dependency and self-criticism as subtypes of depression.

Relapse of osteoporosis circumscripta as a lytic ring after treatment of Paget's disease with intravenous 3-amino-1-hydroxypropylidene-1,1-bisphosphonate

Two patients with osteoporosis circumscripta of the skull are presented who have each been treated with a 3-month course of intravenous infusions of (3-amino-1-hydroxypropylidene)-1,1-bisphosphonate (APD) (total dose of 185 and 375 mg), which in both cases was associated with rapid and dramatic remineralization of the porotic bone and marked clinical and biochemical remission. However, osteolytic disease reappeared (after 9 and 18 months, respectively) in both cases as an osteolytic ring showing high uptake of radiolabelled bisphosphonate on bone scan, in formerly unaffected bone just distal to the original leading edge of osteolysis. Further treatment was associated with healing of these new lesions. These cases suggest that the diseased osteoclasts entering previously normal bone are protected against the drug probably because normal bone matrix takes up relatively little APD, and that APD taken up by diseased bone behind this front confers long-term resistance to further resorption. In assessing treatment strategies with bisphosphonates for Paget's disease, the response at the leading edge of osteoporosis circumscripta may be particularly informative.