The potential negative impact of sexual abuse prevention programs on children remains a central concern in the field of sexual abuse prevention. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of two prevention programs in improving children's abilities to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate types of touching. Two hundred sixty-four kindergarten through third-grade children from three public schools in San Diego were randomly assigned by classroom to one of three treatments: (1) a role-play-based sexual abuse prevention program, (2) a multimedia child abuse prevention program, or (3) a control group receiving fire prevention training. The results indicated greater pre- to posttest improvement for the role-play group than for the control group on total correct touch discriminations. Although there is concern that sexual abuse prevention programs may make children suspicious of appropriate touch, the present study found children in the role-play group better able to discriminate appropriate touch after training than before. The results are discussed in light of current findings in the child sexual abuse prevention literature.

No abstract

No abstract

Coaching can increase Latino adolescents' adherence to treatment for latent tuberculosis infection and should contribute to tuberculosis control for adolescents at high risk of contracting the disease.

Of 1,811 individuals sampled in a metropolitan community, 382 reported having a musculoskeletal complaint. Eighty-four percent of them had used an unconventional remedy within the previous 6 months. Most individuals used inexpensive, unharmful remedies such as exercise, prayer, and relaxation. This study indicates that people with musculoskeletal disorders often use unconventional remedies, but raises questions regarding the seriousness of this problem.

Despite decades of research surrounding determinants of alcohol and tobacco (A&T) use among adolescents, built environment influences have only recently been explored. This study used ordinal regression on 205 Latino adolescents to explore the influence of the built environment (proximity to A&T retailers) on A&T use, while controlling for recognized social predictors. The sample was 45% foreign-born. A&T use was associated with distance from respondents’ home to the nearest A&T retailer (−), acculturation (+), parents’ consistent use of contingency management (−), peer use of A&T (+), skipping school (+), attending school in immediate proximity to the US/Mexico border (+), and the interaction between the distance to the nearest retailer and parents’ consistent use of contingency management (+). The association between decreasing distance to the nearest A&T retailer and increased A&T use in Latino adolescents reveals an additional risk behavior determinant in the US–Mexico border region.

Timely diagnosis of HIV is essential to improve survival rates and reduce transmission of the virus. Insufficient progress has been made in effecting earlier HIV diagnoses. The Mexican border city of Tijuana has one of the highest AIDS incidence and mortality rates in all of Mexico. This study examined the prevalence and potential correlates of late HIV testing in Tijuana, Mexico. Late testers were defined as participants who had at least one of: (1) an AIDS-defining illness within 1 year of first positive HIV test; (2) a date of AIDS diagnosis within 1 year of first positive HIV test; or (3) an initial CD4 cell count below 200 cells per microliter within 1 year of first positive HIV test. Medical charts of 670 HIV-positive patients from two HIV/AIDS public clinics in Tijuana were reviewed and abstracted; 362 of these patients were interviewed using a cross-sectional survey. Using multivariate logistic regression, we explored potential correlates of late HIV testing based on the Behavioral Ecological Model. From 342 participants for whom late testing could be determined, the prevalence of late testing was 43.2%. Multivariate logistic regression results (n = 275) revealed five significant correlates of late testing: "I preferred not to know I had HIV" (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.78, 1.46-5.31); clinic (AOR = 1.90, 1.06-3.41); exposure to peers engaging in high-risk sexual behavior (AOR = 1.14, 1.02-1.27); stigma regarding HIV-infected individuals (AOR = 0.65, 0.47-0.92); and stigma regarding HIV testing (AOR = 0.66, 0.45-0.97). These findings may inform the design of interventions to increase timely HIV testing and help reduce HIV transmission in the community at large.

No abstract