Dietary supplements in the USA: problematic trends.

More than 25 years have passed since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 classified dietary supplements as a subcategory of food, thereby exempting manufacturers from providing premarket evidence of product safety and efficacy. In this commentary, I discuss problems in the supplement industry through an examination of cases introduced or decided in US federal courts between 2010 and 2019. More than half the cases located involved defendants charged with introducing misbranded food or drugs into interstate commerce.

Parent-Child Communication regarding Sport-Related Concussion: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Extant research has discussed the importance of social climates surrounding sport-related concussion (SRC) reporting, especially the need to address parents/guardians' role in concussion management. This study explores parents/guardians' intentions toward SRC-related conversations with their children and their seeking of conversational resources via the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Data collected from 292 parents/guardians of 1-12 graders who play contact sports are examined via a structural equation model.

Attitudes toward legalization of marijuana in the United States, 1986-2016: Changes in determinants of public opinion.

Background: Based on recent research in political science, which has conceptualized political party affiliation as a form of social identity, the present study examined political ideology, party affiliation, and associated control measures as determinants of attitudes toward marijuana legalization. The research, which examined attitudes at 16 points in time across a 30-year period, anticipated an increasingly important role for party affiliation, given increased partisanship in the United States.

Methods: Drawing on data gathered in the General Social Survey, the study used binary logistic regression analysis to test the explanatory effects of ideology, affiliation and control measures on support for marijuana legalization.

Athlete Information Sources About Dietary Supplements: A Review of Extant Research.

In the United States, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) classified dietary supplements as a subcategory of food, exempting manufacturers from providing premarket evidence of product safety and efficacy. Under DSHEA, agencies such as the U.S.

Psychosocial Correlates of Dietary Supplement Use: Results from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States.

Drawing on data gathered in the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, this study examined internal and external locus of control, self-esteem, neuroticism, perceived health status, uniqueness, and somatic amplification as correlates of dietary supplement use. With sex, race, and age measures also included in the study, bivariate analyses showed greater supplement use among women and older respondents as well as those scoring higher on internal locus of control, self-esteem, perceived health status, and somatic amplification. Regression analyses identified sex and internal locus of control as the strongest predictors.

Adolescent perceptions of alcohol risk: variation by sex, race, student activity levels and parental communication.

Drawing on data gathered from adolescents (N = 18,991) in the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), this study examined the effects of sex and race, as well as measures of student activity levels and frequency of recognition from parents, on perceptions of the risks associated with binge drinking. Overall, female, Black, Asian, and Hispanic adolescents, as well as individuals who indicated belonging to more than one race, perceived higher levels of risk. Male, White, and Native American/Alaskan/Pacific Islander respondents perceived lower risk levels.

Trends in serotypes and sequence types among cases of invasive pneumococcal disease in Scotland, 1999-2010.

Introduction: The 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevenar(®), Wyeth; PCV7) was introduced to the UK paediatric immunisation schedule in 2006. This study investigates trends in serotypes and multi locus sequence types (STs) among cases of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in Scotland prior to, and following, the introduction of PCV7.

Methods: Scottish Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Enhanced Surveillance has records of all cases of IPD in Scotland since 1999.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids and adolescents: recent developments.

Despite their classification as a Schedule III Controlled Substance, anabolic-androgenic steroids continue to be used by adolescents who seek increased muscularity as well as enhanced athletic performance. Although the potential side effects of steroids are relatively well known, problems with counterfeit substances and steroid-spiked dietary supplements have received less attention. Drawing on scholarly literature and reports from government units such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, this article addresses those issues and makes recommendations for communicating with adolescents about the use of steroids.

Perceptions among occupational and physical therapy students of a nontraditional methodology for teaching laboratory gross anatomy.

This pilot study was designed to assess the perceptions of physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) students regarding the use of computer-assisted pedagogy and prosection-oriented communications in the laboratory component of a human anatomy course at a comprehensive health sciences university in the southeastern United States. The goal was to determine whether student perceptions changed over the course of a summer session regarding verbal, visual, tactile, and web-based teaching methodologies. Pretest and post-test surveys were distributed online to students who volunteered to participate in the pilot study.

Association between narcotic use and anabolic-androgenic steroid use among American adolescents.

Drawing on the data gathered in the 2006 Monitoring the Future study of American youth, the present research examines associations between use of narcotics and use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) among high-school seniors (n = 2,489). With independent measures and controls including sex, race, media exposure, socializing with friends, participation in recreational and school-sponsored sports, perceptions of drug use among professional athletes, and perceptions of steroid use among close friends, binary logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between AAS use and the use of alcohol, crack cocaine, Vicodin, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), Ketamine, and Rohypnol. While use of both AASs and the narcotic drugs generally did not eclipse 5% of the sample, the numbers extend to many thousands in larger populations.

Determinants of anabolic-androgenic steroid risk perceptions in youth populations: a multivariate analysis.

Grounded conceptually in social cognitive theory, this research examines how personal, behavioral, and environmental factors are associated with risk perceptions of anabolic-androgenic steroids. Ordinal logistic regression and logit log-linear models applied to data gathered from high-school seniors (N = 2,160) in the 2005 Monitoring the Future study showed significant explanatory effects for sex, race, exposure to drug spots, steroid availability, peer use of steroids, sensation-seeking, depression, and self-esteem. Females, African Americans, and those who had seen drug spots the most frequently estimated higher levels of risk associated with steroid use, while those who indicated ease in obtaining steroids and those with close friends who had used the drugs estimated lower risk.

Differing effects of mass and interpersonal communication on breast cancer risk estimates: an exploratory study of college students and their mothers.

Research has demonstrated that women tend to overestimate the percentage of all breast cancers that result from genetic predispositions, and this article examines the knowledge of college students, as well as their mothers, on this subject, applying uncertainty management (Brashers, 2001) as the theoretical framework. The authors build on the literature by studying (a) the types of media outlets college students and their mothers use for securing information, and (b) the types of articles and programs within those outlets that may affect risk perceptions. The authors also address associations between these mass communication measures and interpersonal sources of information in the context of risk estimation.

The Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004: a study in the political economy of drug policy.

This article examines the processes by which the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, an act that added steroid precursors such as androstenedione to the list of Schedule III Controlled Substances in the United States, came to pass in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Grounded theoretically in political economy, the article addresses, in the abstract, how the interplay of political pressures and economic influences stands to affect the actions of public officials, and how "tougher" drug policies-those touted to be more substantive and efficacious than existing regulations-often fail to effect change. The article concludes with implications for those involved in the regulation of anabolic steroids and steroid precursors.

Serotype incidence and antibiotic susceptibility of Streptococcus pneumoniae causing invasive disease in Scotland, 1999-2002.

Pneumococcal disease remains an important cause of invasive and non-invasive disease in Scotland and elsewhere. The Scottish Meningococcus and Pneumococcus Reference Laboratory receives isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from diagnostic laboratories around Scotland. Here, the serogroups/types and antibiotic-susceptibility patterns of invasive isolates received between 1999 and 2002 are described.

Laboratory confirmation of meningococcal disease in Scotland, 1993-9.

Aims: To describe the laboratory confirmation of meningococcal disease, using culture and non-culture based techniques, between 1993 and 1999 as part of a national service in Scotland.

Methods: Samples from patients with suspected meningococcal disease in Scotland were analysed by culture and non-culture based techniques to gain a laboratory confirmation of disease. Data were analysed to establish the number of disease cases, the serogroups of the organisms involved, and the importance of the techniques used.

Bronchoscopically administered recombinant human DNase for lobar atelectasis in cystic fibrosis.

Lobar atelectasis is a common complication of cystic fibrosis. The majority of cases respond to intravenous antibiotics and chest physiotherapy. In a subgroup of patients, atelectasis is resistant to medical therapy, and its persistence in the pediatric population is associated with a poor prognosis.

Meningococcal disease due to serogroup Y in Scotland, 1992-1999.

Meningococcal disease is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. A retrospective analysis was performed of all cases of invasive group-Y disease that were laboratory-confirmed in Scotland between 1992 and 1999. A total of 1881 meningococcal isolates were characterised, 78 of which were serogroup Y.

The Irish cystic fibrosis database.

We have found records of 1014 Irish cystic fibrosis patients alive by December 1994, belonging to 883 families. Prevalence in the population is 1/3475 and incidence at birth 1/1461, with a gene frequency of 2.6%.

Eleven year review of infective endocarditis.

Twenty children were treated for infective endocarditis (IE) at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children during an eleven year period from January 1980 to December 1990. One child had I.E.

10 year review of cardiac tumours in childhood.

Objective: To review the commonest types of cardiac tumours in childhood, their different presentations, and management.

Design: A retrospective study of patients with cardiac tumours.

Setting: Cardiac department of a teaching hospital.

Intussusception in cystic fibrosis.

Two cases of acute intussusception in older children with cystic fibrosis are reported. Both cases presented with symptoms and signs consistent with meconium ileus equivalent, which delayed the final diagnosis. Both cases required abdominal surgery but made full and uneventful recoveries.

Cardiac surgery in Down syndrome.

Between January 1976 and December 1987 42 children with Down syndrome and congenital heart disease underwent cardiac surgery. Four children had two operations. Age at the time of surgery ranged from 11 days to 14 years.

Cardiovascular manifestations in Kawasaki disease.

Thirteen patients with Kawasaki disease were reviewed. The average age at presentation was 31 months (range: 6 weeks to 8 years). Mean follow up was 36 months, with a range of 5 to 53 months.