It has been proposed that exposure to infections and microbes protects against atopic diseases, but epidemiological data has so far been conflicting. We hypothesized that maternal exposure to infections and microbes before or during pregnancy would be of particular importance. To test this hypothesis, we studied the incidence of wheezing and atopic dermatitis (AD) in infants of mothers employed in child-care institutions - and thus presumably being highly exposed to infections and microbes - compared with infants of mothers not so employed. A total of 31471 mother-child pairs enrolled in the Danish National Birth Cohort were followed prospectively. Information on wheezing episodes, AD, maternal employment, and other variables were collected by interview at 12 and 30 wk of gestation, and 6 and 18 months of age, and by linkage to the Danish Medical Birth Register and the Child-care Database. The relative risk was estimated in Cox proportional hazard models. Analyses were stratified by sibling status (first born or not), as older siblings are likely to be a significant source of infectious agents. The adjusted relative risks of wheeze, recurrent wheeze and AD was 1.14 (95% CI: 0.96-1.37), 1.37 (95% CI: 1.05-1.77), and 1.03 (95% CI: 0.81-1.31), respectively, for first-born infants of mothers employed in child-care institutions compared with infants of mothers not so employed. There was no effect of maternal employment in child-care institutions among infants with older siblings. In conclusion, the results did not support the hypothesis that maternal microbial exposure before or during pregnancy as reflected by maternal employment in child-care institutions protects the offspring against infant wheeze and AD.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3038.2008.00722.x | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
January 2025
Guttmacher Institute, New York, New York, United States of America.
Several challenges to validity have been identified with standard approaches used to measure "demand satisfied for modern methods of family planning." This study explored construct validity of the widely used indicator for "demand satisfied" by comparing the standard definition to alternative definitions of the indicator highlighting dimensions of women's own perceived demand, choice, and satisfaction. This cross-sectional study of women aged 15-49 years was conducted in Argentina (n = 1492), Ghana (n = 1600), and India (n = 1702) using a two-staged random sampling design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLOS Digit Health
January 2025
UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom.
Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) capture patients' views of their health status and the use of PROMs as part of standard care of children and young people has the potential to improve communication between patients/carers and clinicians and the quality of care. Electronic systems for the collection of or access to PROMs and integrating PROMs into electronic health records facilitates their implementation in routine care and could help maximise their value. Yet little is known about the technical aspects of implementation including the electronic systems available for collection and capture and how this may influence the value of PROMs in routine care which this scoping review aims to explore.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJAMA Netw Open
January 2025
Population Policy and Practice, Great Ormond Street UCL Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom.
Importance: Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) has proven to be a challenging and enduring complication of prematurity. However, its association with neurodevelopment across the spectrum of IVH severity, independent of prematurity, and in the context of contemporary care remains uncertain.
Objective: To evaluate national trends in IVH diagnosis and the association with survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age.
Child Obes
January 2025
School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Family child care (FCC) offers a promising setting for obesity prevention, yet interventions have had varied success, potentially due to insufficient stakeholder input. This study aimed to explore barriers, facilitators, and preferences for healthy eating and physical activity interventions among Australian FCC educators and organization staff. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 FCC educators and 6 staff members, using the framework method for data analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRes Child Adolesc Psychopathol
January 2025
Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorders are early-onset mental disorders characterized by selective attention and strong emotional reactions. Attentional bias has been proposed to play a role in the development, onset, and maintenance of the disorders, but few studies have included youth with mental disorders, and no study has included more than one clinical group, making it unclear whether biased attention is disorder-specific or transdiagnostic in nature. In the present study, 65 youths with OCD (M = 13.
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