Publications by authors named "Joyce Graff"

Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed data from 2,518 participants in the NIH ECHO Program to assess the reliability of a brief caregiver support and cognitive stimulation scale for infants and toddlers.
  • The children in the study had a mean age of 1.51 years, with 48% being female and 43% identifying as Black.
  • An analysis plan confirmed the development of a reliable 10-item scale, demonstrating high precision, especially for children with lower cognitive stimulation levels (reliability >0.7).
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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluated the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) to determine its accuracy as a screening tool for autism in a large sample of nearly 3,400 children from the ECHO program, particularly focusing on both term and preterm children.
  • Results indicated that while the M-CHAT showed high specificity (88-99%), its sensitivity was relatively low (36-60%), suggesting it is better at identifying low-risk children rather than accurately diagnosing those at higher risk for autism.
  • Overall, the findings support the use of M-CHAT as a valuable tool for identifying developmental delays and behavioral concerns in children, even though it has limitations in detecting all cases of autism risk effectively.
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Improving our knowledge of disability can reduce stereotypes and stigma.

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Data from the early stage of a novel infectious disease outbreak provide vital information in risk assessment, prediction, and precise disease management. Since the first reported case of COVID-19, the pattern of the novel coronavirus transmission in Wuhan has become the interest of researchers in epidemiology and public health. To thoroughly map the mechanism of viral spreading, we used the patterns of data at the early onset of COVID-19 from seven countries to estimate the time lag between peak days of cases and deaths.

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Many studies have evaluated factors that influence the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. This multicountry study assessed the influence of democracy and other factors on the case fatality rate of COVID-19 during the early stage of the pandemic. We accessed the World Health Organization, World Bank, and the Democracy Index 2019 databases for data from the 148 countries.

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In recent decades, the prevalence of childhood depression and obesity has increased worldwide. African American (AA) children are more obese than White peers and experience many factors that can influence the onset of depressive symptoms. While depression and obesity have been examined in adolescents, there is a paucity of research in AA children.

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Introduction Text messaging (TM) is increasingly used by the U.S. medical practices and healthcare delivery systems, but little is known about preferences of medically underserved minority patients for TM supporting improved self-care decisions.

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Throughout infancy and early childhood, stable and secure relationships with caregivers are needed to promote optimal socioemotional (SE) and cognitive development.The objective is to examine socio-demographic, maternal, and child indicators of SE problems in 2-year-olds living in an urban-suburban community in the southern United States.Mother-infant pairs enrolled in a prospective pregnancy cohort study.

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People with genetic cancer syndromes have a special interest in imaging. They also have special risk factors with respect to radiation. They need to utilize the potential of imaging while keeping in mind concerns about cumulative radiation exposure.

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Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of developmental and behavioral disorders in a convenience sample of children in an acute care pediatric hospital setting. We hypothesized that hospitalized children would have a higher prevalence of developmental and behavioral disorders than the general population.

Methods: Data for this cross-sectional study were collected during interviews with primary caregivers of 325 children from infancy throughout childhood who were admitted to a general pediatric service.

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