Behaviour and accidents in young children and adolescents

The Mater-University Study of Pregnancy recruited a cohort of 8,458 Brisbane women during pregnancy. Subsequent follow-ups of mother and child occurred a few days, 6 months, 5 years and 14 years after birth, with the collection of a wide range of biological, sociological and behavioural information as well as measures of mental and physical health. In anticipation of a further cohort follow-up (funded by CARRS-Q) aimed specifically at examining risk-taking behaviour and road crashes in young drivers, the present paper examines the relationship between child and adolescent behaviour and the occurrence of accidents. This indicates that children with behaviour problems, particularly social and attentional disorders at age 5 years are nearly twice as likely to have had an accident in the past three months. While there is some evidence of continuity of accident occurrence (27% of children whose mother’s reported an accident at age 5 years also were also reported to have had an accident requiring medical attention in the last year) this association was weak. Behaviour problems, as measured by the Child Services, police or Juvenile Aid Bureau at age 14 also predict accident occurrence at age 14. ‘Binge drinking’ (consumption of seven or more alcoholic drinks at a time), while rare in this sample (2%) was associated with a doubling of accident risk. The next phase of MUSP will involve administering a questionnaire focused on risk taking behaviour to adolescents, followed up by later record linkage to accident reports and medical records to obtain end-points of road crashes and accident morbidity

The Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia : design, results and future prospects

The impact of many unfavorable childhood traits or diseases, such as low birth weight and mental disorders, is not limited to childhood and adolescence, as they are also associated with poor outcomes in adulthood, such as cardiovascular disease. Insight into the genetic etiology of childhood and adolescent traits and disorders may therefore provide new perspectives, not only on how to improve wellbeing during childhood, but also how to prevent later adverse outcomes. To achieve the sample sizes required for genetic research, the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) and EArly Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) consortia were established. The majority of the participating cohorts are longitudinal population-based samples, but other cohorts with data on early childhood phenotypes are also involved. Cohorts often have a broad focus and collect(ed) data on various somatic and psychiatric traits as well as environmental factors. Genetic variants have been successfully identified for multiple traits, for example, birth weight, atopic dermatitis, childhood BMI, allergic sensitization, and pubertal growth. Furthermore, the results have shown that genetic factors also partly underlie the association with adult traits. As sample sizes are still increasing, it is expected that future analyses will identify additional variants. This, in combination with the development of innovative statistical methods, will provide detailed insight on the mechanisms underlying the transition from childhood to adult disorders. Both consortia welcome new collaborations. Policies and contact details are available from the corresponding authors of this manuscript and/or the consortium websites.Peer reviewe

Genetic association study of childhood aggression across raters, instruments, and age

Childhood aggressive behavior (AGG) has a substantial heritability of around 50%. Here we present a genome-wide association metaanalysis (GWAMA) of childhood AGG, in which all phenotype measures across childhood ages from multiple assessors were included. We analyzed phenotype assessments for a total of 328 935 observations from 87 485 children aged between 1.5 and 18 years, while accounting for sample overlap. We also meta-analyzed within subsets of the data, i.e., within rater, instrument and age. SNP-heritability for the overall meta-analysis AGGoverall was 3.31% (SE= 0.0038). We found no genome-wide significant SNPs for AGGoverall. The gene-based analysis returned three significant genes: ST3GAL3 (P= 1.6E-06), PCDH7 (P= 2.0E-06), and IPO13 (P= 2.5E-06). All three genes have previously been associated with educational traits. Polygenic scores based on our GWAMA significantly predicted aggression in a holdout sample of children (variance explained = 0.44%) and in retrospectively assessed childhood aggression (variance explained = 0.20%). Genetic correlations rg among rater-specific assessment of AGG ranged from rg= 0.46 between self- and teacher-assessment to rg= 0.81 between mother- and teacher-assessment. We obtained moderate-to-strong rgs with selected phenotypes from multiple domains, but hardly with any of the classical biomarkers thought to be associated with AGG. Significant genetic correlations were observed with most psychiatric and psychological traits (range |rg|: 0.19-1.00), except for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aggression had a negative genetic correlation (rg=∼-0.5) with cognitive traits and age at first birth. Aggression was strongly genetically correlated with smoking phenotypes (range |rg| : 0.46-0.60). The genetic correlations between aggression and psychiatric disorders were weaker for teacher-reported AGG than for mother- and self-reported AGG. The current GWAMA of childhood aggression provides a powerful tool to interrogate the rater-specific genetic etiology of AGG.</p

To the Editor reply to Stanley and Kovacs re: Is child sexual abuse declining? Evidence from a population-based survey of men and women in Australia

We agree with Janet Stanley and Katie Kovacs that the findings of this study are not definitive. The trends should be interpreted cautiously until they can be replicated. This is true of all survey research, especially when the focus is on sensitive social problems…

Predicting the job satisfaction of female sex workers in Queensland, Australia

This study used a cross-sectional survey to examine job satisfaction and its correlates among 247 female sex workers working as private service providers, in licensed brothels and in illegal sectors of the industry (mainly street-based workers). Overall, most sex workers reported positive job satisfaction. Satisfaction was higher in women working legally and was generally comparable with women from the general population. Multivariate analyses revealed that job satisfaction was significantly linked to women’s reasons for initially entering the industry. Sex workers’ age, education, marital status, length of time in the industry and current working conditions were apparently less important for satisfaction

Sexually transmissible infections among sex workers and their clients: Variation in prevalence between sectors of the industry

Objectives - The risk of sexually transmissible infection (STI) among sex workers and their clients may be higher than the general population. However, many studies have categorised workers or clients into homogenous groups for the purposes of analysis. The aim of the present study was to assess variations in self-reported STI rates among licenced brothel, private and illegal sex workers and their clients. Methods - In 2003, self-report data were collected from female sex workers and their male commercial clients residing in the state of Queensland, Australia. Overall, 247 sex workers (aged 19–57 years) and 185 of their respective clients (aged between 19 and 72 years) completed anonymous questionnaires. Results - There was little variation in self-reported lifetime STI prevalence of licenced brothel, private and illegal (predominantly street-based) sex workers, although licenced brothel workers were less likely to report ever being diagnosed with gonorrhoea or pubic lice in the past (P = 0.035 and 0.004 respectively). In contrast, clients accessing illegal services reported higher lifetime STI (36.0%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 20.2–55.6) than men recruited through private sex workers (20.0%, 95% CI 11.4–32.5) and clients from licenced brothels (7.6%, 95% CI 3.7–14.5). Conclusions - This study found high self-reported lifetime prevalence of infection among sex workers and their clients. It is notable, however, that lower STI rates were reported by clients and sex workers from licenced brothels. This would suggest that risk of infection is not equivalent across industry sectors and highlights some of the inherent risks associated with generalisation across the sex industry

The health of female sex workers from three industry sectors in Queensland, Australia

Previous studies have reported poor mental health amongst sex workers without distinguishing the context in which commercial sex is provided. This study describes the self-reported mental and physical health of female sex workers in three industry sectors in Queensland, Australia. In 2003, cross-sectional convenience sampling was used to collect data from 247 female sex workers working in licensed brothels (n = 102), as private sole operators (n = 103) and illegally (n = 42). The average age was 32 years (range 18–57), with most participants being born either in Australia or New Zealand. Overall, there were few differences in the physical health of women from different industry sectors. Illegal (and predominantly street-based) sex workers were four times more likely to report poor mental health with some of this difference attributable to the particular social background of this group. Much of the increased levels of poor mental health among illegal sex workers were associated with more negative experiences before, and subsequent to entering the sex industry. These patterns were not seen among women from the legal industry sectors. This research suggests that illegal, street-based sex workers, from whom many previous results have been derived, may show patterns of disadvantage, and health outcomes not seen in sex workers from other industry sectors