Long-term effects of a peer-led asthma self-management program on asthma outcomes in adolescent peer leaders

OBJECTIVE

To examine the long-term effects of a peer-led asthma self-management program on urban adolescent peer leaders with asthma.

METHODS

This longitudinal study includes 51 adolescents (16-20 years) enrolled in an asthma self-management program implemented at a one-day camp as peer leaders. Study outcomes, including quality of life, asthma control, asthma knowledge, and attitudes toward asthma were collected for 15 months post-intervention. Mixed-effects models were conducted to estimate time effects, and effect sizes were calculated for each model.

RESULTS

Of 51 enrolled, 41 completed the training, of which 35 successfully participated in the camp program. A total of 17 peer leaders withdrew between enrollment and 15-months follow-up. Quality of life, asthma control, and knowledge significantly improved after peer leader training and remained elevated for 15 months, while significant improvement in attitudes emerged immediately after camp, in which they served as leaders, and sustained for 15 months.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates the long-term positive effects of a peer-led program on a wide range of asthma outcomes in urban adolescent peer leaders.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

A peer-led approach to asthma education providing peer leaders with intense training and leadership experience can be effective and sustainable in improving asthma outcomes among urban adolescents.

Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Adolescent Food Insecurity in Baltimore

While emerging evidence is highlighting a growing problem of food insecurity among adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods, very little is known about the factors that may either protect or place adolescents at higher risk for food insecurity. The primary objective for this analysis, therefore, was to examine the associations between individual-, family-, and neighborhood-level risks and protective factors and food insecurity among 452 adolescents in Baltimore, Maryland. Results show that nearly 30% of our sample were food insecure (29.4%). Food insecure youth were more likely to be unstably housed (OR 5.17, 1.24-21.62), live in larger households (OR 1.14, 1.08-1.20), and perceive their neighborhoods unsafe (OR 2.37, 1.47-3.83). Protective factors included perceiving both male and female adult support (OR 0.55 and 0.47, respectively), having a higher sense of community belonging (OR 0.91, 0.32-0.95) and having positive perceptions of their neighborhood's physical environment (OR 0.93, 0.88-0.98). These results suggest that strengthening family and neighborhood relations and resources may promote the health of adolescents in disadvantaged urban areas.

Adolescent Depression and Substance Use: the Protective Role of Prosocial Peer Behavior

Adolescents with depression disorders have higher rates of substance use. In order to advance contextually relevant mental health interventions, basic research is needed to test social ecological mechanisms hypothesized to influence adolescent depression and substance use. Accordingly, we conducted growth curve modeling with a sample of 248 urban adolescents to determine if depression's effect on substance use was dependent upon peer network health (sum of peer risk and protective behaviors) and activity space risk (likelihood of high-risk behaviors at routine locations). Results showed that peer network health moderated the effects of depression on substance use, but this effect was not altered by activity space risk. These findings suggest the importance of peer network health relative to depression and substance use, particularly for young adolescents.

School, Friends, and Substance Use: Gender Differences on the Influence of Attitudes Toward School and Close Friend Networks on Cannabis Involvement

The school environment is extremely salient in young adolescents' lives. Adolescents who have unfavorable attitudes toward school and teachers are at elevated risk for dropping out of school and engaging in behavioral health risks. Peer network health-a summation of the positive and negative behaviors in which one's close friend group engages-may be one way by which attitudes toward school exert influence on youth substance use. Utilizing a sample of 248 primarily African-American young urban adolescents, we tested a moderated mediation model to determine if the indirect effect of attitude to school on cannabis involvement through peer network health was conditioned on gender. Attitude toward school measured at baseline was the predictor (X), peer network health measured at 6 months was the mediator (M), cannabis involvement (including use, offers to use, and refusals to use) measured at 24 months was the outcome (Y), and gender was the moderator (W). Results indicated that negative attitudes toward school were indirectly associated with increased cannabis involvement through peer network health. This relationship was not moderated by gender. Adolescents in our sample with negative attitudes toward school were more likely to receive more offers to use cannabis and to use cannabis more frequently through the perceived health behaviors of their close friends. Implications from these results point to opportunities to leverage the dynamic associations among school experiences, friends, and cannabis involvement, such as offers and use.

Common allergies in urban adolescents and their relationships with asthma control and healthcare utilization

BACKGROUND

Urban adolescents suffer a disproportionate burden of asthma morbidity, often in association with allergies. Literature is limited on comparing various types of allergies regarding prevalence and associations with asthma morbidity in urban dwelling adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of common allergies reported by urban adolescents and to assess their relationships to healthcare utilization and asthma control.

METHODS

Study participants included 313 urban adolescents (12-20 years of age) with persistent asthma who were recruited from three states in the United States. Self-report data were collected on nine indoor and outdoor allergies, healthcare utilization, and asthma exacerbation. Logistic regressions and zero-inflated Poisson regressions were conducted to examine the relationships between allergies and asthma morbidity.

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 14.58 (± 1.97) and 52% were female, and 79% were black. Seventy-three percent (n = 229) reported one or more allergies. Dust mite and grass allergies were most common, each reported by 50%. The prevalence of pest allergies (cockroach and mouse) was 27.5% and 19%, respectively. Those with pest allergies were more likely to report ED visits (cockroach- Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.16, 95% CI 1.18-3.94, p = .01; mouse- OR = 2.13, 95% CI 1.09-4.07, p = .02), specialist visits (cockroach-OR = 2.69, 95% CI 1.60-4.54, p < .001; mouse- OR = 2.06, 95% CI 1.15-3.68, p = .01) and asthma exacerbation (cockroach-OR = 2.17, 95% CI 1.26-3.74, p < .001; mouse- OR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.26-4.18, p = .01). Cockroach allergies were associated with 2.2 times as many nights in the hospital (95% CI 1.053-3.398, p = 0.036) and 2.2 times as many specialist visits (95% CI 1.489-3.110, p < 0.001), and mouse allergy was associated with 1.6 times as many ED visits (95% CI 1.092-2.257, p = 0.015) compared to those without pest allergies.

CONCLUSIONS

Concomitant occurrence of allergies is ubiquitous among urban adolescents with asthma. Only pest allergies, of those examined, appear to have implications for poorly controlled asthma, exacerbation and acute healthcare utilization. To reduce asthma burden in urban adolescents, identification and management of high-risk adolescents with pest allergen sensitization and exposure are warranted.

Neighborhood disorder, peer network health, and substance use among young urban adolescents

BACKGROUND

The current study investigated the moderating effect of peer networks on neighborhood disorder's association with substance use in a sample of primarily African American urban adolescents.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 248 adolescents was recruited from urban health care settings and followed for two years, assessing psychological, social, and geographic risk and protective characteristics. A subset of 106 substance using participants were used for the analyses. A moderation model was tested to determine if the influence of neighborhood disorder (percent vacant housing, assault index, percent single parent headed households, percent home owner occupied, percent below poverty line) on substance use was moderated by peer network health (sum of peer risk and protective behaviors).

RESULTS

Evidence for hypothesized peer network moderation was supported. A latent growth model found that peer network health is most strongly associated with lower baseline substance use for young adolescents residing in more disordered neighborhoods. Over the course of two years (ages approximately 14-16) this protective effect declines, and the decline is stronger for more disordered neighborhoods.

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding the longitudinal moderating effects of peer networks within high-risk urban settings is important to the development and testing of contextually sensitive peer-based interventions.

RESULTS

suggest that targeting the potential protective qualities of peer networks may be a promising approach for interventions seeking to reduce substance use, particularly among younger urban adolescents living in high-risk neighborhoods.

Parents, Peers, and Places: Young Urban Adolescents' Microsystems and Substance Use Involvement

Limited research is available that explains complex contextual and interactive effects of microsystems such as family relationships, peer networks, and place-based influences have on urban adolescent substance use. We contend that research into these complex processes is improved by integrating psychological, social, and geographic data to better understand urban adolescent substance use involvement. Accordingly, we tested a longitudinal, 3-way moderation model to determine if the direct effect of teen-parent relationships on substance use involvement is moderated by peer network characteristics, which in turn is moderated by the risk and protective attributes within urban adolescents' activity spaces, among a sample of 248 adolescents. Results revealed that peer networks moderate the effects of relations with parents on substance use involvement for those adolescents with higher levels of risk attributes within their activity space, but not for those who spend time in locations with less risk. Thus, the teen-parent relationship interacts with peer net-work characteristics, for those urban adolescents whose activity space is constituted within high-risk environments. We conclude that peer networks have important interactive effects with family relationships that influence substance use, and that this is particularly salient for young adolescents who are exposed to risky environments. This finding underscores the importance of continued study into the interrelations among microsystems of urban adolescents, and provides further support that substance use is a social practice that is constituted within the unique geography of young adolescents' lives.

Time-varying effects of a text-based smoking cessation intervention for urban adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Craving to smoke is understood as an important mechanism for continued smoking behavior. Identifying how smoking interventions operate on craving with particular populations is critical for advancing intervention science. This study's objective was to investigate the time-varying effect of a text-delivered smoking cessation intervention.

METHODS

Toward this end, we used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data collected from a five-day, automated text-messaging smoking cessation randomized clinical trial with 200 urban adolescents. We employed a time-varying effect model (TVEM) to estimate the effects of stress (time-varying covariate) and baseline nicotine dependence level (time-invariant covariate) on craving over six months by treatment condition. The TVEM approach models behavioral change and associations of coefficients expressed dynamically and graphically represented as smooth functions of time.

RESULTS

Controlling for gender, age, and current smoking, differences in trajectories of craving between intervention and control conditions were apparent over the course of the study. During months 2 to 3, the association between stress and craving was significantly stronger among the control group, suggesting treatment dampens this association during this time period. The intervention also reduced the salience of baseline dependence among treatment adolescents, with craving being reduced steadily over time, while the control group increased craving over time.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide insight into the time-varying nature of treatment effects for adolescents receiving a text-based smoking cessation intervention. The ability to specify when in the course of an intervention the effect is strongest is important in developing targeted and adaptive interventions that can adjust strategically with time.

Peer Network Counseling with Urban Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Moderate Substance Users

Close peer networks can affect adolescents' health behaviors by altering their social environments, and thus their risk for and protection against substance use involvement. We tested a 20 minute intervention named Peer Network Counseling that integrates motivational interviewing and peer network strategies with 119 urban adolescents who reported occasional or problem substance use. Adolescents presenting at primary care clinic were randomized to intervention or control conditions and followed for 6 months. Mixed-effect latent growth models were used to evaluate intervention effects on trajectories of alcohol and marijuana use, offers to use substances, and moderation models to test for interactions between intervention condition and peer network characteristics. A significant intervention effect was found for boys for offers to use alcohol from friends (p<.05), along with a trend significant effect for alcohol use (p<.08). Intervention was more effective in reducing marijuana use, vs. control, for participants with more peer social support (p<.001) and with more peer encouragement for prosocial behavior (school, clubs, sports, religious activities); however, intervention did not affect these network characteristics. Results provide support to continue this line of research to test brief interventions that activate protective peer network characteristics among at-risk adolescents, while also raising some interesting gender-based intervention questions for future research.

Young adolescents' perceived activity space risk, peer networks, and substance use

Adolescent substance use is a developmentally contingent social practice that is constituted within the routine social-environment of adolescents' lives. Few studies have examined peer networks, perceived activity space risk (risk of substance use at routine locations), and substance use. We examined the moderating influence of peer network characteristics on the relationship between perceived activity space risk and substance use among a sample of 250 urban adolescents. Significant interactions were found between peer networks and perceived activity space risk on tobacco and marijuana use, such that protective peer networks reduced the effect of activity place risk on substance use. A significant 3-way interaction was found on marijuana use indicating that gender moderated peer network's effect on activity space risk. Conditional effect analysis found that boys' peer networks moderated the effect of perceived activity space risk on marijuana use, whereas for girls, the effect of perceived activity space risk on marijuana use was not moderated by their peer networks. These findings could advance theoretical models to inform social-environmental research among adolescents.