Search

This paper provides an overview of the design and cohort characteristics of the Social Spectrum Study: a clinical cohort study that used a two-phase sampling design to identify children at risk for ASD. After screening 1281 children aged 2.5-10 years who had been consecutively referred to one of six mental health services in the Netherlands, children who screened positive for ASD (n = 428) and a random selection of screen negatives (n = 240) were invited to participate in diagnostic assessments and questionnaires regarding the child, family and society. A 1-year follow-up was also conducted. Results from this study may contribute to knowledge of the identification and characterization of children with ASD, family processes, and the impact of ASD on the family and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Approximately 20 % of children and adolescents who have sustained mild traumatic brain injuries may experience long-term consequences, including cognitive problems, post-traumatic stress symptoms and reduced load-bearing capacity. The underestimation and belated recognition of these long-term consequences may lead to chronic and disruptive problems, such as participation problems in school and in social relationships. The aim of this study is to examine the level of activities and participation of children and adolescents up to 6 months after a mild traumatic brain injury and to identify possible outcome predictors. Another aim is to investigate the effectiveness of an early psychoeducational intervention and compare the results with those obtained with usual care.Methods/design: This paper presents the Brains Ahead! study design, a randomised controlled trial nested within a multicentre, longitudinal, prospective cohort study. The eligible participants include children and adolescents between 6 and 18 years of age who have experienced a mild traumatic brain injury within the last 2 weeks. The cohort study will include 500 children and adolescents with a mild traumatic brain injury and their caregivers. A subset of 140 participants and their caregivers will be included in the randomised controlled trial. Participants in the randomised controlled trial will be randomly assigned to either the psychoeducational intervention group or the usual care control group. The psychoeducational intervention involves one face-to-face contact and one phone contact with the interventionist, during which the consequences of mild traumatic brain injury and advice for coping with these consequences to prevent long-term problems will be discussed. Information will be provided both verbally and in a booklet. The primary outcome domain is activities and participation, which will be evaluated using the Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation. Participants are evaluated 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months after the mild traumatic brain injury.Discussion: The results of this study will provide insight into which children with mild traumatic brain injury are at risk for long-term participation problems and may benefit from a psychoeducational intervention.Trial Registration: Netherlands Trial Register identifier NTR5153 . Registered on 17 Apr 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Recent evidence is emerging indicating long-term effects in infants born after an episode of preterm labour (PTL), even if birth is at term. This population-based study compared long-term rates of outcomes and health-care utilisation (HCU) in children born following spontaneous preterm labour, irrespective of gestational age at delivery or of an uncomplicated pregnancy (SPTLu), with children born following full-term labour (FTL), overall stratified by comorbidity status and assessed using a composite morbidity measure (CM).Methods: Retrospective data on mother-neonate pairs were collected from a patient-linked dataset from the Netherlands Perinatal Registry and the PHARMO Database Network. Children born between 2000 and 2010 were followed until 2012.Results: Of pregnancies in 134 006 mother-neonate pairs, 122 894 (92%) pregnancies resulted in FTL, and 11 112 (8%) resulted in PTL. Of the PTL pregnancies, 6599 (59%) were SPTLu. Mean follow-up after birth was 6.6-6.7 years. Children from SPTLu pregnancies were at increased risk of neurodevelopmental and respiratory conditions compared with those from FTL pregnancies. In children from SPTLu pregnancies, the presence of the CM was associated with an increased risk of respiratory conditions and failure to thrive. Post-natal hospitalisations (incidence rate (IR) per 100 patient-years: 18.1 vs. 11.7) and specialist referrals (IR per 1000 patient-years: 290.6 vs. 184.5) occurred significantly more frequently in children from SPTLu versus FTL pregnancies.Conclusion: The increased risk of morbidities and HCU in children born following SPTLu pregnancy in this population-based setting reinforces the need for safe interventions that can effectively halt labour and lead to an improvement in childhood outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the degree of fatigue in children and youth after traumatic and non-traumatic brain injury (TBI and NTBI) and related factors. Method: Follow-up study including patients with a hospital-based diagnosis of acquired brain injury (ABI), aged 4–20 years at onset and their parents. Parents and children (dependent on age) completed the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Multidimensional Fatigue Scale (PedsQL™ MFS), which measures general fatigue (GF), sleep/rest fatigue (SRF) and cognitive fatigue (CF). Additional assessments included the Child & Family Follow-up Survey (CFFS) and PedsQL™ 4.0 General Core Scales and sociodemographic and disease characteristics. Results: Eighty-eight parents completed the PedsQL™ MFS 24–30 months after diagnosis, with 49/88 patients (56%) completing the child version. The median age of the patients was 11 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 7). There were 69 patients with TBI (16% moderate/severe TBI) and 19 patients with NTBI (16% moderate/severe NTBI). The median parent-reported and child-reported PedsQL™ MFS Total Scale Scores were 76.5 (SD = 16.4) and 78.5 (12.9), respectively (Spearmanr= 0.450,p= 0.001). Apart from NTBI, increasing age and a single-parent household were significantly associated with more fatigue according to the parent-reported PedsQL™ MFS Total Score (and/or one or more sub-scale scores). Conclusion: Two years after onset, in particular, the parent-reported fatigue after NTBI was considerable. Moreover, older children and children from a single-parent household were found to have higher fatigue levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Children's fussy eating behavior has been related to both underweight and overweight in cross-sectional studies, but the direction of these associations and the relation with more detailed measures of body composition remains unclear. We aimed to examine whether fussy eating at age 4 years is longitudinally related to body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI) and fat-free mass index (FFMI) at 6 years of age. Methods: This study was embedded in Generation R, a population-based, prospective cohort. Data were available for 4191 children. The Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ), administered at age 4 years, was used to derive a fussy eating profile. This profile is characterized by high scores on food avoidant scales and low scores on food approach scales. At age 6 years, height and weight were measured at our research center. Body fat and fat-free mass were measured using Dual-energy-X-ray absorptiometry. We used age- and sex-specific standard deviation scores (SDS) for all outcomes. Results: After adjustment for confounders, the fussy eating profile was related to lower BMI-SDS (B = -0.37, 95 % CI: -0.47;-0.26), lower FMI-SDS (B = -0.22, 95 % CI: -0.33;-0.12) and lower FFMI-SDS (B = -0.41, 95 % CI: -0.54;-0.29). When adjusting for baseline BMI at 4 years, the fussy eating profile predicted a 0.11 lower BMI-SDS at age 6 (95 % CI: -0.19;-0.04). This change in BMI was mainly due to a decrease in FFMI (B = -0.19, 95 % CI: -0.29;-0.09). Fussy eaters also had a higher risk of becoming underweight than non-fussy eaters (OR = 2.28, 95 % CI: 1.34;3.87). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that young fussy eaters are at risk of having a lower fat free mass and of becoming underweight over a 2-year period. This implies that fussy eaters may benefit from careful monitoring to prevent an adverse growth development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a traumatic event, many children and adolescents develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies in adults suggest that emotional reasoning (i.e., drawing conclusions about situations on the basis of one's emotional responses) is involved in PTSD development or maintenance. This longitudinal study explored whether emotional reasoning predicts children's PTSD symptoms after a single traumatic event, independently of other risk factors for PTSD, which were subjective trauma severity, anxiety sensitivity, cognitive ability, and neuroticism. Within 3.5 weeks post-trauma, 49 children (7-18 years) completed an emotional reasoning task, questionnaires measuring PTSD symptom severity, subjective trauma severity, anxiety sensitivity, and neuroticism, and a test measuring cognitive ability. About 2.5 months later, 33 children (67 %) completed the PTSD symptom scale again. Results show that emotional reasoning tendency was positively associated with initial PTSD symptoms, particularly avoidance symptoms, and that this was independent of trauma symptom severity, anxiety sensitivity, neuroticism and cognitive ability, but did not predict PTSD symptoms at 2.5 months. This is the first study to our knowledge that examined the relationship between emotional reasoning and PTSD symptoms in children. Findings suggest that emotional reasoning may be involved in the development of PTSD symptoms, but not in their maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examine the effectiveness of an intervention program to influence attitudes of elementary school students towards peers with intellectual, physical and severe physical and intellectual disabilities. A quasi-experimental longitudinal study was designed with an experimental group and a control group, both comprising two rural schools. An intervention program was developed for kindergarten ( n = 22, n = 31) and elementary school students without disabilities ( n = 91, n = 127) (age range 4-12 years old). This intervention consisted of a 3 weeks education project comprising six lessons about disabilities. The Acceptance Scale for Kindergarten-revised and the Attitude Survey to Inclusive Education were used to measure attitudes at three moments: prior to the start of the intervention, after the intervention and 1 year later. The outcomes of the multilevel analysis showed positive, immediate effects on attitudes of kindergarten students, but limited effects on elementary school students' attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Definitions and assessment methods of fussy/picky eating are heterogeneous and remain unclear. We aimed to identify an eating behavior profile reflecting fussy/picky eating in children and to describe characteristics of fussy eaters. Methods Eating behavior was assessed with the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) in 4914 4-year olds in a population-based birth cohort study. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was used to identify eating behavior profiles based on CEBQ subscales. Results and discussion We found a "fussy" eating behavior profile (5.6% of children) characterized by high food fussiness, slowness in eating, and satiety responsiveness in combination with low enjoyment of food and food responsiveness. Fussy eaters were more often from families with low household income than non-fussy eaters (42% vs. 31.8% respectively; X² (1) = 9.97, p < .01). When they were 14 months old, fussy eaters had a lower intake of vegetables (t [3008] = 2.42, p < .05) and fish (t [169.77] = 2.40,p < .05) but higher intake of savory snacks (t [153.69] = -2.03, p < .05) and sweets (t [3008] = -2.30, p < .05) compared to non-fussy eaters. Also, fussy eaters were more likely to be underweight at 4 years of age (19.3%) than non-fussy eaters (12.3%; X² (1) = 7.71, p < .01). Conclusions A distinct fussy eating behavior profile was identified by LPA, which was related to family and child characteristics, food intake, and BMI. This behavior profile might be used in future research and the development of interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of hearing status in reading improvement of children. It states that hearing loss can shape the quality of the mental lexicon, can impact the phonological development of child and will later affect the word form presentations and word decoding skills. Moreover, it also mentions that children with hearing loss have less word-learning opportunities, that can have outcomes for their semantic and orthographic representations of words.

The objective of this study was to investigate the prospective relationships between sense of coherence, trait emotional intelligence and children's somatic complaints. The study included four waves of data collection with six months in between each wave. Participants were 324 girls and 393 boys (mean age = 10 years and 3 months, SD = 8.5 months) at the first time of data collection. The children filled out self-report questionnaires concerning their somatic complaints, sense of coherence and trait emotional intelligence. Multilevel model analyses were carried out that included cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of sense of coherence and trait emotional intelligence on children's somatic complaints. The results showed that higher levels of trait emotional intelligence and a stronger sense of coherence were associated with fewer somatic complaints in children. These relationships seemed to be bidirectional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: Owing to a lack of longitudinal studies, the effect of centralization of care on pulmonary function and survival remains unclear. Three different levels of involvement of centralized care in the treatment of paediatric cystic fibrosis patients were compared with regard to longitudinal pulmonary function and nutritional and microbiological status in a 3-y period, and the literature was reviewed on the possible advantages and disadvantages of centralized care. The study included 105 paediatric patients attending the Cystic Fibrosis Centre between January 1997 and January 2001. Twenty-three patients were treated by local paediatricians according to the protocol of the Centre and were seen only once a year at the Centre, for an annual check-up (local care). Forty-one patients were treated at the Centre only (centralized care). The remaining 41 patients were treated in close cooperation between the Centre and local hospitals, with patients visiting the doctors alternately (shared care). The mean annual changes in pulmonary function and body mass index from all patients, as well as a microbiological survey, were reviewed. No significant differences were found between the three groups for annual changes in FEV1, FVC and body mass index, nor did the review of microbial colonization show any significant differences between the groups. Because the groups in this study were relatively small, the results might have been influenced by lack of power.Conclusion: In this relatively small group, no differences in pulmonary function, nutritional status or microbiological colonization between the three levels of involvement of centralized care could be found. This could signify that local paediatricians have a special role in the care for patients with cystic fibrosis, in close cooperation with the specialists at the Centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]