Online Activity Levels Are Related to Caffeine Dependency.

Online activity could serve in the future as behavioral markers of emotional states for computer systems (i.e., affective computing).

Employment among schoolchildren and its associations with adult substance use, psychological well-being, and academic achievement.

Purpose: To examine the association between paid part-time employment among schoolchildren, and adult substance use, psychological well-being, and academic achievement.

Methods: Longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study were used to evaluate the association between employment at each of 11, 13, and 15 years and adult smoking, regular alcohol binge drinking, regular cannabis use, sense of coherence, social participation, positive coping style, prosociality, no formal qualifications, and university degree. Associations were initially assessed using unadjusted regression analyses and then adjusted for the potential childhood confounders intelligence quotient, reading development, Student's Perception of Ability Scale, socioeconomic disadvantage, family climate, harsh parent-child interaction, parental opinion of their child's attitude to school, and child's personal attitude to school.

Forceps birth delivery, allergic sensitisation and asthma: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Studies indicate an increased risk of allergies among children born by caesarean section, possibly because immune development is altered by avoiding exposure to maternal vaginal flora. It is unknown if other obstetric interventions are associated with allergies.

Objective: To assess associations between delivery with forceps assistance and development of atopy and asthma.

Association between childhood and adolescent television viewing and unemployment in adulthood.

Objective: To assess the long-term association between childhood television viewing and adult unemployment, and if this association is mediated by educational achievement.

Method: Study members were a general-population birth cohort of 1037 participants born in New Zealand in 1972/1973. Hours of weekday television viewing were reported at ages 5-15.

Association between sleep duration and haemoglobin A1c in young adults.

Background: Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that inadequate sleep can cause both obesity and impaired glucose tolerance. Short sleep duration in childhood appears to have a greater impact on the risk for adult obesity than adult sleep duration. The long-term effects of childhood sleep on glucose metabolism have not been investigated.

Correlation between measures of insulin resistance in fasting and non-fasting blood.

Background: Epidemiological investigation of insulin resistance is difficult. Standard measures of insulin resistance require invasive investigations, which are impractical for large-scale studies. Surrogate measures using fasting blood samples have been developed, but even these are difficult to obtain in population-based studies.

Predicting corticosteroid response in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using exhaled nitric oxide.

Rationale: Predicting corticosteroid response in COPD is important but difficult. Response is more likely to occur in association with eosinophilic airway inflammation, for which the fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (Fe(NO)) is a good surrogate marker.

Objectives: We aimed to establish whether Fe(NO) levels would predict the clinical response to oral corticosteroid in COPD.

Childhood sleep time and long-term risk for obesity: a 32-year prospective birth cohort study.

Objective: Associations between short sleep duration and increased BMI have been found in children and adults. However, it is not known whether short sleep time during childhood has long-term consequences. We assessed the association between sleep time in childhood and adult BMI in a birth cohort.

Does childhood television viewing lead to attention problems in adolescence? Results from a prospective longitudinal study.

Context: There is controversy over whether childhood television viewing causes attention problems. The findings from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have been mixed. To our knowledge, no longitudinal studies have assessed the impact of children's television viewing on attention problems in adolescence.