Behavior problems and prevalence of asthma symptoms among Brazilian children.

OBJECTIVE: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in childhood and has been designated a public health problem due to the increase in its prevalence in recent decades, the amount of health service expenditure it absorbs and an absence of consensus about its etiology. The relationships among psychosocial factors and the occurrence, symptomatology, and severity of asthma have recently been considered. There is still controversy about the association between asthma and a child's mental health, since the pathways through which this relationship is established are complex and not well researched. This study aims to investigate whether behavior problems are associated with the prevalence of asthma symptoms in a large urban center in Latin America. METHODS: It is a cross-section study of 869 children between 6 and 12 years old, residents of Salvador, Brazil. The International Study of Allergy and Asthma in Childhood (ISAAC) instrument was used to evaluate prevalence of asthma symptoms. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was employed to evaluate behavioral problems. RESULTS: 19.26% (n=212) of the children presented symptoms of asthma. 35% were classified as having clinical behavioral problems. Poisson's robust regression model demonstrated a statistically significant association between the presence of behavioral problems and asthma symptoms occurrence (PR: 1.43; 95% CI: 1.10-1.85). CONCLUSION: These results suggest an association between behavioral problems and pediatric asthma, and support the inclusion of mental health care in the provision of services for asthma morbidity

Sleep characteristics across the lifespan in 1.1 million people from the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States: a systematic review and meta-analysis

How long does the average person sleep? Here, Kocevska et al. conducted a meta-analysis including over 1.1 million people to produce age- and sex-specific population reference charts for sleep duration and efficiency.We aimed to obtain reliable reference charts for sleep duration, estimate the prevalence of sleep complaints across the lifespan and identify risk indicators of poor sleep. Studies were identified through systematic literature search in Embase, Medline and Web of Science (9 August 2019) and through personal contacts. Eligible studies had to be published between 2000 and 2017 with data on sleep assessed with questionnaires including >= 100 participants from the general population. We assembled individual participant data from 200,358 people (aged 1-100 years, 55% female) from 36 studies from the Netherlands, 471,759 people (40-69 years, 55.5% female) from the United Kingdom and 409,617 people (>= 18 years, 55.8% female) from the United States. One in four people slept less than age-specific recommendations, but only 5.8% slept outside of the 'acceptable' sleep duration. Among teenagers, 51.5% reported total sleep times (TST) of less than the recommended 8-10 h and 18% report daytime sleepiness. In adults (>= 18 years), poor sleep quality (13.3%) and insomnia symptoms (9.6-19.4%) were more prevalent than short sleep duration (6.5% with TST = 9 h in bed, whereas poor sleep quality was more frequent in those spending = 41 years) reported sleeping shorter times or slightly less efficiently than men, whereas with actigraphy they were estimated to sleep longer and more efficiently than man. This study provides age- and sex-specific population reference charts for sleep duration and efficiency which can help guide personalized advice on sleep length and preventive practices.Pathophysiology, epidemiology and therapy of agein

The influence of maternal vulnerability and parenting stress on chronic pain in adolescents in a general population sample: The TRAILS study

Investigating possible psychosocial predictors of unexplained chronic pain in adolescents is crucial in understanding its development and prevention. A general population sample of adolescents (n=2230) from the TRAILS cohort study was investigated longitudinally to assess the influence of maternal vulnerability, in terms of anxiety, depression and stress, and parenting stress at age 10-12years, on the presence of chronic pain at age 12-15years. Of these adolescents, 269 (12.9%) reported experiencing chronic pain, of which 77% reported severe chronic pain and 22% reported multiple chronic pain. Maternal anxiety, maternal stress and higher levels of parenting stress were related to chronic pain at a later age. Subgroup analyses showed similar results for adolescents with severe chronic pain. Mediation analyses indicated that parenting stress mediates the effect between maternal anxiety, or stress, and chronic pain. The findings suggest that interventions to diminish maternal feelings of anxiety and stress, while in turn adjusting maternal behaviour, may prevent the development of chronic pain in adolescence

Healthcare Costs, School Performance, and Health-related Quality of Life in Adolescence Following Psychotic Experiences in Preadolescence: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Psychotic experiences (PEs) are common in the general population in preadolescence. The implications of PEs on socioeconomic outcomes, including educational attainment, are scarcely described. We aimed to estimate how preadolescent PEs were associated with later healthcare costs, school performance, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adolescence. A total of 1607 preadolescents from the general population Copenhagen Child Cohort 2000 were assessed for PEs at age 11-12 years and followed up over 5 years using register-based data on mental and somatic healthcare costs, and school performance at age 16. Furthermore, HRQoL was assessed for a subsample of the children at age 16-17. We adjusted for perinatal and family sociodemographic adversities, prior parental mental illness and healthcare use, child IQ-estimate at age 11-12, and parent-rated general psychopathology of their child. PEs were associated with slightly poorer school performance. However, preadolescents with PEs more often reported HRQoL within the lowest 10th percentile (OR = 2.74 [95% CI 1.71-4.37]). Preadolescents who reported PEs had higher average total healthcare costs over the following 5 years. The costs for individuals with PEs were higher for mental healthcare services across primary to tertiary care, but not for somatic care. After adjustments, PEs remained independently associated with higher costs and poorer HRQoL, but not with poorer school performance. In conclusion, PEs are important in mental health screening of preadolescents and identify a group of young people with increased healthcare service-use throughout adolescence and who report poorer HRQoL in adolescence, over and above parent-rated general psychopathology of their child

Cornell Chronicle Vol. 17, No. 22 (February 20, 1986)

The Cornell Chronicle, a weekly news publication of Cornell University

Careful stoichiometry monitoring and doping control during the tunneling interface growth of an n + InAs(Si)/p + GaSb(Si) Esaki diode

In this work, we report on the growth of pseudomorphic and highly doped InAs(Si)/GaSb(Si) heterostructures on p-type (0 0 1)-oriented GaSb substrate and the fabrication and characterization of n+/p+ Esaki tunneling diodes. We particularly study the influence of the Molecular Beam Epitaxy shutter sequences on the structural and electrical characteristics of InAs(Si)/GaSb(Si) Esaki diodes structures. We use real time Reflection High Electron Diffraction analysis to monitor different interface stoichiometry at the tunneling interface. With Atomic Force Microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscopy analyses, we demonstrate that an “InSb-like” interface leads to a sharp and defect-free interface exhibiting high quality InAs(Si) crystal growth contrary to the “GaAs-like” one. We then prove by means of Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy profiles that Si-diffusion at the interface allows the growth of highly Si-doped InAs/GaSb diodes without any III-V material deterioration. Finally, simulations are conducted to explain our electrical results where a high Band to Band Tunneling (BTBT) peak current density of Jp = 8 mA/μm2 is achieved