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Purpose: This study investigated the utility of the risk assessment "Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth" (SAVRY) within the social services in Stockholm County, Sweden. Method: SAVRY assessments of 56 adolescents were compared to assessments guided by another instrument (Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis [ADAD]; n = 38) and assessments without support of a structured method ( n = 38). Results: The results showed that social workers conducting SAVRY assessments documented a significantly larger number of risk and protective factors compared to the other assessments, and these factors predicted, with a few exceptions, reoffending to a larger extent. SAVRY summary risk rating significantly predicted the occurrence of serious violent crimes (area under the curve [AUC] = .80, p < .01) and less serious violence (AUC = .70, p < .05). Conclusions: SAVRY performed at least as well in naturalistic settings as in previous studies conducted in more controlled environments. Furthermore, the SAVRY performed better than the other structured instrument (ADAD).

Introduction:Non-random selection into a study population due to differences between consenters and non-consenters may introduce participation bias. Past investigations of factors predicting consent to collection of medical health records for research imply that age, sex, health status, and education are of importance for participation, but disagree on the direction of effects. Very little is known about influences on consent from adolescents.Methods:Two cohorts of Swedish 15-year-old twins (totaln= 4,611) previously invited to the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden (CATSS) responded to a questionnaire with information on sex, individual's health, height, weight, and parental factors. The questionnaire included a question for consent to collection of medical health records. Predictors for consent were analyzed using logistic regression. Additionally, regional differences in the collection of health records of consenters were evaluated.Results:Males were significantly less likely to consent compared to females (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.64–0.85). The twin siblings' decision to consent was strongly associated with consent (OR 10.9, 95% CI 8.76–13.5), and individuals whose parents had responded to the original CATSS study were more likely to consent to record collection at age 15 (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.81–2.75). Results of the subsequent collection of consenters' medical health records varied between geographical regions of Sweden.Conclusion:We identified several predictors for adolescents' consent to collection of their medical health records. Further selection was introduced through the subsequent record collection. Whether this will induce participation bias in future studies depends on the research questions' relationship to the identified predictors.

The Swedish Twin Registry (STR) today contains more than 194,000 twins and more than 75,000 pairs have zygosity determined by an intra-pair similarity algorithm, DNA, or by being of opposite sex. Of these, approximately 20,000, 25,000, and 30,000 pairs are monozygotic, same-sex dizygotic, and opposite-sex dizygotic pairs, respectively. Since its establishment in the late 1950s, the STR has been an important epidemiological resource for the study of genetic and environmental influences on a multitude of traits, behaviors, and diseases. Following large investments in the collection of biological specimens in the past 10 years we have now established a Swedish twin biobank with DNA from 45,000 twins and blood serum from 15,000 twins, which effectively has also transformed the registry into a powerful resource for molecular studies. We here describe the main projects within which the new collections of both biological samples as well as phenotypic measures have been collected. Coverage by year of birth, zygosity determination, ethnic heterogeneity, and influences of in vitro fertilization are also described.