Changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge among early adolescents in Puerto Rico.

INTRODUCTION: One of the factors that influences HIV risk behavior among early adolescents is their HIV/AIDS knowledge. The objectives of this study were 1) to describe the sociodemographic features and HIV/AIDS knowledge among Puerto Rican early adolescents participating in the ASUMA (A Supportive Model for HIV Risk Reduction in Early Adolescents) project; and 2) to assess changes in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS within the intervention and nonintervention groups after the first year of the study. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study of 173 early adolescents after 12 months of participation in the ASUMA project. The setting of the study was four junior high schools. Baseline and follow-up self-administered questionnaires were issued to the entire study group. The first workshop was developed directed to increase HIV/AIDS knowledge and decrease vulnerability in the group assigned to the intervention. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed. RESULTS: 47% of adolescents were cases and 52.6% controls. Most adolescents were 12 years old; 50.3% were boys and 49.7% were girls; 78.6% believe that they could have a good conversation with their parents; and 26.3% reported alcohol use at any time in their lives. A significant increase in HIV/AIDS knowledge was found among adolescents from the intervention group (P < .001), while a nonsignificant increase was found among control adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: An increase in HIV/AIDS knowledge was observed among adolescents who participated in the first year of the ASUMA project. This study illustrates the importance of the creation of culturally appropriate instruments and interventions to reduce HIV infection in adolescents.

Perception of parents regarding their children's weight.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in 2003 was 63.6% in P.R. and 60.1% in USA. An overweight school-aged child with an obese parent has over 70% chance of being obese in young adulthood. OBJECTIVES: To study perceptions of parents about their children's weight and to determine which factors are associated with parent's failure to perceive when their children are overweight. METHODS: Cross sectional survey, the sample was population of children and their parents, selected by availability, between 4-12 years old in elementary schools (private and public schools), N=234. The instrument was a self-administered questionnaire of 23 questions. SSPS version 10.0 was used for analysis with significance of p<0.05. RESULTS: 51% of parents perceived themselves overweight while they perceived their children in adequate weight (62%), so they don't get professional help. There's no significant difference between genders and schools. The study revealed that children's weight follows the role modeling of their parents (p<0.001). In BMI curve (>85%) showed that 84.3% children have at least one parent with overweight (ow) or obesity (ob) while 15.7% children have no parent with ow/ob (p<0.05). Study showed that 33% of parents do nothing about their children's weight. Parents consider themselves to be responsible for childhood obesity. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the parents does not perceive their children at risk of becoming overweight or be overweight, so they do not get help early.