Massachusetts Pediatricians' Views Toward Body Mass Index Screening in Schools: Continued Controversy.

Objective Evaluate Massachusetts pediatricians' views toward school-based body mass index screening since its implementation. Methods Survey of 286 members of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics on attitudes toward screening and perceived impact on clinical practice. Results Overall, 36.

Homelessness during pregnancy: a unique, time-dependent risk factor of birth outcomes.

Evaluate homelessness during pregnancy as a unique, time-dependent risk factor for adverse birth outcomes. 9,995 mothers of children <48 months old surveyed at emergency departments and primary care clinics in five US cities. Mothers were classified as either homeless during pregnancy with the index child, homeless only after the index child's birth, or consistently housed.

Health of children classified as underweight by CDC reference but normal by WHO standard.

Objective: To ascertain measures of health status among 6- to 24-month-old children classified as below normal weight-for-age (underweight) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2000 growth reference but as normal weight-for-age by the World Health Organization (WHO) 2006 standard.

Methods: Data were gathered from children and primary caregivers at emergency departments and primary care clinics in 7 US cities. Outcome measures included caregiver rating of child health, parental evaluation of developmental status, history of hospitalizations, and admission to hospital at the time of visit.

Zinc protoporphyrin and iron deficiency screening: trends and therapeutic response in an urban pediatric center.

Importance: Iron deficiency is the most common micronutrient deficiency among children worldwide, with iron-deficiency anemia associated with long-term adverse neurodevelopmental effects.

Objective: To understand the role of zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) in iron deficiency screening in a low-income pediatric population, as well as to describe the prevalence and trends of abnormal ZPP and the response to iron therapy.

Design: Retrospective longitudinal study of data from electronic medical records collected from January 1, 2002, through December 31, 2010.

WIC participation and attenuation of stress-related child health risks of household food insecurity and caregiver depressive symptoms.

Objectives: To examine how family stressors (household food insecurity and/or caregiver depressive symptoms) relate to child health and whether participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) attenuates stress-related child health risks.

Design: Cross-sectional family stress and cumulative stress models from January 1, 2000, through December 31, 2010.

Setting: Families recruited from emergency departments and/or primary care in Baltimore, Boston, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

Understanding pediatricians' views toward school-based BMI screening in Massachusetts: a pilot study.

Background: Massachusetts (MA) mandated body mass index (BMI) screening in schools in 2010. However, little is known about pediatricians' views on school-based screening or how the pediatricians' perspectives might affect the school-based screening process. We assessed MA pediatricians' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices concerning BMI screening.

US Housing insecurity and the health of very young children.

Objectives: We investigated the association between housing insecurity and the health of very young children.

Methods: Between 1998 and 2007, we interviewed 22,069 low-income caregivers with children younger than 3 years who were seen in 7 US urban medical centers. We assessed food insecurity, child health status, developmental risk, weight, and housing insecurity for each child's household.

Development and validity of a 2-item screen to identify families at risk for food insecurity.

Objectives: To develop a brief screen to identify families at risk for food insecurity (FI) and to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, and convergent validity of the screen.

Patients And Methods: Caregivers of children (age: birth through 3 years) from 7 urban medical centers completed the US Department of Agriculture 18-item Household Food Security Survey (HFSS), reports of child health, hospitalizations in their lifetime, and developmental risk. Children were weighed and measured.

Best practice updates for pediatric/adolescent weight loss surgery.

The objective of this study is to update evidence-based best practice guidelines for pediatric/adolescent weight loss surgery (WLS). We performed a systematic search of English-language literature on WLS and pediatric, adolescent, gastric bypass, laparoscopic gastric banding, and extreme obesity published between April 2004 and May 2007 in PubMed, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Library. Keywords were used to narrow the search for a selective review of abstracts, retrieval of full articles, and grading of evidence according to systems used in established evidence-based models.

Milk-Based Nutritional Supplements in Conjunction With Lifestyle Intervention in Overweight Adolescents.

There are limited data on successful weight management approaches among adolescents from underserved communities. The primary aim of this study was to obtain preliminary data on the efficacy, safety, and acceptability of a lifestyle intervention with milk-based supplements among adolescents from underserved communities. The secondary aims of this study were to assess change in adiposity indices and metabolic indices and to measure compliance.

Iron supplementation of low-income infants: a randomized clinical trial of adherence with ferrous fumarate sprinkles versus ferrous sulfate drops.

Objective: To determine whether low-income infants' adherence to nutritional supplementation with ferrous fumarate sprinkles was better than that with ferrous sulfate drops.

Study Design: The study was a randomized clinical trial of healthy 6-month-old infants. Each infant received either a daily packet of sprinkles or a dropperful of liquid.

Food insecurity and risk of poor health among US-born children of immigrants.

Objectives: We investigated the risk of household food insecurity and reported fair or poor health among very young children who were US citizens and whose mothers were immigrants compared with those whose mothers had been born in the United States.

Methods: Data were obtained from 19,275 mothers (7216 of whom were immigrants) who were interviewed in hospital-based settings between 1998 and 2005 as part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program. We examined whether food insecurity mediated the association between immigrant status and child health in relation to length of stay in the United States.

Household food insecurity: associations with at-risk infant and toddler development.

Objectives: In this study, we evaluated the relationship between household food security status and developmental risk in young children, after controlling for potential confounding variables.

Methods: The Children's Sentinel Nutritional Assessment Program interviewed (in English, Spanish, or Somali) 2010 caregivers from low-income households with children 4 to 36 months of age, at 5 pediatric clinic/emergency department sites (in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania). Interviews included demographic questions, the US Food Security Scale, and the Parents' Evaluations of Developmental Status.

Breastfeeding and health outcomes among citizen infants of immigrant mothers.

Objective: To examine the associations between breastfeeding and child health outcomes among citizen infants of mothers immigrant to the United States.

Design/methods: From September 1998 through June 2004, as part of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, a sentinel sample of 3,592 immigrant mothers with infants aged 0 to 12 months were interviewed in emergency departments or pediatric clinics in six sites. Mothers reported breastfeeding history, child health history, household demographics, government assistance program participation, and household food security.

Pediatric obesity management: variation by specialty and awareness of guidelines.

A survey of 2727 pediatric clinicians evaluated pediatric overweight management and awareness of Expert Committee recommendations (ECR) on obesity. Adjusted response rate was 45%. ECR awareness was reported by 24.

Heat or eat: the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and nutritional and health risks among children less than 3 years of age.

Objectives: Public funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has never been sufficient to serve more than a small minority of income-eligible households. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding has not increased with recent rapidly rising energy costs, harsh winter conditions, or higher child poverty rates. Although a national performance goal for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is to increase the percentage of recipient households having > or = 1 member < or = 5 years of age, the association of income-eligible households' receipt of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program with indicators of well-being in young children has not been evaluated previously.

Child food insecurity increases risks posed by household food insecurity to young children's health.

The US Food Security Scale (USFSS) measures household and child food insecurity (CFI) separately. Our goal was to determine whether CFI increases risks posed by household food insecurity (HFI) to child health and whether the Food Stamp Program (FSP) modifies these effects. From 1998 to 2004, 17,158 caregivers of children ages 36 mo were interviewed in six urban medical centers.