CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULTS                                                                           

Study: Young Blacks See More Alcohol Ads

By Jean Gibbs

A report by Georgetown University's Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, released June 26, 2003 said blacks from 12 to 20 years old saw 77 percent more of alcohol ads in 2002 than their non-black peers did.

The report shows "that the industry is directly targeting black kids," said Rev. Jesse Brown, executive director of the National Association of African Americans for Positive Imagery, according to AP.  "African-American kids tend to be trend-setters in what they buy, so the industry thinks if it can get more African American kids to buy, it can also get their white counterparts to buy."  

The report suggests that young blacks saw 81 percent more magazine ads for distilled spirits.  Jack Daniel's was among the largest spenders on alcohol ads that reached black youth through magazines, according to the study.   But the whiskey maker has denied the validity of this finding.

The study also found the the magazines that most exposed young blacks to alcohol ads were Sports Illustrated, Vibe, Cosmopolitan, ESPN The Magazine, Jet, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Ebony, In Style, Playboy, GQ, Essence and People. Those magazines are read by a significant portion of black youths, which translates into these young readers seeing more advertising for alcohol than adults.

Some $11.7 million were spent in 2002 on advertising in the 15 television shows that are most popular among black youth, including "The Bernie Mac Show," "The Simpsons ", "King of the Hill" and "George Lopez."  

Young blacks were also more likely than their non-black counterparts to hear radio ads for alcohol products. Because most radio alcohol advertising is placed locally, the report examined the information by region. Five areas — New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston-Galveston and Washington — accounted for 70 percent of black youth exposure to alcohol advertising on the radio.

 Did You Know that...?  African-American children are twice as likely to die in a car crash, four times as likely to die from drowning, and five times as likely to die in a fire than white children, according to the CDC.

Black parents need to teach their kids about skills as related to home safety, drowning prevention, pedestrian safety, gun safety, passenger safety in cars, public health experts and community leaders say.

CDC Revises Childhood Immunization Schedule

Updated Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Control and Elimination of Mumps:

During January 1--May 2, 2006, the current outbreak in the United States has resulted in reports of 2,597 cases of mumps in 11 states (8). The outbreak has underscored certain limitations in the 1998 recommendations relating to prevention of mumps transmission in health-care and other settings with high risk for mumps transmission. After reviewing data from the current outbreak and previous evidence on mumps vaccine effectiveness and transmission, ACIP issued updated recommendations for mumps vaccination as outlined in the box below:

All children should be vaccinated against pneumococcal disease and an expanded group of children should be vaccinated against hepatitis A, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga.

The new recommendations are updates to the childhood immunization guidelines, which are revised yearly and were published in the Jan. 12 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Below is the public communication from CDC on the issue.  For more details and immunization guidelines, click here

Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule-United States, 2001

Since the January 2000 publication of the recommended childhood immunization schedule, peneumococcal conjugate vaccine has been added to the schedule and the recommendation for use of Hepatitis A vaccine has been extended through age 18 years in selected states and/or regions, and in certain high-risk groups.

The report presents the recommended childhood immunization schedule for 2001, which has been approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The changes that have occurred since the January 2000 schedule are: 1) the addition of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to the schedule, and 2) the extension of the recommendation for the use of hepatitis A vaccine. Pneumococcal vaccine is recommended for all children ages 2-23 months in a 4-dose schedule at 2, 4, 6, and 12-15 months of age, and should be considered for children 24-59 months of age who are at increased risk for pneumococcal disease. The recommendation for use of Hepatitis A vaccine has been extended to include persons through age 18 years in selected geographic areas and in certain high-risk groups.

To Listen to Chickenpox Vaccine Recommendations, Click Here ( ). You need RealPlayer (free download) and the speakers of your PC on .  For updated data about KID IMMUNIZATIONS, CLICK HERE

Youth Suicide

In 1998, white males accounted for 61% of all suicides among youth 10-19, and white males and white females together accounted for over 74% of all youth suicides. However, the suicide rate among Native American male youth is exceedingly high in comparison with the overall rate for males 10 to 19 (19.3 per 100,000 vs. 8.5 per 100,000). The suicide rate has been increasing most rapidly among African American males ages 10 to 19-more than doubling from 2.9 per 100,000 to 6.1 per 100,000 from 1981 to 1998.  Finally, a National survey of high school students in 1999 found that Hispanic students, both male and female, were significantly more likely than white students to have reported a suicide attempt (12.8% vs. 6.7%). Among Hispanic students, females (18.9%) were almost three times more likely than males (6.6%) to have reported a suicide attempt. The most likely explanation for ethnic rate differences are variations in cultural factors that promote or inhibit suicide. (Source: www.saveyouth.org; highlights by Allabh)

How to fight or alleviate this problem among our youth, visit the new government site:  www.safeyouth.org, specifically the page on youth suicide: http://www.safeyouth.org/topics/suicide.htm

Teens Having Unprotected Sex

African American adolescent girls in steady, ongoing relationship have greater frequencies of unprotected sex, suggest a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

" Female adolescents in steady relationships differ from those in casual relationships relative to their prevention needs.  These findings have implications for clinic or community-based STD and HIV prevention program," the authors of the study wrote.

The study was conducted on 522 black teen-age girls from neighborhoods with high rates of substance abuse, violence, unemployment, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).  The teens were enrolled in a STD and HIV prevention intervention trial.  Girls who spent more time with their boyfriends were found to have greater instances of unprotected sex.

Allabh Ed. Note:   This study may explain why the number of STDs or HIV cases is increasing in some sub-segments of the African American populations. Parental and societal intervention is needed more than ever to stop the spread of those preventable diseases among our children.  Those inner city kids are sometimes growing up without the traditional values of the African American family because of several factors.  When then should we set our political or ideological views aside and make this African proverb ours "it takes a village to raise a child"?

Minority Kids Less Likely to Get HealthCare

Black and Hispanic infants are less likely to receive adequate health care regardless of their parents' income or education, results of a new study suggest. According to the report in the September issue off the American Journal of Public Health, black and Hispanic infants up to 6 months of age were 70 percent less likely than white infants to receive well child care, which includes periodic visits to the pediatrician and a set of five immunization shots.

The researchers with the Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore, Maryland, a division of Health and Human Services, suggest that cultural values and racial discrimination probably play a role.

"Cultural patterns may inhibit African Americans' use of preventive services," they write. "For many African Americans, racial discrimination may act both as a barrier to use of medical care and as a contributor to poor health."

The data from nearly 8,000 infants found that nearly 52 percent of those born in 1988 -- that is, 58 percent of all white infants, 37 percent of all Hispanic infants, and 35 percent of all African American infants--received the recommended well child care visits and immunizations in the first six months of life.

"African American race was the biggest risk for inadequate care," the study authors conclude. "The risk for African American infants persisted across socioeconomic levels."

SIDS : a killer of black babies

-According to a 1998 study, black babies are twice as likely to die from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) as other babies.
-Putting babies to sleep on their stomach increases their risk of SIDS.
-A survey of 460 parents showed that only 31 percent of Blacks placed their babies on their backs.
-The federal government is launching in fall a campaign to encourage black mothers to put their babies to sleep on their backs. Removing all items in the crib which can choke the baby may also help prevent SIDS.
(Use Search on Home page to learn more about the subject by entering SIDS)                                    

New Recommendations to Prevent SIDS... (Full Story)

 Back to top