Measuring impact of New Mexico prekindergarten on standardized test scores and high school graduation using propensity score matching.

The long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is an important consideration given the trend of dedicating more resources to these programs. However, long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is not well-understood and recent studies have shown preschool effectiveness can vary across states and programs. A state run prekindergarten program in New Mexico was examined using propensity score matching to minimize selection bias.

Association Between Co-Occurring Anxiety and Depression With Drug Overdose Encounters in the Emergency Department Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the Era of COVID-19.

Purpose: COVID-19 risk mitigation efforts could have negatively impacted anxiety, depression, and substance use among adolescents and young adults.

Methods: We analyzed 45,223 emergency department visits from April 2018 to March 2022 of patients aged 12-21 in Pinellas County, Florida.

Results: Frequency of overdose, anxiety, and depression significantly increased from the pre-COVID-19 to the COVID-19 period.

A Look Back at Healthy Lifestyle Behavioral Patterns among School-Age Children: Are We Neglecting Healthy Weight for Overweight Kids?

To describe prevalence of healthy lifestyle behaviors (HLBs) between two school-age cohorts of racial-ethnically diverse children. Using two Early Childhood Longitudinal Study cohorts (ECLS-K 1999 and 2010), we compared percentage change in HLBs (sleep, physical activity, screen time, and family meals) by child weight groups and within racial-ethnic groups. Weight groups of interest included healthy weight (HW; BMI 5th-84th percentile), overweight (OW; ≥ 85th-94th), obese (OB; ≥ 95th-99th percentile), and severely obese (SO; ≥ 99th percentile).

Assessment of Weight Bias Among Pediatric Nurses and Clinical Support Staff Toward Obese Patients and Their Caregivers.

The increasing burden of obesity is prevalent in the pediatric populations. Pediatric nurses are spending increasing amounts of time and effort caring for obese patients however no prior studies have explored how nurses perceive obese patients. The purpose of this study is to identify weight bias in pediatric nurses (RNs) and clinical support staff (CSS) working in a pediatric hospital setting.

Predictors of favorable growth patterns during the obesity epidemic among US school children.

Objective: To report the prevalence of favorable growth patterns, including healthy weight maintenance (HWM) and return to healthy weight (RHW) among US school-age children.

Methods: A longitudinal analysis of childhood growth patterns from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort was completed (n = 9416). The primary outcome included describing the prevalence of HWM/RHW patterns using consecutive child growth data from kindergarten to fifth grades.

Racial-Ethnic Differences in Parental Body Image Perceptions of Preschoolers: Implications for Engaging Minority Parents in Weight-Related Discussions.

Parental misperception of minority preschoolers’ body image remains a major barrier to obesity prevention. Differences in child body image perception between Latino and African-American parents may inform etiologies to obesity disparities. Using pooled data from studies implementing validated child body sketches, frequency of parental misperception in these two populations are analyzed and associations with provider commentary and parental acculturation reported.