Hydration Biomarkers and Water Intake in 3-13 year-old boys

Background/Introduction: Hydration is an important aspect of health in children. Despite being important, limited information is available regarding children’s water intake and hydration. Interestingly, most studies assess hydration status based on a single random urine sample instead of a 24-h one. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of dehydration and water intake in boys 3 to 13 years-old. Methods: Forty-six healthy boys were recruited for the study. Each subject recorded food and fluid intake in a diary on a Saturday and Sunday. They also collected their 24-h urine on Sunday. The 24-h sample was analyzed for urine volume, osmolality (freezing point depression), color (8 color scale) and urine specific gravity (refractometry). The nutrition data system for research software was used to calculate water intake from food from diaries. Water intake data were presented as the average of Saturday and Sunday. Physical activity was estimated via the international physical activity questionnaire and data are presented as total MET-min per week. Mean values between groups were compared by student’s t-test. Data were analyzed with JMP statistical analysis software. Results: Eighteen of the 46 boys (39%) were dehydrated (urine osmolality \u3e800 mOsm/kg) and 29 of them (63%) did not meet the Institute of Medicine’s dietary guidelines for daily water intake. The 24-h urine osmolality for euhydrated and dehydrated boys was 530±150 and 967±140 mOsm/kg (P\u3c0.05), respectively. Physical activity was not different between dehydrated (5,506±4,941 MET-min/wk) and euhydrated boys (4,575±4,338 MET-min/week; P\u3e0.05). Dehydrated boys had lower total water intake (1,661±759 mL) than euhydrated ones (1,937±1,661 mL). Conclusion: These preliminary data suggests that the majority of 3-13 year-old boys fail to meet the water intake recommendations and 4 out of 10 are hypohydrated. More data are needed to examine the factors that influence these observations

Changes in the distribution of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in urban areas in Great Britain: findings and limitations of a media-driven nationwide survey

Urbanization is one of the major forms of habitat alteration occurring at the present time. Although this is typically deleterious to biodiversity, some species flourish within these human-modified landscapes, potentially leading to negative and/or positive interactions between people and wildlife. Hence, up-to-date assessment of urban wildlife populations is important for developing appropriate management strategies. Surveying urban wildlife is limited by land partition and private ownership, rendering many common survey techniques difficult. Garnering public involvement is one solution, but this method is constrained by the inherent biases of non-standardised survey effort associated with voluntary participation. We used a television-led media approach to solicit national participation in an online sightings survey to investigate changes in the distribution of urban foxes in Great Britain and to explore relationships between urban features and fox occurrence and sightings density. Our results show that media-based approaches can generate a large national database on the current distribution of a recognisable species. Fox distribution in England and Wales has changed markedly within the last 25 years, with sightings submitted from 91% of urban areas previously predicted to support few or no foxes. Data were highly skewed with 90% of urban areas having <30 fox sightings per 1000 people km-2. The extent of total urban area was the only variable with a significant impact on both fox occurrence and sightings density in urban areas; longitude and percentage of public green urban space were respectively, significantly positively and negatively associated with sightings density only. Latitude, and distance to nearest neighbouring conurbation had no impact on either occurrence or sightings density. Given the limitations associated with this method, further investigations are needed to determine the association between sightings density and actual fox density, and variability of fox density within and between urban areas in Britain

It’s how I am . . . it’s what I am . . . it’s a part of who I am: A narrative exploration of the impact of adolescent-onset chronic illness on identity formation in young people

In Western society, identity formation is argued to be one of the key developmental tasks of adolescence. Despite implications for adolescent development, research into chronic illness (CI) onset during this period has been notably sparse. This study aimed to explore how diagnosis impacts on the developmental tasks of adolescence, what role adolescent-onset CI plays in identity formation, and how adolescents incorporate the diagnosis into their identity using a narrative analysis. Individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight young people aged 14 to 19years who lived with a diagnosis of a CI diagnosed between the ages of 12 and 16 years. Five core narrative themes emerged: walking a different path, tolerating contradiction, a changed interface with others, locating power and a fluid relationship. Narratives were considered to have been influenced by factors such as the interview context and dominant social narratives concerning health and illness. Adolescent-onset CI was found to have a significant, though not exclusively negative, impact on developmental tasks. The findings are discussed in relation to existing literature and potential clinical implications

Publisher Correction: Whole-genome sequencing of a sporadic primary immunodeficiency cohort (Nature, (2020), 583, 7814, (90-95), 10.1038/s41586-020-2265-1)

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper