Social Disruption and Physical Limitation Related to Quality of Life of Adolescents with Asthma

During adolescence, teenagers experience many physical, emotional, and social changes. Teenagers with chronic conditions, however, may face challenges in normal adolescent development because their illness can impact body image, independence, and peer socialization. Little is known about the effect of asthma on adolescent quality of life (QOL). In this paper, I review the existing literature on social disruption and physical limitations related to asthma and the subsequent impact on adolescent asthma QOL. In addition, adolescent issues leading to poor control of asthma symptoms and interventions to improve asthma QOL for adolescents are addressed

Factors Related to Asthma Quality of Life for U.S. and Icelandic Adolescents

Purpose: Asthma affects 12% of American children and 9% of Icelandic children. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the demographic, personal, interpersonal, and illness factors that affect asthma quality of life for adolescents in the United States and Iceland. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study included adolescents with asthma (N = 30; n = 15 U.S. adolescents; n = 15 Icelandic adolescents), ages 13-17 years, primarily recruited from pediatric practices in central Kentucky and Reykjavik, Iceland. The majority of the sample was Caucasian. U.S. adolescents (47% male; 53% female) had a mean age of 14.6 years (SD = 1.5); Icelandic adolescents (73% male; 27% female) had a mean age of 15.1 years (SD = 1.5). Seven pencil-and-paper questionnaires that measured variables including demographics, depressive symptoms, an asthma questionnaire, degree of asthma limitations, and quality of life were administered to the adolescents. Multiple regressions were used to determine predictors of asthma quality of life. Results: Higher depressive symptoms, a greater degree of social disruption due to asthma, and more frequent limitations of physical activity were predictive of a lower asthma quality of life. Although location (U.S. vs. Iceland) and gender were included in the regression model as controls, they were not significantly related to asthma quality of life. Discussion: Interventions designed to decrease depression, social disruption, and physical activity limitations may improve asthma quality of life for adolescents

State of the California Current Ecosystem report in 2022: a tale of two La Niñas

2022 marked the third consecutive La Niña and extended the longest consecutive stretch of negative Oceanic Niño Index since 1998-2001. While physical and biological conditions in winter and spring largely adhered to prior La Niña conditions, summer and fall were very different. Similar to past La Niña events, in winter and spring coastal upwelling was either average or above average, temperature average or below average, salinity generally above average. In summer and fall, however, upwelling and temperature were generally average or slightly below average, salinity was close to average and chlorophyll a was close to average. Again, as during prior La Niña events, biomass of northern/southern copepods was above/below average off Oregon in winter, and body size of North Pacific krill in northern California was above average in winter. By contrast, later in the year the abundance of northern krill dropped off Oregon while southern copepods increased and body sizes of North Pacific krill fell in northern California. Off Oregon and Washington abundances of market squid and Pacific pompano (indicators of warm, non-typical La Niña conditions) were high. In the 20th century, Northern anchovy recruitment tended to be high during cold conditions, but despite mostly warm conditions from 2015-2021 anchovy populations boomed and remained high in 2022. Resident seabird reproductive success, which tended in the past to increase during productive La Niña conditions was highly variable throughout the system as common murre and pelagic cormorant, experienced complete reproductive failure at Yaquina Head, Oregon while Brandt’s cormorant reproduction was average. At three sampling locations off central California, however, common murre reproduction was close to or above average while both pelagic and Brandt’s cormorant were above average. California sealion reproduction has been above average each year since 2016, and pup weight was also above average in 2022, likely in response not to La Niña or El Niño but continuous high abundance of anchovy. The highly variable and often unpredictable physical and biological conditions in 2022 highlight a growing recognition of disconnects between basin-scale indices and local conditions in the CCE. “July-December 2022 is the biggest outlier from individual “strong” La Niña (events) ever going back to the 50s.” – Nate Mantu