OBJECTIVETo provide data on alcohol consumption and drug use among middle-school students aged 13-15 in 4 cities of China, and to provide evidence for developing intervention strategies on adolescents alcohol and drug use.

METHODSStandardized sample selection process of two-stage cluster-sampling was used in middle-school students in Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Urumchi. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in Sept. 2003 and data was analyzed by Epi Info software.

RESULTSAmong 7344 students from grade 1 to 3, 36.5% had tasted while 14.4% had drunk alcohol in the past 30 days. 9.9% had experienced drunkness, 5.1% had been in trouble because of drinking, and 1.6% had ever used illegal drugs. Significant differences had been found in all the cities. Higher graders, older students and boys had higher rates of alcohol and addictive drug use than low graders, younger students and girls. 51.9% had been taught on take alcohol safety and another 27.6% on skills of rejecting alcohol, during the past school year.

CONCLUSIONSThe current situation of alcohol and addictive drug use among Chinese middle-school students aged 13-15 seemed to be quite critical, suggesting that it is necessary to carry out relevant health education in accordance with different characteristics in area, gender and age of the students.

Adolescent ; Alcohol Drinking ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Students ; Substance-Related Disorders ; epidemiology

OBJECTIVETo describe the changes of health related behavior and influencing factor during and after the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), as to providing evidence for inducing public health related behavior to cope with the emergent infectious public health hazards.

METHODSAccording to the epidemic strength of SARS, Guangzhou, Taiyuan, Hangzhou were selected to be the research areas, and convenience sampling was used to identify 200 city residents, 200 country residents and 400 occupational populations from each area. The uniform and self-made questionnaire was carried out by about 2400 residents.

RESULTSAll 2424 subjects completed the questionnaire. The correlation coefficient of scores of health related behavior during and after SARS was 0.782 (P < 0.01). And 39.3% subjects were considered as under the health risked stress by CPSS. Multiple linear regression indicated that the scores of health related behavior were significantly related to the perceived stress, demographic characteristics and recognition of SARS.

CONCLUSIONSThe public health related behavior should be developing in the SARS, and part of health related behavior had been kept after SARS and part been decreased. Behavior change should depends on the prevalence of the disease, cultural heritage and behavior variability. More attention should be paid to induce the public psychology and behavior and enhance the degree of recognition on related knowledge through health education as to relieving the stress in populations when we conduct to cope with the emergent public health hazards.

Adult ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Education ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Risk ; Rural Population ; Sampling Studies ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; epidemiology ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population

OBJECTIVETo find out the perceived stress in general public during prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and its impact on health behavior.

METHODSA retrospective survey was conducted in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Taiyuan according to the epidemic situations of SARS, and 2532 subjects were randomly selected from constructive industry, school, and commercial business and residents in urban and rural areas. The perceive stress was measured by Chinese perceived stress scale (CPSS), and health related behavior during SARS was tested by uniform and self-made questionnaire. EpiData 2.0 was used for data management and CPSS value was calculated according to answer to 14 questions contained in the scale. Health risk stress among different population group and health related behavior among low, medium and high stress state were analyzed by SPSS 11.5.

RESULTS2424 subjects were involved in the survey. The CPSS value was measured from 0 - 49 (22.7 +/- 6.8), M = 24.0. 39.3% (953/2379) subjects were under the health risk stress. The health related behaviors such as washing hands, opening the window for air, keeping away from others when cough and sneeze, doing exercises etc were reduced with the stress increased. Logistic regression indicated that compared with the persons with the thoughts of nothing serious of SARS, without any dread of SARS, and knowing nothing about prevention of SARS, the perceived stress was significantly related with perceiving of the thread to certain extent (beta = 0.41, Wald chi(2) = 4.84, P = 0.03), worrying little about the epidemic (beta = 0.50, Wald chi(2) = 6.69, P = 0.01), worrying about it to certain extent (beta = 1.39, Wald chi(2) = 48.59, P = 0.00) and scared so much (beta = 1.77, Wald chi(2) = 53.59, P = 0.00), and knowing little about the prevention (beta = 0.74, Wald chi(2) = 4.48, P = 0.03), knowing something about prevention (beta = -0.98, Wald chi(2) = 8.29, P = 0.00) and knowing the prevention very well (beta = -1.18, Wald chi(2) = 10.66, P = 0.00).

CONCLUSIONThe adoption of health related behaviors declined with increase of perceived stress. Opening connection to authority and government, enhancing the awareness of outburst affairs among general public and providing positive social support may be effective ways to reduce the population perceived stress.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Culture ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Occupations ; Retrospective Studies ; Rural Population ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; psychology ; Social Perception ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Population ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo explore the situation of smoking behavior among the students of middle school in Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Urumchi and to analyze the relationship between smoking behavior and several unhealthy behaviors together with psychological troubles to provide evidence in developing an early intervention plan.

METHODSThe National Health Education Institute (NHEI) of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided relevant data on all middle schools in the 4 cities and then U.S. CDC randomly sampled 100 common middle schools from them with a special sampling process. The core questionnaire developed by the experts from WHO and other countries was used in the survey among 9015 sampled students.

RESULTSAmong all the sampled students, 29.4% of them had ever attempted cigarettes smoking while 6.6% of them tried tobacco in the 30 days before survey, 27.0% of the students with smoking behavior began smoking at the age of 9 or younger, 31.8% had learned how to refuse smoking from school education. The students with smoking behavior were more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs, bully others, be injured, miss classes, and have some psychological troubles than those without smoking behavior.

CONCLUSIONThere were increasing trends noticed on the incidence of attempt and smoking cigarettes. Smoking was closely related to other unhealthy behaviors and psychological troubles. Comprehensive education activities on "no-smoking" should be implemented as early as possible among adolescents, as well as to promote training on life skills.

Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; Child ; China ; epidemiology ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Incidence ; Mental Disorders ; Smoking ; epidemiology ; Students ; psychology ; Substance-Related Disorders

OBJECTIVETo provide accurate data on health related behaviors and protective factors among students in middle schools in China, for developing priorities, programs and policies on health education.

METHODSWe used a standard scientific sample selection process developed by American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct the questionnaire survey among middle schools from four cities--Beijing, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Urumchi.

RESULTSData were found as: 3.2% of students are overweight; 25.3% of students rarely washing hands before eating at school, 20.5% of the students had seriously injured in the past 12 months, 30.4% of male students having had physical fighting, 17.1% of the students having serious attempted suicide, 29.7% of the students ever tried or experimented cigarette smoking, 13.0% having drunk from alcohol and 14.5% having been offered or selling drugs during the past 30 days, 78.9% were in an insufficient amount of physical activity and only 14.3% often used seat belt when riding in a car.

CONCLUSIONSThere were many problems on health related behaviors among middle school students in these four cities, especially on hygiene, physical activities, psychological situation, smoking and drinking etc. It is absolutely necessary to develop health education for children and adolescence to promote their healthy behaviors and lifestyle.

Adolescent ; Adolescent Behavior ; Child ; Child Behavior ; China ; Health Behavior ; Health Surveys ; Humans ; Male ; Risk Reduction Behavior ; Students ; psychology ; statistics & numerical data ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Urban Health

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the effect of snail control through soil pasting mixed with niclosamide.

METHODSFour sites were selected in different epidemic areas in Sichuan province. Soil pasting mixed with niclosamide was carried on, and the dosage was 0 g/m2, 4 g/m2, 6 g/m2, 8 g/m2 and 10 g/m2 respectively. The mortality rate of snail and the density of snail were observed after 7, 15, 30, 90 and 180 days.

RESULTSThe mortality rate of snail was more than 43.3% in blank group after 30 days. The mortality rate of snail was from 75.3% to 100.0% at 4 g/m2 group after 30 days. The mortality rate of snail in 4 g/m2 group was significantly higher than that in the blank group (chi2 = 31.27, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the mortality rate of snail among all study groups (chi2 = 1.07, P > 0.05). The decrease rate of snail density was more than 90%. The mortality rate of snail was about 30% higher in Chantu group than Qutu group. The unit cost of Pasting-Mixing Drug with Soil was from 5 to 7 times of spray method, but the total cost was similar for the. two methods at the endpoint of the snail control.

CONCLUSIONThe effect of soil pasting mixed with niclosamide is good, and the dosage of 4-6 g/m2 is suggested in snail control.

Animals ; Molluscacides ; Niclosamide ; Pest Control ; Schistosomiasis ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Snails ; Soil

OBJECTIVETo study the clinical features of children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with the CCLG-ALL2008 protocol.

METHODSThe data of 591 children who were newly diagnosed with ALL and were treated with the CCLG-ALL 2008 protocol between April 2008 and June 2013 were collected, and the clinical features of 80 children with relapsed ALL were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTSAfter treatment with the CCLG-ALL2008 protocol, the recurrence rate in the standard-risk, intermediate-risk and the high-risk groups were 7.0%, 10.7% and 28.7% respectively (P<0.05). The recurrence rate in patients with TEL/AML1-positive ALL was 8.0%, and the 5-year overall survival (OS) of the relapsed patients was 37.04%. The recurrence rates in patients with MLL-positive and BCR/ABL-positive ALL were 35.0% and 24.2% respectively, and none of the relapsed patients had long-term survival. The recurrence mainly occurred at the very early stage (53%), and none of patients with recurrence at the very early stage had long-term survival. The recurrence occurred at early stage and late stage accounted for 34% and 14% respectively, and the 5-year OS rates of patients with recurrence at early stage and late stage were 11.44% and 60.00% respectively. The sites of recurrence were mainly bone marrow alone (83%), and the 5-year OS of patients with recurrence at bone marrow alone was 9.23%. The recurrence in bone marrow and outside bone marrow accounted for 11%, and the 5-year OS of patients with recurrence in both bone marrow and outside bone marrow was 25.00%. The recurrence only outside bone marrow accounted for 6%, and the 5-year OS of patients with recurrence only outside bone marrow was 100%. The recurrence rate in patients with T-cell ALL was 9.5%, and none of the relapsed patients had long-term survival. The recurrence rate in patients with B-cell ALL was 14.3%, and the 5-year OS of the relapsed patients was 15.52%.

CONCLUSIONSAfter treatment with the CCLG-ALL2008 protocol, a relatively high recurrence rate is observed in children with high-risk ALL. Positive MLL and positive BCR/ABL are high-risk factors for recurrence. The recurrence rate is not significantly correlated with immunophenotype. A very low survival rate is seen in children whose recurrence have the following features: at early stage, only in bone marrow, T-cell ALL, and abnormal BCR/ABL and MLL.

Adolescent ; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; drug therapy ; mortality ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo identify the incidence of PAX5 deletion in childhood B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) without reproducible chromosomal abnormalities and to investigate the association between PAX5 abnormalities and prognosis of ALL.

METHODSMultiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification was used to determine the copy numbers of PAX5 gene in children newly diagnosed with B-ALL without reproducible chromosomal abnormalities between April 2008 and April 2013 and controls (children with non-hematologic diseases or tumors). The patients were classifiied into deletion group and non-deletion group based on the presence of PAX5 deletion.

RESULTSEighteen (21%) out of 86 children with B-ALL had PAX5 deletion. The deletion group had a significantly higher total white blood cell count at diagnosis than the non-deletion group (P=0.001). The Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that the deletion group had a significantly lower disease-free survival (DFS) rate than the non-deletion group (0.69±0.12 vs 0.90±0.04; P=0.017), but there was no significant difference in the overall survival rate between the two groups (P=0.128). The Cox analysis showed that PAX5 deletion was a risk factor for DFS (P=0.03).

CONCLUSIONSPAX5 deletion is an independent risk factor for DFS in B-ALL children without reproducible chromosomal abnormalities.

Acute Disease ; Adolescent ; Cell Lineage ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Gene Deletion ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; PAX5 Transcription Factor ; genetics ; Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; genetics ; mortality

OBJECTIVETo study the efficacy and safety of Chinese Childhood Leukemia Group ALL 2008 (CCLG-ALL2008) protocol combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI, imatinib) for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children.

METHODSThe clinical data of 53 patients aged less than 15 years when first diagnosed with Ph+ ALL between October 2008 and December 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were assigned to two groups: HR (n=26) and HR+TKI (n=27). The HR group was treated with CCLG-ALL2008 protocol (for high-risk patients). The HR+TKI group was treated with imatinib in combination with CCLG-ALL2008 protocol (for high-risk patients).

RESULTSThe complete remission rate and chemotherapy induction-related mortality rate in the TKI+HR and HR groups were 100% vs 75% and 0 vs 15%, respectively. The 3-year event-free survival (EFS) rate in the HR group was (6±5)%; the 5-year EFS rate of the TKI+HR group was (52±11)%. Compared with the HR group, the TKI+HR group had no increase in the toxic responses to chemotherapy and had a decrease in the infection rate during the induction period.

CONCLUSIONSApplication of imatinib significantly improves the clinical efficacy in children with Ph+ ALL and has good safety.

Adolescent ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Imatinib Mesylate ; adverse effects ; therapeutic use ; Male ; Philadelphia Chromosome ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; drug therapy ; genetics ; mortality ; Protein Kinase Inhibitors ; therapeutic use

OBJECTIVETo investigate the application of multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) in the detection of copy number variations (CNVs) in pediatric ETV6/RUNX1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), to compare this method with conventional karyotype analysis and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and to evaluate the value of MLPA.

METHODSThe clinical data of 95 children with ETV6/RUNX1-positive ALL who were treated from January 2006 to November 2012 were analyzed retrospectively, including clinical features, results of karyotype analysis, and results of FISH. CNVs were detected with MLPA.

RESULTSCNVs were detected in 73 (77%), and the median number of CNVs was 1 (range 0-6). The CNVs of EBF1, CDKN2A/2B, PAX5, ETV6, RB1, and BTG1 were detected in more than 10% of all the patients. The changes in the chromosome segments carrying the genes with CNVs detected by MLPA were not detected by conventional karyotype analysis. The coincidence rate between the CNVs in ETV6 gene detected by FISH and those detected by MLPA was 66%.

CONCLUSIONSMLPA is an efficient and convenient method to detect CNVs in children with ETV6/RUNX1-positive ALL.

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit ; analysis ; DNA Copy Number Variations ; Female ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Infant ; Male ; Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Oncogene Proteins, Fusion ; analysis ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; genetics