Percentage of US Adults Who Looked up Health Information on the Internet in the Past Year, by Type of Locality

Via:  http://goo.gl/BoVOj7  By:  https://twitter.com/cdcmmwr

Case Study of Posts Before & After a Suicide on a Swedish Internet Forum

Websites and discussion forums have become an important and sometimes controversial source of information on suicide. Using a case report, our aim was to examine the responses, attitudes and beliefs that were communicated on a forum before, during and after a suicide act. 

We undertook two related analyses: a qualitative investigation of the messages that were posted before the suicide and a combined qualitative–quantitative analysis of the messages posted during and after the suicide. 

Nearly half the posted messages before the suicide encouraged the victim to complete the suicidal act, and a surprising number of posts after the suicide expressed excitement, although around half of the posts considered the suicide to be tragic. 

It is of great importance to increase awareness of suicide signals and understanding about how to respond to individuals who communicate suicide intentions on different forums on the internet.

Below: Number of posts in the communication thread over time

Below:  Attitudes to the thread starter's suicide

Below:  Opportunities for prevention

Below:  Responsibility for the thread starter's suicide

Below:  Reasons why the thread starter took his own life

Below:  Perceptions of the images of the thread starter's suicide

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/Vss9Cx

By:   Michael Westerlund, Gergö Hadlaczky, and Danuta Wasserman

Michael Westerlund, PhD, National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm and Department of Media Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Gergö Hadlaczky, PhD, and Danuta Wasserman, MD, PhD, National Centre for Suicide Reserach and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Karolinska Instituetet, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: Michael Westerlund, Stockholm University, IMS/JMK, Postbox 27 861, SE-115 93, Stockholm, Sweden. Email:es.us.smi@dnulretsew.leahcim

 

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv_insight

And: http://twitter.com/Prison_Health

Internet-Based Brief Intervention to Prevent Unhealthy Alcohol Use among Young Men: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Introduction

Alcohol use is one of the leading modifiable morbidity and mortality risk factors among young adults.

Setting/Participants

Internet based study in a general population sample of young men with low-risk drinking, recruited between June 2012 and February 2013.

Intervention: Internet-based brief alcohol primary prevention intervention (IBI). The IBI aims at preventing an increase in alcohol use: it consists of normative feedback, feedback on consequences, calorific value alcohol, computed blood alcohol concentration, indication that the reported alcohol use is associated with no or limited risks for health. Intervention group participants received the IBI. Control group (CG) participants completed only an assessment.

Main Outcome Measures

Alcohol use (number of drinks per week), binge drinking prevalence. Analyses were conducted in 2014–2015.

Results

Of 4365 men invited to participate, 1633 did so; 896 reported low-risk drinking and were randomized (IBI: n = 451; CG: n = 445). At baseline, 1 and 6 months, the mean (SD) number of drinks/week was 2.4(2.2), 2.3(2.6), 2.5(3.0) for IBI, and 2.4(2.3), 2.8(3.7), 2.7(3.9) for CG. Binge drinking, absent at baseline, was reported by 14.4% (IBI) and 19.0% (CG) at 1 month and by 13.3% (IBI) and 13.0% (CG) at 6 months. At 1 month, beneficial intervention effects were observed on the number of drinks/week (p = 0.05). No significant differences were observed at 6 months.

Conclusion

We found protective short term effects of a primary prevention IBI.

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/LBr3KO

By:

Nicolas Bertholet, Mohamed Faouzi, Jacques Gaume, Gerhard Gmel, Jean-Bernard Daeppen

Alcohol Treatment Center, Department of community medicine and health, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

John A. Cunningham

National Institute for Mental Health Research, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

John A. Cunningham

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

Bernard Burnand

Institute of social and preventive medicine, Department of community medicine and health, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland

More at:  https://twitter.com/hiv_insight

And:        http://twitter.com/Prison_Health