Children’s Health

A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, reports that middle schoolers from a predominantly Latinx community, with elevated levels of mental health problems, showed a reduction in symptoms during the early stages of the pandemic. While the negative impact of the COVID pandemic on

Apr 1 2021 Governments and health leaders across the globe are today calling for urgent action on adolescent wellbeing. In an open letter published by The BMJ, they warn that the current generation of adolescents – 1.2 billion people aged 10-19 worldwide – “are at risk of inheriting a world blighted by climate change and

In some cancers, including leukemia in children and adolescents, obesity can negatively affect survival outcomes. Obese young people with leukemia are 50% more likely to relapse after treatment than their lean counterparts. Now, a study led by researchers at UCLA and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has shown that a combination of modest dietary changes and

A collaborative team centered in the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and including Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC) and Chapman University (CU) has been awarded a three-year grant totaling in excess of $2.3 million, to address the health impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) using precision medicine. Announced by the California Governor’s Office of Planning

A team of researchers has sought to mitigate the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on adolescents by harnessing previous research on youth physical and mental health. Their review also drew on the psychological stressors of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on children. The results were published in the Tohoku Journal of Experimental

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has uncovered a long-sought link in the battle to control cholesterol and heart disease. The protein that interferes with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that clear “bad” cholesterol from the blood was identified in findings recently published in Nature Communications by Dawei Zhang, associate professor of pediatrics

Overweight children and adolescents receiving chemotherapy for treatment of leukemia are less successful battling the disease compared to their lean peers. Now, research conducted at the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles indicates that modest changes in diet and exercise can greatly increase survival in youth treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Children and young adults who receive CAR T-cell therapy for the most common childhood cancer – acute lymphoblastic leukemia – suffer remarkably fewer relapses and are far more likely to survive when the treatment is paired with a subsequent stem cell transplant, a new study finds. The research, with an average follow up of nearly

Mar 31 2021 New “sweat stickers” may streamline the early diagnosis of cystic fibrosis by enabling scientists to easily gather and analyze sweat from the skin of infants and children. The stickers matched the performance of previous, more cumbersome devices when tested with 51 subjects, suggesting the stickers could address design obstacles that have held

An investigational vaccine designed to protect against the B.1.351 SARS-CoV-2 variant has been administered as part of a new Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the vaccine candidate’s safety and immunogenicity in adult volunteers. The vaccine, known as mRNA-1273.351, was developed by the biotechnology company ModernaTX, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The trial is led and

An aggressive type of brain cancer, glioblastoma has no cure. Patients survive an average of 15 months after diagnosis, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving longer than five years. While researchers are investigating potential new therapies via ongoing clinical trials, a new study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that a minor adjustment

Scientists have discovered a new genetic disease, which causes some children’s brains to develop abnormally, resulting in delayed intellectual development and often early onset cataracts. The majority of patients with the condition, which is so new it doesn’t have a name yet, we’re also microcephalic, a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than

Scientists at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UCLA have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to jointly launch an early phase, first-in-human clinical trial of a CRISPR gene correction therapy in patients with sickle cell disease using the patient’s own blood-forming stem cells. The trial will combine CRISPR technology developed at Innovative Genomics

A growing number of young people are identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and many are challenging binaries in gender and sexual identity to reflect a broader spectrum of experience beyond man or woman and gay or straight. But not everyone is participating equally in these diverse forms of expression, according to new research

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have developed a new framework for different factors influencing how a child’s brain is “wired” to learn to read before kindergarten. This may help pediatric providers identify risks when the brain is most responsive to experiences and interventions. This “eco-bio-developmental” model of emergent literacy, described in the journal

Too often, contends UMass Lowell faculty researcher Brenna Morse, children with complex chronic medical conditions spend days in the hospital undergoing tests for what could be a simple diagnosis. The challenges include, she says, some children with medical complexities, such as severe neurological conditions and functional impairments, cannot easily signal that they are in pain

About 61% of Americans have had at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), experts’ formal term for a traumatic childhood event. ACEs–which may include abuse, neglect and severe household dysfunction–often lead to psychological and social struggles that reach into adulthood, making ACEs a major public health challenge. But the long-term consequences of ACEs are just

A review of more than 20 studies by researchers at Arizona State University and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, suggests that nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing dietary problem for children across the globe. The prevalence of fatty-liver disease is escalating not only in adults, but also

A national survey of parents revealed that most parents who used ride-share services did so with their children, but only half of the respondents reported that children who were 8 years or younger traveled in the recommended child car seats or booster seats when in ride-share vehicles. Among parents of children in this age group,

The massive and continuing outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), throughout the world, has led to a staggering toll of over 549,000 deaths in the USA, among over 30 million cases. A new preprint research paper posted to the medRxiv* server discusses the factors related