Chronic illness in childhood linked to higher rates of mental illness

May 4, 2020

Science Daily/Queen Mary University of London

Children with long-term health conditions may be more likely to experience mental illness in early adolescence than healthy children, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London.

In the study, published in Development and Psychopathology, children reported to have chronic health problems showed higher rates of mental illness at 10 years, and those health problems continued to be associated with poor mental health at the ages of 13 and 15.

To carry out the study, researchers reviewed a sample of approximately 7000 children to investigate the occurrence of mental health disorders, including anxiety or depression, and chronic illness. The measure of chronic illness was based on mothers assessing their child's health at 10 and 13. Since chronic conditions are defined as those that cannot be cured but can be controlled by medication and other therapies, and may have little disease activity, this measure included children presenting with minor health problems.

The researchers found that children with chronic health conditions were approximately twice as likely at 10 and at 13 to present with a mental health disorder than the control group (children reported by their mothers to be 'healthy, no problems'). At age 15, children with chronic health problems were 60% more likely to present with such disorders.

Study author, Dr Ann Marie Brady from Queen Mary University of London, said: "Although the link between chronic health conditions and mental health problems in childhood has been made before, this study provides the strongest evidence of it to date in the years of late childhood and early adolescence. The difference chronic conditions make to mental health are concerning, and the first impact can be seen even before adolescence, in late childhood."

To investigate this pattern further, the researchers looked at a subset of the children with chronic illness: those who had been diagnosed with asthma. Asthma symptoms are generally mild and well-controlled. Nevertheless, researchers found that asthmatic children showed a similar pattern, having a higher rate of mental illness at 10, 13 and 15 than healthy children.

The study also reviewed what additional factors might account for the link between chronic conditions and mental illness. The sample was taken from the Children of the 90s study, which also contains information from parents and children about other issues including family functioning, friendships, children's activity levels, bullying and health-related absenteeism from school. Researchers analysed which of these might contribute to mental illness rates among children with chronic illness.

They found that bullying and health-related school absenteeism emerged as the most significant additional factors for children with mental health issues. Health-related school absenteeism was identified as the most consistent factor predicting mental health problems over time.

Dr Brady said: "Chronic illness disrupts children's normal lives, and this can affect their development and wellbeing. Even children with asthma, a generally treatable and less debilitating chronic condition, had higher rates of mental illness than the healthy children in our study. If children with chronic conditions are more likely to miss school, or experience bullying, that can make the situation worse. Keeping an eye on school attendance and looking out for evidence of bullying amongst children with chronic illness may help to identify those who are most at risk."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200504114117.htm

Children who have difficult relationships with their moms are clingy towards teachers

April 30, 2020

Science Daily/New York University

Children who experience "dependent" or clingy relationships with their preschool teachers tend to also have difficulties in their relationships with their mothers finds researchers at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The research, published in peer-reviewed academic research journal Attachment and Human Behavior, went even further to find that later in elementary school, these children were prone to being anxious, withdrawn, and overly shy.

"Our research suggests that preschool teachers have the potential to play a pivotal role for children who are more dependent," said Robin Neuhaus, lead researcher and doctoral student in NYU Steinhardt's Department of Teacher and Learning. "By being warm and supportive, and by encouraging children to explore, preschool teachers may be able to reset the trajectories of children who may otherwise struggle with anxiety in elementary school."

Analyzing data from 769 children collected by the National Institute of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Neuhaus and her colleagues looked at assessments of mother-child attachment patterns from families across the United States. The sample looked at attachment at 36 months, 54 months, first, third and fifth grades, and examined dependency, closeness, conflict and other behaviors between children and their mothers, as well as children and their teachers.

"Results from multilevel models showed that clingy behavior with preschool teachers was associated with higher levels of anxious behaviors when children were in fifth grade. Clingy behavior also partially mediated the link between a difficult type of mother-child attachment and anxiety in fifth grade," continued Neuhaus.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200430170940.htm

A child's home environment can impact the risk of developing depression

April 28, 2020

Science Daily/American Psychiatric Association

New research, published online today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, finds that children's rearing environment has a meaningful impact on their risk for major depression later in life, and notes the importance supporting of nurturing environments when children are at risk. In the study, authors analyzed the health records of full and half siblings with at least one biological parent with depression who were raised by either their biological parents or in carefully screened adoptive homes. Generally, the children in adopted homes showed lower risk, but whatever the setting, episodes of major depression in the parents meant the children were more susceptible to depression themselves.

"The Rearing Environment and Risk for Major Depression: A Swedish National High-Risk Home-Reared and Adopted-Away Co-Sibling Control Study" -- led by Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., with Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and Kristina Sundquist, M.D., Ph.D., from Lund University in Malmö, Sweden -- involved data from the Swedish National Sample. The researchers identified 666 high-risk full sibling pairs and 2,596 high-risk pairs of half siblings each with at least one child reared at home and one adopted. High risk was defined as having at least one biological parent with major depression. In Sweden, the adoptive parents are carefully screened and undergo a rigorous selection process to ensure their ability to "provide a supportive and generally advantaged home for their adoptive child."

In the full sibling group, the risk for major depression among adopted siblings was 23% lower than the sibling raised in the home with their birth family. In the group of half siblings, the risk of depression was 19% lower for the adopted siblings. For both the full and half sibling groups, the protective effect of adoption disappeared when an adoptive parent or step-sibling had major depression or when the

The study authors conclude that their results "further strengthen the evidence that high-quality rearing environments can meaningfully reduce rates of major depression in individuals at high familial risk." The research also "supports efforts to improve the rearing environment in high-risk families as an approach to the primary prevention of major depression," the authors note.

Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D., from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, noted in her accompanying commentary that to the question of whether it is nature or nurture that contributes to depression risk, the answer remains "yes," it is nature and nurture, with relative proportions and for which type of depression continuing to be examined. Yet, for the present study "the results demonstrate the strong impact of the rearing environment on risk for major depression and support the importance of intervention efforts to improve the rearing environment in high risk families."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200428084705.htm

Students who listened to Beethoven during lecture -- and in dreamland -- did better on test

But scores on the material nine months later dropped to 'floor level'

April 7, 2020

Science Daily/Baylor University

College students who listened to classical music by Beethoven and Chopin during a computer-interactive lecture on microeconomics -- and heard the music played again that night -- did better on a test the next day than did peers who were in the same lecture, but instead slept that evening with white noise in the background.

Over the long haul -- when students took a similar test nine months later -- the boost did not last. Scores dropped to floor levels, with everyone failing and performance averaging less than 25% percent for both groups. However, targeted memory reactivation (TMR) may aid during deep sleep, when memories are theorized to be reactivated and moved from temporary storage in one part of the brain to more permanent storage in other parts, researchers said.

The study, supported by the National Science Foundation and conducted by Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory (SNAC), is published in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

"All educators want to teach students how to integrate concepts, not just memorize details, but that's notoriously difficult to do," said Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor's sleep lab and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience. "What we found was that by experimentally priming these concepts during sleep, we increased performance on integration questions by 18% on the test the next day. What student wouldn't want a boost or two to their letter grade? The effects were particularly enhanced in participants who showed heightened frontal lobe activity in the brain during slow wave sleep, which is deep sleep."

He noted that the effects emerged when using gold standard procedures: neither participants nor experimenters knew who received a particular treatment, sleep was measured using EEG in a laboratory setting, and the learning materials matched those that would actually be used in a college classroom, in this case an undergraduate microeconomics lecture.

Poor sleep is widespread in college students, with 60 percent habitually sleeping fewer than the recommended seven hours on 50 to 65 percent of nights. While students may be more concerned about immediate test results -- and TMR may help them cram for an exam -- learning by rote (item memory) does not normally benefit grasping and retaining a concept.

For the study, researchers recruited 50 college students ages 18 to 33 for a learning task with a self-paced, computer-interactive lecture; and for two overnight polysomnography sessions, with the first night an adaptation to the lab and screening for sleep disorders, and the second done the evening of the lecture.

During the lecture, soft background selections were played from a computer: the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Piano Sonata, the first movement of Vivaldi's "Spring" Violin Concerto and Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2.

That night in Baylor's sleep lab, research personnel applied electrodes and used computers to monitor sleep patterns of both test and control groups. Once technicians observed a person was in deep sleep, they played either the classical music or the white noise -- depending on whether the individual was in the test or control group -- for about 15 minutes.

"Deep slow wave sleep won't last super long before shifting back to light sleep, so we couldn't play them endlessly," Scullin said. "If we played it during light sleep, the music probably would have awoken participants. The first slow wave cycle is the deepest and longest."

The music choice was important, researchers said.

"We ruled out jazz because it's too sporadic and would probably cause people to wake," Scullin said. "We ruled out popular music because lyrical music disrupts initial studying. You can't read words and sing lyrics -- just try it. We also ruled out ocean waves and ambient music because it's very easy to ignore. You're going to have a heck of a time forming a strong association between some learning material and a bland song or ambient noise.

"That left us with classical music, which many students already listen to while studying," he said. "The songs can be very distinctive and therefore pair well with learning material."

In the microeconomics exam the next day, the TMR of classical music more than doubled the likelihood of passing the test when compared with the control condition of white noise.

Scullin cautioned against confusing the Baylor study's findings with the so-called "Mozart Effect" -- the finding that having students listen to Mozart pieces led to better scores on intelligence tests. Subsequent tests of the "Mozart Effect" found that it either did not replicate or that boosts were strictly due to increased arousal when listening to energetic music.

"Mozart doesn't make memories," Scullin said.

Previous researchers have found that memories associated with sensory cues -- such as an odor or song -- are re-activated when the same cue is received later. When that happens during deep sleep, the corresponding memories are activated and strengthened, said co-researcher Chenlu Gao, a doctoral candidate of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor.

Early experimenters also played audio tapes during sleep to test whether individuals can learn new knowledge while sleeping. But while those experiments failed to create new memories, "our study suggests it is possible to reactivate and strengthen existing memories of lecture materials during sleep," Gao said.

"Our next step is to implement this technique in classrooms -- or in online lectures while students complete their education at home due to COVID-19 social distancing measures -- so we can help college students 're-study' their class materials during sleep."

"We think it is possible there could be long-term benefits of using TMR but that you might have to repeat the music across multiple nights," Scullin added. "After all, you wouldn't just study material a single time and then expect to remember it months later for a final exam. The best learning is repeated at spaced-out intervals -- and, of course, while maintaining good sleep habits."

*The study was supported by the National Science Foundation. Paul Fillmore, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders in Baylor's Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, also was a co-researcher.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200407072720.htm

Children of parents with mental illness have higher risk of injuries

April 8, 2020

Science Daily/Karolinska Institutet

Children to parents suffering from mental illness have a higher risk of injuries than other children, according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The risk is elevated up to 17 years of age and peaks during the first year of life. The findings highlight the need for parents with mental illness to receive extra support around child injury prevention measures as well as early treatment of mental morbidity among expecting parents.

Between 7-11 percent of all children in Sweden have at least one parent diagnosed with a mental illness, according to the researchers' estimates. Previous measures to safeguard children have focused mainly on preventing neglect and maltreatment and to a lesser degree on stopping accidents and injuries. However, according to the researchers it might be possible to reduce child injuries by helping parents with mental illness to adopt preventive safety measures in their homes and outside.

"Our results show there is a need for increased support to parents with mental illness, especially during the first year of life," says Alicia Nevriana, PhD student at the Department of Global Public Health and the study's corresponding author. "There are already recommendations for new parents to ensure their children's safety, but we think there is a need to update these recommendations also by taking into account parents' mental health."

Children in the ages 0-1 had a 30 percent higher risk of injuries if they had a parent with mental illness. The risk declined with age but remained somewhat higher (6 percent) for children in the ages 13-17. The researchers found that the risk of injuries was slightly higher for common parental mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety and stress-related illnesses, compared to more serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The risk was also slightly higher for maternal compared to paternal mental illness.

Also, the risk was somewhat higher for more uncommon types of injuries caused by for example interpersonal violence compared to more common injuries caused by for example falls or traffic accidents. The researchers note, however, that violence-related injuries are rare also in families with mental illness.

The study, which was done in collaboration with researchers at the University of Manchester in the U.K., followed 1.5 million children residing in Sweden and born between 1996-2011, of whom more than 330,000 had at least one parent diagnosed with a mental illness during that period or five years earlier.

The study does not explain why children of parents with mental illness have a higher risk of injuries. Some plausible explanations may be that some parents with mental illness struggle to adequately supervise their children and to childproof their homes, according to the researchers.

"Mental illness is often associated with worse socioeconomic conditions, which might lead to the family living in a less safe in- and outdoor environment or cannot afford some security measures," Nevriana says. "We cannot entirely exclude that the higher risks in our study might be partly explained by the family's socioeconomic conditions, even though we tried to control for socioeconomic factors as best as we could. We have also not studied whether certain medications for mental illness, especially those with an impact on alertness and attention, could affect the children's risk of injury, and this should be studied in future research."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200408184625.htm

Kids who blame themselves for mom's sadness are more likely to face depression and anxiety

March 11, 2020

Science Daily/Southern Methodist University

"Even if she doesn't say it, I know it's my fault that my mother gets sad."

Kids who believe comments like this -- assuming blame for their mom's sadness or depression -- are more likely to face depression and anxiety themselves, a new study led by SMU has found.

"Although mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms face increased risk that their children will also experience symptoms of depression and anxiety, our study showed that this was not the case for all children," said SMU family psychologist and lead author Chrystyna Kouros. "Rather, it was those children who felt they were to blame for their mother's sadness or depression...that had higher levels of internalizing symptoms."

In light of the findings, Kouros said it's critical that parents and others who regularly interact with children pay close attention to the kinds of comments that kids make about their mom's symptoms and to intervene if children incorrectly think that it's their fault that their mom is depressed. Children who take on this blame can benefit from therapies and interventions that target negative thoughts, said Kouros, SMU associate professor of psychology.

Sharyl E. Wee and Chelsea N. Carson, graduate students at SMU, and Naomi Ekas, an associate professor of psychology at Texas Christian University, also contributed to the study, which was published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

The study is based on surveys taken by 129 mothers and their children, who were recruited from the Dallas-Fort Worth community through schools, flyers and online advertisements. On average, children included in the study were 13 years old.

Moms were asked to agree or disagree to 20 statements like "I could not shake off the blues" and "I lost interest in my usual activities" to assess if they had depressive symptoms, even if they had not actually been diagnosed with depression. Nearly 12 percent of the women surveyed were found to have potential clinical levels of depressive symptoms.

The moms were also asked to assess whether they felt their children had symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Kids, meanwhile, were asked to complete a total of four surveys to see if they were dealing with any anxiety or depression and whether they blamed themselves for any signs of depression in their mothers.

Kouros said there are two likely explanations for the linkage between mothers' depressive symptoms and kids' own mental health issues:

"If children blame themselves for their mothers' depressive symptoms, then they may be more likely to brood about their mother's symptoms. And we know from an extensive body of research that rumination over stressors -- especially ones that are uncontrollable -- is linked with depression and anxiety," Kouros said. "Also, if children feel personally responsible for their mothers' symptoms, they may try to 'make it better' and use ineffective coping strategies. This could lead to a sense of helplessness, failure, and low self-worth in the child, since ultimately the child was misattributing the cause of their mothers' depressive symptoms."

More studies are needed to see if depressed dads have the same effect on their children, Kouros said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200311134913.htm

Older children's brains respond differently to rewarding vs. negative experiences late in day

This may help explain why they are more likely to engage in risky behavior at night

March 11, 2020

Science Daily/Binghamton University

Older children respond more strongly to rewarding experiences and less strongly to negative experiences later in the day, which may lead to poor decision-making at night, according to research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

"When children transition into adolescence, they begin to chase rewards/pleasing experiences more and respond to losses/punishment less. How responsive someone is to rewards varies depending on time of day because of circadian rhythms," said Aliona Tsypes, a graduate student in psychology at Binghamton University. "So we wanted to see how time of day might affect reward responsiveness in children and how this might vary depending on their age. This is important to better understand (and prevent) teenage risk-taking, particularly because the rates of psychological problems increase dramatically during one's transition to adolescence. This is also important for us and other researchers who study reward to know, to make sure we consider the timing of our study sessions as a potentially influential factor."

Tsypes and Brandon Gibb, professor of psychology and director of the Mood Disorders Institute at Binghamton University, recruited 188 healthy children between the ages of 7 and 11 and had them complete a commonly used simple guessing task on a computer. In this task, they see two doors on the screen and guess which one has money behind it. Each time they guess correctly, they win 50 cents and each time they are incorrect, they lose 25 cents. During the task, the researchers measured children's brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) to examine neural responses to wins and losses.

"One way to objectively assess someone's responsiveness to reward and loss is to measure their brain activity while they play a computer game during which they receive feedback about winning or losing money," said Gibb. "In our study, we were primarily interested in how these responses to gains versus losses may differ throughout the day in children."

The researchers found that older children had stronger neural responses to rewards/pleasing experiences than losses/punishments later in the day (after around 5:15 p.m.), whereas younger children showed the reverse pattern. These findings suggest that early adolescents might experience greater urges to engage in rewarding/pleasing experiences, even if such experiences are unhealthy or dangerous, later in the day.

"Heightened reward responsiveness in early adolescents later in the day may contribute to greater risk for making poor decisions in the evenings (e.g., choosing to engage in risky behaviors)," said Gibb. "This may help to explain why adolescence is a period of increased risk for developing psychopathology and substance use problems."

"If there are times during which children who approach adolescence are particularly responsive to rewards and particularly unresponsive to losses/punishment, these might be important times to particularly watch out for, to prevent dangerous behaviors," said Tsypes.

Tsypes continues to study reward-related processes, particularly as they relate to suicidal and self-harming thoughts and behaviors (STBs). She hopes to better understand the influences of circadian rhythms on reward and how this affects the risk for STBs.

"It is important to note that time-of-day effects are not strictly circadian, so future research should also examine additional relevant variables with a circadian rhythm (e.g., cortisol) to better distinguish reward-related processes from other cyclic processes within the human nervous system," said Tsypes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200311121818.htm

Demographics linked to choice not to vaccinate children in Texas

March 10, 2020

Science Daily/University of Texas at Austin

Texans who are college-educated, live in suburban or urban areas, have higher median incomes and are ethnically white are less likely to vaccinate their children, according to analysis by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The findings could help public health officials identify pockets of low vaccination rates where communities within the state are at higher risk for an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.

In a paper published today in the journal PLOS Medicine, professor of integrative biology Lauren Ancel Meyers, a computational epidemiologist, and her team at UT Austin compared publicly available census data with the number of conscientious vaccination exemptions from public, private and charter school systems across Texas. The state is one of 15 to allow families who cite a philosophical objection to vaccines to opt out of immunizations for their children that are otherwise required for enrolling in school. A total of 45 states and Washington, D.C., allow religious objections to immunizations.

"The study not only provides a window into local vaccination patterns throughout Texas, but also allows us to make predictions," Meyers said. "If you don't have data on the vaccination rate for a given community, you can use demographic factors to predict outbreak risks for vaccine-preventable diseases."

Researchers consider vaccination exemption rates of 3% or higher in a school or school district to be the threshold for high risk of an outbreak of vaccine-preventable illness. A growing number of schools exceed that threshold in Texas. Between the 2012-2013 school year and the 2017-2018 school year, the percentage of school districts reporting high-risk levels of exemptions doubled in public school districts across the state, rising from 3% to 6%. High-risk private schools increased from 20% to 26%, and charter schools increased from 17% to 22%.

The study examined the top 10 metropolitan areas in Texas, including rural, suburban and urban communities within each area. Suburban and higher-income urban communities were more likely to have high vaccination exemption rates than rural counties, the study found. Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston were the cities with the highest risk of vaccine opt-outs. Areas with higher percentages of young children, ethnically white people and people with a bachelor's degree were more likely to have higher vaccination exemption rates.

On the flip side, researchers found that counties with lower median income and a higher percentage of people who spoke a non-English language at home were more likely to have a lower vaccine opt-out rate.

"We wanted to identify potential pockets of hidden risk throughout Texas stemming from declining childhood vaccination rates," Meyers said.

To do this, Meyers and colleagues took a more detailed look at the data. Prior studies looked at average exemption rates within counties and concluded that most Texas counties did not cross the 3% exemption rate. By instead tracking the number of individual schools and districts above this threshold, the team identified unseen pockets of risk. Travis County, for instance, has a 2.8% conscientious exemption rate. But using her more fine-tuned model, Meyers was able to predict pockets within Travis County where the vaccination exemption rate was higher than 3%.

"This study allows us to detect potential hot spots at a finer geographic scale," she said. "The increasing numbers of exemptions are already alarming. In addition, the clustering of unvaccinated children in tight communities only amplifies the risk of an outbreak."

Similar studies have been performed in other states, such as California. Meyers' study was the first to look at Texas, which is considered a high-risk state for an outbreak of vaccine-preventable illness, at such a granular level. Meyers and her team estimate that 5% of public schools in metropolitan areas of Texas, 28% of private schools and 22% of charter schools are at risk for an outbreak.

The study did not offer any clues about why some demographic groups are opting out of vaccinating their children at such a high rate.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200310141309.htm

Heart disease more likely for adults with dysfunctional childhoods

Trauma, neglect, family dysfunction in childhood leads to health issues in 50s, 60s

April 28, 2020

Science Daily/Northwestern University

Children who experience trauma, abuse, neglect and family dysfunction are at increased risk of having heart disease in their 50s and 60s, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study.

Results from the study showed people exposed to the highest levels of childhood family environment adversity were more than 50 percent more likely to have a cardiovascular disease event such as a heart attack or stroke over a 30-year follow-up.

The longitudinal study of more than 3,600 participants is among the first to describe the trajectory of cardiovascular disease and death based on family environment ratings from young adulthood into older middle age.

The findings were published today, April 28, in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Children who experience this type of adversity are predisposed to higher rates of lifelong stress, smoking, anxiety, depression and sedentary lifestyle that persist into adulthood. These can lead to increased body mass index (BMI), diabetes, increased blood pressure, vascular dysfunction and inflammation.

"This population of adults is much more likely to partake in risky behaviors -- for example, using food as a coping mechanism, which can lead to problems with weight and obesity," said first author Jacob Pierce, a fourth-year medical student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "They also have higher rates of smoking, which has a direct link to cardiovascular disease."

Adults who were exposed to these risk factors as children may benefit from counseling on the link between coping with stress and controlling smoking and obesity, but more research is needed, Pierce said.

"Early childhood experiences have a lasting effect on adult mental and physical well-being, and a large number of American kids continue to suffer abuse and dysfunction that will leave a toll of health and social functioning issues throughout their lives," said senior author Joseph Feinglass, research professor of medicine and of preventive medicine at Feinberg. "Social and economic support for young children in the United States, which is low by the standards of other developed countries, has the biggest 'bang for the buck' of any social program."

The study used the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study, a prospective cohort that has followed participants from recruitment in 1985-1986 through 2018, to determine how childhood psychosocial environment relates to cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality in middle age.

To get a broad idea of what a study participant's family environment was like during their childhood, participants answered survey questions that asked questions such as, "How often did a parent or other adult in the household make you feel that you were loved, supported, and cared for?" or "How often did a parent or other adult in the household swear at you, insult you, put you down or act in a way that made you feel threatened?"

The most predictive of cardiovascular disease later in life was "Did your family know what you were up to as a kid?" Pierce said.

While the study didn't specifically address attentiveness of parents, the findings indicate parents' involvement in their children's lives could impact their health later in life.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200428165751.htm

'Feeling obligated' can impact relationships during social distancing

March 19, 2020

Science Daily/Michigan State University

In a time where many are practicing "social distancing" from the outside world, people are relying on their immediate social circles more than usual. Does a sense of obligation -- from checking on parents to running an errand for an elderly neighbor -- benefit or harm a relationship? A Michigan State University study found the sweet spot between keeping people together and dooming a relationship.

"We were looking to find whether obligation is all good or all bad," said William Chopik, assistant professor of psychology at MSU and co-author of the study. "When we started, we found that people were responding to types of obligations in different ways. People distinguished between requests that were massive obligations and requests that were simple. There's this point that obligation crosses over and starts to be harmful for relationships."

According to Jeewon Oh, MSU doctoral student and co-author of the study, obligation is sometimes the "glue that holds relationships together," but it often carries negative connotations.

"We found that some obligations were linked with greater depressive symptoms and slower increases in support from friends over time," Oh said. "However, other obligations were linked with both greater support and less strain from family and friends initially."

Chopik and Oh's findings suggest that there's a distinct point at which obligation pushes individuals to the brink of feeling burdened, which can start to harm their relationships.

"The line in our study is when it crosses over and starts to be either a massive financial burden or something that disrupts your day-to-day life," Chopik said. "While engaging in substantive obligation can benefit others and make someone feel helpful, it is still costly to a person's time, energy and money."

Until now, similar research showed inconsistencies in how obligation impacts relationships, which Chopik attributes to the spectrum of obligation. This spectrum ranges from light obligation, like keeping in touch with a friend, to substantive obligation, like lending that friend a considerable amount of money.

"In a way, major obligations violate the norms of friendships," Chopik said. "Interestingly, you don't see that violation as much in relationships with parents or spouses."

Chopik explained that friendships are viewed as low-investment, fun relationships that make people feel good.

"Our longest lasting friendships continue because we enjoy them. But if obligations pile up, it might compromise how close we feel to our friends," Chopik said. "Because friendships are a relationship of choice, people can distance themselves from friends more easily than other types of relationships when faced with burdensome obligations."

Additionally, substantive obligations may create strain in a friendship as we try to encourage our friends to do the same even when they might not be able to do so, Oh said.

"Although we may feel good when we do things for our friends, and our friends are grateful to us, we may start to feel like we are investing too much in that relationship," Oh said.

On the other end of the spectrum, light obligation creates what Chopik calls a "norm of reciprocity."

"Those light obligations make us feel better, make us happier and make our relationships stronger," Chopik said. "There's a sense that 'we're both in this together and that we've both invested something in the relationship.'"

That's why, among the best relationships, low-level acts of obligation don't feel like obligations at all. Small acts of kindness, which strengthen the bonds of our relationships, are done without any fuss or burden.

Still, some types of relationships can make even minor obligations seem daunting. If someone doesn't have a great relationship with a parent, a quick phone call to check in isn't enjoyable, it's an encumbrance.

"Even for things we would expect family members to do, some in the study did them begrudgingly," Chopik said.

Chopik and Oh's findings reveal a spectrum of obligations as diverse as the relationships one has in life.

"It's the little things you do that can really enhance a friendship, but asking too much of a friend can damage your relationship," Chopik said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200319125132.htm

Babies born prematurely can catch up their immune systems

March 9, 2020

Science Daily/King's College London

Researchers from King's College London & Homerton University Hospital have found babies born before 32 weeks' gestation can rapidly acquire some adult immune functions after birth, equivalent to that achieved by infants born at term.

In research published today in Nature Communications, the team followed babies born before 32 weeks gestation to identify different immune cell populations, the state of these populations, their ability to produce mediators, and how these features changed post-natally. They also took stool samples and analysed to see which bacteria were present.

They found that all the infants' immune profiles progressed in a similar direction as they aged, regardless of the number of weeks of gestation at birth. Babies born at the earliest gestations -- before 28 weeks -- made a greater degree of movement over a similar time period to those born at later gestation. This suggests that preterm and term infants converge in a similar time frame, and immune development in all babies follows a set path after birth.

Dr Deena Gibbons, a lecturer in Immunology in the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences, said: "These data highlight that the majority of immune development takes place after birth and, as such, even those babies born very prematurely have the ability to develop a normal immune system."

Infection and infection-related complications are significant causes of death following preterm birth. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the development of the immune system in babies born prematurely, and how this development can be influenced by the environment post birth.

Some preterm babies who went on to develop infection showed reduced CXCL8-producing T cells at birth. This suggests that infants at risk of infection and complications in the first few months of their life could be identified shortly after birth, which may lead to improved outcomes.

There were limited differences driven by sex which suggests that the few identified may play a role in the observations that preterm male infants often experience poorer outcomes.

The findings build on previous findings studying the infant immune system.

Dr Deena Gibbons: "We are continuing to study the role of the CXCL8-producing T cell and how it can be activated to help babies fight infection. We also want to take a closer look at other immune functions that change during infection to help improve outcomes for this vulnerable group."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200309093029.htm

Household chemical use linked to child language delays

Children in low-income homes at risk, study finds

March 4, 2020

Science Daily/Ohio State University

Young children from low-income homes whose mothers reported frequent use of toxic chemicals such as household cleaners were more likely to show delays in language development by age 2, a new study found.

In addition, the children scored lower on a test of cognitive development. These developmental delays were evident even when the researchers took into account factors such as the education and income of mothers, which are also linked to their children's language and cognitive skills.

The findings provide additional evidence of the need for pediatricians and other health care providers to counsel parents of young children to restrict their use of toxic household chemicals, said Hui Jiang, lead author of the study and senior research associate at The Ohio State University.

"We found that a significant percentage of mothers with young children may commonly expose their children to toxic household chemicals, possibly because they are unaware that such materials may be harmful," said Jiang, who is with Ohio State's Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy.

The study was published online recently in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.

The researchers used data on 190 families from the Kids in Columbus Study, a Crane Center research project that followed children born into low-income families in Columbus for five years after birth.

When they first started the study, mothers were asked about their use of household chemicals such as floor and toilet cleaners and solvents during pregnancy. They were asked again when their child was 14 to 23 months old. Mothers also reported whether they had mold in the home, their use of pesticides, and neighborhood pollution sources.

Children's language development was measured when they were between 14 and 23 months old and again when they were 20 to 25 months old. The researchers used a standardized test that examines children's understanding and expression of language -- for example, recognition of objects and people, following directions, and naming objects and pictures.

Findings showed that neighborhood pollution, mold in the house and pesticide use were not significantly linked to child outcomes.

But the more household chemicals mothers reported using regularly after childbirth, the lower the child language and cognitive outcomes at 2 years of age.

There was no link between chemical use during pregnancy and child outcomes, possibly because mothers reported using significantly fewer chemicals during pregnancy.

Exposure to toxic chemicals was reported by about 20 percent of mothers during pregnancy, but that increased to 30 percent when their children were between 1 and 2 years old. Mothers also reported using more household chemicals after childbirth.

"A lot of mothers seem to know to limit exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy, but once their child is born, they may think it is no longer a problem," Jiang said.

But research has shown these early years of a child's life are key in many ways, said Laura Justice, co-author of the study and professor of educational psychology at Ohio State.

"When kids reach about 2 years old, that is a peak time for brain development," said Justice, who is executive director of The Crane Center.

"If the use of toxic chemicals is interfering with that development, that could lead to problems with language and cognitive growth."

While many mothers may use household cleaners and other toxic chemicals when their children are young, low-income mothers may face particular challenges, Jiang said.

For example, they often live in smaller apartments where it may be more difficult to keep children away from chemicals, particularly while they are cleaning.

Jiang noted that this study simply analyzed the relationship between mothers' use of toxic chemicals and later child development and as such can't prove that chemical use caused the developmental delays.

"Future studies are need to more carefully examine the mechanisms through which household toxicants may disrupt early language development," she said.

The findings do show that pediatricians need to emphasize that pregnancy is not the only time for mothers to be concerned about chemical use, Justice said.

"Parents need to understand the delicacy of brain development in the first several years of life and their children's susceptibility to chemical exposure," she said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200304141534.htm

Does consuming fruit during pregnancy improve cognition in babies?

March 4, 2020

Science Daily/University of Alberta

You may have heard of a 2016 study linking cognitive enhancement in babies with eating more fruit during pregnancy. But how strong is that link? That's the question scientists at the University of Alberta asked as they set out to verify the findings in a new study.

"Our research followed up on results from the original CHILD Cohort Study, which found that fruit consumption in pregnant mothers influences infant measures of cognition up to one year after birth," said Claire Scavuzzo, co-lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Science's Department of Psychology, "Although the findings from this study were exciting, they could not establish that fruit consumption, rather than other factors, caused the improvements on infant cognition."

In order to settle the record and determine if fruit was truly the factor influencing infant cognition, the scientists began a study with the goal to replicate the effects in an experimental mammalian model.

"Our findings replicated what was found in humans and fruit flies. In a controlled, isolated way we were able to confirm a role for prenatal fruit exposure on the cognitive development of newborns," explained Scavuzzo. "We see this as especially valuable information for pregnant mothers, as this offers a nonpharmacological, dietary intervention to boost infant brain development."

Results show that infant animal models of mothers who had their diets supplemented with fruit juice performed significantly better on tests of memory -- consistent with the previous study.

"Our results show that there is significant cognitive benefit for the offspring of mothers that ingest more fruit during pregnancy," said Rachel Ward-Flanagan, co-lead author and PhD student studying under the supervision of Professor Clayton Dickson, who embarked on the follow-up study with Scavuzzo in collaboration with Francois Bolduc and Piushkumar Mandhane, both associate professors in the Department of Pediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and members of the Women and Children's Health Research Institute, which helped support the original study through funding provided by the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation and supporters of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.

Dickson, Scavuzzo, Ward-Flanagan, and Bolduc are part of the University of Alberta's cross-faculty Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI), a consortium dedicated to the exploration of how the nervous system functions, the basis for disease, and the translation of discoveries into improved prevention and treatment options.

"The idea that nutrition may also impact mental health and cognition has only recently started to gain traction," said Ward-Flanagan. "People want to be able give their kids the best possible start in life, and from our findings, it seems that a diet enriched with fruit is a possible way to do so."

The paper, "Prenatal fruit juice exposure enhances memory consolidation in male post-weanling Sprague-Dawley rats," was published in PLOS ONE.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200304141703.htm

For anxious spouses, a baby may be a rival

A new child can spark jealousy in needy partners

March 3, 2020

Science Daily/Ohio State University

A new child can spark feelings of jealousy in a person who already fears being abandoned by his or her partner, research suggests.

A new study found that partners who showed signs of relationship anxiety before the birth of their first child were more likely to be jealous of the child after it was born.

"You might think, who could be jealous of a baby? But if you already have fears of rejection, it may be scary to see how much attention your partner showers on your new child," said Anna Olsavsky, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in human sciences at The Ohio State University.

This jealousy can make an already difficult period for couples' relationships even more stressful.

The study found that when either partner was jealous of the baby, couples experienced a decline in their satisfaction with their relationship after becoming parents.

"This jealousy can erode a couple's relationship," said Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, study co-author and professor of psychology at Ohio State.

"There has been a lot of research that shows couples' satisfaction with their relationship goes down after the birth of a baby, and this could be part of the reason for some people," said Schoppe-Sullivan, who is a senior research associate on the board of the Council on Contemporary Families.

The study was published online today (March 3, 2020) in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

The researchers used data from the New Parents Project, a long-term study co-led by Schoppe-Sullivan that is investigating how dual-earner couples adjust to becoming parents for the first time. In all, 182 couples, most of whom were married, participated in this study.

During the third trimester of pregnancy, mothers and fathers completed a variety of questionnaires, including one that examined "attachment anxiety." They were asked how much they agreed with statements like "I'm afraid that I will lose my partner's love" and "I worry about being abandoned."

Three months after their baby was born, the couples completed a measure of jealousy of the partner-infant relationship. They reported how much they agreed with statements like "I resent it when my spouse/partner is more affectionate with our baby than s/he is with me."

As they predicted, the researchers found that people with relationship anxiety before the child's birth were more jealous of the child three months after arrival.

But it wasn't just the anxious partner who felt jealous of the baby -- even their spouses felt higher levels of jealousy.

The reason may be that spouses of anxious partners are used to receiving a lot of attention from their partner, and that responsiveness may lessen when the baby arrives.

"There may be two things happening to the spouses of people with relationship anxiety," Schoppe-Sullivan said.

"It is not just that you aren't receiving all the attention that you used to receive, but also that the child is receiving that extra devotion that once was given to you."

The researchers went into the study believing that anxious fathers may be most vulnerable to feeling jealousy of the new child, because dads tend to spend less time with infants than moms do, Olsavsky said.

But that's not what they found. Anxious moms and dads were equally likely to be jealous of the time their partners spent with the new baby.

The results suggest that expectant parents should be aware of their relationship style before their first baby is born.

"There are a lot of programs for expectant parents, and attachment anxiety might be a good thing to assess beforehand," Olsavsky said.

"If you make people aware of their relationship patterns, it may help them deal with the feelings more constructively."

Other co-authors of the study were Meghna Mahambrey and Miranda Berrigan, both doctoral students in human sciences at Ohio State.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200303140214.htm

Earliest look at newborns' visual cortex reveals the minds babies start with

March 2, 2020

Science Daily/Emory Health Sciences

Within hours of birth, a baby's gaze is drawn to faces. Now, brain scans of newborns reveal the neurobiology underlying this behavior, showing that as young as six days old a baby's brain appears hardwired for the specialized tasks of seeing faces and seeing places.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published the findings by psychologists at Emory University. Their work provides the earliest peek yet into the visual cortex of newborns, using harmless functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

"We're investigating a fundamental question of where knowledge comes from by homing in on 'nature versus nature,'" says Daniel Dilks, associate professor of psychology, and senior author of the study. "What do we come into the world with and what do we gain by experience?"

"We've shown that a baby's brain is more adult-like than many people might assume," adds Frederik Kamps, who led the study as a PhD candidate at Emory. "Much of the scaffolding for the human visual cortex is already in place, along with the patterns of brain activity, although the patterns are not as strong compared to those of adults."

Kamps has since graduated from Emory and is now a post-doctoral fellow at MIT.

Understanding how an infant's brain is typically organized may help answer questions when something goes awry, Dilks says. "For example, if the face network in a newborn's visual cortex was not well-connected, that might be a biomarker for disorders associated with an aversion to eye contact. By diagnosing the problem earlier, we could intervene earlier and take advantage of the incredible malleability of the infant brain."

For decades, scientists have known that the adult visual cortex contains two regions that work in concert to process faces and another two regions that work together to process places. More recent work shows that the visual cortex of young children is differentiated into these face and place networks. And in a 2017 paper, Dilks and colleagues found that this neural differentiation is in place in babies as young as four months.

For the current PNAS paper, the average age of the newborn participants was 27 days. "We needed to get closer to the date of birth in order to better understand if we are born with this differentiation in our brains or if it's molded by experience," Dilks says.

His lab is a leader in adapting fMRI technology to make it baby friendly. The noninvasive technology uses a giant magnet to scan the body and record the magnetic properties in blood. It can measure heightened blood flow to a brain region, indicating that region is more active.

Thirty infants, ranging in age from six days to 57 days, participated in the experiments while sleeping. During scanning, they were wrapped in an inflatable "super swaddler," a papoose-like device that serves as a stabilizer while also making the baby feel secure.

"Getting fMRI data from a newborn is a new frontier in neuroimaging," Kamps says. "The scanner is like a giant camera and you need the participant's head to be still in order to get high quality images. A baby that is asleep is a baby that's willing to lie still."

To serve as controls, 24 adults were scanned in a resting state -- awake but not stimulated by anything in particular.

The scanner captured intrinsic fluctuations of the brain for both the infants and adults.

The results showed the two regions of the visual cortex associated with face processing fired in sync in the infants, as did the two networks associated with places. The infant patterns were similar to those of the adult participants, although not quite as strong. "That finding suggest that there is room for these networks to keep getting fine-tuned as infants mature into adulthood," Kamps says.

"We can see that the face networks and the place networks of the brain are hooked up and talking to each other within days of birth," Dilks says. "They are essentially awaiting the relevant information. The next questions to ask are how and when these two functions become fully developed."

The work was supported by Emory College, the National Eye Institute, the Emory HERCULES Center, the National Science Foundation, an Eleanor Munsterberg Koppitz Dissertation Fellowship and an NARSAD Young Investigator Award.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200302200736.htm

Weight-based bullying linked to increased adolescent alcohol, marijuana use

Overweight girls most likely to report being bullied, study finds

February 25, 2020

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

Adolescents who are bullied about their weight or body shape may be more likely to use alcohol or marijuana than those who are not bullied, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

The link between appearance-related teasing and substance use was strongest among overweight girls, raising special concerns about this group.

"This type of bullying is incredibly common and has many negative effects for adolescents," said lead study author Melanie Klinck, BA, a clinical research assistant at the University of Connecticut. "The combination of appearance-related teasing and the increased sensitivity to body image during adolescence may create a heightened risk for substance use."

"These findings raise larger issues about how society places too much emphasis on beauty and body image for girls and women and the damaging effects that may result," said Christine McCauley Ohannessian, PhD, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, as well as director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Connecticut Children's Medical Center and a study co-author.

"Schools and communities should specifically address appearance-related teasing in anti-bullying policies and substance-use interventions," she said. "Parents particularly have a role to play in addressing this issue. There is some startling research showing that some of the most hurtful examples of weight-based teasing come from parents or siblings, so families should be kind when they discuss the weight of their children."

The study, which was conducted at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, involved a survey of 1,344 students ages 11 to 14 from five public middle schools near Hartford, Connecticut. The students were asked if siblings, parents or peers had teased them about their weight, body shape or eating during the prior six months. More than half (55%) of the overall participants reported weight-based teasing, including three out of four overweight girls (76%), 71% of overweight boys, 52% of girls who weren't overweight, and 43% of boys who weren't overweight.

The participants also were asked about their alcohol and marijuana use. The results showed that frequent weight-based teasing was associated with higher levels of total alcohol use, binge drinking and marijuana use. In a follow-up survey six months later, weight-based teasing was still linked to total alcohol use and binge drinking. The research was published online in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

Previous research has found that boys have greater substance use in their teens and early adulthood, but girls begin using alcohol and drugs at an earlier age compared with boys. Those trends may be related to the societal pressures for girls to adhere to unrealistic body image ideals. This can damage their sense of self-worth and contribute to eating disorders and self-medication through substance use to cope with teasing or fit in with their peers, Klinck said.

"The old saying that 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me' is a fallacy that ignores the serious effects of emotional abuse and verbal bullying," Klinck said. "Weight-based discrimination appears to be one of the most common and seemingly socially sanctioned reasons to bully or discriminate against someone. As a society, we need to address the damage caused by this, especially for girls."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200225154338.htm

Fast food intake leads to weight gain in preschoolers

February 14, 2020

Science Daily/The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

There is a strong link between the amount of fast food that pre-school age children consume and their likelihood of becoming overweight or obese, according to a new Dartmouth-led study, published in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 25 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 5 years are overweight or obese in the U.S. These conditions increase the risk of numerous physical and psychosocial problems during childhood, including fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and depression.

"We now know from our studies and others, that kids who start on the path of extra weight gain during this really important timeframe tend to carry it forward into adolescence and adulthood, and this sets them up for major health consequences as they get older," says first author Jennifer Emond, PhD, MS, an assistant professor of biomedical data science and of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Previous research has shown that fast-food intake is common among children -- about one-third of U.S. children consume fast food daily -- and has suggested that there is an association between fast food consumption and children becoming overweight or obese. But it hasn't been clear whether eating fast food independently contributes to excess weight gain at such a young age.

In an effort to make this determination, the investigators followed a cohort of more than 500 pre-school age children (ages 3 to 5) and their families in southern New Hampshire for one year. The height and weight of the children were measured at the beginning and end of the study. Parents reported their children's fast-food intake frequency weekly -- from 11 chain fast-food restaurants -- in six online surveys that were completed at two-month intervals.

The researchers found that at the beginning of the study, about 18 percent of the children were overweight and nearly 10 percent were obese. Importantly, about 8 percent of children transitioned to a greater weight status over the one-year period.

"To our knowledge, ours is the first study to follow a cohort over time and to show that fast food, by itself, uniquely contributes to weight gain," explains Emond. "Unlike with past research, we were able to adjust for other factors -- such as exercise and screen time -- that could possibly explain away this relationship.

"Findings from this research," says Emond, "should be used to inform guidelines and policies that can reduce fast-food marketing exposure to children and help support parents who may be struggling to adopt healthier eating behaviors for their kids."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200214134723.htm

Teens with obesity and PCOS have more 'unhealthy' bacteria

Gut microbiome may play a role in PCOS and its related metabolic complications

January 23, 2020

Science Daily/The Endocrine Society

Teens with obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have more "unhealthy" gut bacteria suggesting the microbiome may play a role in the disorder, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

PCOS is complicated endocrine disorder affecting 6 percent to 18 percent of women of reproductive age and work in adult women indicates that changes in bacteria be involved. The. The hormone disorder is characterized by elevated testosterone levels in the blood that cause acne, excess hair growth and irregular periods. Teens with PCOS often also struggle with obesity and have a higher risk for type 2 diabetes, infertility, and depression.

"We found that in adolescents with PCOS and obesity, the bacterial profile (microbiome) from stool has more "unhealthy" bacteria compared to teens without PCOS," said the study's corresponding author, Melanie Cree Green, M.D., Ph.D., of Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colo. "The unhealthy bacteria related to higher testosterone concentrations and markers of metabolic complications."

The researchers studied 58 teens with obesity and found that girls with PCOS have an altered gut microbiome compared to those without the condition. These girls had more "unhealthy" bacteria in their stool which was related to higher testosterone levels and other markers of metabolic syndrome, such as higher blood pressure, liver inflammation and plasma triglycerides

"The gut microbiome may play a role in PCOS and its related metabolic complications, and these changes can be found in teenagers who are early in the course of the condition," Green said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200123090342.htm

Complexity around childhood obesity

January 6, 2020

Science Daily/University of Notre Dame

In a new study, researchers examined how various psychological characteristics of children struggling with their weight, such as loneliness, anxiety and shyness, combined with similar characteristics of their parents or guardians and family dynamics affect outcomes of nutritional intervention.

The World Health Organization has estimated more than 340 million children and adolescents ages 5-19 are overweight or obese, and the epidemic has been linked to more deaths worldwide than those caused by being underweight.

The Centers for Disease Control recently reported an estimated 1 in 5 children in the United States, ages 12-18, are living with prediabetes -- increasing their risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as chronic kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.

Efforts to stem the crisis have led clinicians and health professionals to examine both the nutritional and psychological factors of childhood obesity. In a new study led by the University of Notre Dame, researchers examined how various psychological characteristics of children struggling with their weight, such as loneliness, anxiety and shyness, combined with similar characteristics of their parents or guardians and family dynamics affect outcomes of nutritional intervention.

What they found was a "network effect," suggesting a personalized, comprehensive approach to treatment could improve results of nutritional interventions.

"Psychological characteristics clearly have interactional effects," said Nitesh Chawla, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame, director of the Center for Network and Data Science and a lead author of the study. "We can no longer simply view them as individualized risk factors to be assessed. We need to account for the specific characteristics for each child, viewing them as a holistic set for which to plan treatment."

The Notre Dame team collaborated with the Centre for Nutritional Recovery and Education (CREN), a not-for-profit, nongovernmental nutritional clinic in São Paulo, Brazil, where patients participate in a two-year interdisciplinary treatment program including family counseling, nutritional workshops and various physical activities. Researchers analyzed the medical records and psychological assessments of 1,541 children who participated in the program.

The study's key takeaway points to the significant impact parents and guardians have on their child's health when it comes to nutrition. Strong family dynamics, such as concern for behavior and treatment and a sense of protectiveness for the child, led to improved outcomes of nutritional interventions. A lack of authority, however, led to minimal changes in results.

"This is quantitative evidence of the success and failure of interactions as they relate to the characteristics and interactions between the child and the parent or guardian," Chawla said.

The study also highlights the need for clinics to expand their views on patient populations. For example, while treatment programs that incorporate development of interpersonal relationship -- familial and otherwise -- may improve outcomes of nutritional interventions, the same treatment plan may not have the same result for children experiencing loneliness coupled with anxiety.

"For the group without anxiety, this makes sense when you consider a treatment plan focused on strengthening a child's social circle and address issues stemming from loneliness, such as poor social network, bullying or self-imposed isolation," said Gisela M.B. Solymos, co-author of the study, former general manager of CREN and former guest scholar at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame and at the Center for Network and Data Science. "But patients feeling loneliness and anxiety actually showed minimal changes to nutritional interventions, and may be more likely to benefit from additional services at clinics like CREN."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200106161935.htm

Exposure to cleaning products in first 3 months of life increases risk of childhood asthma

February 18, 2020

Science Daily/Simon Fraser University

New research from the CHILD Cohort Study shows that frequent exposure to common household cleaning products can increase a child's risk of developing asthma.

Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease and is the primary reason why children miss school or end up in hospital.

The study was published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. It found that young infants (birth to three months) living in homes where household cleaning products were used frequently were more likely to develop childhood wheeze and asthma by three years of age.

"Most of the available evidence linking asthma to the use of cleaning products comes from research in adults," said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Tim Takaro, a professor and clinician- scientist in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU). "Our study looked at infants, who typically spend 80-90% of their time indoors and are especially vulnerable to chemical exposures through the lungs and skin due to their higher respiration rates and regular contact with household surfaces."

In the study, at three years of age, children living in homes where cleaning products were used with high frequency during their infancy were more likely to have:

• Recurrent wheeze (10.8 percent, compared to 7.7 percent of infants in homes with low use of these products)

• Recurrent wheeze with atopy, a heightened immune response to common allergens (3.0 percent, compared to 1.5 percent of infants in homes with low use of these products)

• Asthma (7.9 percent, compared to 4.8 percent of infants in homes with low use of these products)

Other factors known to affect the onset of asthma, such as family history and early life exposure to tobacco smoke, were accounted for in the analysis.

"Interestingly, we did not find an association between the use of cleaning products and a risk of atopy alone," noted Dr. Takaro. "Therefore, a proposed mechanism underlying these findings is that chemicals in cleaning products damage the cells that line the respiratory tract through innate inflammatory pathways rather than acquired allergic pathways."

"We also found that at age three, the relationship between product exposure and respiratory problems was much stronger in girls than boys," he added. "This is an interesting finding that requires more research to better understand male versus female biological responses to inflammatory exposures in early life."

The study used data from 2,022 children participating in the CHILD Cohort Study and examined their daily, weekly and monthly exposure to 26 types of household cleaners, including dishwashing and laundry detergents, cleaners, disinfectants, polishes, and air fresheners.

"The risks of recurrent wheeze and asthma were notably higher in homes with frequent use of certain products, such as liquid or solid air fresheners, plug-in deodorizers, dusting sprays, antimicrobial hand sanitizers and oven cleaners," commented the paper's lead author, Jaclyn Parks, a graduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU. "It may be important for people to consider removing scented spray cleaning products from their cleaning routine. We believe that the smell of a healthy home is no smell at all."

"The big takeaway from this study is that the first few months of life are critical for the development of a baby's immune and respiratory systems," concluded Parks. "By identifying hazardous exposures during infancy, preventive measures can be taken to potentially reduce childhood asthma and subsequent allergy risk."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200218182154.htm