The ability of the AIDS quilt to motivate information seeking, personal discussion, and preventative behavior as a health communication intervention.

A Solomon 4-group-design-style field experiment examined the ability of the NAMES Project Foundation's AIDS Memorial Quilt (AIDS Quilt) to motivate information seeking, personal discussion, and behavioral outcomes among those who viewed it. Results indicate that the AIDS Quilt intervention explained significant differences in information-seeking motivations and information-seeking behavior. Information-seeking motivation positively predicted actual information-seeking behavior, which in turn predicted increased discussion and decreased risky behavior. Information-seeking motivation in itself did not predict discussion or behavior. The results suggest that campaigns designed primarily to increase information-seeking motivation can result in desired behavioral outcomes.

Predicting the potential for risky behavior among those "too young" to drink as the result of appealing advertising.

A survey of 273 children in Washington state used a predrinking behavior index as a behavioral outcome to assess media effects on precursors to drinking among children for whom alcohol consumption is not yet occurring. It also examined age trends in relevant beliefs and behaviors. Perceptions of advertising desirability, the extent to which it seemed appealing, increased steadily from third to ninth grade, whereas identification with portrayals, the degree to which individuals wanted to emulate portrayals, leveled off after sixth grade. Expectancies, positive social benefits perceived to be associated with drinking alcohol, also increased with age, particularly between sixth and ninth grade. When demographics and grade level were controlled, desirability predicted identification, and both predicted expectancies, which is consistent with media decision-making theory. Expectancies correlated with alcohol predrinking behavior, and expectancies predicted risky behavior, with demographics and grade level controlled. Predrinking behavior and reported risky behavior were correlated. The results provide cross-sectional support for the view that beliefs and desires developing by third grade prime children for future decisions regarding substance use.

The role of interpretation processes and parental discussion in the media's effects on adolescents' use of alcohol.

OBJECTIVE: The process that connects media use with alcohol-related beliefs and behaviors has not been well documented. To address this issue, we examined adolescents' viewing patterns, beliefs about alcohol and media messages, and parental discussion of media messages in the context of a theoretical model of message interpretation processes. Measures included the degree to which adolescents found portrayals desirable, realistic, and similar to their own lives; the degree to which they wanted to be like (identify with) the portrayals; and the degree to which they associated positive outcomes with drinking alcohol (expectancies). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Two public high schools in the California central coastal area that include a diverse population in terms of ethnic origin, income level, and education level. PARTICIPANTS: Ninth-grade students (n = 252) and 12th-grade students (n = 326). OUTCOME MEASURES: Students reported the number of days within the past week watching various genres of television content, along with perceptions of realism of content, desirability of portrayals, identification with portrayals, expectancies toward alcohol use, personal norms for alcohol use, desire for products with alcohol logos, current alcohol use, frequency of parental reinforcement, and counter-reinforcement of television messages. Associations were examined via hierarchical multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Effects of media exposure on drinking behavior, controlling for grade level, ethnicity, gender, household income, and education levels were primarily positive and indirect, operating through a number of intervening beliefs, especially expectancies (beta =.59; r(2) =.33). Direct associations, primarily with exposure to late-night talk shows (beta =.12; r(2) =.01), were small. Parental discussion also affected behavior indirectly, operating through expectancies, identification, and perceived realism. The appeal of products with alcohol logos, which was higher among the younger students (t = 3.44) and predicted by expectancies (beta =. 37; r(2) =.13), sports viewing (beta =.17; r(2) =.03) and late-night talk shows (beta =.10; r(2) =.01), predicted actual drinking behavior (beta =.22; r(2) =.04). Drinking behavior was higher among the older students (t = -2.515). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents make drinking decisions using a progressive, logical decision-making process that can be overwhelmed by wishful thinking. The potential risk of frequent exposure to persuasive alcohol portrayals via late-night talk shows, sports, music videos, and prime-time television for underage drinking is moderated by parental reinforcement and counter-reinforcement of messages. Interventions need to acknowledge and counter the appeal of desirable and seemingly realistic alcohol portrayals in the media and alert parents to their potential for unintended adverse effects.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt as preventative education: a developmental analysis of the Quilt.

This study consisted of a survey given to college students (N = 560) at a rural university in the Pacific Northwest. The sample was randomly assigned into four groups, following the Solomon four-group study design. The two levels of treatment included interventions consisting of a visit to the AIDS Memorial Quilt for the experimental groups and attendance at an unrelated event for the control groups. Pretests were completed 4 weeks prior to interventions; posttests were completed by the entire sample 4 weeks after the interventions. Results confirmed expected differences among the four groups in terms of social distance, perceptions of people with AIDS, self-efficacy, and discussion of risky behavior. The results suggest that the AIDS Memorial Quilt addresses issues centrally related to behavior change and indicates support for the message interpretation process and stages of change models.

Assessing prosocial message effectiveness: effects of message quality, production quality, and persuasiveness.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the effectiveness of prosocial messages is compromised by poor design. A receiver-oriented content analysis (N = 246) was used to assess college students' perceptions of the message quality, production quality, and persuasiveness of advertisements and prosocial advertisements regarding alcohol. After providing background information, respondents rated a series of video clips on a variety of criteria guided by the Message Interpretation Process (MIP) model. Results indicated that prosocial advertisements were rated as higher in quality than were commercial advertisements overall and on logic-based criteria, but prosocial advertisements nevertheless had weaker relationships to viewers' beliefs and reported behaviors relevant to drinking alcohol. Heavier drinkers rated commercial advertisements more positively than did lighter/nondrinkers. They were less skeptical of persuasive messages and rated prosocial advertisements lower in effectiveness and commercial advertisements higher in effectiveness.

Effect of pretreatment with dichloroacetate or trichloroacetate on the metabolism of bromodichloroacetate.

Haloacetates are a common class of water chlorination by-products. Depending on the amount of bromide in the source water, varying amounts of chlorinated, brominated, and mixed bromochloro haloacetates are produced. When administered to rodents, haloacetates have been shown to increase formation of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels in the liver. These responses appear to be modified by prior treatment. To examine potential mechanisms that account for these modifications in oxidative stress, the ability of trichloroacetate (TCA) or dichloroacetate (DCA) pretreatment to alter the metabolism of bromodichloroacetate (BDCA) and the disposition of its metabolites was examined in male B6C3F1 mice. Two-week pretreatment with 1 g/L DCA and TCA in the drinking water of mice alters the initial hepatic metabolism of BDCA and the further metabolism of its metabolite DCA. DCA pretreatment inhibits cytosolic metabolism of both 1 mM DCA or BDCA up to 70%. In contrast, DCA pretreatment stimulates hepatic microsomal BDCA metabolism 1.3-fold but has little effect on microsomal metabolism of DCA. Increased microsomal metabolism of BDCA appears to be attributable to the induction of a metabolic pathway that produces CO2 and bromodichloromethane (BDCM) as metabolites. TCA pretreatment inhibits BDCA metabolism up to 70% in the cytosol and 30% in microsomes but has little effect on DCA metabolism. These results indicate that the hepatic metabolism of the haloacetate becomes quite complex at the high doses that have been employed in cancer bioassays. BDCA serves as a good example, because it is metabolized to at least two carcinogenic metabolites that have different modes of action, BDCM and DCA. As doses approach those that induce cancer in mice, the proportion of and amounts of these metabolites as a fraction of the dose administered will change substantially. This article demonstrates that those interactions will occur from mixed treatment with haloacetates as well.

Effects of general and alcohol-specific media literacy training on children's decision making about alcohol.

This article examines the immediate and delayed effects of media literacy training on third-grade children's perceptions of alcohol advertising, alcohol norms, expectancies for drinking, and behaviors toward alcohol. A Solomon four-group style experiment (N = 225) with two levels of the treatment factor assessed the effectiveness of in-school media literacy training for alcohol. The experiment compared a treatment that included the viewing of a videotape about television advertising along with the viewing of video clips of alcohol ads and discussion pertaining to alcohol advertising specifically versus one that included the viewing of the same general purpose media literacy videotape along with video clips of non-alcohol advertising and then discussion of advertising in general. The treatment had both immediate and delayed effects. Immediate effects included the children's increased understanding of persuasive intent, viewing of characters as less similar to people they knew in real life and less desirable, decreased desire to be like the characters, decreased expectation of positive consequences from drinking alcohol, and decreased likelihood to choose an alcohol-related product. Indirect effects also were found on their perceptions of television's realism and their views of social norms related to alcohol. Delayed effects were examined and confirmed on expectancies and behavior. The treatment was more effective when alcohol-specific, and it also was more effective among girls than boys.

Haloacetate-induced oxidative damage to DNA in the liver of male B6C3F1 mice.

Brominated and chlorinated haloacetates (HAs) are by-products of drinking water disinfection. Dichloroacetate (DCA) and trichloroacetate (TCA) are hepatocarcinogenic in rodents, but the brominated analogs have received little study. Prior work has indicated that acute doses of the brominated derivatives are more potent inducers of oxidative stress and increase the 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG) content of the nuclear DNA in the liver. Since, DCA and TCA are also known as weak peroxisome proliferators, the present study was intended to determine whether this activity might be exacerbated by peroxisomal proliferation. Classical responses to peroxisome proliferators, cyanide-insensitive acyl-CoA oxidase activity and increased 12-hydroxylation of lauric acid, were elevated in a dose-related manner in mice maintained on TCA and clofibric acid (positive control), but not with DCA, dibromoacetate (DBA) or bromochloroacetate (BCA). Administration of the HAs in drinking water to male B6C3F1 mice for periods from 3 to 10 weeks resulted in dose-related increases in 8-OH-dG in nuclear DNA of the liver with DBA and BCA, but not with TCA or DCA. These findings indicate that oxidative damage induced by the haloacetates is, at least in part, independent of peroxisome proliferation. In addition, these data suggest that oxidative damage to DNA may play a more important role in the chronic toxicology of brominated compared to the chlorinated haloacetates.

Lipid peroxidation and formation of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine from acute doses of halogenated acetic acids.

Chlorinated, brominated, and mixed bromochloro acetates are major by-products of water disinfection by chlorine or ozone. The chlorinated acetates, trichloroacetate (TCA) and dichioroacetate (DCA), are carcinogenic in rodents. Brominated analogs of TCA and DCA have received little study. TCA and DCA induce lipid peroxidation in the livers of rodents when administered acutely. Oxidative stress can also result in oxidative damage to DNA, most commonly measured as increases in 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) adducts. In this study, the ability of acute doses of TCA, DCA, dibromoacetate (DBA), bromodichloroacetate (BDCA), and bromochloroacetate (BCA) to induce lipid peroxidation and 8-OHdG formation was examined. Male B6C3F1 mice developed significant increases in 8-OHdG/dG ratios in nuclear DNA isolated from livers when treated with haloacetates. The extent of 8-OHdG formation appeared to be related to the ability to induce thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS). The order of potency was DBA = BCA > BDCA > DCA > TCA. The induction of 8-OHdG was found to be generally more sensitive to treatment with haloacetates than the TBARS response. Significantly elevated levels of 8-OHdG were observed at doses of DBA, BCA, and BDCA as low as 30 mg/kg. We suggest that formation of 8-OHdG by brominated haloacetates may contribute to their toxicological effects.

Modification of lipoperoxidative effects of dichloroacetate and trichloroacetate is associated with peroxisome proliferation.

Pretreatment of male B6C3F1 mice with clofibric acid (CFA) or trichloroacetic acid (TCA) in the drinking water results in a marked decrease in the lipoperoxidative response as measured by the production of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in mouse liver homogenates following acute dosing with TCA or dichloroacetic acid (DCA). Pretreatment with TCA or CFA also increased palmitoyl-CoA oxidase activity, microsomal 12-(omega) hydroxylation of lauric acid and expression of P450 4A isoforms. At the doses utilized, DCA-pretreatment did not increase the level of P450 4A protein, or markers of peroxisome proliferation. However, DCA-pretreatment did result in enhanced levels of TBARS, following acute dosing with DCA, compared to controls. Pretreatment with DCA, TCA, or CFA did not alter p-nitrophenol hydroxylation (an assay specific for P450 2E1), and no increases in immunodetectable P450 2E1, 4A, 1A1/2, 2B1/2 or 3A1 protein were observed. Assays from CFA- and TCA-pretreated mice suggest that the reduction in the TBARS response seen in TCA-pretreated animals results from activities associated with peroxisome proliferation. This might result from the induction of systems efficient in scavenging of peroxide intermediates or detoxification of aldehyde by-products of lipid peroxidation.