Attitudes towards homosexual and lesbians among Puerto Rican Public Health graduate students.

The objective of this study is to identify the attitude toward the homosexuals and lesbians among graduate students of General Public Health and Health Education Program at School of Public Health, Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. A descriptive-92 graduate students of the correlational design was used to carry out the study participated in the study General Public Health and Health Education programs. The data collection was collected through a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square and t-test student) were used to data analysis. The 82.6% of the participants had a prejudiced attitude toward the homosexuals and the lesbians. The 79.3% presented a low distance level. There is a significant association among the social distance, homosexual and lesbian educational exposure and the years of studies. To develop appropriate strategies to foment the acceptance and eliminate the prejudice toward the homosexuals and lesbians in the participants, what will impact in a better way of providing quality health services.

Aspectos relacionados al cumplimiento de medicamentos en un grupo de encargados(as) de niños y adolescentes con epilepsia / Aspects related to drug adherence in a group of caregivers of children and adolescents with epilepsy

The purpose of this study was to describe the aspects related with the adherence of medicine in patients with epilepsy diagnosis. The non probabilistic sample was composed by fifty-four parents or legal guardians of children/adolescents with epilepsy. A self-report instrument was utilized in this study and the design was based on Health Belief Model. Descriptive statistics were utilized (mean, median, frequencies and percents) to describe the results and crosstabs tables to describe specific relations between variables. It was found that the parents/legal guardians reported that they administered their children's medications as prescribed. However, the two aspects that most affect the adherence with the treatment were that the participant forgot the medicine administration and the time between each medical appointment. We conclude that the adherence problem is complex and involved a lot of individual, social, psychological, structural, attitudes, beliefs, type of medical services factors, among others. These factors will be studied more emphatically in futures studies.

Perceptions assessment of a group of Puerto Rican pregnant adolescents regarding the susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers of teenage pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: This assessment was aimed at describing the perceptions of a group of Puerto Rican pregnant adolescents regarding the susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers of adolescents pregnancy. METHOD: A non probabilistic sample of 71 adolescents that receive prenatal services at a hospital in the greater metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Descriptive statistics were utilized to describe the population. RESULTS: A 50.7 per cent of the participants had a moderated high susceptibility perception and 53.5 per cent had a high severity perception. In general, 70.4 per cent of the participants perceived that the prenatal care during the adolescent pregnancy is highly beneficial and 60.0 per cent had a low barriers perceptions. CONCLUSION: The assessment specifically demonstrated the need to create permanent educational programs in hospitals and schools. It is important that the health professionals develop basic educational strategies to procure effective behavior modification in adolescents.