The significant reductions over time in prevalence of disordered eating among some youth are encouraging, but the disparities remain. Indeed, the increasing prevalence of fasting, diet pill use, and purging to control weight among lesbians may warrant targeted prevention and intervention programs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2017; 50:22-31).

Numerous recent studies have demonstrated that schools are often unsafe for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents, who are more likely than heterosexual peers to be bullied, harassed, or victimized in school contexts. Virtually all of these studies call for change, yet none investigate whether or not it has occurred.Using repeated waves of a population-based high school survey, we examine (1) the extent to which sexual orientation differences in school bullying and violence-related experiences are reported by lesbian/gay, bisexual, and heterosexual male and female adolescents; (2) trends in school bullying and violence-related experiences for each gender/orientation group, and (3) whether disparities have changed over time.

Belief in superstition and witchcraft is central to many African conceptions of illness, disease causation and etiology. While a number of anthropological studies have alluded to a theoretical link between such beliefs and HIV prevention in particular, there is limited empirical assessment of the association. Using data from the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and applying random-effects logit models, we investigate whether the belief that AIDS can spread through witchcraft associates with the sexual decision making of never-married men and women. The results show that men who believed AIDS can spread through witchcraft and other supernatural means were less likely to have used condoms at last sexual intercourse, controlling for other socioeconomic and cultural variables. Women with similar beliefs were more likely to have experienced sexual intercourse but less likely to have used condoms at last sex. For women, however, the relationship between such superstitious beliefs and condom use was somewhat attenuated after controlling for ethnicity and region of residence. From a policy perspective, the findings suggest that local beliefs regarding AIDS causation must be considered in designing HIV/AIDS programmes and interventions.

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Objectives-Despite evidence from numerous studies that document disparities in suicidality for sexual minorities, few have investigated whether or not these trends have improved over time, which is the objective of the current study.Methods-Using school-based population data over a 15-year period (1998 to 2013), multivariate logistic regressions were used to calculate age-adjusted odds ratios separately by gender. Interactions were included to test widening or narrowing disparities within orientation groups, which makes this one of the first studies to test whether gaps in disparities between heterosexual and sexual minorities have widened or narrowed over time. Results-Resultsshow that sexual minority youth are persistently at a greater risk for suicidal behaviour, a trend that has continued particularly for bisexual youth of both sexes. Results also suggest that the gap in suicidal behaviour is widening among some female sexual orientation groups, yet narrowing for other male sexual orientation groups.Conclusions-These findings have important public health implications, especially since we see decreases in suicidal behaviour for heterosexual adolescents, but not in the same way for many sexual minority youth, despite advances in social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues in North America. KeywordsSexual orientation; Suicidal behaviour; Heterosexual/Bisexual/Gay/Lesbian; Adolescents; Population Surveys; Health Disparities According to the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide is one of the leading causes of youth fatality (15-24 years of age) around the world (WHO, 2014). In Canada, approximately 500 youth (ages 10 to 24) have died by suicide every year from 2007 to 2011 (Statistics Canada, 2012 (Oquendo, Currier, & Mann, 2006;Troister, Links, & Cutcliffe, 2008). To this end, these suicidal behaviour measures are important indicators for research as it allows for the identification of sub-groups of youth, which aids in targeted prevention, intervention and post-intervention efforts. Review of the literatureResearch on sexual minority youth consistently shows that the prevalence of suicidal behaviour is higher than for their heterosexual peers. For instance, in a meta-analysis conducted by Marshal and colleagues (2011), sexual minority youth reported significantly higher rates of suicidality (OR=2.9) than heterosexual students. In a study that examined 9 population-based datasets of adolescent students from the U.S. and Canada, Saewyc and colleagues (2007) found that LGB youth were at a significantly higher risk of suicide ideation and attempt than heterosexual and mostly heterosexual students. More specifically, they found in most surveys that one-fourth to one-third of LGB adolescents reported suicide attempts, compared to one-tenth or less for their heterosexual peers. This overrepresentation of sexual minority youth in regards to suicidal behaviour has been observed elsewhere in the United States (Hatzenbuehler, 2011;Robinson, & Espelage, 2011) as well as internationally (Värnik et ...