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Epidemiological data indicate that risk behaviors are among the leading causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality worldwide. Consistent with this, laboratory-based studies of age differences in risk behavior allude to a peak in adolescence, suggesting that adolescents demonstrate a heightened propensity, or inherent inclination, to take risks. Unlike epidemiological reports, studies of risk taking propensity have been limited to Western samples, leaving questions about the extent to which heightened risk taking propensity is an inherent or culturally constructed aspect of adolescence. In the present study, age patterns in risk-taking propensity (using two laboratory tasks: the Stoplight and the BART) and real-world risk taking (using self-reports of health and antisocial risk taking) were examined in a sample of 5227 individuals (50.7% female) ages 10-30 (M = 17.05 years, SD = 5.91) from 11 Western and non-Western countries (China, Colombia, Cyprus, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the US). Two hypotheses were tested: (1) risk taking follows an inverted-U pattern across age groups, peaking earlier on measures of risk taking propensity than on measures of real-world risk taking, and (2) age patterns in risk taking propensity are more consistent across countries than age patterns in real-world risk taking. Overall, risk taking followed the hypothesized inverted-U pattern across age groups, with health risk taking evincing the latest peak. Age patterns in risk taking propensity were more consistent across countries than age patterns in real-world risk taking. Results suggest that although the association between age and risk taking is sensitive to measurement and culture, around the world, risk taking is generally highest among late adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The number of adolescents with a severe chronic disease has increased in high-income countries due to improvements in the prognosis of childhood-onset chronic conditions. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a critical period that may be associated with increased mortality and morbidity. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of adolescents with a long-term disease (LTD) in France and assess their mortality and hospitalization risks relative to the general population. Materials and methods: We extracted a population-based cohort from the French national health insurance database that included 61,119 subjects who reached 14 years of age between 2005 and 2014. LTDs are diagnosed by patients’ physicians and then confirmed and registered by a physician of the national health insurance system. We assessed mortality and hospitalizations using data of patients who were between 14 and 21 years-old. Results: Among 14-year-old adolescents, 3.30% (95% confidence interval: 3.16–3.44) had a LTD. Their mortality rate between the ages of 14 and 21 years was 20.9/10,000 person-years (13.7–32.1) versus 1.9 (1.5–2.5) for adolescents without a LTD. Mortality was higher in males than females in youths without a LTD, but not in those with a LTD. We found a similar pattern for the risk of hospitalization for an external cause. The five-year probability of hospitalization was 61.8% among youths with a LTD versus 42.7% for those without. The rate of planned hospitalizations sharply fell at 19 years-of-age among youths with a LTD, whereas the rate of unplanned hospitalizations remained stable. Conclusion: The 3% of youths with a LTD have ten-fold higher mortality than those without and a high risk of hospitalization. The decrease in the rate of planned hospitalizations at age 19 among youths with a LTD may indicate differences in medical practice after transfer to adult care or a break in medical care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Road traffic accidents are one of the main causes of death and injury to adolescents. The total number of deaths every year due to road accidents has now pass the 1,35,000 mark, according to latest report of National Crime Bureau Study reveal that 32.4% of fatalities on road in India in age group of 15 to 24. AIM The aim of the study is to assess knowledge and practices regarding prevention of road traffic accidents among adolescents and to find out correlation between knowledge and practice of adolescent regarding prevention of road traffic accidents. MATERIAL AND METHODS A descriptive study was conducted on 300 adolescents (150 each from th th government and private school) in District Ferozepur, Punjab. Adolescents from 7 standard to10 standard were included using purposive sampling. Structured questionnaire to assess knowledge and self reported checklist to assess the practices of adolescents regarding prevention of road traffic accidents were used. RESULTS: 55.7% adolescent had average knowledge whereas 37% had good knowledge, and 7.3% had poor knowledge regarding prevention of road traffic accident. The mean score was found to be 21.99. 40.6% adolescents of Private school and 33% of Government School had good knowledge. The private school adolescents had more knowledge than Govt. school adolescents. Out of 300 adolescents, majority of adolescents i.e. 59% had poor practice whereas 41% adolescents had good practices regarding prevention of road traffic accidents. There was weak positive correlation between knowledge and practices. Only age of adolescents had association with knowledge and rest of the demographical variable had no association with knowledge. CONCLUSION: There is need to generate awareness among adolescents regarding prevention of road traffic accidents through IEC activities to curb the epidemic of Road Traffic Accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unintentional injuries are a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in adolescents. Mobile phone use in certain circumstances (e.g., driving, cycling, walking) and mental health conditions are risk factors for unintentional injury. However, research on the interactions between problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) and psychopathological symptoms in unintentional injuries is limited. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of unintentional injuries (road traffic injuries, pedestrian collisions, and falls) and examined interactions of PMPU and psychopathological symptoms with unintentional injuries in a school-based sample of Chinese adolescents.Methods: A total of 14,221 students (6915 middle school students and 7306 high school students) were randomly selected from 32 schools in four cities in China in 2012. The sample comprised 6712 boys and 7509 girls with a mean age of 15.12 years (standard deviation 1.89 years). PMPU, psychopathological symptoms, and unintentional injuries were measured with validated instruments. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression were used to analyze the rates of unintentional injuries, the relationship with PMPU and psychopathological symptoms, and the interactions of PMPU and psychopathological symptoms with unintentional injuries.Results: The prevalence of road traffic injuries, pedestrian collisions, and falls were 4.9, 16.2, and 10.1 %, respectively. The rates of unintentional injuries were higher among students with PMPU and psychopathological symptoms. Interaction analysis indicated that psychopathological symptoms were associated with a greater increase in the likelihood of unintentional injuries for adolescents with PMPU than for those without PMPU.Conclusions: The findings indicate that unintentional injuries in adolescents are an important public health issue in China that merit further research. Intervention programs must consider the adolescents' behavioral and psychological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence, a time for the most fascinating and complex transitions in the life span; a time of accelerated growth and change second only to infancy. Its beginning is associated with biological, physical, behavioural and social transformations. They feel misunderstood and unadopted with regard to the adult world. The present study aims at studying the impact of homes and hostels on Achievement Motivation and Morality of adolescents. Achievement motivation has been defined as learned motive, unconscious in nature, resulting from reward or punishment of specific behavior and Moral behavior means behavior in conformity with the moral code of the social group. Truly moral behavior is something which is carried out in a voluntary way; it is conduct which is regulated from within. Moral behavior is accompanied by a feeling of personal responsibility for one's acts. The child has to learn what is "good" and what is "bad"; what is "right" and what is "wrong". Parents start imbibing both these traits in the child since the day the child is born. Thus the home environment plays a very important role in the development of these traits. But adolescents spend less time with family and more with their peer groups. Thus, their thoughts and actions are influenced by their peers as well. Therefore the present study tries to explore the impact that homes and hostels have on morality and achievement motivation of an adolescent. Achievement Motivation Scale (Dr. Shah Beena, 1986) and Moral Judgment Test (Dr. Meera Varma, 1967) have been used in the study. The data was collected from adolescents (age range: 16-22yrs) of Punjabi University. Statistical analysis was done on the data collected and finally the results were interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Injury is the leading cause of death and disability in children and adolescents in Poland. In 2009, 1220 children age 0-19 years died as a result of injury. If the rate of injury deaths in Poland could be reduced to the level of the Netherlands, it is estimated that 703 (58%) of these lives could have been saved. The aim of this study was to assess child and adolescent unintentional injury prevention in Poland through national law and policy. The study was based on an examination of law and policies existing and implemented or enforced in Poland which support child safety, including specific injury areas such as road safety, water safety, fall prevention, poisoning prevention, burn and scalds prevention, choking and strangulation prevention. The review of law and policy documents, as well as interviews by phone or e-mail with representatives of government departments was conducted. The questionnaire developed in the frame of the European Project TACTICS (Tools to Address Childhood Trauma, Injury and Children's Safety) was applied. Each policy and law as a marker for specific injury areas was assessed on 3-points scale. The following scores were obtained for each of the areas of child and adolescent injury prevention in Poland (out of possible 100%): 89% in moped and motor scooter safety, 86% in poisoning prevention, 75% in pedestrian safety, 75% in cycling safety, 75% in water safety and drowning prevention, 64% in burn and scalds prevention, 59% in passenger and driver safety, 59% in choking and strangulation prevention, 50% in fall safety. Child home safety related to prevention of falls, burns and scalds, choking and strangulation has not received the adequate attention. The greatest gains in injury prevention have been made in road safety and poisoning prevention. It is important to both continue these efforts and give equal attention to injuries occurring in and around the home, sport and leisure environments. There is a need to support and fund good practices injury prevention measures based on community level targeting families with low socio-economic status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this study was to explain adolescents’ volunteering in terms of their morality and identity and to examine the moderation effect of gender and age in this process. Data were collected among 698 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 20 (M = 15.19; SD = 1.43). Adolescents’ moral reasoning was positively associated with understanding moral issues and thinking about public responsibility towards these issues. In turn, moral understanding, along with being personally committed to act upon moral issues, were positively associated with identity. Extending the number of identity contexts tended to be related to being more likely to volunteer and to more volunteering involvement. Adolescents’ identity integration was not related to how likely they were to volunteer, and was negatively related to their volunteering involvement. Clearer effects were found when differentiating between adolescent gender and age groups. Future research could examine this process over time, along with additional factors that may further explain adolescents’ volunteering, and examine their age and gender specific effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Aim: Describe teenagers’ hospital pathology in Tsévié’s hospital (Togo). Methodology: It was a retrospective study during 2 years from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2008. Teenagers’ demographic characteristics, pathologies and identified problems were analysed. Results: On 8153 hospitalisations registered during 2007 and 2008, 791 (9.7%) were adolescents. Teenagers were distributed in 27.31% from 10 to 14 years and 72.31% from 15 to 19 years with a mean age of 15 years and 10 months. The ratio boy:girl was 0.52. The most frequented departments were maternity (34.90%) and medicine (26.70%). The pathologies were dominated by malaria 287/791 (36.28%) and teenagers came for delivery in 200/791 cases (25.28%). Traumatic lesions by public road accidents were most frequent in boys with 48/119 cases (40.34%). The evolution was favorable in the majority of cases, with a rate of 75.98%. The hospital mortality rate was 3.92%. Conclusion: The teenagers’ high frequency of malaria and delivery are health public problem. The solution is in the use of mosquito net, sexual and contraceptive methods education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nicotine addiction is the most common preventable cause of premature death presenting during adolescence. No prior study has described the onset of this condition based on case histories. We used trained personnel to conduct individual semi-structured interviews to obtain case histories from 50 adolescent and young adult current and former smokers. Smokers experience a compulsion to use tobacco that spans a spectrum of severity from wanting, to craving, to needing. The compulsion is commonly experienced as originating foreign to the will of the smoker and recurs with a predictable periodicity that determines the latency from smoking one cigarette to wanting, craving or needing another. Novice smokers could experience latencies as lengthy as a few weeks, and more experienced smokers attributed their escalation in smoking frequency to the shortening of their latencies. Wanting, craving or needing tobacco, as described in this study, are pathognomonic for a compulsion to use tobacco. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objectives of the study were to estimate mortality rate trends due to road traffic, drowning and fire/burns in children aged 0-14 years and in adolescents aged 15-19 years in Lithuania between the years 1971-2005. The data were obtained from Statistics Lithuania and the Health Information Centre. Trends were estimated by linear and polynomial regression. The study revealed that the child and adolescent unintentional injury mortality rates show declining trends. For children, the significant decreasing trends of mortality rates due to road traffic, drowning and fire/burns were observed. For adolescents there were significant decreasing trends for drowning deaths, and insignificant decreasing tendencies for deaths from fire/burns. There was an insignificant increased road traffic mortality rate trend for adolescent girls. For the adolescent boys group and for boys and girls together from the beginning of the study period there were increasing trends, followed by declining trends. In the last years, the increase was observed again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recreational use of inhalants is a fairly widespread habit among adolescents because of the ease of availability and methods of assumption. Their use is however not free of risks, both for direct toxicity on several target organs and for a mechanism of gas replacement with lack of oxygen. The first case concerns a 12-year-old boy who died suddenly after sniffing a mix of butane and propane contained in a can of air freshener. The second case concerns a 14-year-old boy who died by acute poisoning by the same mixture contained in a refill for lighters. High concentrations of the compounds were found in the tissues by analysis with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The compounds found in tissues and biological fluids were perfectly compatible with those contained in the containers used for the inhalation. The mechanisms of death were therefore assessed in a combination of the direct toxicity of the compound and oxygen replacement, thus highlighting the crucial help that toxicological analyses can provide in such cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]