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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Marianne McPherson, SM, Brandeis University, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, MS035, P.O. Box 549110, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454, 617-501-6884, mcpherson@brandeis.edu

This presentation will concern health choices facing adolescent girls, considering adolescent health as the gateway to health in young adulthood. How do young women navigate the health care system and make choices concerning their physical and mental health? This presentation will consider decisions facing young women in several domains, couching adolescence along a trajectory of human development between childhood and adulthood. Adolescent girls face pressures from their peers, families, schools, and the media. How do they balance these competing pressures and make health decisions—what to eat, how much to exercise, whether to smoke? This presentation will consider several examples relevant to young women's health, including access to and choices about emergency contraception and a variety of other contraceptive methods. How do pharmaceutical companies try to influence adolescents' health choices? In considering that question, we will use the examples of menstrual suppression and prescriptions for psychotropic medications to adolescents.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participant will be able to

• Identify at least two health decisions facing adolescent girls.
• Describe factors (including peers and the media) influencing those decisions.
• Recognize a domain in which pharmaceutical companies try to influence young women’s health decisions.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Decision-Making

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation