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Background: Maternal pre-pregnancy body-mass index (ppBMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) are associated with cardiometabolic risk (CMR) traits in the offspring. The extent to which maternal genetic variation accounts for these associations is unknown.

This paper describes the effect of a preschool hygiene intervention program on psychosocial measures of educators regarding handwashing and communicable pediatric disease. A cluster-randomized trial, with randomization at the level of the preschool, was run in 40 Jerusalem preschool classrooms. Eighty preschool educators participated. The program used a multipronged approach which included elements aimed at staff, children, parents, school nurses and the classroom environment. Frontal lectures by medical, epidemiological and educational experts, along with printed materials and experiential learning, were provided to staff. Responses from a validated survey instrument were used to build four scales for each respondent regarding beliefs, attitudes, self-efficacy and knowledge. The scales were built on a Likert-type 1-7 scale (1 = minimum, 7 = maximum). The effect of the intervention was tested using mixed model analysis of variance. Response was received from 92.5% of educators. Educators believed that handwashing could affect health (mean = 5.5, SD = 1.1), had high levels of self-efficacy (mean = 6.1, SD = 0.9) and had positive attitudes toward handwashing (mean = 5.7, SD = 1.2). Knowledge was affected by the intervention (intervention: mean = 6.2, SD = 0.7; control: mean = 5.8, SD = 0.8). The combination of positive attitudes toward handwashing among educators and the program's effectiveness in imparting knowledge helped to create a sustained social norm of handwashing among many children in disparate locations.

Classification of arithmetic disorders is predicated on neuropsychological features and associated learning disabilities. Assesses the compatibility of these classifications on a nonreferred, population-based cohort of children (N=139) with developmental dyscalculia. Concludes that children with dyscalculia and disabilities in reading and/or writing are more profoundly impaired in arithmetic than children with dyscalculia alone or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Contains 36 references. (Author/ASK)

Social inequalities in psychological status have been attributed to health selection and to social causation. We used data from the 1958 British birth cohort, followed over three decades, to identify causes of inequality in adulthood. Psychological status prior to labour market entry influenced inter-generational mobility, but selection effects were weaker for intra-generational mobility, between age 23 and 33. However, selection failed to account for social differences in risk of distress of approximately threefold in classes IV&V compared with I&II. Both childhood and adult life factors appeared to contribute to the development of inequalities. The principal childhood factors were ability at age 7 for both sexes and adverse environment (institutional care for men and low class for women). Adult life factors varied, with stronger effects for work factors (job strain and insecurity) for men and qualifications on leaving school, early child-bearing and financial hardship for women. Gradients in psychological distress reflect the cumulative effect of multiple adversities experienced from childhood. Keywords: Psychological distress; Social class; Social mobility; Health selection; Birth cohort; UK