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The life span is a concept with increasing interest in gerontology, but how to visualize it? We developed the life span assessment scale, where the participants scored their concepts on their different life periods, using a visual analogue scale. A smoothed curve line was fitted through the means of each period. The final results of this procedure resembled an arch or span, like the original metaphor. This scale was tested by two groups of aged persons. Thirty-three noninstitutionalized, active middle-class pensioners (mean age 68 years) assessed their own life curve as resembling a shallow rainbow, the age periods between 30-50 years being most highly valued. A distinct fall did not start until after 70 years. Another life curves were gathered from 50 institutionalized elderly persons, mean age 79 years. Their life curve reached its peak value between 14-20 years, and the fall started after this. The results are preliminary and further validation of the developed method is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Current and future social factors associated with smoking habits during pregnancy were assessed. Data on maternal smoking, social background and the family's development during the 21 years after delivery were gathered for a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 12068 pregnant women and their children in Northern Finland in 1966 and for a second birth cohort of 9 362 mothers in 1985–86. The prevalence of smoking before pregnancy was 22% in the 1966 cohort (29% in 1985–86). 12% (18%) of the women continued smoking throughout their pregnancy. The following background factors were mainly associated with the mother's smoking and/or continuing during pregnancy in both cohorts when mother's age, parity, place of residence and social class were standardized: mother's age under 23, parity two or more, low social class, urban dwelling, unmarried, gainful employment and heavy smoking. The follow-up responses after 14 and 21 years, respectively, were mostly more favourable among the non-smoking mothers and those who quit smoking during pregnancy — e.g. stable family structure, child's smoking and drinking habits and application for intermediate education. Smoking throughout pregnancy or quitting of smoking late in pregnancy were associated with undesirable future development of the child and family in most of these aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Associations between simultaneous teenage drinking and smoking are considered in a birth cohort born in Northern Finland in 1966 (n= 12058), especially in non-standard, mainly single parent families. Data were collected from pregnancy until the age of 14. ROC (receiver operating characteristic curve) analysis was used to assess how well smoking predicts use of alcohol. Smoking and drinking were more interconnected in the non-standard families among both boys (p= 0.007) and girls (p= 0.018), but only among boys (p= 0.064) when the data were standardized for social class and place of residence and not among girls (p= 0.191). A similar relation between smoking and having been drunk was found among boys in non-standard families (p= 0.016), even when adjusted as above (p= 0.029), but not among girls (unadjusted p= 0.235, adjusted p= 0.469). The findings suggest that the adolescent boy's self-protective behaviour with respect to the commencement of combined experimentation with smoking and drinking is more restricted in non-standard families than in standard families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]