Prevention Matters

The possibility of a preventive breast cancer vaccine becoming available for humans was named the “Best Prevention Idea of the Week,” while twenty percent of college students admitting to driving while drunk was named the “Worst Prevention Idea of the Week."

BEST

Breast Cancer Vaccine Possible, Scientists Say

A study in mice suggests that a preventive breast cancer vaccine might be possible in humans, scientists say.

Women may begin taking part in the next stage of research as soon as next year, they added.

"We believe that this vaccine will someday be used to prevent breast cancer in adult women in the same way that vaccines have prevented many childhood diseases," principal investigator Vincent Tuohy, an immunologist in Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, said in a news release. "If it works in humans the way it works in mice, this will be monumental. We could eliminate breast cancer."

WORST

1 in 5 College Students Admitted to Drunk Driving, Study Found


Drinking and driving among college students is still a major public health problem, new research reveals, with one in five admitting to driving while drunk and 40 percent acknowledging they have ridden with a drunk driver.

Equally worrisome, their tendency to drive under the influence soars when they hit the minimum legal drinking age of 21.

The findings were gleaned from a study co-authored by Amelia M. Arria, director of the Center on Young Adult Health and Development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, that followed more than 1,250 first-year college students enrolled at a large mid-Atlantic university.

A policy statement released by the Committee on Substance Abuse for the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors screen all of their young patients, beginning in middle school, about their use of alcohol.

"A remarkable amount of brain development is still occurring for young people through their 20s," said report lead author Patricia Kokotailo of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. "This policy statement provides better evidence about how alcohol affects the brains of young people and why it is important to screen children."

The revised policy states that "pediatricians should be knowledgeable about substance abuse to be able to recognize risk factors for alcohol and other substance abuse among youth, screen for use, provide appropriate brief interventions, and refer to treatment."

Committee chair Janet Williams of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio said that most doctors don't routinely ask about youth alcohol use, and need to know how to provide prevention guidance and where to refer young drinkers to treatment.

Christianne Johnson
Program Manager
Partnership for Prevention

Two new studies exemplify the need for alcohol abuse prevention to take on a heightened focus for public health practitioners, healthcare providers, and policymakers. According to a new national survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), more than a quarter of youth aged 12-20 (27.6 percent) drank alcohol in the past month. Underage drinking rates are as high as 40 percent in some states—especially in New England and the upper Midwest. The study also found that nationwide, almost 9 percent of underage drinkers were able to purchase their own alcohol the last time they drank. In an effort to combat this growing epidemic, SAMHSA and the Ad Council launched a new series of national PSAs to encourage parents to talk to their children about drinking alcohol at an early age.

Another study, which appears in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, finds that the more people drink, the worse their food choices. The study found that as alcohol consumption rose, fruit consumption declined and caloric intake increased among men and women. "This finding raises questions about whether the combination of alcohol misuse and poor diet might interact to further increase health risks," said NIAAA acting director Kenneth R. Warren.

Christianne Johnson
Program Manager, Partnership for Prevention