Month: January 2022

The impact virtual school had on kids goes well beyond academics, say Children’s National Hospital experts in a new JAMA Pediatrics editorial. From the beginning of the pandemic, new data shows that school closures for in-person learning led to: School disengagement Mental health challenges Unhealthy weight gain Food insecurity Immunization delay An increase in cases

A growing body of evidence indicates that some people thought to have an allergic response to injectable penicillin, the standard treatment for rheumatic heart disease, may instead be experiencing a cardiac reaction to the medicine, according to a new American Heart Association presidential advisory published today in Journal of the American Heart Association. The advisory,

An investigational cancer drug that starves tumors of their energy supply also shows evidence of improving whole body metabolism, according to a new study in mice from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown are sections of liver from mice on a high-fat, high-sugar diet. On the left, more white space indicates greater

Seeking to better understand the key role the female hormone estrogen plays in maintaining energy balance and weight control, a group led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine looked into estrogen interactions with specific brain regions that provide these anti-obesity benefits. The team reveals in the journal Science Advances an estrogen-activated neurocircuit that stimulates

A collaborative study by the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, the University of Hong Kong and the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, United Christian Hospital Background Eczema, asthma, and rhinitis are three of the most common paediatric allergic diseases. Beyond persistent hallmark symptoms such as scratching, wheezing, and sneezing, allergic diseases impose

For transgender people, starting gender-affirming hormone treatment in adolescence is linked to better mental health than waiting until adulthood, according to new research led by the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study, which appeared online Jan. 12 in PLOS ONE, drew on data from the largest-ever survey of U.S. transgender adults, a group of

A combination of anti-cancer antibodies produced a powerfully synergistic response in two hard-to-treat pediatric cancers, according to a new study, in mice, led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The results, which published online Jan. 13 in Nature Medicine, provide hope for better treatments of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting young children that

The performance of lateral flow (antigen) tests commonly used to detect COVID-19 infection in children falls short of the minimum criteria set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and US and UK device regulators, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence on 8 different tests, published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. The

Heart function recovery returned within three months in children who developed COVID-19-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. MIS-C is a new illness identified during the COVID-19 pandemic that affects children about four

Two of the most common forms of death among adolescents are suicide and motor vehicle traffic accidents. A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that adolescents who reported at least one suicide attempt within the last year, in comparison to those reporting no attempts, were more likely to also report infrequent seat belt use

Researchers know that experiencing a high number of adverse events in childhood correlates with worse health outcomes in adulthood. These studies have led to an emphasis on trauma-informed practice in schools and workplaces in an attempt to mitigate the harm of early adversity. At the other end of the spectrum, focusing on wellness, Darcia Narvaez,

There is no evidence of recently infected mothers transmitting infectious SARS-CoV-2 through breastmilk to their baby, reports a study published in the journal Pediatric Research. The authors found that, whilst a low proportion of breastmilk contained COVID-19 genetic material, this did not translate into the presence of infectious replicating viral particles or lead to evidence

A recent retrospective cohort study published on the medRxiv* preprint server found that the clinical severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was lower in children younger than five years of age after the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant in comparison to COVID-19 cases in this patient population when the SARS-CoV-2

Many recreational cannabis companies market their products in a way that appeals to children and teens, despite state-based regulations prohibiting it, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. This marketing is easily viewed by people of all ages on social media platforms. “I had expected that cannabis companies