Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics / 20.12.2022
Child Homicides, Rising for Years, Rise Sharply in 2020
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Rebecca F. Wilson, PhD
Division of Violence Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Our report shows the homicide rate among children aged 0 to 17 years has been increasing annually on average 4.3% since 2013, and rose sharply from 2019 to 2020. The largest 2019 to 2020 rate increases were among children 11-17 years old, boys, and Black children. Overall increases varied by geography and demographics, with some racial and ethnic disparities persisting for more than 20 years. Firearms were the most common weapon used in child homicides. Homicides of younger children (infants to 10 years) were mostly perpetrated by parents and caregivers and precipitated by abuse and/or neglect.
Homicides of older children (11-17 years) were mostly perpetrated by someone known to them, like a friend or acquaintance, and precipitated by crime, arguments, and community violence.
Dr. Goldman[/caption]
Anna L. Goldman, M.D., M.P.A., M.P.H
Assistant Professor of Medicine
General Internal Medicine
Dr. Harris[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Rebecca Arden Harris, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The impact of the nationwide overdose epidemic on Black women has received little attention from policy-makers, researchers, or the press.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Over the 7-year study period, preventable overdose deaths among Black women resulted in nearly 0.75 million years of life lost (YLL). Women aged 25-34 have suffered a rising proportion of this burden.
Dr. Guttman-Yassky[/caption]
Dr. Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, PhD
Waldman Professor and System Chair
The Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology
Director, Center of Excellence in Eczema
Director, Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The background for this study are studies that show that OX40 is a pathway that is upregulated in patients with atopic dermatitis (or eczema). OX40 is involved in activation of immune molecules associated with allergy and atopy, and also with formation of memory immune cells that are required for disease recurrence. The hypothesis to the study was that giving an OX40 antagonist will not only ameliorate the disease but perhaps have a remittive effect in that the disease will not come back.
Indeed all drug doses were significantly effective at week 16, the primary endpoint compared to placebo and continued to improve towards week 36, the secondary endpoint. In addition, the responders to treatment maintained their responses for an additional 20 weeks, which is unusual, suggesting a potential for disease modification.
Dr. Holland[/caption]
Thomas M Holland, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Rush Institute for Health Aging
Rush College of Medicine & Rush College of Health Sciences
Dr. Curhan[/caption]
Sharon G. Curhan, MD, ScM|
Director, CHEARS: The Conservation of Hearing Study
Channing Division of Network Medicine
Department of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02114
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Herpes zoster, commonly known as “shingles,” is a viral infection that often causes a painful rash. Shingles can occur anywhere on the head or body. Shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV), the same virus that causes chickenpox. After a person has chickenpox, the virus stays in their body for the rest of their life. Years and even decades later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. Almost all individuals age 50 years and older in the US have been infected with the varicella zoster virus and therefore they are at risk for shingles.
About 1 in 3 people will develop shingles during their lifetime, and since age is a risk factor for shingles, this number may increase as the population ages. The risk is also higher among individuals of any age who are immunocompromised due to disease or treatment. A number of serious complications can occur when a person develops shingles, such as post-herpetic neuralgia (long-lasting pain), but there was limited information on whether there are other adverse long-term health implications of developing shingles.
There is a growing body of evidence that links VZV, the virus that causes shingles, to vascular disease. VZV vasculopathy may cause damage to blood vessels and increase the risk of stroke or coronary heart disease. Although some previous studies showed a higher risk of stroke or heart attack around the time of the shingles infection, it was not known whether this higher risk persisted in the long term. Therefore, the question we aimed to address in this study was to investigate whether shingles is associated with higher long-term risk of stroke or coronary heart disease.
To address this question, we conducted a prospective longitudinal study in 3 large US cohorts of >200,000 women and men, the Nurses’ Health Study (>79,000 women), the Nurses’ Health Study II (almost 94,000 women) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (>31,000 men), without a prior history of stroke or coronary heart disease. We collected information on shingles, stroke and coronary heart disease on biennial questionnaires and confirmed the diagnoses with medical record review. We followed the participants for up to 16 years and evaluated whether those who had developed shingles were at higher risk for stroke or coronary heart disease years after the shingles episode. The outcomes we measured were incident stroke, incident coronary heart disease [defined as having a non-fatal or fatal myocardial infarction (heart attack) or a coronary revascularization procedure (CABG, coronary artery bypass graft or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty)]. We also evaluated a combined outcome of cardiovascular disease, which included either stroke or coronary heart disease, whichever came first.
Dr. Sally Lau[/caption]
Dr. Sally Lau MD
Medical oncologist, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center
Assistant professor of medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: How big is the problem of 
Response: We started many years ago by studying some natural and synthetic molecules that were able to counteract the early stages of this disease. With a view to early prevention, we wondered if these molecules could be routinely taken with the diet or dietary supplements. So our studies focused on the search for bioactive molecules present in food and edible plants.
Hops are very rich in polyphenolic compounds, and for this reason it is historically used for the production of beer, but also for the preparation of herbal teas and infusions, and its uses in traditional medicine are known. In recent years we have also collected interesting results on Coffee, Sage, Radix Imperatoriae, Cocoa and Cinnamon extracts.
Dr. Dai[/caption]
Dr. Hongying Daisy Dai, PhD
Professor and Associate Dean of Research
The College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Tobacco use landscape has been changing in the United States with fewer combustible cigarette smokers and more e-cigarette and other emerging tobacco users. Nicotine concentration level is a key product characteristic of modern e-cigarette products and high-nicotine vaping devices have recently become available. This study seeks to examine whether biomarkers of exposure to tobacco-related toxicants have changed since 2013 among adult nicotine e-cigarette users, non-nicotine e-cigarette users, and cigarette smokers.
Dr. Shan[/caption]
Zhilei Shan, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral fellow on Nutritional Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Unhealthy sleep behaviors and sleep disturbances are associated with higher risk of multiple diseases and mortality. The current profiles of sleep habits and disturbances, particularly the differences between workdays and free days, are unknown in the contemporary US.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: In this nationally representative cross-sectional analysis with 9004 adults aged 20 years or older, differences in sleep patterns between workdays and free days were observed. The mean sleep duration was 7.59 hours on workdays and 8.24 hours on free days (difference, 0.65 hour). The mean sleep and wake times were at 11:02 PM and 6:41 AM, respectively, on workdays and 11:25 PM and 7:41 AM, respectively, on free days (differences, 0.23 hour for sleep time and 1.00 hour for wake time). With regard to sleep disturbances, 30.5% of adults experienced 1 hour or more of sleep debt,46.5% experienced 1 hour or more of social jet lag, 29.8% had trouble sleeping, and 27.2% experienced daytime sleepiness.
Sean M Hughes MA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of Washington
Seattle, WA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Young women are at elevated risk of getting sexually transmitted infections at the age when they typically start to have sexual intercourse. It’s not known whether this elevated risk is a consequence of behavioral factors (such as choices around use of barrier protection), physiological factors (such as a difference in the immune system) or a combination of both. In this study, we investigated a physiological factor: the immune system in the vagina.
Dr. van der Velde[/caption]
Jeroen van der Velde, PhD
Leiden University Medical Center
Dept. Clinical Epidemiology, C7-102
Leiden, The Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We hypothesized that, in addition to the amount of physical activity, the pattern in which physical activity is accumulated over the day is relevant for metabolic health.
Several studies previously showed beneficial effects of interrupting sedentary periods with short periods of activity (breaks in sedentary time) on glucose control. In addition, very recently it has been argued that the timing of physical activity during the day may be relevant for metabolic health. This was mainly shown in animal studies and intervention studies with supervised high intensity exercise training in men with impaired glucose control or type 2 diabetes. If timing of physical activity matters in a ‘free-living’ setting in the general population is largely unknown.
Therefore, our aim was to investigate associations of timing of physical activity and breaks in sedentary time with liver fat content and insulin resistance in a middle-aged population.
Dr. White[/caption]
Alexandra J. White, PhD, MSPH
Stadtman Investigator
Epidemiology Branch
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Research Triangle Park, NC
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What is the chemical primarily used in hair straighteners?
Response: Hair products such as dye and chemical straighteners contain several different chemicals that may act as carcinogens or endocrine disruptors and thus may be important for cancer risk. Straighteners in particular have been found to include chemicals such as phthalates, parabens, cyclosiloxanes and metals and may release formaldehyde when heated. Previous research has suggested that hair dye and chemical straighteners are related to other hormone-sensitive cancers such as breast and ovarian cancer, but no previous study has considered how they are related to uterine cancer risk.
Dr. Wong[/caption]
Mitchell Wong, MD PhD
Professor of Medicine
Executive Vice Chair for Research Training
Department of Medicine
Executive Co-Director, Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program
Director, UCLA CTSI KL2 Program
UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research Los Angeles, CA 90024
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: It is estimated that social factors like poverty, education, and housing have a large impact on health. Yet, there are few interventions that exist to directly address those issues. Schools are a promising solution since society already invests heavily in education and schools are an everyday part of most children’s lives.
