Dating violence and associated health risks among high school students with disabilities.

Children with disabilities are at a higher risk for various forms of violence including sexual violence, bullying, and physical violence compared to those without disabilities. However there are no studies documenting the prevalence of dating violence amongst a population-based sample of adolescents with disabilities. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of dating violence victimization against high schools students with and without disabilities and to examine associations of dating violence with health risks by disability status among high school girls. Data from the 2009 Massachusetts Youth Health Survey were analyzed in 2011 using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Among high school students who had ever been on a date, girls (25.9 %, 95 % CI 19.9-31.5) and boys (9.1 %, 95 % CI 5.8-12.4) with disabilities were more likely than girls (8.8 %, 95 % CI 6.8-10.8) and boys (4.5 %, 95 % CI 3.1-5.8) without disabilities to report dating violence. Multivariate analyses indicated that high school girls with disabilities who experienced dating violence were more likely to report feeling sad or hopeless for 2 weeks or more in the past year, suicide ideation in the past 12 months, and drug use in the past 30 days compared to those with disabilities who did not report dating violence and those without disabilities who reported and did not report dating violence. High school students with disabilities are at a greater risk for dating violence victimization compared to those without disabilities and high school girls with disabilities who experience dating violence are at increased risk for experiencing poor mental health outcomes and substance abuse.

Association of human papillomavirus vaccination with exposure to dental or medical visits.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with oropharyngeal cancers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that >15,000 new cases of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers are diagnosed in the United States annually. We evaluated an association between HPV vaccination and dental visits in the previous year. METHODS: Data were analyzed from the 2012, 2014, and 2016 Massachusetts Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (MA-BRFSS) datasets. We created four categories of exposures to healthcare services in the past 12 months: a) both medical and dental visits, b) medical visit only, c) dental visit only, d) neither. Outcomes were HPV vaccination ever or influenza vaccination within the past 12 months. Logistic regression, controlled for race and education, was used to measure the association between medical/dental visits and vaccination status. Separate models were generated by sex. RESULTS: Crude and adjusted odds ratio of influenza and HPV vaccination were highest among males and females with both medical and dental visits. Women with both medical and dental provider visits had 3.7 times higher odds of being vaccinated for influenza and 1.7 times higher odds of being vaccinated for HPV. There were no differences in crude or adjusted odds among both males and females if the type of healthcare visits were only medical or only dental. CONCLUSION: No difference in association between vaccination and medical or dental healthcare exposures suggests that oral health professionals might partner in promotion of positive health behaviors, including HPV vaccination. The type of provider did not affect the outcome as per this study.

Prescribing in Chronic Severe Hepatic Impairment.

Therapeutic Reviews aim to provide essential independent information for health professionals about drugs used in palliative and hospice care. Additional content is available via www.palliativedrugs.com. The series editors welcome feedback on the articles.

Junior doctor teaching delivered by near peers.

BACKGROUND: Near-peer teaching - trainees teaching more junior trainee colleagues - has been widely described in undergraduate medical education. Several benefits have been reported, including a more comfortable learning environment for learners and the development of tutors' teaching skills. Near-peer teaching programmes in postgraduate training are less commonly described in the existing literature, however. This article outlines a pilot study of a postgraduate near-peer teaching programme implemented at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, UK. METHODS: A 16-week teaching programme was developed in which core medical trainees delivered teaching sessions to their more junior Foundation Year-2 colleagues. The teaching was based on cases that the Foundation Year-2 doctors frequently manage during clinical practice. Evaluation questionnaires were completed and learners were asked to rate their confidence in managing the cases before and after each session. Furthermore, each tutor underwent a standardised teaching assessment during their first and final sessions. RESULTS: Fifteen sessions were delivered by four tutors. All sessions received positive feedback from learners with nine sessions receiving a five out of five rating. In addition, the confidence ratings of the learners increased following each session. The tutors improved in all items of the teaching assessments and the overall rating of their teaching. Near-peer teaching could enhance the training of junior doctors DISCUSSION: The results of this pilot study suggest that the benefits described in undergraduate near-peer teaching programmes may also be seen in postgraduate medical education. Thus near-peer teaching could enhance the training of junior doctors, and we encourage the proliferation of such programmes to further evaluate their benefits in this setting.

Palliative care in cardiopulmonary transplantation.

Cardiopulmonary transplantation is a life-prolonging therapy available to a select population of patients with cardiac or respiratory failure. Transplantation is associated with significant morbidity, mortality and unmet palliative care need. Despite recommendations that palliative care should be a core component of the heart and lung transplant process, collaboration within clinical practice is extremely rare. A key reason for this is the misperception among patients, their families and transplant clinicians, that palliative care is analogous with end of life care. Other challenges include prognostication, communication, and the balance of hope and reality. We suggest a change in clinical practice within cardiopulmonary transplantation, whereby palliative care takes place alongside active management. Greater partnership working will demonstrate clinical credibility and highlight the impact of palliative care interventions. Education is required to address current misperceptions and further research should explore the effect of initiatives to improve palliative care provision for this patient group.

Use of the multispecies freshwater biomonitor to assess behavioral changes of Corophium volutator (Pallas, 1766) (Crustacea, Amphipoda) in response to toxicant exposure in sediment.

Automated sediment toxicity testing and biomonitoring has grown rapidly. This study tested the suitability of the marine amphipod Corophium volutator (Pallas, 1766) for sediment biomonitoring using the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor (MFB). Two experiments were undertaken to (1) characterize individual behaviors of C. volutator using the MFB and (2) examine behavioral changes in response to sediment spiked with the pesticide Bioban. Four behaviors were visually identified (walking, swimming, grooming and falling) and characterized in the MFB as different patterns of locomotor activity (0-2 Hz range). Ventilation was not visually observed but was detected by the MFB (2-8 Hz). No clear diel activity patterns were detected. The MFB detected an overall increase in C. volutator locomotor activity after Bioban addition to the sediments (56, 100, 121 mg kg(-1)). C. volutator was more active (both locomotion and ventilation) in the water column than the spiked sediment. C. volutator appears a sensitive and appropriate species for behavioral sediment toxicity assessment and biomonitoring.