Knowledge and attitudes toward Tay-Sachs disease among a college student population

To assess the feasibility of screening the single Jewish population for Tay-Sachs disease (TSD), a questionnaire examining the knowledge of and attitudes toward TSD and genetic screening was sent to 348 Yale University Jewish undergraduates. Of those students responding (63 percent), 78 percent were able to answer general genetic questions correctly while only 1.9 percent could answer specific Tay-Sachs questions correctly. A majority of the students (93.9 percent) indicated some concern about being a carrier for TSD, believed that carrier status would affect future social and reproductive behavior, and expressed an interest in having TS carrier status determined while still single (77.4 percent). Strong correlations were found between knowledge and attitudes, but no significant differences appeared between male and female respondents. In addition to leading to improvements in Tay-Sachs screening programs, the observations have led to suggestions that may be generalized to other genetic screening programs.

Beliefs, attitudes and the practice of breastfeeding among some urban parturient mothers

Data on knowledge and beliefs on preparation for breastfeeding, feelings toward breastfeeding, and conditions considered possible or not possible for breastfeeding were obtained from 216 women admitted for delivery in a major hospital. Follow-up questionnaires were sent to them 4-5 weeks after discharge to elicit data on details of feeding. Responses received from 91 women were analyzed to determine relationships among beliefs/knowledge, feelings, conditions, and breastfeeding. Results show that knowledge was positively related to conditions considered possible for breastfeeding and to a lesser extent to feelings, while feelings and conditions were not significantly correlated. Knowledge, intention to breastfeed, husband's support, and friends' support differentiated those who breastfeed from nonbreastfeeders. Knowledge, friends' support, and husband's support were associated with length of breastfeeding. Previous experience, intention, and husband's support was found to explain 44% of the variance in breastfeeding duration.

Efficacy of sex education courses in medical school

After nearly two decades of genesis, human sexuality has become a regular part of the curricula for most medical schools. Evaluation of sex education is less common and often hampered by the absence of appropriate control groups and misinterpretation of statistical analysis. To evaluate a new sex education course at Louisiana State University Medical Center, we compared pre- and postcourse sex knowledge and attitude SKAT scores of 136 sophomore medical students with those of 43 seniors who received no formal sex education. Consistent with prior studies, sophomore pre-post course score changes indicated statistically significant increases in sex knowledge, recognition of sexual myths, and more liberal attitudes toward masturbation, abortion and heterosexuality. The magnitude of postcourse changes, however, was small. Postcourse sophomores and seniors displayed almost no differences in sex knowledge or attitudes. Criteria for sex education evaluation, and whether the formal course in human sexuality actually and effectively enables a student ultimately to better fulfill his/her function as a physician are discussed.

Pill and IUD discontinuation in the United States, 1970-1975: the influence of the media

Analysis of the 1975 National Fertility Study data on pill and IUD discontinuation shows an upward trend in discontinuation rates for both methods between 1970 and 1975, with particularly sharp increases in pill discontinuation starting in 1972. Almost 40 percent of pill discontinuation was attributable to problems of use; three-fifths of these problems were physical. About one-quarter of pill discontinuation was for reasons other than problems of use. The single most common of these was that the woman wanted to become pregnant. Almost 40 percent of IUD discontinuation was due to method-related problems; only 13 percent was due to the women's desire to become pregnant, a finding which suggests that women do not use this method for childspacing. Examination of the relationship between pill and IUD discontinuation and unfavorable news stories about these two methods reveals that after specific news events, discontinuation rates for both methods tend to increase. Rates climb for 5-6 months following specific unfavorable news stories, with peaks in the rate of change in discontinuation reached 3-5 months after a pill-related story and 2-4 months after an IUD-related story. General media coverage of the adverse effects of pill use in particular (where general coverage is defined as the cumulative number of pill articles appearing between 1970 and 1975) accounts for 34 percent of the variance in pill discontinuation rates. This correlation is strongly suggestive of a causal relationship between general mass media coverage of the adverse effects of the pill and discontinuation rates for this method.

Contraception and adolescent pregnancy

To identify reasons for increasing numbers of pregnant adolescents, questionnaires were distributed to teenagers with unplanned pregnancies to determine the level of their knowledge of contraception. Findings revealed that 94% of the subjects had an adequate knowledge of availability, while only 43% had an adequate overall knowledge of contraception. Subjects reported many misconceptions about contraceptives and a general lack of motivation concerning contraceptive use.

Induced abortion in rural villages of Cavite, the Philippines: knowledge, attitudes, and practice

A survey of all married women aged 15-49 was conducted in 1976 in five rural villages in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. Of 676 respondents, 17 percent admitted that they had had at least one induced abortion. Hilots, physicians, and drugstores were the major providers of abortion, and the methods used ranged from oral tablet to herb, injection, D&C, and massage. About 12 percent of respondents were hospitalized with complications from abortion, signifying a serious public health problem. An upward trend of abortion over time was speculated. There was an age differential in reported abortion experience. A large minority was aware of how an abortion could be performed and believed that abortions were easily obtained in their communities. Half the respondents approved of abortion, and 57 percent stated incorrectly that abortion is legal.

Twenty-seven strategies for teaching contraception to adolescents

This article summarizes research on the effects of education on adolescents' contraceptive behaviors and suggests strategies to enhance teaching for contraception. Learning about birth control methods in sex education classes does not necessarily enable teenagers to use them effectively. In addition to needing accurate, unbiased information about contraceptive technology, teenagers need help in clarifying their values so that their social behaviors are congruent with their moral codes. Adolescents also benefit from understanding how contraception relates to sexual behavior and how family planning may enable them to become parents at the time of their choice. Twenty-seven strategies for teachers are listed, each one related to a particular contraceptive problem adolescents encounter.

Sex education and knowledge of pregnancy risk among U.S. teenage women

Seven in 10 never-married U.S. women aged 15-19 have had a sex education course, almost all of them in school. Young black women are slightly more likely than whites to have had such a course. About half of all never-married teenagers have had courses which included some teaching about modern contraceptive methods; six in 10 have had some formal instruction about VD, and seven in 10 have had courses that included detailed instruction about the monthly menstrual cycle. Six in 10 of those who have had a course with information on the menstrual cycle claim to know the period of greatest pregnancy risk; but only one-third of those who have had such a course can in fact correctly identify the time when the risk of pregnancy is highest. Young white women are nearly two times more likely than blacks to identify the period of risk correctly. Knowledge of the period of risk is a particularly important issue in relation to teenage pregnancy, because many sexually active teenagers say that they do not use contraception because they believe they are protected from the risk of pregnancy by the time of month when they have intercourse. Among those who claim to know the period of greatest risk, a sex education course is the most common source of information for both blacks and whites, with home a distant second. Medical personnel and facilities convey information about pregnancy risk the most effectively, but they are the first source for only a tiny fraction of teenagers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The application of market research in contraceptive social mass marketing in a rural area of Kenya

Because of the restricted nature of clinic systems, commercial channels and social marketing techniques are now being mobilized for family planning purposes. Market research is fundamental to the success of such programs. In addition to normal survey procedures and the limitations of analysis merely in terms of pairwise relationships, systems models are applied to the survey findings of a Kenya contraceptive social marketing experiment in order to gain insights into the enogenous and exogenous variables relating to consumer behavior using bivariate techniques. The results of such analysis on the survey findings are presented. The conclusion is drawn that model building methodologies as described for evaluating contraceptive social marketing programs do not present any significant difficulties and that it is a practical and useful technique that provides useful insights into the dynamics of adoption of socially desirable products such as contraceptives.

Fertility and family planning in rural northern Thailand

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, when fertility was declining in Thailand as a whole, especially rapid declines occurred in Northern Thailand, but they did not occur uniformly in all the region's provinces. The Northern Thailand Fertility Study, initiated in 1975 to study the reported fertility changes, gathered data in two provinces: Chiang Mai, where fertility decline has been quite rapid, and Chiang Rai, which experienced relatively little decline until 1974. This preliminary report discusses fertility levels and trends in the two provinces, fertility experience and expectations of respondents, attitudes toward and knowledge of family planning, and contraceptive practice. The results suggest that most of the difference in fertility decline is related to the different level of family planning program activity in the two provinces.