Since 1990 mortality and morbidity decline has been more extensive for some conditions prevalent in low- and middle-income countries than for others. One reason may be differences in the effectiveness of global health networks, which have proliferated in recent years. Some may be more capable than others in attracting attention to a condition, in generating funding, in developing interventions and in convincing national governments to adopt policies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine the role of executive function in coping and behavioral outcomes in childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) survivors.
Methods: We examined associations among several domains of executive function (working memory, behavioral inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and self-monitoring), coping, and emotional/behavioral problems in 30 children and adolescents ages 10- to 20-years old who completed treatment for ALL and 30 healthy controls matched on age and sex.
Results: We found partial support for our hypothesis that performance on executive function measures is associated with strategies used to cope with stress, and emotional and behavioral problems in ALL survivors.
Objective: Assessed the convergent and discriminant validity of a water load symptom provocation test (WL-SPT) in creating visceral sensations similar to the naturally occurring sensations experienced by children with functional abdominal pain.
Methods: Participants were pediatric patients with functional abdominal pain (N = 110) and healthy school children (N = 120) between the ages of 8 and 16 years. Pain patients completed questionnaires describing gastrointestinal (GI) and non-gastrointestinal (non-GI) symptoms associated with their typical abdominal pain episodes.
Objectives: This study was aimed at identifying mothers' responses to children's pain, evaluating whether these could be organized into different types of responses, and developing a questionnaire to assess these responses.
Methods: Common responses to children's pain were identified on the basis of a review of the literature and interviews with mothers of pediatric patients with pain. Categories reflecting these parenting behaviors were generated for a questionnaire on Adult Responses to Children's Symptoms, which was administered to 145 mothers of pediatric patients aged between 8-18 years referred for medical evaluation of abdominal pain.
Background: Impaired neurocognitive functioning is one increasingly recognized long-term consequence of childhood ALL treatment. However, research findings have been inconsistent regarding the domains affected and the degree to which they are compromised.
Procedure: A comprehensive meta-analytic review of the long-term neurocognitive effects of childhood ALL was conducted.
The objective of this study was to assess the impact of parent attention and distraction on symptom complaints by children with and without chronic functional abdominal pain. The water load symptom provocation task was used to induce visceral discomfort in pediatric patients with abdominal pain (N=104) and well children (N=119), ages 8-16 years. Parents were randomly assigned and trained to interact with their children according to one of three conditions: Attention, Distraction, or No Instruction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrior investigations of the relation between stressors and symptoms in children with recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) have focused on major negative life events. This study used consecutive daily telephone interviews to assess daily stressors and symptoms in 154 pediatric patients with RAP and 109 well children. Results showed that patients with RAP reported more frequent daily stressors than well children reported both at home and at school.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMother-child concordance regarding children's somatic and emotional symptoms was assessed in children with recurrent abdominal pain (n = 88), emotional disorders (n = 51), and well children (n = 56). Children between 6 and 18 years of age and their mothers completed questionnaires assessing the children's somatic symptoms, functional disability, and depression. Mothers of children with recurrent abdominal pain reported more child somatic and depressive symptoms than did their children, and mothers of children with emotional disorders reported more child depressive symptoms than did their children.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessed attributions and responses to descriptions of the misbehavior of children with symptoms of physical and emotional illnesses. Subjects (160 mothers; 160 fathers) read a vignette about a child in one of four illness conditions (medically explained pain with organic etiology; medically unexplained pain, depression, well) who was described as misbehaving at home and school. Within each illness condition, the child protagonist varied by age (8 vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvestigated somatic and emotional symptoms, functional disability, and health service utilization in 31 former RAP patients and 31 former well patients who had originally been interviewed 5 to 6 years earlier. Both former patients and their mothers were interviewed for this follow-up study. Medical records were obtained for those patients who reported receiving new diagnoses for abdominal pain since their initial assessment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study examined the extent to which mothers' ratings of their psychological distress, marital adjustment, and negative life events were related to maternal ratings of child behavior problems. Data were collected from mothers of 110 children (ages 2 to 12 years) who were referred to a pediatric clinic for a variety of common behavioral concerns. Maternal psychological distress and marital adjustment were significantly correlated with mothers' ratings on a child behavior checklist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAssessed patterns of stress in families of children with pediatric conditions that varied on 2 dimensions: (a) fatal vs. nonfatal outcome and (b) presence vs. absence of cognitive impairment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
February 1966