Author Interviews, Nutrition, NYU, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Technology / 26.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marie Bragg, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health on Health Choice NYU College of Global Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We know from previous research that children who see food advertisements eat significantly more calories than children who see non-food advertisements. Those studies led the World Health Organization and National Academy of Medicine to issue reports declaring that exposure to food advertising is a major driver of childhood obesity. What we don’t know is how frequently unhealthy food and beverage brands are appearing in YouTube videos posted by Kid Influencers. Kid influences are children whose parents film videos of the child playing with toys, unwrapping presents, eating food, or engaging in other family-friendly activities. The parents then post the videos to YouTube for other children and parents to view for entertainment.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Tobacco Research / 08.10.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tsu-Shuan Wu University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? “Checking your phone and vaping as you do” by Alper Çuğun is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Response: The background for this study involves the associations of household rules and parental awareness with youth tobacco use using data from the Population Assessment Tobacco and Health Study. Health concerns regarding non-cigarette tobacco products, specifically e-cigarettes, have been on the rise. We wanted to explore whether parents are up to date with the trends of popular tobacco products today and what role they may play in youth tobacco cessation and prevention. The main findings of the study revealed that parents less often suspected their children’s tobacco use if their children reported using only e-cigarettes, and other non-cigarette tobacco products, when compared with cigarettes. Additionally, we found that youth who agreed with their parents that their home has strict rules for tobacco use were less likely to initiate of tobacco use compared to youth who had different understanding of the rules from their parents or youth from households with more permissive household rules.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Flu - Influenza, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 15.06.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Allison Kempe, MD, MPH Ergen Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Outcomes Research Professor of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine Director of ACCORDS (Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science) University of Colorado School of Medicine | Children’s Hospital Colorado  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In 2019 the WHO designated vaccine hesitancy as one of the ten leading threats to global health. Although studies have assessed parental vaccine hesitancy in different localities and estimated vaccine refusals nationally, there is little recent US national data on the prevalence of hesitancy about routine childhood vaccines and national hesitancy rates for influenza vaccine have never been assessed. We used a hesitancy scale developed by the WHO to estimate levels of parental hesitancy for both routine childhood and childhood influenza vaccination  (more…)
Author Interviews, Nutrition, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 26.05.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Megan H. Pesch, MD, MS, FAAP Assistant Professor C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Picky eating is common among children and is often both concerning to parents. Healthcare providers may reassure parents that their child will “outgrow” picky eating, however there have been few longitudinal studies examining the trajectories of picky eating in children, as well as associated trends in their growth. In our study we examined the trajectories of picky eating in US children over a 5 year period. We also examined how these picky eating trends were associated with child characteristics, weight status and mother’s feeding behaviors. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Toxin Research / 03.06.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Gary Smith, MD MPH Director, Center for Injury Research and Policy Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus, OH MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Our 2016 study (https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/137/5/e20154529) investigated calls to US poison control centers related to laundry and dishwasher detergent exposures among children younger than 6 years old from 2013 through 2014 and found that poison control centers received more than 30 calls a day about children who had been exposed to a laundry detergent packet, which is about one call every 45 minutes. The current study investigated trends in calls to poison control centers across the country for exposure to liquid laundry detergent packets in order to evaluate the impact of the voluntary safety standard for this product with a focus on young children. The study found only a modest decrease (18%) in calls for children younger than 6 years of age following adoption of a 2015 product safety standard as well as an increase in calls for older children and adults. Exposures to the eyes also continued to climb. The observed decrease in exposures among young children is considerably less than the 40% to 55% decrease in toxic ingestions seen after passage of the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. This demonstrates that the current liquid laundry detergent safety standard is inadequate and needs to be strengthened. (more…)
Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Outcomes & Safety, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 06.05.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John P. Galiote, M.D. Neonatologist at Children’s National-Virginia Hospital Center NICU Michelande Ridoré, MS, NICU Quality improvement lead at Children’s National   Lamia Soghier, M.D., MEd, Children’s National NICU Medical Director MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Our study emphasizes the importance of team work and real-time communication in a quality-improvement project within the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. Through bedside huddles, weekly reviews of apparent cause analysis reports reducing the frequency of X-rays and the creation of an Airway Safety Protection Team, we were able to focus not only on  reducing unintended extubations, but also on the quality-improvement project’s effect on our staff. Adhering to simple quality principles enabled us to ensure that all members of our staff were heard and had a positive effect on the progress of our project. This allowed us to implement and sustain a series of simple changes that standardized steps associated with securing and maintaining an endotracheal tube (ET). Unintended extubations are the fourth-most common adverse event in the nation’s NICUs. Continual monitoring via this quality-improvement project allowed us to intervene when our rates increased and further pushed our unintended extubation rate downward. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders / 23.04.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexa B. Erck Lambert, MPH DB Consulting Group, Inc, Silver Spring, Maryland Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Contractor  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Unintentional suffocation is the leading cause of injury death among infants under 1 year old in the US. This study investigates cases in CDC’s SUID Case Registry that were assigned the category of explained suffocation with unsafe sleep factors per CDC’s SUID Case Registry classification system, which was developed to consistently differentiate SUID cases into well-defined categories (including no autopsy or death scene investigation, incomplete case information, no unsafe sleep factors, unsafe sleep factors, possible suffocation with unsafe sleep factors, and explained suffocation with unsafe sleep factors) using standardized criteria and definitions. Cases classified as possible and explained suffocation were assigned one more mechanisms to which the airway obstruction was attributed including soft bedding, wedging, overlay and other – other was excluded from this analysis. Most explained suffocations (69%) were attributed to soft bedding like a blanket or a pillow followed by overlay (19%), and wedging (12%). Although explained suffocation deaths represent a small proportion of all sudden unexpected infant deaths (14%), these losses are particularly tragic because they can be prevented by placing a baby to sleep in a safe environment.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, University Texas / 18.10.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Linda Ewing-Cobbs PhD Professor in the Department of Pediatrics McGovern Medical School University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Harriet and Joe Foster Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Children may have long-lasting psychological and physical symptoms after an injury. Post-concussive symptoms (PCS) are nonspecific cognitive, physical, and mood symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, headache, and irritability. These symptoms occur in approximately 15 to 30% children after mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although PCS often resolve within one month, some children experience symptoms for longer periods of time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Endocrinology, Kaiser Permanente, Menopause, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 30.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Allison L. Naleway, PhD Senior Investigator Associate Director, Science Programs Center for Health Research Kaiser Permanente MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Reports of premature menopause after human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination have received a lot of media attention, including on social media, but these reports were based on a small number of isolated cases. Large studies have demonstrated the safety of HPV vaccination, but parental safety concerns—including potential impact on future fertility—are often cited as one reason for lower HPV coverage. Rates of HPV vaccination have lagged behind coverage rates for other recommended adolescent vaccinations, such as tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis and meningococcal conjugate. (Based on national coverage estimates from 2016, 65% of 13–17 year-old females received at least one HPV vaccination and only 49.5% were up to date with the series, compared to about 88% of adolescents who received Tdap.) We conducted a study of nearly 200,000 young women to determine whether there was any elevated risk of primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) after HPV or other recommended vaccinations.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, UCSD / 27.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH Principal investigator Professor in the Department of Pediatrics UC San Diego School of Medicine Drector of clinical research at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Although cannabis is one of the most common recreational drugs used by pregnant and breastfeeding women, there is little current research regarding potential exposure of the breastfed infant.  As a result, pediatricians are lacking concrete evidence to help support advice to breastfeeding mothers who use cannabis.  This is particularly important as cannabis products available today are substantially more potent than products available in years past. Our group in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Center for Better Beginnings was interested in first determining how much if any of the ingredients in cannabis actually transfer into breastmilk and how long these metabolites might stay in the milk after the mom’s last use.  We invited mothers who are participating in our UCSD Human Milk Research Biorepository from across the U.S. and Canada to respond to questions about use of cannabis products over the previous 14 days and to provide a breast milk sample. Fifty mothers participated in the study.  Samples were analyzed by investigators from the UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Our major finding was that low, but measurable levels of delta-8 THC likely as a result of using Area 52's delta 8 gummies, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, were found in about 2/3 of the samples.  Although the number of hours after mother’s last use of cannabis that THC was still measurable varied widely, the longest time since mother’s last use that THC was still present was about 6 days.  (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, STD / 24.07.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Monika K. Goyal, M.D., M.S.C.E., senior study author Assistant professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine Children’s National Health System Washington, DC  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Patients with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) are at an increased risk for syphilis and HIV. We know that adolescents account for 20 percent of the 1 million cases of PID that are diagnosed each year. We also know that an estimated one in four sexually active adolescent females has a sexually transmitted infection (STI). While screening for syphilis and HIV is recommended when diagnosing PID, actual screening rates among adolescents have been understudied. This multi-center study aimed to quantify rates of HIV and syphilis screening in young women diagnosed with . pelvic inflammatory disease in pediatric emergency departments and to explore patient- and hospital-specific characteristics associated with screening for these two sexually transmitted infections. (more…)
Author Interviews, Opiods, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 27.06.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gary A. Smith, MD, DrPH Director, Center for Injury Research and Policy Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus, OH MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Buprenorphine is a prescription opioid medication commonly used to treat opioid use disorder. From 2005 to 2010, the annual number of individual patients who received a buprenorphine prescription increased from 100,000 to more than 800,000. Although buprenorphine is important for the treatment of opioid use disorder, pediatric exposure to this medication can result in serious adverse outcomes. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 14.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Crime Scene _MG_4847” by thierry ehrmann is licensed under CC BY 2.0Daniel Romer, PhD Research Director Annenberg Public Policy Center and Director of its Adolescent Communication Institute (ACI) University of Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We have been studying the steady increase in gun violence that has been occurring in popular PG-13 movies since the new rating was adopted in 1984.  It has recently even surpassed the amount of gun violence in R-rated movies.  Since these movies are open to the public at any age, we are concerned that they promote the use of guns and potentially socialize youth to believe that using guns to defend oneself is an appropriate way to handle threats and other conflicts. We knew that the rating requires the omission of graphic consequences, such as blood and suffering, that can make the violence more acceptable.  But we also wondered whether the motivation for the violence might make a difference as well.  Many of the characters in PG-13 movies are seen as heroic (e.g., Bruce Willis and Liam Neeson).  Could that also be a factor that makes such films more acceptable to parents despite their concerns about their children seeing so much violence in the movies.  So, we conducted this experiment to see if parents are less upset by justified violence in PG-13 style movies.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, NYU, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 02.01.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adriana Weisleder, PhD Research scientist, Department of Pediatrics NYU Langone Medical Center New York  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: An estimated 250 million children in low- and middle-income countries do not reach their developmental potential due to poverty. Many programs in the US, such as Reach Out and Read and Video Interaction Project, have shown success in reducing poverty-related disparities in early child development by promoting parent-child interactions in cognitively stimulating activities such as shared bookreading. This randomized study sought to determine whether a program focused on supporting parent-child shared bookreading would result in enhanced child development among 2- to 4-year-old children in a low-resource region in northern Brazil. Families in the program could borrow children’s books on a weekly basis and could participate in monthly parent workshops focused on reading aloud. Findings showed that participating families exhibited higher quantity and quality of shared reading interactions than families in a control group, and children showed higher vocabularies, working memory, and IQ. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 21.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Premature baby” by Elin B is licensed under CC BY 2.0Suvi Alenius, MD National Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki and Oulu, Finland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Parents of very or extremely low birth weight infants are less likely to have subsequent children after preterm birth. We assessed whether this phenomenon extends over the whole range of prematurity. We now show that parents of preterm-born infants (gestational age less than 37 completed weeks of gestation) have fewer subsequent children than do parents of term born infants. This is not limited to the extreme group of parents of children born very preterm, but is even seen within the large groups of parents of infants born less preterm. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cannabis, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 07.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Shane Shucheng Wong, MD Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, Massachusetts  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Medical cannabis is now legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and in those areas with active programs, children and adolescents can legally access medical cannabis with certification from their doctor and consent from a parent. This means that doctors and families need to understand what we know and what we don’t yet know about medical cannabis in order to make the best decision for the health of the individual child. Two synthetic cannabinoids – compounds that act on specific receptors in the brain – have been approved for medical use in the U.S., both of which mimic a form of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound responsible for the “high” of recreational cannabis use. Dronabinol (Marinol) is approved to treat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in both children and adults, while the pediatric use of nabilone (Cesamet) carries a caution. A third cannabinoid, cannabidiol, is currently in phase 3 trials for treatment of seizures. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nutrition, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 24.03.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brandon Auerbach, MD, MPH Acting Instructor Division of General Internal Medicine University of Washington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The question of whether 100% fruit juice causes poor health outcomes in children, such as weight gain, has been a subject of controversy. On one hand, 100% fruit juice contains vitamins and nutrients that many children lack, is often cheaper than whole fruit, and may help kids with limited access to healthy food meet their daily fruit requirements. On the other hand, leading nutrition experts have expressed concern that fruit juice contains amounts of sugar equal to or greater than those of sugary drinks like regular soda. Guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics warn that 100% juice can be a significant source of calories and contribute to obesity if consumed excessively. Our main finding was that consuming 1 serving/day of 100% fruit juice was not associated with weight gain in children. Children ages 1 to 6 years gained a small amount of weight, but not enough to negatively impact health. Children ages 7 and older gained no weight. We did not study amounts of 100% fruit juice higher than 1 serving/day. (more…)
Author Interviews, Depression, Exercise - Fitness, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lars Wichstrøm, PhD NTNU Social Reseach, Trondheim, Norway; and Department of Psychology Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous research has linked physical activity, and particularly moderate to vigorous physical activity to less depression in adolescents and adults, but the potential prospective relationship between physical activity and depression in middle childhood has not yet been identified. The main findings in this study support existing research by showing that physically active children have fewer symptoms of depression two years later compared to less physically active children, but there is no relationship between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms in middle childhood. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 06.01.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Edwina Yeung, Ph.D Investigator, Division of Intramural Population Health Research Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: About 1 in 5 pregnant women in the United States is obese. Other studies have looked at mothers’ obesity in terms of children’s development, but no U.S. studies have looked at whether there might be a contribution from the father’s weight. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: One of the main findings of this study is that maternal obesity is associated with a delay in fine motor skill-- the ability to control movement of small muscles, such as those in the fingers and hands. Paternal obesity is associated with a delay in personal-social skills including the way the child interacts with others. Having both a mother and a father with severe obesity (BMI≥35) was associated with a delay in problem solving ability. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 10.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason Bentley, MBiostat Doctoral Fellow Menzies Centre for Health Policy University of Sydney MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Planned birth (labor induction or pre-labor caesarean section) is a decision to intervene and so determines a gestational age at birth that would have otherwise been later if pregnancy had progressed through to spontaneous labor. Significant changes in clinical practice have seen an increase in planned births before 39-40 completed week’s gestation from an increased use of primary and repeat cesarean section and a greater use of labor induction. At a population level this has resulted in a decrease in modal gestational age with planned birth accounting for almost half of births before 39-40 weeks. Clinical research has indicated that the threshold for planned birth and the gestational age for intervening has reduced. Numerous reasons have been given as justification for this including litigation, patient and provider perception of safety versus risk, reduced perinatal mortality, increased fetal monitoring, maternal age, obesity and convenience. There has also been the clinical perception that birth just before the optimal date carries little significant morbidity, with a focus on short-term risks to mother or baby only rather than longer-term outcomes. It is of paramount importance to ensure there are no unintended harms from such a significant shift in clinical practice. This study investigated whether the timing of planned birth was associated with poorer developmental outcomes at school age. (more…)
Author Interviews, End of Life Care, HIV, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 03.11.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maureen E. Lyon PhD Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Center for Translational Science/Children’s Research Institute, Children’s National The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Washington, District of Columbia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Despite policy recommendations to include adolescents with chronic and life-limiting conditions in decision-making about their own end-of-life care, barriers continue in clinical practice, including fear of distressing vulnerable adolescents and providers’ beliefs that these conversations are potentially harmful. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 29.09.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Harvey Kaufman MD Quest Diagnostics Madison, New Jersey MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Quest Diagnostics is the leading provider of diagnostic information services, meaning we provide information and insights from our laboratory test services. This includes analyzing results of our laboratory test data in order to provide insights into health, wellness and disease to help providers, patients and health plans make better healthcare decisions. A Quest Diagnostics Health Trends™ study published in the Pediatrics evaluated 276,949 de-identified test results from children ages infant through 9 years over an 11-year period to determine trends in laboratory rotavirus detection and the impact of the rotavirus vaccine on rotavirus detection. Vaccination is recommended for infants. In the study, two patients groups were evaluated for rotavirus vaccine – likely vaccinated (children who were infants after vaccine availability) and unlikely vaccinated (children who were infants prior to vaccine availability). (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Toxin Research / 16.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Leland McClure, PhD Director in Medical Affairs for Quest Diagnostics Fellow of the American Board of Forensic Toxicology MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. McClure: Quest Diagnostics is the leading provider of diagnostic information services, providing clinical lab testing to about one in three American adults each year. As a result, we've amassed the largest private clinical laboratory database in the United States, based on 20 billion data points from lab testing. Quest uses this data (in de-identified, HIPAA compliant form) to perform research -- called Quest Diagnostics Health Trends(TM) -- to reveal insights on important health issues to inform clinical patient management and health policy. Other Health Trends reports have focused on diabetes, pregnancy and influenza, among others. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Infections, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 01.06.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Markus Juonala, MD, PhD Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville Victoria, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Juonala: This is an epidemiological follow-up study investigating whether childhood infections and socieconomic status are associated with cardiovasular risk factor and early chances in vasculature. The main finding was that childhood infections were associated with obesity and impaired vascular function in adulthood among those individuals with low socioeconomic status. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders / 09.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Anna Pease Senior Research Associate University of Bristol MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Pease:  We tried to gather evidence of whether there was an association between swaddling for sleep and SIDS. This was a review, not a new original study, but it is the first time these data have been brought together to try to quantify any risk between swaddling and SIDS. We only found 4 studies and they were quite different making it difficult to pool the results. We did find, however, that the risk of SIDS when placing infants on their side or front for sleep increased when infants were swaddled. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 29.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jorijn Hornman, BSc (MD PhD student) Departments of Health Sciences University Medical Center Groningen University of Groningen, Netherlands MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Preterm children are at increased risk of emotional and behavioral problems compared to full-term children. Prevalences vary with degree of prematurity and assessment age. Unknown was whether stability of these problems upon school entry differs between preterm and full-term children. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: We found that preterm children had higher rates than full-term children of persistent (7.2% versus 3.6%), emerging (4.3% versus 2.3%), and resolving (7.5% versus 3.6%) emotional and behavioral problems. Early preterm children –born at <32 weeks gestation- had the highest rates of persistent (8.2%) and emerging (5.2%) problems, and moderately preterm children –born at 32-35 weeks gestation- the highest rates of resolving problems (8.7%). (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, HPV, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 07.04.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Natalie L. McCarthy, MPH Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, Georgia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Recently, deaths immediately following 4vHPV vaccination have garnered intense media attention.  Often, these media stories do not take into account the background rates of death in older children and young adults or disclose the potential for non-vaccine related causes of death.  The publicity surrounding deaths temporally associated with HPV and the paucity of studies examining deaths in adolescents following vaccination, was the basis for our evaluation of deaths following vaccines administered to individuals 9 through 26 years of age in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD). The VSD is a collaborative project between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several integrated healthcare systems, which monitors the safety of vaccines in the U.S. This study assessed the risk of death in the first 30 days following vaccination, described the causes of death, and included an evaluation of the potential association of vaccination and death among older children and young adults. The risk of death was not increased during the 30 days following vaccination, and no deaths were found to be causally associated with vaccination. The causes of death were consistent with what would be expected for this age group. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, NYU, Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Social Issues / 05.02.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alan Mendelsohn, MD Associate professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health Adriana Weisleder, PhD Research scientist, Department of Pediatrics NYU Langone Medical Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In the last decade, scientists have begun to understand the mechanisms by which poverty can cause changes in brain development that can lead to higher rates of behavior problems and lower educational achievement for disadvantaged children. This study shows that pediatric-based programs that promote reading aloud and play can help prevent these problems before they arise. The Video Interaction Project (VIP) – the main program studied in the research – takes place at regular pediatric check-ups starting at birth. A trained parenting coach meets with the family at each visit and records the parent and child playing and reading together with materials provided by the program. The coach then reviews the video with the parent to identify and reinforce positive interactions and encourage strong parent-child relationships. The second intervention program, Building Blocks, is a lower-intensity option in which families receive parenting pamphlets and learning materials monthly by mail to facilitate reaching specific developmental goals. The results of the three-year randomized-controlled trial showed notable benefits for children’s social and emotional development. Children of families who participated in the Video Interaction Project had better attention and play skills as toddlers and reduced hyperactivity and aggression at three years, compared to children in a control group. For the highest risk families, hyperactivity was reduced by more than half.  These findings are important because a child’s ability to control or regulate his or her behavior is a critical factor in their learning and success at school. (more…)
Alcohol, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 04.05.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jennifer A. Emond, M.Sc., PhD Research Instructor Department of Epidemiology Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College Cancer Control Research Program Lebanon, NH  03756 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Emond: Several studies have documented a link between consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks and an increased risk of negative outcomes while drinking, including binge drinking. It is known that mixing energy drinks with alcohol increases the risk for binge drinking--the high caffeine intake consumed when mixing energy drinks with alcohol may cause individuals to feel what is been called "wide-awake drunk," and they may underestimate their level of intoxication. However, most studies to date have been conducted among undergraduate college students, and we wanted to know if those same associations were also observed among adolescents. In our study of 3,342 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15-23, we also found a positive link between a history of consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks and abusive alcohol use. Specifically, 22.3% of participants had ever consumed an energy drink mixed with alcohol (including 9.7% of 15-17 year olds), and such a history of mixed use was associated with a more than 4-fold increased likelihood of engaging in binge drinking. Importantly, that association was just as strong among 15-17 year olds as it was among the older participants. One critical component of our study was that we also looked at a validated outcome for alcohol use disorder (i.e., the participants completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT]), and participants with a history of consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks were also 4.2 times more likely to meet that clinically defined criteria for alcohol use disorder as defined for adolescents. Again, those associations were observed for all participants, regardless of age. Our study has limitations. It was cross-sectional, so we cannot prove that mixed use of alcohol and energy drinks causes abusive alcohol use behaviors. However, our study does support that mixed use of alcohol with energy drinks can identify adolescents at risk for alcohol abuse. (more…)