Adolescent HIV Screening and Opt-Out Testing as a Standard of Care.

Despite the significant steps made in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV, there is still a notable amount of people living with HIV without being diagnosed, with a fair portion of these infections occurring in adolescents and young adults. For some individuals, by the time they are diagnosed they are living with advanced-staged disease, missing the opportunity for receiving antiretroviral treatment that would have markedly reduced their morbidity, mortality, and risk of transmission to others. Opt-out testing, or notifying the patient the test will be performed unless explicitly declined or deferred, increases the rates of testing while reducing the stigma of the disease. It is a universal recommendation for those between ages 13 and 55 years to have an HIV screening test. It should be standard of care for HIV tests in the adolescent population to be structured as an opt-out screening in both the ambulatory and acute care settings. [Pediatr Ann. 2024;53(4):e111-e113.].

Structured Examination of the Scrotum and Penis.

Primary care pediatricians, family practitioners, and primary care advanced practice clinicians frequently need to examine male adolescent genitalia as part of a comprehensive physical examination. Although this part of the examination may be uncomfortable for clinicians, taking a structured approach to the examination can mitigate clinicians' apprehension as well as enhance their ability to use this evaluation to identify potential pathology for the patient. Familiarity with the male genitourinary examination will also allow clinicians to definitively identify medical urgencies and emergencies for timely intervention. This review will provide the clinician with a structured approach to the male genitourinary examination while highlighting common pathology that may be encountered during the examination. [Pediatr Ann. 2024;53(1):e5-e9.].

Updated Sexually Transmitted Infections Guidelines.

One of our most persistent public health concerns continues to be sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their sequelae. A large portion of STIs occur in adolescents and young adults, and with serious consequences such as infertility and systemic disease, it is paramount that public health and clinical-level initiatives focus on this demographic. Recently, there has been growing evidence for antimicrobial resistance in strains of gonorrhea and chlamydia, which has provided the need to update treatment guidelines to prevent continued resistance and decrease the rate of treatment failure. In addition to these updates, providers need to remain vigilant in having conversations with their patients about sexual behaviors with risk for acquiring STIs, in counseling on preventive methods, and in practicing routine screening for patients of various backgrounds, including those of marginalized communities who experience STIs at a higher rate. [Pediatr Ann. 2023;52(7):e244-e246.].

Trauma-Informed Care and How Social Media Contributes to Trauma.

Trauma has become an important part of medical care as we continue to understand further its effects on health over time. Trauma-informed care therefore has become a necessary part of medical services. Understanding the fundamentals of trauma-informed care and how it was developed is crucial to implementing this care into medical training and across all medical services involved in children's health. This leads to the framework created for the public health approach of trauma-informed care, with primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of management. Social media has also increasingly been implicated in contributing to trauma, including causing vicarious trauma, which can be just as detrimental to health and wellness. If we can encourage advocating for trauma-informed care training and policies across medical services, we can create a system with a focus on this growing factor in health care. [Pediatr Ann. 2023;52(3):e78-e80.].

Divergence of Age-Related Differences in Social-Communication: Improvements for Typically Developing Youth but Declines for Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Although social-communication difficulties and repetitive behaviors are hallmark features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and persist across the lifespan, very few studies have compared age-related differences in these behaviors between youth with ASD and same-age typically developing (TD) peers. We examined this issue using SRS-2 (Social Responsiveness Scale-Second Edition) measures of social-communicative functioning and repetitive behaviors in a stratified cross-sectional sample of 324 youth with ASD in the absence of intellectual disability, and 438 TD youth (aged 4-29 years). An age-by-group interaction emerged indicating that TD youth exhibited age-related improvements in social-communication scores while the ASD group demonstrated age-related declines in these scores. This suggests that adolescents/adults with ASD may fall increasingly behind their same-age peers in social-communicative skills.

A Preliminary Study of Self-Reported Food Selectivity in Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Although it is well-established that picky eating is a common feature of early development in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), far less is known about food selectivity during adolescence and adulthood. Using portions of the Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile, food selectivity self-ratings were obtained from 65 high-functioning adolescents/young adults with ASD and compared to those of 59 typically developing controls matched on age, IQ, and sex ratio. Individuals with ASD reported preferring familiar foods (food neophobia) and disliking foods with particular textures and strong flavors. Providing linkage to everyday behavior, parent ratings of daily living skills were lower among individuals with ASD and food neophobia than among those without food neophobia. Food selectivity continues to be an important issue for adolescents/young adults with ASD.