Author Interviews, Environmental Risks, JAMA, Pediatrics / 24.08.2020
Children Residing at Higher Altitudes Are Born Shorter and Have Lower Growth Trajectory
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kaleab Baye PhD
Center for Food Science and Nutrition
Addis Ababa University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Reducing child stunting is one of the most important objectives of the Sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the World Health Assembly (WHA). Progress is routinely measured using anthropometric indices such as height-for-age z score that compare child height to the World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards. Such comparisons rely on the assumption that children living in ideal home environment that promotes adequate growth have the same growth potential, irrespective of their genetic make-up. This assumption was confirmed by the Multicenter Growth Reference Study (MGRS), which was the origin of the development of the growth standards. However, the MGRS excluded sites above 1500 m above sea level (asl); hence, it remains unclear whether the widely adopted WHO growth standards are applicable to populations above the 1500 m asl threshold.
This study investigated the association between altitude and linear growth faltering and evaluated whether the prescriptive WHO growth standards can apply to children residing at higher altitudes.
Dr. Yonker[/caption]
Lael Yonker, MD
Pediatric Pulmonology
Director, MGH Cystic Fibrosis Center
Principal Investigator, Pediatric COVID biorepository
Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Children were initially felt to be spared from the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we show that children can become sick from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and even if the initial illness is mild, some go on to develop a severe inflammatory illness after the initial illness. We also show that children can carry very high levels of virus early in the course of infection, suggesting they may play a larger role in spreading the virus than previously thought.
Dr. Trudo[/caption]
Frank Trudo, MD MBA
Vice President, US Medical Affairs
Respiratory & Immunology
AstraZeneca
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: ETHOS was a randomized, double-blinded, multi-center, parallel-group, 52-week trial to assess the efficacy and safety of PT010 in symptomatic patients with moderate to very severe COPD and a history of exacerbation(s) in the previous year. A subset of patients participated in the 4-hour pulmonary function test (PFT) sub-study, with the following primary endpoints: change from baseline in morning pre-dose trough FEV1 at Week 24 at (both doses of budesonide/glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate MDI versus glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate MDI), and FEV1 area under the curve from 0-4 hours at Week 24 (both doses of budesonide/glycopyrrolate/formoterol fumarate MDI vs budesonide/formoterol fumarate MDI). 
Dr. Jimenez[/caption]
Monik Carmen Jimenez, Sc.D
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We wanted to get a comprehensive picture of the epidemiology of COVID-19 in carceral facilities that included jails and was not restricted solely to prisons. We utilized publicly available data collected in Massachusetts, pursuant to a court order. These data included prison and jail systems and were used to calculate rates of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and testing rates among incarcerated individuals. We were also able to compare those to changes in the population size within each system.
Dr. Ratnasiri[/caption]
Anura Ratnasiri PhD
Senior Research Scientist
(Epidemiology and Biostatistics) Benefits Division
Department of Health Care Services
Sacramento, CA 95899-7417
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Infant mortality rate (IMR) is a widely-reported indicator of population health and is used as a standardized measurement of deaths in the first year of life per thousand live births. While IMR has been steadily declining in the United States, it remains relatively high compared with other developed countries.
Even though significant improvements have been made in the quality and access to neonatal and infant care during the past decade, large educational, socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, geographic and behavioral disparities persist, and appear to be responsible for significant differences in IMR among different subgroups. Certain maternal and infant characteristics have important associations with IMR, and this study attempted to quantify major maternal and infant predictors, and trace associated mortality trends during the study period.
There were no recent studies on infant mortality using a large data set such as California State. Moreover, gestational age based on obstetric estimates from fetal ultrasound, prepregnancy obesity, and smoking during pregnancy were not available in prior population-based studies in California.
Dr. Reyes Gil[/caption]
Dr. Walline[/caption]
Jeffrey J. Walline, OD PhD
Associate Dean for Research
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210-1240
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Greater amounts of nearsightedness are related to higher risks of sight-threatening complications in adulthood, so anything we can do to slow the progression of nearsightedness in childhood can have meaningful benefits in the future.
As the prevalence of nearsightedness increases worldwide and affects approximately 1/3 of the people in the United States, a treatment that provides clear vision AND slows the progression of nearsightedness can have a profound effect.
Dr. Amy Kennedy, M.D., M.S
Clinician-Researcher Fellow, General Internal Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: UPMC uses a nucleic acid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 and specimen collection is done with a nasopharyngeal swab by trained clinicians. The health system developed its COVID-19 test in early March 2020 in anticipation of the tremendous need for diagnostic capabilities.
My colleagues and I worked with the Wolff Center at UPMC — the health system’s quality care and improvement center — to review the results of more than 30,000 COVID-19 tests performed on adult patients who received care through one of UPMC’s 40 academic, community and specialty hospitals, or 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. The tests were performed between March 3 and May 3, 2020. Of those tests, 485 were repeated at least once. 
Dr. Schreiber[/caption]
Darren Schreiber JD PhD
Senior Lecturer
Exeter
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: My co-authors and I saw an opportunity to match existing functional brain imaging data with publicly available voter registration data so that we could look for patterns that distinguish brain activity in nonpartisans from partisans. While a number of studies have found differences in both brain structure and function between partisans on the left and right and there is a massive amount of scholarship in political science on partisans and polarization, no brain imaging work had focused on nonpartisans. Around 40% of Americans do not affiliate with a political party and one important campaign strategy has been to persuade these voters to support party candidates. However many political scientists are skeptical about voters claims to be nonpartisans and will instead treat them as if they were merely covert partisans.
Dr. Batres[/caption]
Carlota Batres, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Franklin & Marshall College
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Many studies have examined how defendant characteristics influence jury decisions, but none have investigated the effect of makeup. We therefore examined how cosmetics influence jury decisions for young and middle-aged female defendants. We found that participants were more likely to assign guilty verdicts to middle-aged defendants than young defendants and when presented with makeup, male participants gave young defendants longer sentences and middle-aged defendants shorter sentences. 