Childhood Aggressive Behavior Leads To Alcohol Abuse

Continual aggressive behavior from childhood through late adolescence is a significant predictor of adult alcohol use and abuse, a new University of Michigan study indicates.
In comparison to childhood and adolescent aggression, some variables often thought of as risk factors, such as problems in the family and parents’ poor educational background, are weak predictors of children drinking alcohol later in life as adults, said the study’s lead author Eric Dubow, an adjunct research scientist at U-M’s Institute for Social Research.
"Impulsive, aggressive children seem to have an underlying personality characteristic that manifests itself in a range of later life problem behaviors, including alcohol use and abuse," Dubow said.
"Consequently, it is important for parents to recognize these as problems in their children that need attention. These children need to be taught how to inhibit their impulses and control themselves early in life," he said.
U-M researchers used data from the Columbia County Longitudinal Study, a 40-year project of the development of aggression and competence across generations. The study sampled third graders in Columbia County, NY in 1960, then age 8, until 2000 when they were age 48.
Data collected on the study’s participants included measures of aggression, popularity, and IQ tests at age 8; assessment of aggression, popularity, depression and educational attainment at age 19; and reports of alcohol use and problem drinking at ages 30 and 48.
By age 30, men reported a higher frequency and quantity of alcohol use–on average approximately 2 to 4 times a week, 3 to 4 drinks per sitting–compared with females, who consumed alcohol on average once per week, 3 drinks per sitting.
However, at ages 30 and 48, both males and females who had been high on aggression earlier in life reported significantly more alcohol use and problems with alcohol. Participants were not asked to specify if the beverage was liquor, beer, or wine.
The study also found that two sets of variables traditionally viewed as protective factors in the development of problem behavior actually increased the likelihood of alcohol use or alcohol problems.
"First, intellectual achievement (IQ at age 8 and educational attainment at age 19) predicted higher use of alcohol at age 48," said co-author L. Rowell Huesmann, Amos N. Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies & Psychology. "Second, greater popularity throughout childhood and adolescence was linked to greater alcohol use in early (age 30) adulthood and problem drinking in middle adulthood (age 48)."
The surprising positive relation between education and quantity of drinking may be what Huesmann calls "a wine effect."
"We assessed the quantity of beverage consumed and not the type of alcohol," he said. "Quite probably, higher education is associated with greater wine consumption, and that produces the relation."
On the other hand, Huesmann says that greater childhood and adolescent popularity predict more alcohol problems as an adult because drinking is often done in social groups than alone.

Risks for City Bicyclists Identified in New Study

Riding a bicycle may be good for your health but the city streets can be dangerous for bicyclists.
A new study presented at the 2010 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Washington DC noted the city streets are particularly dangerous for bicyclists who are young adult males, don’t wear helmets, have had too much to drink, or are listening to music through earphones.
The study commissioned by the State of New York looks at injuries bicyclists sustain in motor vehicle crashes.
Spiros Frangos, MD, MPH, FACS and colleagues presented the preliminary results from the first year of a three-year study. In early analysis of 143 bicyclists injured in traffic crashes, the researchers aimed to identify contributing risk factors.
Of injured cyclists, 87% were men, 96% were over age 18, 76% weren’t wearing helmets, 13% were intoxicated, and 5% were listening to music.
Frangos stated, “The most interesting things are the number of cyclists who have alcohol in their system, and the number of cyclists who wear helmets is unbelievably low.”
New York State law requires all cyclists 13 and younger to wear helmets, yet only 24% of the injured bicyclists were found to be wearing one at the time of injury.
Of those injured, 41% were noted to have sustained injuries on the job. Even with New York City’s mandate of helmets on all working cyclists only about one-third of those working cyclists (32%) were wearing helmets.
When looking at the nature of the bicycle-motor vehicle accidents, the study found 18% of the injured cyclists were using a bike lane, 17% collided with a vehicle door, and 17% of the incidents were hit-and-run. Taxi cabs accounted for 35% of bicyclists’ injuries.
The investigators have been sharing their data with the state and city departments of transportation and health as well as the New York Police Department. They are also seeking a state grant that would have practitioners speak to community groups to reinforce bicycle safety measures and prevent further traumatic injuries to bicyclists..

Residue from cigarette smoke may pose health hazard, study says

The scent of cigarette smoke is stubborn, clinging to clothes, walls and hair. Now scientists are beginning to explore the health threats of “third-hand smoke,” or the residue left behind after the smoke clears.
In a study published Monday, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists showed how tobacco smoke lingering on surfaces chemically reacts with air, releasing potentially harmful substances.
Much has been made of the perils of secondhand smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General estimated in 2006 that it causes 50,000 deaths a year. But the idea of third-hand smoke is relatively new. The phrase was coined last year in the journal Pediatrics.
“Many people think that after the smoke is gone things are clean, but that is probably not the case,” said Hugo Destaillats, the study’s co- author.
Destaillats and his colleagues exposed cellulose, a material present in many household objects, to cigarette smoke and then nitrous acid, a molecule found in the air.
After several hours of exposure, they found the cellulose had 10 times the amount of tobacco-specific carcinogens than it did originally. The scientists also found high levels of a particle that is not present in freshly emitted tobacco smoke.
Destaillats said toxicologists will have to look into whether this new particle is harmful to humans.
Kent Pinkerton, an inhalation toxicologist at UC Davis Medical School, said it is, noting that cigarette smoke has 4,000 components, with toxic particles that end up on surfaces that can release them through simple touch.
Third-hand smoke is most harmful for children, he said.
“It’s not only because of what children breathe in, but because the smoke deposits itself,” he said. “Children are very oral and they put things in their mouths, so they would expose themselves to toxic particles by ingestion as well.”
California’s smoking rates are below the national average: 13.3 percent of adults smoke, compared to the national average of 21 percent.
California also has been at the forefront of secondhand smoke policies, outlawing, for example, smoking in a car with a child passenger. Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced $4.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for health and fitness initiatives, including expanding programs to decrease tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure.
Much needs to be done in other areas of tobacco control, said Paul Knepprath from the American Lung Association. He would like to see smoking banned in all apartment buildings, which could have third-hand smoke implications.
The Berkeley study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and was funded by the University of California Tobacco-Related Diseases Research Program.

Turning Clocks Back Not Good for Your Health

It’s time once again for turning clocks back, and some say they relish the extra time to sleep. But an expert at Policy Studies Institute, as well as Saga research results, say that turning clocks back is not good for your health.

Turning clocks back impacts physical and mental health

According to Mayer Hillman, senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute, putting clocks forward in the spring is a simple way to improve health because it increases the number of daylight hours and thus encourages people to be outside and participate in outdoor activities. Turning clocks back, however, has the opposite effect.
Given the growing problem of overweight and obesity among both children and adults, as well as weight-associated health challenges such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain cancers, efforts to encourage physical activity are critically important.
Mayer notes in a “Personal View” section of the recent British Medical Journal that putting the clock ahead in the spring but not turning it back in the fall “would considerably increase opportunities for outdoor leisure activities—about 300 additional hours of daylight for adults each year and 200 more for children.”
Research indicates that individuals tend to be happier and have more energy when there is more daylight and to be more sad and lethargic when there is less daylight. In fact, a type of depression known as SAD—Seasonal Affective Disorder—is associated with a decline in sunlight during the winter months.
In a recent article in the UK Telegraph, it is also reported that Saga’s monthly poll of more than 13,000 people older than 50, two-thirds are in favor of not turning back clocks in the fall to avoid the isolation they feel during the longer days without sunlight.
According to Ros Altmann, Saga’s director-general, “Taking away the extra hour of daylight robs many of their independence. By staying indoors to avoid driving they are being isolated from friends and family.” Saga’s research has shown that two-thirds of people older than 50 are less likely to go out on dark evenings, 40 percent said they were more depressed by dark evenings, nearly 25 percent were “grumpier,” and they exercised less.
For many people, the approach of winter is also the time for turning clocks back. Some argue that it may be time to forego this tradition because it is not beneficial for our health. Officials will have an extra hour or so to sleep on that question.