Iron status, body size, and growth in the first 2years of life

Rapid growth in infancy has been shown to adversely affect iron status up to 1 year; however the effect of growth on iron status in the second year of life has been largely unexplored. We aimed to investigate the impact of growth and body size in the first 2 years on iron status at 2 years. In the prospective, maternal‐infant Cork BASELINE Birth Cohort Study, infant weight and length were measured at birth, 2, 6, 12, and 24 months and absolute weight (kg) and length (cm) gain from 0 to 2, 0 to 6, 0 to 12, 6 to 12, 12 to 24, and 0 to 24 months were calculated. At 2 years (n = 704), haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, and serum ferritin (umbilical cord concentrations also) were measured. At 2 years, 5% had iron deficiency (ferritin < 12 μg/L) and 1% had iron deficiency anaemia (haemoglobin < 110 g/L + ferritin < 12 μg/L). Weight gain from 6 to 12, 0 to 24, and 12 to 24 months were all inversely associated with ferritin concentrations at 2 years but only the association with weight gain from 12 to 24 months was robust after adjustment for potential confounders including cord ferritin (adj. estimate 95% CI: −4.40 [−8.43, −0.37] μg/L, p = .033). Length gain from 0 to 24 months was positively associated with haemoglobin at 2 years (0.42 [0.07, 0.76] g/L, p = .019), only prior to further adjustment for cord ferritin. To conclude, weight gain in the second year was inversely associated with iron stores at 2 years, even after accounting for iron status at birth. Further examinations of iron requirements, dietary intakes, and growth patterns in children in the second year of life in high‐resource settings are warranted

Impact of maternal body mass index and gestational weight gain on pregnancy complications : an individual participant data meta-analysis of European, North American and Australian cohorts

Objective To assess the separate and combined associations of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain with the risks of pregnancy complications and their population impact. Design Individual participant data meta-analysis of 39 cohorts. Setting Europe, North America, and Oceania. Population 265 270 births. Methods Information on maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, and pregnancy complications was obtained. Multilevel binary logistic regression models were used. Main outcome measures Gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, small and large for gestational age at birth. Results Higher maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain were, across their full ranges, associated with higher risks of gestational hypertensive disorders, gestational diabetes, and large for gestational age at birth. Preterm birth risk was higher at lower and higher BMI and weight gain. Compared with normal weight mothers with medium gestational weight gain, obese mothers with high gestational weight gain had the highest risk of any pregnancy complication (odds ratio 2.51, 95% CI 2.31- 2.74). We estimated that 23.9% of any pregnancy complication was attributable to maternal overweight/obesity and 31.6% of large for gestational age infants was attributable to excessive gestational weight gain. Conclusions Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain are, across their full ranges, associated with risks of pregnancy complications. Obese mothers with high gestational weight gain are at the highest risk of pregnancy complications. Promoting a healthy pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain may reduce the burden of pregnancy complications and ultimately the risk of maternal and neonatal morbidity.Peer reviewe

Maternal body mass index, gestational weight gain, and the risk of overweight and obesity across childhood : An individual participant data meta-analysis

Background Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain may have persistent effects on offspring fat development. However, it remains unclear whether these effects differ by severity of obesity, and whether these effects are restricted to the extremes of maternal body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain. We aimed to assess the separate and combined associations of maternal BMI and gestational weight gain with the risk of overweight/obesity throughout childhood, and their population impact. Methods and findings We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis of data from 162,129 mothers and their children from 37 pregnancy and birth cohort studies from Europe, North America, and Australia. We assessed the individual and combined associations of maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain, both in clinical categories and across their full ranges, with the risks of overweight/obesity in early (2.0-5.0 years), mid (5.0-10.0 years) and late childhood (10.0-18.0 years), using multilevel binary logistic regression models with a random intercept at cohort level adjusted for maternal sociodemographic and lifestylerelated characteristics. We observed that higher maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain both in clinical categories and across their full ranges were associated with higher risks of childhood overweight/obesity, with the strongest effects in late childhood (odds ratios [ORs] for overweight/obesity in early, mid, and late childhood, respectively: OR 1.66 [95% CI: 1.56, 1.78], OR 1.91 [95% CI: 1.85, 1.98], and OR 2.28 [95% CI: 2.08, 2.50] for maternal overweight; OR 2.43 [95% CI: 2.24, 2.64], OR 3.12 [95% CI: 2.98, 3.27], and OR 4.47 [95% CI: 3.99, 5.23] for maternal obesity; and OR 1.39 [95% CI: 1.30, 1.49], OR 1.55 [95% CI: 1.49, 1.60], and OR 1.72 [95% CI: 1.56, 1.91] for excessive gestational weight gain). The proportions of childhood overweight/obesity prevalence attributable to maternal overweight, maternal obesity, and excessive gestational weight gain ranged from 10.2% to 21.6%. Relative to the effect of maternal BMI, excessive gestational weight gain only slightly increased the risk of childhood overweight/obesity within each clinical BMI category (p-values for interactions of maternal BMI with gestational weight gain: p = 0.038, p <0.001, and p = 0.637 in early, mid, and late childhood, respectively). Limitations of this study include the self-report of maternal BMI and gestational weight gain for some of the cohorts, and the potential of residual confounding. Also, as this study only included participants from Europe, North America, and Australia, results need to be interpreted with caution with respect to other populations. Conclusions In this study, higher maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain were associated with an increased risk of childhood overweight/obesity, with the strongest effects at later ages. The additional effect of gestational weight gain in women who are overweight or obese before pregnancy is small. Given the large population impact, future intervention trials aiming to reduce the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity should focus on maternal weight status before pregnancy, in addition to weight gain during pregnancy.Peer reviewe

The Exhaustion Rule A Constitutional Compass for Distributing Power

Phd about the Exhaustion Rule in EU La

Brexit : The Special Case of Ireland

Les défis posés par le Brexit en Irlande se répartissent en deux grandes catégories. La première, qui est en grande partie mais non exclusivement économique, concerne l'impact sur l'Irlande en tant qu'État membre de l'UE. La seconde concerne les spécificités de la relation entre l'Irlande et le Royaume-Uni, et en particulier le statut et la stabilité de l'Irlande du Nord. Est intrinsèquement lié à ces derniers le ‘Common Travel Area’, qui apporte des avantages politiques et économiques à l'île d'Irlande. Au fur et à mesure que les négociations du Brexit se rapprochent, la tâche peu enviable de l'Irlande est de maintenir, autant que possible, ce statu quo économique et politique tout en respectant ses obligations en tant qu'État membre de l'UE. Le but de ce chapitre est de donner un aperçu de la difficulté résultant de cette mission complexe

The Legislative Priority Rule and the EU Internal Market for Goods : A Constitutional Approach

The process of integrating the internal market for goods is intrinsically bound up with the question of how to divide and exercise public power without undermining free movement. The founding Treaties allow for this debate to play out by both protecting the free movement of goods and allowing for national regulatory input. The EU legislator is also empowered to resolve persisting tensions in this field between diversity and centralization, market integration and market regulation and as regards the question of who decides. As guarantor of the rule of law, the European Court of Justice must pay heed to such legislative input in a manner that preserves both the principle of institutional balance and the hierarchy of norms. To do so, it often relies on the Legislative Priority Rule as its constitutional compass. Founded on the principles of pre-emption and the presumption of constitutionality, this Rule casts exhaustive EU (product) legislation as the Court’s sole norm of reference to resolve regulatory disputes, to the exclusion of Articles 34 – 36 TFEU. To avoid any resulting normative inversion, EU (product) legislation must be acknowledged as accommodating a more complex vertical distribution of power than what is often assumed. To this end, the book suggests replacing harmonization models with a new framework to better describe and assess the impact of EU product legislation and to facilitate transparent and Treaty-compliant dispute resolution

The Precautionary Jurisprudence of the ECJ and WTO

The article tackles the issue of the precautionary jurisprudence of the ECJ and WT

Mobile Talent? The Staying Intentions of International Students in Five EU Countries

The Value Migration project examines the factors influencing the staying intentions of international students. The project consists of a comparative review of the structural characteristics of migration policies and higher education systems, as well as a range of factors, such as the labour market and language, which may influence the propensity of foreign graduates to stay after completing their studies. The derived assumptions were empirically tested using an online survey of international students in five selected EU countries (Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, France, the UK). The research project was carried out by the Research Unit of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration in cooperation with the Migration Policy Group (MPG

L’unité des libertés de circulation - In varietate concordia

Il s'agit d'une recension de l'ouvrage "L’unité des libertés de circulation - In varietate concordia