Children’s Health

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 17 2020 What protective factors reduce the likelihood lesbian and bisexual women will consider killing themselves? That’s the focus of a $2 million national study led by researchers at the UCF College of Medicine’s new Population Health Sciences Department. Lindsay Taliaferro, an expert in suicide and self-harm, and Eric Schrimshaw,

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 17 2020 Younger parents were much less likely than older parents to say they planned to vaccinate their children and themselves against COVID-19, according to a research letter published online in medRxiv by authors at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 16 2020 Health care workers — particularly nurses — have a higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than non-health care workers, according to researchers at Rutgers, which released baseline results from a large prospective study of participants at Rutgers and affiliated hospitals recruited during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 16 2020 A technology to diagnose a potentially fatal disease in premature infants invented by Sunyoung Kim, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, has been granted a Breakthrough Device Designation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The noninvasive diagnostic biomarker,

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 16 2020 In a retrospective case study, Mayo Clinic researchers have found that antibiotics administered to children younger than 2 are associated with several ongoing illnesses or conditions, ranging from allergies to obesity. The findings appear in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Using health record data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 16 2020 Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and their colleagues have determined a key factor as to why COVID-19 appears to infect and sicken adults and older people preferentially while seeming to spare younger children. Children have lower levels of an enzyme/co-receptor that SARS-CoV-2, the RNA virus that

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases continue to rise across the globe. Over 54.3 million people have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the causative agent of COVID-19 – and 1.31 million have lost their lives. Scientists in Taiwan recently published a report on their use of anti-neutrophil strategies to treat

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has had a relatively low impact on the pediatric population so far, it is feared that the second wave, which is already underway in many parts of the world, may take its toll on the young and old during the winter season. An article published in October 2020 in the journal

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 12 2020 Exposure to an urban environment characterized by high levels of air pollution and noise in areas with a high building density during the fetal period and in early childhood may contribute to higher blood pressure. This was the conclusion of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for

A recent study published in the journal Child Abuse and Neglect has reported that the number of child maltreatment reports and child welfare interventions decreased significantly in New York City during the initial phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A reduction in child protective service investigations has also been observed. Overall, the findings

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 12 2020 Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is the third most common pediatric chronic disease in the United States, and the risk of the disease has risen sharply in non-Hispanic Black (NHB) children in the last 20 years, data show. Ironically, the significant advances in T1D therapeutics over recent years, especially

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 12 2020 For years, researchers have known through numerous studies that hearing and other sensory systems of adults and children who have autism differ from children or adults without autism. Now, University of Miami and Harvard Medical School researchers who explored responses to the standard hearing test administered to millions

Environmental microorganisms play an essential role in human health – the diverse the consortium, the better. Diversity in the microorganisms helps the immune system to respond to pathogens. It also helps control overstimulation of the immune system in response to innocuous agents, such as dust particles, pollen, and sometimes, our cells – the latter manifesting

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 12 2020 A new Vanderbilt-designed prediction model may make it easier to determine which infants will go on to develop neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a drug withdrawal syndrome in newborns that occurs after exposure to opioids during pregnancy. According to recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), most newborns

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 12 2020 A team of researchers for the first time has found a correlation between the levels of bacteria and fungi in the gastrointestinal tract of children and the amount of common chemicals found in their home environment. The work, published this month in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, could

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), spreads by respiratory droplets and aerosols when an infected person coughs, speaks, and breathes. Throughout the pandemic, health experts have recommended the use of face masks to protect oneself from the virus. Now, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 11 2020 For adults, the goal of exercise is often to shed some pounds, but new research from the University of Georgia suggests the objective should be different for kids. Physical education should focus on improving students’ physical skills, knowledge of the benefits of exercise and motivation to be active.

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 9 2020 Receiving an initial antibiotic prescription for a viral acute respiratory infection–the type of infection that doesn’t respond to antibiotics–increases the likelihood that a patient or their spouse will seek care for future such infections and will receive subsequent antibiotic prescriptions, according to the findings of a study from

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 11 2020 It’s 2020, and as much as we wish it weren’t so, sexual harassment is still with us. One need only look at social media or a steady stream of court cases: most recently, the #MeToo movement has cast a light on sexual harassment. Sexual harassment isn’t defined by

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 10 2020 The causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) – including genetic and environmental factors – are not entirely understood. Many studies have already shown that serious maternal infection during pregnancy is associated with increased risk for offspring in both people and animals. New research however, shows that the lowest