Caregiver worry about COVID-19 as a predictor of social mitigation behaviours and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 12-city U.S. surveillance study of households with children.

Objective: Understanding compliance with COVID-19 mitigation recommendations is critical for informing efforts to contain future infectious disease outbreaks. This study tested the hypothesis that higher levels of worry about COVID-19 illness among household caregivers would predict lower (a) levels of overall and discretionary social exposure activities and (b) rates of household SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Methods: Data were drawn from a surveillance study of households with children ( = 1913) recruited from 12 U.

Association between prenatal antimicrobial use and offspring attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Background: Gut-brain cross-talk may play an important role in modulating neurodevelopment. Few studies have examined the association between antimicrobials that influence infant gut microbiota assemblage and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Objective: To examine the association between maternal prenatal antimicrobial use and ADHD in offspring at 10 years of age.

Early-life gut microbiota and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in preadolescents.

Background: Gut microbiota maturation coincides with nervous system development. Cross-sectional data suggest gut microbiota of individuals with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) differs. We hypothesized that infant gut microbiota composition is associated with later ADHD development in our on-going birth cohort study, WHEALS.

Associations of physical activity with gut microbiota in pre-adolescent children.

Purpose: To determine whether physical activity (PA), primarily the recommended 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA, is associated with gut bacterial microbiota in 10-year-old children.

Methods: The Block Physical Activity Screener, which provides minutes/day PA variables, was used to determine whether the child met the PA recommendations. 16S rRNA sequencing was performed on stool samples from the children to profile the composition of their gut bacterial microbiota.

Infant gut bacterial community composition and food-related manifestation of atopy in early childhood.

Background: Immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy (IgE-FA) has emerged as a global public health concern. Immune dysregulation is an underlying mechanism for IgE-FA, caused by "dysbiosis" of the early intestinal microbiota. We investigated the association between infant gut bacterial composition and food-related atopy at age 3-5 years using a well-characterized birth cohort.

Pilot study of a brief provider and EMR-based intervention for overweight teens with asthma.

Introduction: Asthma-related morbidity is increased in overweight patients, yet providers are given little guidance on how to discuss weight and asthma management with overweight teens.

Objective: We piloted an electronic medical record (EMR)-based tailored discussion guide (TDG) and a brief provider training, to address weight management in overweight teens with asthma. The primary outcome was intervention impact on patient-reported asthma outcomes (e.

Prenatal IgE as a Risk Factor for the Development of Childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Few studies have examined if maternal allergic disease is associated with an offspring's neurodevelopment. We hypothesized that Th-2 biased maternal immune function assessed as total serum immunoglobulin (Ig) E is associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Data are from the Wayne County Health, Environment, Allergy, and Asthma Longitudinal Study (WHEALS), a racially and socioeconomically diverse birth cohort in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan.

US Childhood Asthma Incidence Rate Patterns From the ECHO Consortium to Identify High-risk Groups for Primary Prevention.

Importance: Asthma is the leading chronic illness in US children, but most descriptive epidemiological data are focused on prevalence.

Objective: To evaluate childhood asthma incidence rates across the nation by core demographic strata and parental history of asthma.

Design, Setting, And Participants: For this cohort study, a distributed meta-analysis was conducted within the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) consortium for data collected from May 1, 1980, through March 31, 2018.

Increased risk of asthma at age 10 years for children sensitized to multiple allergens.

Background: Childhood sensitization patterns have been previously found to be related to variable risk of early life allergic disease in several birth cohorts.

Objective: To determine whether these risks persist into later childhood.

Methods: In the birth cohort of the Wayne County Health, Environment, Allergy and Asthma Longitudinal Study, previous latent class analysis based on sensitization to 10 allergens found the following 4 early life sensitization patterns at age 2 years: "highly sensitized," "milk/egg dominated," "peanut and inhalant(s)," and "low to no sensitization.

Infant Feeding Practices and Subsequent Dietary Patterns of School-Aged Children in a US Birth Cohort.

Background: Infant feeding practices are thought to shape food acceptance and preferences. However, few studies have evaluated whether these affect child diet later in life.

Objective: The study objective was to examine the association between infant feeding practices and dietary patterns (DPs) in school-aged children.

Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic: quantifying the practice in Michigan - a "hotspot state" early in the pandemic - using a volunteer-based online survey.

Background: Public Health policies related to social distancing efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic helped slow the infection rate. However, individual-level factors associated with social distancing are largely unknown. We sought to examine social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan, an infection "hotspot" state in the United States early in the pandemic.

Maternal and cord blood vitamin D level and the infant gut microbiota in a birth cohort study.

Background: Mounting evidence suggests both vitamin D and the early life gut microbiome influence childhood health outcomes. However, little is known about how these two important exposures are related. We aimed to examine associations between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels during pregnancy or at delivery (cord blood) and infant gut microbiota.

Response to survey directed to patient portal members differs by age, race, and healthcare utilization.

Health care systems are increasingly utilizing electronic medical record-associated patient portals to facilitate communication with patients and between providers and their patients. These patient portals are growing in recognition as potentially valuable research tools. While there is much information about the response rates and demographics of internet-based surveys as well as the demographics of patients who are portal members, not much is known about the response rate of internet-based surveys directed to a group of patient portal members or the demographics of which portal members respond to internet-based surveys issued within that specific population.

Racial disparities in allergic outcomes persist to age 10 years in black and white children.

Background: Previous analyses in the WHEALS birth cohort demonstrated that black children are more likely to experience allergic outcomes than white children by age 2 years. The results could not be explained by a host of variables.

Objective: Assess whether racial disparities persisted to age 10 years and determine whether any differences could be explained by a panel of variables related to early life exposures in WHEALS.

Participant-level characteristics differ by recruitment setting when evaluating a behavioral intervention targeting adolescents with asthma.

Objective: The recruitment setting plays a key role in the evaluation of behavioral interventions. We evaluated a behavioral intervention for urban adolescents with asthma in three randomized trials conducted separately in three different settings over the course of 8 years. We hypothesized that characteristics of trial participants recruited from the ED and clinic settings would be significantly different from that of youth participating in the school-based trials.

Prenatal pet keeping and caregiver-reported attention deficit hyperactivity disorder through preadolescence in a United States birth cohort.

Background: While the keeping of pets has been shown to protect against childhood allergic disease and obesity, less is known regarding potential associations of prenatal pet keeping and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We sought to examine the associations between prenatal dog or cat keeping with caregiver-reported ADHD in preadolescents in the Wayne County Health, Environment, Allergy and Asthma Longitudinal Study (WHEALS) birth cohort (N = 1258).

Methods: At an interview with the caregiver at child age 10-12 years, caregivers reported if the WHEALS child had ever been diagnosed with ADHD.

Birth Mode, Breastfeeding, Pet Exposure, and Antibiotic Use: Associations With the Gut Microbiome and Sensitization in Children.

Purpose Of Review: The infant gut microbiota has become a focus of multiple epidemiologic and cohort studies. This microbiome is derived from the mother (via the vaginal canal, maternal skin contact, breastfeeding, and possibly in utero microbial transfer) and is likely influenced by multiple external factors. It is now believed by some experts that colonization and formation of the newborn and alterations of gut microbiota in children are dependent on earlier alterations of the microbiota of mothers during or perhaps even before pregnancy.

In utero metal exposures measured in deciduous teeth and birth outcomes in a racially-diverse urban cohort.

A growing number of studies have examined associations of metal exposures with birth outcomes, however, results from these studies have been inconsistent, and hampered by methodological limitations. We measured direct fetal exposure to three metals (lead, manganese and zinc) during the second and third trimester and examined its association with birth weight and gestational age at delivery. Participants in the Wayne County Health, Environment, Allergy and Asthma Longitudinal Study (WHEALS), a population-based birth cohort established between September 2003 and December 2007, were invited to donate teeth to the study.

Breast-feeding and delivery mode modify the association between maternal atopy and childhood allergic outcomes.

Exclusive breastfeeding during the first month of life and vaginal delivery may mitigate the transmission of atopy from mother to child. These results could have implications for potential targeted prevention strategies in high-risk offspring of atopic mothers.

Serum cholesterol trajectories in the 10 years prior to lymphoma diagnosis.

Purpose: Many studies suggest a role for cholesterol in cancer development. Serum cholesterol levels have been observed to be low in newly diagnosed lymphoma cases. The objective of these analyses was to examine the time-varying relationship of cholesterol with lymphomagenesis in the 10 years prior to diagnosis by lymphoma subtype.

Burden of higher lead exposure in African-Americans starts in utero and persists into childhood.

Background: Recent public health lead crises in urban areas emphasize the need to better understand exposure to environmental toxicants, particularly in higher risk groups. Although African-American children have the highest prevalence of elevated blood lead levels in the United States, little is known about when this trajectory of disproportionate burden of lead exposure first emerges.

Objectives: Using tooth-matrix biomarkers that directly measure fetal and early childhood metal levels, the primary goal of this study was to determine if there were racial disparities in lead levels during fetal development and early childhood.