Posts Tagged ‘adolescent health’

A study published in the March, 2010 edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine suggests that children who spend more time engaged with electronic communication and entertainment mediums such as cellphones, televisions and computers, form lower quality relationships with their families and peers. Conversely, teens who spend more time reading and doing homework reported a higher level of attachment to parents. Overall, the more screen time teens get, the more difficulty they had in forming relationships or emotional bonds with others. The authors theorize that spending more time interacting with screen-based activities prevent teens from interacting with those around them. “However, it is also possible that adolescents with poor attachment relationships with immediate friends and family use screen-based activities to facilitate new attachment figures such as online friendships or parasocial relationships with television characters or personalities,” the authors write. Can modern technology really impact social development, psychological and physical well-being? Certainly. But, could there be positive benefits of screen time as well? [via PHYSORG]

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Infectious disease physicians are warning that commonly used rapid HIV tests may not be the best initial exam to rule out HIV in teenagers. Often times teenagers arrive at the physician’s office complaining of flu-like symptoms – sore throat, fatigue, fever, joint and muscle aches. However, acute HIV infection can present exactly as such; this is known as Acute Retroviral Syndrome (ARS). Often times a physician will order a rapid HIV test to rule out ARS,  forgetting that rapid HIV tests detect antibodies to the HIV virus, which will not have been produced in detectable quantities until weeks later. Rather, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test should be ordered instead, which directly detects the HIV virus itself. This is should be the case for adults as well. If a health care provider has high suspicion that a patient may be HIV positive and is presenting with symptoms of ARS, they should think twice before ordering a rapid HIV test and opt for a PCR test.

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