Pediatrics – Public Health | Links Medicus Content Curation & Alerts in Medicine

It's #WorldDrowningPreventionDay
Every year, drowning claims at least 236,000 lives. It's one of the leading causes of death 🌐 for children & people aged 1-24 years. We can all take action to end drowning 🏊‍ https://t.co/7CSUGYBk49 pic.twitter.com/r64dbsLnHn

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) July 25, 2023

Global, regional, and national burden of meningitis and its etiologies, 1990–2019

25 Jul, 2023 | 13:55h | UTC

Global, regional, and national burden of meningitis and its aetiologies, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 – The Lancet Neurology

Commentary on Twitter

Although largely preventable, meningitis still causes hundreds of thousands of deaths globally each year.

New @IHME_UW #GBDStudy in @TheLancetNeuro assesses incident cases and deaths due to acute infectious meningitis by aetiology and age from 1990–2019. https://t.co/S3KtMA7DMs pic.twitter.com/AYuSJHsNwK

— The Lancet (@TheLancet) July 20, 2023

Key factors associated with quality of postnatal care: a pooled analysis of 23 countries

25 Jul, 2023 | 13:50h | UTC

Key factors associated with quality of postnatal care: a pooled analysis of 23 countries – eClinicalMedicine

M-A | Exposure to smoke, overcrowding, poor living conditions, and contact with TB cases identified as risk conditions for pediatric TB

24 Jul, 2023 | 12:43h | UTC

Risk factors for the development of tuberculosis among the pediatric population: a systematic review and meta-analysis – European Journal of Pediatrics

WHO Guideline | Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing

12 Jul, 2023 | 13:52h | UTC

Policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing: WHO guideline – World Health Organization

News Release: WHO recommends stronger policies to protect children from the harmful impact of food marketing – World Health Organization

Commentary: WHO Launches New Guideline for Protecting Children from Unhealthy Food Marketing – Health Policy Watch

Health advisory on social media use in adolescence

11 Jul, 2023 | 14:03h | UTC

Health advisory on social media use in adolescence – American Psychological Association

News Release: APA panel issues recommendations for adolescent social media use – American Psychological Association

AAP Policy Statement | Child pedestrian safety

10 Jul, 2023 | 13:44h | UTC

Child Pedestrian Safety – Pediatrics

Technical Report: Epidemiology and Prevention of Child Pedestrian Injury – Pediatrics

News Release: Speed, technology, road design are key factors in reducing pedestrian injuries – AAP News

WHO Report | Global progress in tackling maternal and newborn deaths stalls since 2015

25 May, 2023 | 11:36h | UTC

News Release: Global progress in tackling maternal and newborn deaths stalls since 2015: UN – World Health Organization

Report: Improving maternal and newborn health and survival and reducing stillbirth – Progress report 2023 – World Health Organization

WHO Report | 152 million babies born preterm in the last decade

23 May, 2023 | 13:15h | UTC

News Release: 152 million babies born preterm in the last decade – World Health Organization

Report: Born too soon: decade of action on preterm birth – World Health Organization

M-A | Impact on childhood mortality of interventions to improve drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene to households

10 May, 2023 | 15:28h | UTC

Impact on childhood mortality of interventions to improve drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to households: Systematic review and meta-analysis – PLOS Medicine

AAP Policy Statement | Protecting children and adolescents from tobacco and nicotine

4 May, 2023 | 13:43h | UTC

Protecting Children and Adolescents From Tobacco and Nicotine – Pediatrics

Clinical Report: Protecting Children and Adolescents From Tobacco and Nicotine – Pediatrics

Commentaries:

Protecting Kids From Tobacco’s Harms: AAP Policy Explained – Health Children

To protect kids from tobacco, pediatricians say, focus should be on quitting – or never starting – CNN

Sudden unexpected infant deaths in the US: 2015–2020

25 Apr, 2023 | 14:27h | UTC

Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths: 2015–2020 – Pediatrics

Commentary:

Increasing Disparities in Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths Reflect Societal Failures – Pediatrics

2020 spike in SIDS likely due to diagnostic shifting, not COVID-19 – Contemporary Pediatrics

Characteristics of fatal poisonings among infants and young children in the US

25 Apr, 2023 | 14:28h | UTC

Characteristics of Fatal Poisonings Among Infants and Young Children in the United States – Pediatrics

News Release: Researchers find rate of fatal opioid poisonings among children more than doubled over 13-year span – Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Analysis | Global coverage and design of sugar-sweetened beverage taxes

5 Apr, 2023 | 12:43h | UTC

Global Coverage and Design of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Taxes – JAMA Network Open

WHO manual on sugar-sweetened beverage taxation policies to promote healthy diets.

M-A: Outcomes following taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages.

Public Policies to Reduce Sugary Drink Consumption in Children and Adolescents – Pediatrics

Cutting back on sugar-sweetened beverages: What works? – Cochrane Library

Association of a Beverage Tax on Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages With Changes in Beverage Prices and Sales at Chain Retailers in a Large Urban Setting – JAMA

Association between tax on sugar sweetened beverages and soft drink consumption in adults in Mexico: open cohort longitudinal analysis of Health Workers Cohort Study – The BMJ

Potential impact on prevalence of obesity in the UK of a 20% price increase in high sugar snacks: modelling study – The BMJ

Changes in food purchases after the Chilean policies on food labelling, marketing, and sales in schools: a before and after study – The Lancet Planetary Health

Association of a Sweetened Beverage Tax With Soda Consumption in High School Students – JAMA Pediatrics

Sugar-sweetened beverage taxes: Lessons to date and the future of taxation – PLOS Medicine

Banning the promotion of soft drinks could be more effective than a sugar tax – The Conversation

Sugar tax: why health experts want it but politicians and industry are resisting – The Guardian

Commentary on Twitter

With 105 national SSB taxes in effect covering 51% of the world’s population, SSB taxes are no longer a novel policy tool. https://t.co/P0TvIdB4D3

— JAMA Network Open (@JAMANetworkOpen) March 29, 2023

Updated WHO Guidelines | COVID-19 boosters no longer routinely recommended for low-risk groups

30 Mar, 2023 | 14:33h | UTC

Summary: The WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) has revised its COVID-19 vaccination roadmap in light of the Omicron variant and widespread population immunity. The revised roadmap prioritizes protecting those at the highest risk of severe disease and death while maintaining resilient health systems. It introduces cost-effectiveness considerations for vaccinating lower-risk individuals, such as healthy children and adolescents, and presents revised booster dose recommendations.

Priority groups are categorized as high, medium, and low, based on factors like risk of severe disease and death. People in the high-priority group, consisting of older adults, individuals with significant comorbidities or immunocompromising conditions, pregnant persons, and frontline health workers, are advised to receive additional boosters 6 or 12 months after the last dose. The medium priority group, which includes healthy adults without comorbidities and children with comorbidities, is recommended to receive primary series and first booster doses. However, SAGE no longer routinely recommends additional boosters for this group due to limited public health gains.

For the low-priority group, encompassing healthy children and adolescents, vaccination decisions should take into account factors such as disease prevalence and cost-effectiveness. It is important to note that the public health benefits of vaccinating healthy children and adolescents are considerably lower compared to established essential vaccines for children, like rotavirus, measles, and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines.

News Release: SAGE updates COVID-19 vaccination guidance – World Health Organization

Commentaries:

No More COVID-19 Boosters for Healthy People, WHO Experts Recommend – Health Policy Watch

WHO vaccine advisers update COVID vaccine recommendations – CIDRAP

M-A | The efficacy of Kangaroo-Mother care to the clinical outcomes of LBW and premature infants

21 Mar, 2023 | 13:35h | UTC

Summary: Kangaroo-Mother Care (KMC) is a method that involves skin-to-skin contact between the mother and newborn, frequent exclusive or almost exclusive breastfeeding, and early discharge. KMC is an alternative to traditional care interventions for low birthweight (LBW) infants, and the World Health Organization has recommended its use for LBW infants for over a decade.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis including 17 randomized clinical trials involving 17,668 participants. They found that KMC can significantly reduce neonatal mortality, lower hypothermia and sepsis rates, and reduce the duration of hospital stay. The authors suggest that KMC should be promoted, popularized, and standardized in clinical practice.

Article: The efficacy of Kangaroo-Mother care to the clinical outcomes of LBW and premature infants in the first 28 days: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials – Frontiers in Pediatrics

Effect of community-initiated kangaroo mother care on survival of infants with low birthweight: a randomised controlled trial – The Lancet

Effect of Community-Initiated Kangaroo Mother Care on Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Stress Among Mothers of Low-Birth-Weight Infants: A Randomized Clinical Trial – JAMA Network Open

Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants – Cochrane Library

Preterm care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative risk analysis of neonatal deaths averted by kangaroo mother care versus mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection – EclinicalMedicine

COVID-19 pandemic measures may have caused reduced cognitive abilities among German students, study shows

20 Mar, 2023 | 13:50h | UTC

Summary: This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cognitive abilities of secondary school students in Germany. The study compared the intelligence test performance of 424 students in Grades 7 to 9, tested after the first six months of the pandemic, to the results of two highly comparable student samples tested in 2002 and 2012.

The study found that the 2020 sample had substantially lower intelligence test scores than both the 2002 and 2012 samples. The study also retested the 2020 sample after another full school year of COVID-19-affected schooling in 2021 and found no signs of catching up to previous cohorts or further declines in cognitive performance.

It can be inferred from the article that the lower intelligence test scores of the 2020 sample may have been caused by the prolonged disruption of regular schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including lockdowns and school closures.

The study highlights the potential negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cognitive abilities of secondary school students and suggests that these consequences should be taken into account when conducting intelligence assessments in the post-pandemic era. It also recommends that appropriate compensatory measures be implemented to address any learning loss or cognitive deficits that may have resulted from the disruption of regular schooling during the pandemic.

Article: Students’ intelligence test results after six and sixteen months of irregular schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic – PLOS One

News Release: After 6 months of disrupted schooling during COVID-19, German students scored substantially lower on intelligence tests than comparative earlier cohorts, with the gap persisting after 16 months – PLOS

Report | Economic impact of overweight and obesity to surpass $4 trillion by 2035

6 Mar, 2023 | 14:32h | UTC

Summary:

A recent report from the World Obesity Federation has issued a warning that the number of people worldwide suffering from overweight or obesity could increase significantly by 2035, surpassing the 50% mark. The report, called the World Obesity Atlas 2023, also highlights the significant economic impact of this trend, estimating that the cost of overweight and obesity could reach $4.32tn annually by 2035, equivalent to almost 3% of the global GDP.

The report also identifies two groups that are particularly at risk: children and individuals from lower-income countries. Childhood obesity is a growing concern, as the report predicts it could double by 2035. Additionally, lower-income countries face a rapid increase in obesity prevalence, with nine out of 10 countries with the greatest expected increases in obesity coming from low or lower-middle income countries.

Report: World Obesity Atlas 2023

News release: Economic impact of overweight and obesity to surpass $4 trillion by 2035

Commentary: Report: Obesity could cost the world over $4 trillion a year by 2035 – STAT

Global cost of obesity-related illness to hit $1.2tn a year from 2025

Trends and predictions of malnutrition and obesity in 204 countries and territories: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 – eClinicalMedicine

Global inequalities in the double burden of malnutrition and associations with globalization: a multilevel analysis of Demographic and Healthy Surveys from 55 low-income and middle-income countries, 1992–2018.

The Lancet Series: The Double Burden of Malnutrition