Young People's Experiences and Perceptions of YouTuber-Produced Health Content: Implications for Health Promotion.

The growing diversity and uptake of social media has increased the sources of health information available to young people. YouTube is one of the most popular social media platforms for young people in the United Kingdom, and YouTubers are the most important influencers on the platform producing diverse health content. They are increasingly recognized by popular media and public health organizations as a potentially influential source of health information for young people. This study aimed to qualitatively explore young people's experiences and perceptions of YouTuber health content. Focus groups (November 2017 to January 2018) with 85 young people (13-18 years) were recruited from schools in a single county in North West England. The findings suggest young people's engagement with YouTuber health content is dependent on how they encounter it, YouTubers' motivations for producing it, and the perceived relatability, sincerity, and generalization present in this content. The study confirms YouTuber health content was one of the many sources of health information used by young people and was most frequently encountered during young people's routine viewing. Collaboration between public health organizations and YouTubers could be promising in communicating health messages to young people already engaged with these YouTubers, as part of wider campaigns or interventions. These messages could be particularly effective if they focused on experiences and norms rather than advice, remained consistent with YouTubers' existing health content, incorporate clear indicators of accuracy into their narrative, and state their intention to benefit young people.

Nutritional imbalance endorsed by televised food advertisements.

The ubiquity of television in American culture makes it a potential contributor to the obesogenic (obesity-causing) environment. Televised food advertisements, which encourage viewers to eat the foods promoted for sale, constitute a de facto set of dietary endorsements. The purpose of this study was to compare the nutritional content of food choices endorsed on television to nutritional guidelines. Using a cross-sectional design, food advertisements were observed during 84 hours of primetime and 12 hours of Saturday-morning televised broadcast during the fall of 2004. One-sample t tests were used to compare the food group servings of observed food items to the recommended daily servings and to compare the nutrient content of observed food items to the Daily Values. Results suggest that a diet consisting of observed food items would provide 2,560% of the recommended daily servings for sugars, 2,080% of the recommended daily servings for fat, 40% of the recommended daily servings for vegetables, 32% of the recommended daily servings for dairy, and 27% of the recommended daily servings for fruits. The same diet would substantially oversupply protein, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium, while substantially undersupplying carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins A, E, and D, pantothenic acid, iron, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, copper, and potassium. Overall, the food choices endorsed on television fail to meet nutrition guidelines and encourage nutritional imbalance.

Violence and drug use in rural teens: national prevalence estimates from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare national estimates of drug use and exposure to violence between rural and urban teens. METHODS: Twenty-eight dependent variables from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were used to compare violent activities, victimization, suicidal behavior, tobacco use, alcohol use, and illegal drug use across rural, urban, and suburban teens across the country. RESULTS: Overall, rural teens were equally or more likely than both suburban and urban teens to report experiencing many measures of violent behavior, victimization, suicide behaviors, and drug use. Among all teens, nonwhites reported equal or higher rates of violent behavior and victimization than whites, but these associations disappeared within the rural-only population. CONCLUSIONS: Rural areas do not appear to provide a strongly protective effect against risk behaviors in teens and may be a risk factor in itself. Community prevention efforts should focus on reaching rural areas and segmenting program content based on need. Where white teens might benefit from an emphasis on preventing tobacco and alcohol use, nonwhite teens would benefit from an emphasis on preventing violence and victimization.

The afterbirth of the clinic: a Foucauldian perspective on "House M.D." and American medicine in the 21st century.

Mirroring Michel Foucault's The Birth of the Clinic (1963), which describes the philosophical shift in medical discourse in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Fox television series House M.D. illustrates the shift in medical discourse emerging today. While Dr. Gregory House is Foucault's modern physician made flesh -- an objective scientist who has perfected the medical gaze (le regard) and communicates directly with diseases instead of patients -- his staff act as postmodern foils. They provide a parable about the state of biomedicine, still steeped in modernity but forced into a postmodern, managed care world. House M.D., however, is more than a mere depiction of the modern-postmodern tension that exists in today's exam rooms. It is an indication of a transition period in American medicine. House M.D. nostalgically celebrates what once was and simultaneously questions what currently is, while what is about to be is in the midst of becoming.

Early alcohol use, rural residence, and adult employment.

OBJECTIVE: Rural residence was once perceived as protective regarding youthful alcohol use and its effects. Our study examined whether the relationship between alcohol use in youth and early adulthood and subsequent employment outcomes differed for rural and urban youth. METHOD: Data from a 20-year panel survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, were used to address the association between alcohol use between the ages of 17 and 26 and employment outcomes during adulthood. Early drinking experiences and misuse symptoms were used as drinking behavior measures. Rural was defined as living outside any Metropolitan Statistical Area. Employment outcomes were defined using employment status and employment quality. Analyses were weighted to reflect the stratified sample design (N = 8,399). RESULTS: Drinking behaviors did not differ by residence. In bivariate analysis, alcohol use measures during youth were consistently associated with working more than 40 hours per week and earning irregular compensation. For three of seven employment quality measures examined, interactions between residence and alcohol use were observed in multivariable analysis. Rural youth were more likely to suffer adverse employment consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Rural residence does not appear to provide protection from the effects of drinking during youth on adulthood employment and was associated with adverse outcomes. Further research is needed to ascertain whether such differences stem from different availability of services or other characteristics of the rural environment.