BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is a major public health problem in Malawi. The age-standardized incidence and mortality rates are estimated to be 75.9 and 49.8 per 100,000 population, respectively. The availability of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine presents an opportunity to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with cervical cancer. In 2013, the country introduced a school-class-ba...

Materials and methods Design: cross-sectional study. Population: 187 consecutive adolescent girls with idiopathic scoliosis (mean Cobb angle 26°, range 11-73°, age 15.2±2.5; 24% juveniles, 76% adolescent type); 93 school girl controls (age 14.9±1.0). All the subjects answered the Italian validated questionnaire EAT-26 about eating habitude in order to retrieve eating disorders. BMI was calculat...

Background: menarche is one of the most significant milestones in a woman’s life with nutritional status being one of the important non genetic determinants of menarcheal age. Objective: to determine the relationship between age at menarche and anthropometric measurements among adolescent secondary school girls in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Methods: four hundred and seventy nine adolescent girls w...

BACKGROUND A school-based physical activity intervention designed to encourage adolescent girls to be more active was more effective for some participants than for others. We examined whether baseline enjoyment of exercise moderated response to the intervention. METHODS Adolescent girls with a low level of baseline activity who participated in a controlled trial of an intervention to promote ...

BACKGROUND Many adult cigarette smokers initiated the habit as adolescents. Adolescent tobacco use may be a marker of other unhealthy behaviours. There are limited data on the prevalence and correlates of cigarette smoking among in-school adolescents in Iraq. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of, and assess the socio-demographic correlates of current cigarette smoking among in-school adolesce...

BACKGROUND To successfully develop and implement school-based sexual health interventions for adolescent girls, such as screening for Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Trichomonas vaginalis, it is important to understand parents' and teachers' attitudes towards sexual health education and acceptability of sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening interventions. METHODS In...

INTRODUCTION Sports and physical activity are major components of a healthy lifestyle. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between sport and physical activity and alcohol consumption among adolescent students based on gender. POPULATION AND METHODS Descriptive, crosssectional, comparative study conducted in adolescent students (aged between 14 and 17 years old) from th...

Family structure is associated with a range of adolescent risk behaviours, with those living in both parent families generally faring best. This study describes the association between family structure and adolescent risk behaviours and assesses the role of the family meal. Data from the 2006 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey were modelled using Multilevel Binomial modelling for s...

This was a cross-sectional study to examine the attitudes of Kenyan in-school adolescents towards premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies/abortions and contraception. Data collection was undertaken using a structured questionnaire. Kenyan in-school adolescents have conservative attitudes toward premarital sex, disagreeing that adolescent boy and girls should be left alone to satisfy their sexual n...

Historically, research has portrayed adolescent sexuality as a source of problems and risks rather than an integral aspect of human development. This is particularly true with regard to research on adolescent girls, traditionally cast as sexual gatekeepers whose primary task is to fend off boys’ sexual overtures and set aside their own sexual desires in order to reduce their risks for pregnancy...