Effects of maternal calcium supplementation on offspring blood pressure and growth in childhood and adolescence in a population with a low-calcium intake: follow-up study of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends calcium supplementation (1500-2000 mg/d) during pregnancy for women with a low-calcium intake.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pregnancy calcium supplementation affects offspring blood pressure and growth in The Gambia where calcium intakes are low (300-400 mg/d).

Methods: Follow-up of offspring born during a randomized controlled trial of pregnancy calcium supplementation (ISRCTN96502494, 1996-2000) in which mothers were randomly assigned to 1500 mg Ca/d (Ca) or placebo (P) from 20 wk pregnancy to delivery.

Efficacy of early PET-CT directed switch to carboplatin and paclitaxel based definitive chemoradiotherapy in patients with oesophageal cancer who have a poor early response to induction cisplatin and capecitabine in the UK: a multi-centre randomised controlled phase II trial.

Background: The utility of early metabolic response assessment to guide selection of the systemic component of definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) for oesophageal cancer is uncertain.

Methods: In this multi-centre, randomised, open-label, phase II substudy of the radiotherapy dose-escalation SCOPE2 trial we evaluated the role of F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) at day 14 of cycle 1 of three-weekly induction cis/cap (cisplatin (60 mg/m)/capecitabine (625 mg/m days 1-21)) in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) or adenocarcinoma (OAC). Non-responders, who had a less than 35% reduction in maximum standardised uptake value (SUV) from pre-treatment baseline, were randomly assigned to continue cis/cap or switch to car/pac (carboplatin AUC 5/paclitaxel 175 mg/m) for a further induction cycle, then concurrently with radiotherapy over 25 fractions.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domiciliary care workers in Wales, UK: a data linkage cohort study using the SAIL Databank.

Objectives: To quantify population health risks for domiciliary care workers (DCWs) in Wales, UK, working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: A population-level retrospective study linking occupational registration data to anonymised electronic health records maintained by the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank in a privacy-protecting trusted research environment.

Setting: Registered DCW population in Wales.

Biomarker-guided duration of antibiotic treatment in children hospitalised with confirmed or suspected bacterial infection: statistical analysis plan for the BATCH trial and PRECISE sub-study.

Introduction: The BATCH trial is a multi-centre randomised controlled trial to compare procalcitonin-guided management of severe bacterial infection in children with current management. PRECISE is a mechanistic sub-study embedded into the BATCH trial. This paper describes the statistical analysis plan for the BATCH trial and PRECISE sub-study.

Establishing the impact of COVID-19 on the health outcomes of domiciliary care workers in Wales using routine data: a protocol for the OSCAR study.

Introduction: Domiciliary care workers (DCWs) continued providing social care to adults in their own homes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on health outcomes of DCWs is currently mixed, probably reflecting methodological limitations of existing studies. The risk of COVID-19 to workers providing care in people's homes remains unknown.

Pregnancy-Related Change in pQCT and Bone Biochemistry in a Population With a Habitually Low Calcium Intake.

In pregnancy, changes in maternal calcium (Ca) economy occur to satisfy fetal Ca demand. It is unclear whether maternal mineral reserves facilitate these requirements and no data exist from sub-Saharan Africa. The aim was to determine skeletal changes with peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) and bone biochemistry between early second and third trimesters.

The relationship between wasting and stunting: a retrospective cohort analysis of longitudinal data in Gambian children from 1976 to 2016.

Background: The etiologic relationship between wasting and stunting is poorly understood, largely because of a lack of high-quality longitudinal data from children at risk of undernutrition.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the interrelationships between wasting and stunting in children aged <2 y.

Methods: This study involved a retrospective cohort analysis, based on growth-monitoring records spanning 4 decades from clinics in rural Gambia.

Children who are both wasted and stunted are also underweight and have a high risk of death: a descriptive epidemiology of multiple anthropometric deficits using data from 51 countries.

Background: Wasting and stunting are common. They are implicated in the deaths of almost two million children each year and account for over 12% of disability-adjusted life years lost in young children. Wasting and stunting tend to be addressed as separate issues despite evidence of common causality and the fact that children may suffer simultaneously from both conditions ().

Ethnic Differences in Peripheral Skeletal Development Among Urban South African Adolescents: A Ten-Year Longitudinal pQCT Study.

There are no longitudinal pQCT data of bone growth and development from sub-Saharan Africa, where rapid environmental, societal, and economic transitions are occurring, and where fracture rates are predicted to rise. The aim of this study was to compare skeletal development in black and white South African adolescents using longitudinal data from the Birth to Twenty study. The Birth to Twenty Bone Health subcohort consisted of 543 adolescents (261 [178 black] girls, 282 [201 black] boys).