Young people's explanations for the decline in youth drinking in England.

BACKGROUND: Youth alcohol consumption has fallen markedly over the last twenty years in England. This paper explores the drivers of the decline from the perspectives of young people. METHODS: The study used two methods in a convergent triangulation design. We undertook 38 individual or group qualitative interviews with 96 participants in various educational contexts in England. An online survey of 547 young people in England, was also conducted. Participants were aged between 12-19 years. For both data sources, participants were asked why they thought youth alcohol drinking might be in decline. Analysis of interview data was both deductive and inductive, guided by a thematic approach. Content analysis of survey responses further refined these themes and indicated their prevalence within a larger sample. RESULTS: The research identified eight key themes that young people used to explain the decline in youth drinking: The potential for alcohol-related harm; Contemporary youth cultures and places of socialisation; The affordability of alcohol; Displacement of alcohol by other substances; Access and the regulatory environment; Disputing the decline; Future Orientations; and Parenting and the home environment. Heterogeneity in the experiences and perspectives of different groups of young people was evident, particularly in relation to age, gender, and socio-economic position. CONCLUSIONS: Young people's explanations for the decline in youth drinking in England aligned well with those generated by researchers and commentators in prior literature. Our findings suggest that changing practices of socialisation, decreased alcohol affordability and changed attitudes toward risk and self-governance may be key explanations.

Children's perspectives and experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and UK public health measures.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on how we live our lives; yet, the implications for children and the effects on children's everyday lives have been relatively underacknowledged. Understanding children's views on COVID-19 and related restrictions on their lives provides an important opportunity to understand how children have responded to the pandemic, including the impacts on their social and emotional well-being. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the experiences and perspectives of children in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions on everyday life. METHOD: A qualitative study using semistructured online interviews with participatory drawings was undertaken between May and July 2020. Eighteen children from England and Wales, aged 7-11 years, participated in interviews. FINDINGS: Themes included children's reflections on (1) COVID-19 as a deadly contagion; (2) fears and sadness and (3) social responsibility and opportunities to respond positively. CONCLUSIONS: Young children offer insightful reflections on their experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Children and young people's perspectives must be considered in future public health discourse. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This work was informed by conversations with my own three primary school-aged children and the children of friends. A formal Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group was not established due to the speed with which the project was undertaken. Any future research in this area would benefit from formal PPI in the design, methods and questions.

Clustering of health-related behaviours within children aged 11-16: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to systematically review and synthesise evidence on the clustering of a broad range of health-related behaviours amongst 11-16 year olds. METHOD: A literature search was conducted in September 2019. Studies were included if they used cluster analysis, latent class analysis, prevalence odds ratios, principal component analysis or factor analysis, and considered at least three health-related behaviours of interest among 11-16 year olds in high-income countries. Health-related behaviours of interest were substance use (alcohol, cigarettes and other drug use) and other behavioural risk indicators (diet, physical activity, gambling and sexual activity). RESULTS: The review identified 41 studies, which reported 198 clusters of health-related behaviours of interest. The behaviours of interest reported within clusters were used to define eight behavioural archetypes. Some included studies only explored substance use, while others considered substance use and/or other health-related behaviours. Consequently, three archetypes were comprised by clusters reporting substance use behaviours alone. The archetypes were: (1) Poly-Substance Users, (2) Single Substance Users, (3) Substance Abstainers, (4) Substance Users with No/Low Behavioural Risk Indicators, (5) Substance Abstainers with Behavioural Risk Indicators, (6) Complex Configurations, (7) Overall Unhealthy and (8) Overall Healthy. CONCLUSION: Studies of youth health behavioural clustering typically find both a 'healthy' cluster and an 'unhealthy' cluster. Unhealthy clusters are often characterised by poly-substance use. Our approach to synthesising cluster analyses may offer a means of navigating the heterogeneity of method, measures and behaviours of interest in this literature.

Trends in the psychosocial characteristics of 11-15-year-olds who still drink, smoke, take drugs and engage in poly-substance use in England.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Youth substance use is declining in many high-income countries. As adolescent substance use becomes less common, it may concentrate in higher-risk groups. This paper aims to examine how the psychosocial characteristics of young substance users in England have changed over time. DESIGN AND METHODS: Annual cross-sectional data from the 2001-2014 Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England survey are analysed (n = 112 792, age: 11-15). Logistic and Poisson regression analyses are used to test whether the sex, socioeconomic status (SES) and prevalence of truancy and exclusion from school of those who drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, take cannabis, take other drugs and engage in poly-substance use changed across the study period. RESULTS: Use of all substances decreased and there were shifts in the psychosocial characteristics of young smokers, illicit drug users and poly-substance users. The proportion of current smokers and ever-users of cannabis of low SES and who had been excluded increased significantly between 2001/2003-2014. The proportion of last month drug users who had been excluded from school also increased significantly and there were increases in the proportion of polysubstance-users who had truanted and been excluded. The proportion of low SES alcohol users who had been excluded also increased significantly, but this change was very small. There was no evidence of substance use becoming more or less concentrated in one gender. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: There is some evidence that smoking, illicit drug use and poly-substance use are becoming more concentrated in potentially at risk populations. There is limited evidence of concentration amongst young drinkers.

Children and young people's concerns and needs relating to their use of health technology to self-manage long-term conditions: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: The use of patient-facing health technologies to manage long-term conditions is increasing; however, children and young people may have particular concerns or needs before deciding to use different health technologies. AIMS: To identify children and young people's reported concerns or needs in relation to using health technologies to self-manage long-term conditions. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted. We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL in February 2019. Searches were limited to papers published between January 2008 and February 2019. We included any health technology used to manage long-term conditions. A thematic synthesis of the data from the included studies was undertaken. We engaged children with long-term conditions (and parents) to support review design, interpretation of findings and development of recommendations. RESULTS: Thirty-eight journal articles were included, describing concerns or needs expressed by n=970 children and/or young people aged 5-18 years. Most included studies were undertaken in high-income countries with children aged 11 years and older. Studies examined concerns with mobile applications (n=14), internet (n=9), social media (n=3), interactive online treatment programmes (n=3), telehealth (n=1), devices (n=3) or a combination (n=5). Children and young people's main concerns were labelling and identity; accessibility; privacy and reliability; and trustworthiness of information. DISCUSSION: This review highlights important concerns that children and young people may have before using technology to self-manage their long-term condition. In future, research should involve children and young people throughout the development of technology, from identifying their unmet needs through to design and evaluation of interventions.

Umbrella review of family-focused care interventions supporting families where a family member has a long-term condition.

AIM: The aim of this study was to summarize reviews of family-focused care interventions that support families with a family member with a long-term condition across the life course. DESIGN: Umbrella review. DATA SOURCES: Medline (1946-2019), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2019), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effect and EMBASE (1947-2019), CINAHL (1981-2019), Health Technology Assessment Database (2019) and PsycInfo (1806-2019). REVIEW METHODS: All authors independently undertook title/abstract screening, data extraction and quality appraisal on a cluster of papers, working in groups of two or three to reach a consensus. The AMSTAR tool was used to appraise the quality of the studies and descriptive syntheses were undertaken. RESULTS: Fifteen reviews met the selection criteria. Overall family-focussed care and associated terms were poorly defined. Typically interventions were educational or psychological therapy/counselling with the goal of empowering individuals to manage their condition. There is some evidence that family-focused care interventions can improve clinical/biological health measures and self-care outcomes such as treatment adherence. Multicomponent psychosocial interventions that include cognitive-behavioural therapy, skills training, education and support and are focused on wider family members appear to improve family relationships and martial functioning. CONCLUSION: Long-term conditions have an impact on individual and family health and well-being, yet the impact of family-focused care interventions on family outcomes was overall inconclusive. A better understanding of how family-focused care interventions improve the health and well-being of individuals and their families is needed to promote the inclusion of family-focused care into practice. IMPACT: Supporting people with a long-term condition is a key health and social care priority. Family-focused care interventions have potential to improve the health and well-being of individuals and families, but there is a need to evaluate their clinical and cost-effectiveness. The findings from this review could be used by funding bodies when commissioning research for long-term conditions.

The decline in youth drinking in England-is everyone drinking less? A quantile regression analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Youth alcohol consumption has declined significantly during the past 15 years in many high-income countries, which may have significant public health benefits. However, if the reductions in drinking occur mainly among lighter drinkers who are at lower risk, then rates of alcohol-related harm among young people today and adults in future may not fall in line with consumption. There is conflicting evidence from Swedish school studies, with some suggesting that all young people are drinking less, while others suggest that alcohol consumption among heavier drinkers may be stable or rising while average consumption declines. This paper extends the geographical focus of previous research and examines whether the decline in youth drinking is consistent across the consumption distribution in England. DESIGN: Quantile regression of 15 waves of repeat cross-sectional survey data. SETTING: England, 2001-16. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 31 882 schoolchildren (50.7% male) aged 11-15 who responded to the Smoking Drinking and Drug Use among Young People surveys. MEASUREMENTS: Past-week alcohol consumption in UK units at each fifth percentile of the consumption distribution. FINDINGS: Reductions in alcohol consumption occurred at all percentiles of the consumption distribution analysed between 2001 and 2016, but the magnitude of the decline differed across percentiles. The decline in consumption at the 90th percentile [ß = -0.21, confidence interval (CI) = -0.24, -0.18] was significantly larger than among either lighter drinkers at the 50th percentile (ß = -0.02, CI = -0.02, -0.01) or heavier drinkers at the 95th percentile (ß = -0.16, CI = -0.18, -0.13). CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol consumption among young people in England appears to be declining across the consumption distribution, and peaks among heavy drinkers. The magnitude of this decline differs significantly between percentiles of the consumption distribution, with consumption falling proportionally less among the lightest, moderate and very heaviest youth drinkers.

Promoting the health of children and young people who migrate: reflections from four regional reviews.

Calls to enhance the health of migrant population sub-groups are strengthening, with increasing evidence documenting the relationship between migration and health outcomes. Despite the importance of migration to global health promotion, little research has focused on the health experiences of young migrants. As part of a Worldwide University Network project, we completed four systematic reviews examining the existing evidence base on the health experiences of children and young people who migrate. In this commentary, we share commonalities with the international evidence but also reflect on some of the challenges, omissions and limitations. These insights expose significant gaps and methodological shortcomings in the evidence - providing space for new research that seeks to identify the influences on migrant children's health.

Young people's perspectives of e-cigarette use in the home.

There is concern that the emergence of e-cigarettes could result in an increase in young people's intake of, and exposure to, nicotine. This UK study used friendship group interviews to elicit the perspectives of young people from socioeconomically contrasting backgrounds regarding e-cigarettes. Young people from both advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds described similar e-cigarette practices in the home environment, and, for both health and sensory reasons, viewed these as preferable to tobacco smoking. Space-related practices of adult e-cigarette use in the home were revealed to be more malleable than those of tobacco use. Results also highlighted that e-cigarettes offered young people new opportunities for nicotine consumption in the home. Methods of storing e-cigarettes in domestic spaces posed safety risks to younger children and easy access to e-cigarettes for others.

The impact of single and shared rooms on family-centred care in children's hospitals.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore whether and how spatial aspects of children's hospital wards (single and shared rooms) impact upon family-centred care. BACKGROUND: Family-centred care has been widely adopted in paediatric hospitals internationally. Recent hospital building programmes in many countries have prioritised the provision of single rooms over shared rooms. Limited attention has, however, been paid to the potential impact of spatial aspects of paediatric wards on family-centred care. DESIGN: Qualitative, ethnographic. METHODS: Phase 1; observation within four wards of a specialist children's hospital. Phase 2; interviews with 17 children aged 5-16 years and 60 parents/carers. Sixty nursing and support staff also took part in interviews and focus group discussions. All data were subjected to thematic analysis. RESULTS: Two themes emerged from the data analysis: 'role expectations' and 'family-nurse interactions'. The latter theme comprised three subthemes: 'family support needs', 'monitoring children's well-being' and 'survey-assess-interact within spatial contexts'. CONCLUSION: Spatial configurations within hospital wards significantly impacted upon the relationships and interactions between children, parents and nurses, which played out differently in single and shared rooms. Increasing the provision of single rooms within wards is therefore likely to directly affect how family-centred care manifests in practice. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nurses need to be sensitive to the impact of spatial characteristics, and particularly of single and shared rooms, on families' experiences of children's hospital wards. Nurses' contribution to and experience of family-centred care can be expected to change significantly when spatial characteristics of wards change and, as is currently the vogue, hospitals maximise the provision of single rather than shared rooms.

Where are the schools? Children, families and food practices.

Reducing childhood obesity is an international priority and children's diets, food knowledge and practices have come under intense scrutiny in both policy and popular discourse. Notwithstanding evidence that health interventions which resonate with children's own views are the most effective, there is still relatively little research which mobilises children's everyday perspectives on food to inform public health policy. We report key findings from a qualitative study with 53 children aged 9-10, attending two socio-economically contrasting schools in the UK. The study explored children's understandings of food in everyday life and their ideas about the relationship between food and health. Throughout the study, despite recent attempts to position schools as key sites for public health interventions, children consistently emphasised families as the locus for enduring food practices. The research highlights the value of listening to children and applying our understanding of their perspectives to ensure that public health initiatives work with the important influences on their diet and health that they themselves identify.

Making health information meaningful: Children's health literacy practices.

Children's health and wellbeing is high on the research and policy agenda of many nations. There is a wealth of epidemiological research linking childhood circumstances and health practices with adult health. However, echoing a broader picture within child health research where children have typically been viewed as objects rather than subjects of enquiry, we know very little of how, in their everyday lives, children make sense of health-relevant information. This paper reports key findings from a qualitative study exploring how children understand food in everyday life and their ideas about the relationship between food and health. 53 children aged 9-10, attending two socio-economically contrasting schools in Northern England, participated during 2010 and 2011. Data were generated in schools through interviews and debates in small friendship groups and in the home through individual interviews. Data were analysed thematically using cross-sectional, categorical indexing. Moving beyond a focus on what children know the paper mobilises the concept of health literacy (Nutbeam, 2000), explored very little in relation to children, to conceptualise how children actively construct meaning from health information through their own embodied experiences. It draws on insights from the Social Studies of Childhood (James and Prout, 2015), which emphasise children's active participation in their everyday lives as well as New Literacy Studies (Pahl and Rowsell, 2012), which focus on literacy as a social practice. Recognising children as active health literacy practitioners has important implications for policy and practice geared towards improving child health.

Parental involvement in neonatal comfort care.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how parents interact with their infants and with nurses regarding the provision of comfort care in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). DESIGN: Focused ethnography. SETTING: A regional NICU in the United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: Eleven families (10 mothers, 8 fathers) with infants residing in the NICU participated in the study. METHODS: Parents were observed during a caregiving interaction with their infants and then interviewed on up to four occasions. Twenty-five periods of observation and 24 semistructured interviews were conducted between January and November 2008. RESULTS: Five stages of learning to parent in the NICU were identified. Although the length and duration of each stage differed for individual parents, movement along the learning trajectory was facilitated when parents were involved in comforting their infants. Transfer of responsibility from nurse to parents for specific aspects of care was also aided by parental involvement in pain care. Nurses' encouragement of parental involvement in comfort care facilitated parental proximity, parent/infant reciprocity, and parental sense of responsibility. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that parental involvement in comfort care can aid the process of learning to parent, which is difficult in the NICU. Parental involvement in infant comfort care may also facilitate the transfer of responsibility from nurse to parent and may facilitate antecedents to parent/infant attachment.

Children's understanding of family financial resources and their impact on eating healthily.

Socioeconomic inequalities in childhood are linked to childhood and adult health inequalities. They are particularly closely associated with inequalities in nutritional and consequently health status. Recent research links this to the high cost of nutrient-rich and low cost of nutrient-poor foods and explores how parents negotiate food purchase on a limited budget. However, we know little of children's perspectives on the material and social realities of their lives and their involvement in health-relevant behaviour. This contrasts with a growing body of research which emphasises children's active role in making sense of and participating in health practices while growing up and their potential to act in continuity with and as agents of change in family health cultures. This paper explores children's understanding of family finances and how they perceive this to relate to eating healthily. It draws upon data from a qualitative study of 53 children aged 9-10 from two socioeconomically contrasting schools in the North of England during 2010 and 2011. Data were generated in friendship group interviews and debates at school and individual interviews in the home, and analysed thematically. Children incorporated a variety of media information into their understandings and sought explanations from their personal experience. They had sophisticated ideas about the interrelationships between diet, cost and health and were acutely aware of how family finances influenced food purchase. Children proposed different strategies to facilitate eating healthily on a budget, but prioritised state and corporate responsibility in ensuring that eating healthily is affordable. This contrasts with current health-related policy, which does not address cost as a potential barrier to eating healthily in the home. Children also consistently conflated healthy eating with eating fruit and vegetables, highlighting a need to reinforce other important nutritional messages.

Intergenerational relations and the family food environment in families with a child with obesity.

BACKGROUND: Implicit in much of the literature on childhood obesity is a hierarchical, unidirectional understanding of intergenerational relations, which highlights parents' responsibility for children's food and eating practices. AIM: Drawing upon alternative understandings from the social science literature, which offer more nuanced insights into family life and generational relations, this paper explores, through parents' narratives, the construction of family food environments and family eating practices in families with a child with obesity. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Data were generated through individual, semi-structured interviews with parents of children attending a community-based obesity intervention programme in an inner city area in the North of England. Forty-nine interviews were conducted with 25 parental adults from 19 families. RESULTS: Parent's own concerns over their body weight and size and children's social experiences in a fat-averse society can both work to flatten the traditional familial, adult-child hierarchy. Both parents and children actively contribute to the construction of family life and family eating practices. CONCLUSION: Findings may pose challenges for contemporary health promotion and policy agendas which presume that parents have the ability and resources to control and direct children's eating in a unidirectional and authoritative manner.

The experiences of young people with obesity in secondary school: some implications for the healthy school agenda.

In 1995, the World Health Organisation launched a Global School Health Initiative to reduce health risks among young people. In the UK, the National Healthy School Programme (HSP) developed as part of a wider government commitment to promoting social inclusion. One of the key issues to be tackled by the programme is childhood obesity, for obesity is widely argued to be a public health problem for which a solution needs to be found. However, the assumption that obesity is necessarily problematic and that a higher body weight leads to health problems and social exclusion, is not without challenge. Critics of anti-obesity campaigns question the significance of weight per se and highlight the potential implications of discrediting not only fatness, but also the people who are seen as fat. This paper therefore explores the experiences of young people with obesity within the secondary school environment in relation to areas of concern prioritised by the HSP. The paper draws upon data from a qualitative research study involving 18 children and young people, between the ages of 10 and 17. Data were generated in focus group discussions and individual interview with participants of a community-based obesity intervention programme in South Yorkshire, UK. Data collection took place in 2005, and thematic analysis of the data was undertaken. Findings suggest that the issues prioritised in the HSP, particularly physical exercise and healthy eating, present challenges to young people with obesity and can reinforce their vulnerability to bullying in schools and contribute to their social exclusion. It concludes that social exclusion is a process experienced by, and pertinent to, children and young people, which has meaning for their experiences of, and during, childhood and youth. The whole-school approach of the HSP may fail to adequately address the experiences of marginalised and vulnerable groups of young people within schools, challenging and undermining the social inclusion agenda in which the programme is grounded and contributing to the construction of undesirable, fat, young bodies.

The peer-professional interface in a community-based, breast feeding peer-support project.

OBJECTIVE: to explore key elements of the peer-professional interface within one breast feeding peer-support project. DESIGN: a descriptive, qualitative study design. Data were generated through focus-group discussions with volunteer peer supporters and health professionals. SETTING: the Breastfriends scheme was a community-based, peer-support project located in Doncaster, a town in the North of England. PARTICIPANTS: all of the volunteer peer supporters who were involved in the scheme at the time of data collection (n=7). In addition, a convenience sample of health professionals (community midwives and health visitors [n=9]) was also generated. ANALYSIS: thematic analysis of the data was undertaken. Two key themes that have relevance to understanding the peer-professional interface were derived: benefits of working together, and constraints on enabling working relationships. FINDINGS: benefits associated with participating in the breast feeding peer-support scheme were highlighted by volunteers and health professionals. Volunteers experienced enhanced social support and increased self-esteem and personal development. Health professionals benefited from being able to 'spread the load' of breast feeding support. Some health professionals were also able to learn from volunteers' specialist experiential and cultural knowledge. Health professionals were concerned about volunteers transgressing (poorly defined) boundaries. Both volunteers and health professionals described gate-keeping activities and surveillance behaviours practised by health professionals in an effort to control aspects of volunteers' access to, and work with, breast feeding women. DISCUSSION: as a cohort of peer supporters develops, members may derive benefits from their participation that extend beyond those predicted and planned for in the project. They may also exert a proactive influence upon the evolution of the peer-support project and upon the relationships between volunteers and health professionals. However, midwives and health professionals may also seek to exert influence over the work of peer supporters, preferring the volunteers to work for, rather than with, them as health professionals. It is at the peer-professional interface that any disjuncture between the project ideal and the reality of the group may be most evident and most problematic. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: in order to reduce tension at the peer-professional interface, and optimise relationships between volunteers and health professionals, an ongoing process of development involving volunteers and health professionals is essential. Such a process would need to proactively identify and diffuse professionals' concerns while addressing both volunteers' vulnerabilities and their potential for semi-autonomous development within and beyond the context of the peer-support scheme.