OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of falls in elderly individuals and to analyze associated factors. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 420 elderly subjects (aged 60 years or older) living in the city of Juiz de Fora (Southeastern Brazil) in 2010. A household survey was conducted and the occurrence of falls in the 12 previous months was described. For the analysis of factors associated with the outcome, a theoretical determination model with three hierarchical blocks was built. The variables were adjusted among each other within each block; those with level of signifi cance ≤ 0.20 were included in the Poisson regression model and adjusted to the immediately higher level, with 5% signifi cance level. RESULTS: The prevalence of falls among the elderly was 32.1% (95%CI: 27.7; 36.9). Among those who experienced falls, 53% had a single fall and 19% had fractures as a consequence. Most of the falls (59%) occurred at the elderly person's home. The occurrence of falls was associated with old age, female sex, need of help for locomotion and self-reported diagnosis of osteoporosis. CONCLUSIONS: Falls are frequent among the elderly. Knowledge of the factors associated with the occurrence of this event can aid the development of prevention strategies and adequate health services.

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Background: Parental drinking and parent alcohol use disorder (AUD) are known predictors of adolescent positive alcohol expectancies, but their link to negative expectancies is unclear. Research suggests that parent drinking may indirectly predict adolescent expectancies through exposure to parental drinking events. However, exposure to parent negative alcohol consequences may be more relevant to adolescents' expectancies. The present study tested the mediating effect of parent observable negative alcohol consequences in the association between parent AUD and adolescent expectancies.Methods: This study used parent and adolescent data from the Adult and Family Development Project. A total of 581 adolescents reported on their alcohol expectancies across 2 waves of data, and their parents reported on potentially observable alcohol-related negative consequences during the first wave. Past-year and lifetime parent AUD were assessed with diagnostic interviews across 6 waves of data.Results: Mothers' observable consequences mediated the effect of her past-year AUD on adolescent negative expectancies in adolescence, but this effect did not hold at a 1.5-year follow-up. Mothers' lifetime AUD was the only prospective predictor of later adolescent negative expectancies. No father drinking variables predicted expectancies, and all models were invariant across child biological sex. Finally, older adolescent age prospectively predicted higher positive expectancies, whereas the adolescents' own drinking predicted lower negative expectancies.Conclusions: These findings, in line with other recent studies, suggest that exposure to mothers' negative experiences with alcohol may counterintuitively normalize negative alcohol effects. This may paradoxically increase risk for adolescents rather than buffering the effects of a family history of parental AUD.

Adolescent cannabis use is common, has been associated with several deleterious outcomes, and is often associated with previous parent cannabis use. Therefore, identifying protective factors that prevent this intergenerational transmission of cannabis use is increasingly important given shifting contemporary policies around cannabis use. The present study examines 3 protective factors in adolescence (active coping, positive activity involvement, and school grades) that may disrupt patterns of intergenerational cannabis use. The present study uses data from a high-risk longitudinal sample followed for over 30 years that includes Generation 1 (G1) parents (54.19% with lifetime alcohol use disorder, 8.15% with lifetime cannabis use disorder), their Generation 2 (G2) children, and their Generation 3 (G3) grandchildren and therefore provides the opportunity to replicate effects across 2 intergenerational cohorts (a G1-G2 cohort and a G2-G3 cohort). Results from ordered logistic regression models reveal that in both intergenerational cohorts, greater midadolescent active coping, higher positive activity involvement, and higher grades prospectively predict lower late adolescent cannabis use at significant (p Ͻ .05) or marginal (p Ͻ .10) levels, even after powerful control variables, such as parent cannabis use and alcohol use, as well as previous early adolescent cannabis use, are accounted for. Additionally, in both intergenerational cohorts, midadolescent high levels of active coping disrupt intergenerational transmission of cannabis use. Results indicate replication in the intergenerational transmission of cannabis use and in the protective effects of coping, grades, and, to a lesser extent, positive activity involvement across generational cohorts. Implications for prevention programming are discussed.

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