The causal attributions of nursing students towards adolescent survivors of brain injury

Background: The hidden nature of brain injury means that it is often difficult for people to understand the sometimes challenging behaviors that individuals exhibit. The misattribution of these behaviors may lead to a lack of consideration and public censure if the individual is seen as simply misbehaving.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the impact of visual cues indicating the presence or absence of brain injury on prejudice, desire for social interaction, and causal attributions of nursing and computing science students.

Method: An independent-groups design was employed in this research, which recruited 190 first-year nursing students and 194 first-year computing science students from a major university in Belfast, UK. A short passage describing an adolescent’s behavior after a brain injury, together with one of three images portraying a young adolescent with a scar, a head dressing, or neither of these, was given to participants. They were then asked to answer questions relating to prejudice, social interaction, locus of control, and causal attributions. The attributional statements suggested that the character’s behavior could be the result of brain injury or adolescence.

Results: Analysis of variance demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the student groups, where nursing students (M = 45.17, SD = 4.69) desired more social interaction with the fictional adolescent than their computer science peers (M = 38.64, SD = 7.69). Further, analysis of variance showed a main effect of image on the attributional statement that described adolescence as a suitable explanation for the character’s lack of self-confidence.

Discussion: Attributions of brain injury were influenced by the presence of a visible but potentially specious indicator of injury. This suggests that survivors of brain injury who do not display any outward indicator may receive less care and face expectations to behave in a manner consistent with the norms of society. If their injury does not allow them to meet with these expectations, they may face public censure and discrimination.

Epidemiology of Adolescent Rugby Injuries: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE: Despite recent increases in the volume of research in professional rugby union, there is little consensus on the epidemiology of injury in adolescent players. We undertook a systematic review to determine the incidence, severity, and nature of injury in adolescent rugby union players.

DATA SOURCES: In April 2009, we performed a computerized literature search on PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (via Ovid). Population-specific and patient-specific search terms were combined in the form of MEDLINE subject headings and key words (wound$ and injur$, rugby, adolescent$). These were supplemented with related-citation searches on PubMed and bibliographic tracking of primary and review articles.

STUDY SELECTION: Prospective epidemiologic studies in adolescent rugby union players.

DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 15 studies were included, and the data were analyzed descriptively. Two independent reviewers extracted key study characteristics regarding the incidence, severity, and nature of injuries and the methodologic design.

CONCLUSIONS: Wide variations existed in the injury definitions and data collection procedures. The incidence of injury necessitating medical attention varied with the definition, from 27.5 to 129.8 injuries per 1000 match hours. The incidence of time-loss injury (>7 days) ranged from 0.96 to 1.6 per 1000 playing hours and from 11.4/1000 match hours (>1 day) to 12-22/1000 match hours (missed games). The highest incidence of concussion was 3.3/1000 playing hours. No catastrophic injuries were reported. The head and neck, upper limb, and lower limb were all common sites of injury, and trends were noted toward greater time loss due to upper limb fractures or dislocations and knee ligament injuries. Increasing age, the early part of the playing season, and the tackle situation were most closely associated with injury. Future injury-surveillance studies in rugby union must follow consensus guidelines to facilitate interstudy comparisons and provide further clarification as to where injury-prevention strategies should be focused.

Alcohol and the affluence paradox: A secondary analysis exploring the health disparities surrounding adolescent alcohol use and alcohol related harm in adulthood

Several studies have shown social differences in alcohol consumption, and social inequalities of harm related to alcohol use and abuse. However, relationships between the position in the socio-economic spectrum, alcohol use, and alcohol-related health problems are not clear cut. While there is some evidence of social gradients or associations between indicators of deprivation and some adolescence outcomes (e.g. externalising behaviour), the evidence regarding associations between socio-economic status and alcohol-related problems in adolescence is more conflicting. A major problem in studying socio-economic inequalities in adolescent health is related to the paucity of measures of socio-economic status in adolescence that are both conceptually and methodologically sound.
The aims of this study were to investigate socio-economic differences in pathways from onset to establishment of drinking patterns in adolescence, assess the consequences of these pathways in terms of alcohol related harm, and to consider the causal mechanisms that may contribute to socio-economic differences in drinking pathways and outcomes

Adolescent part-time work and heavy drinking in Finland

Aims To examine the relationship between part-time work and heavy drinking among Finnish adolescents.

Deformed wing virus and drone mating flights in the honey bee (Apis mellifera): implications for sexual transmission of a major honey bee virus

Deformed wing virus (DWV) represents an ideal model to study the interaction between mode of transmission and virulence in honey bees since it exhibits both horizontal and vertical transmissions. However, it is not yet clear if venereal-vertical transmission represents a regular mode of transmission for this virus in natural honey bee populations. Here, we provide clear evidence for the occurrence of high DWV titres in the endophallus of sexually mature drones collected from drone congregation areas (DCAs). Furthermore, the endophallus DWV titres of drones collected at their maternal hives were no different from drones collected at nearby DCAs, suggesting that high-titre DWV infection of the endophallus does not hinder the ability of drones to reach the mating area. The results are discussed within the context of the dispersal of DWV between colonies and the definition of DWV virulence with respect to the transmission route and the types of tissues infected.