Health related quality of life of immigrant children: towards a new pattern in Germany?

Background: To study Health related quality of life (HRQoL) of a sample of kindergarten children with migration background. Methods: Five kindergartens in Frankfurt/Main and Darmstadt (Germany) participated. HRQoL was measured with the Kiddy-KINDL (KK) in 3 to 5 year old children. We examined the associations of HRQoL with socio-demographic variables, positive development and resilience, socio-emotional and motor development. Linear regression models were applied to examine differences in HRQoL between migrant and native-born German children. Results: The response rate was 90.5% (N = 283). The children had predominantly migrant background (81.35%). Perceived health was slightly higher in migrants (69.85, SD 17.00) compared to native-born German children (68.33, SD 17.31, p > 0.05), even though migrant children were characterized by a lower socio-economic status (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Results suggest that HRQoL at early ages in our study exhibits a different pattern than reported previously in studies among older individuals. We attribute the discrepancy partly to a possible changing pattern of migration in Europe with more migrants capable to migrate with healthy profiles, and to the age of our population. Our findings underscore the need to study the life course trajectory of HRQoL among young immigrants and replication in representative samples

Pediatric Health-Related Quality of Life:A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Objectives: One of the most referenced theoretical frameworks to measure Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is the Wilson and Cleary framework. With some adaptions this framework has been validated in the adult population, but has not been tested in pediatric populations. Our goal was to empirically investigate it in children.Methods: The contributory factors to Health Related Quality of Life that we included were symptom status (presence of chronic disease or hospitalizations), functional status (developmental status), developmental aspects of the individual (social-emotional) behavior, and characteristics of the social environment (socioeconomic status and area of education). Structural equation modeling was used to assess the measurement structure of the model in 214 German children (3-5 years old) participating in a follow-up study that investigates pediatric health outcomes.Results: Model fit was chi(2) = 5.5; df = 6; p = 0.48; SRMR = 0.01. The variance explained of Health Related Quality of Life was 15%. Health Related Quality of Life was affected by the area education (i.e. where kindergartens were located) and development status. Developmental status was affected by the area of education, socioeconomic status and individual behavior. Symptoms did not affect the model.Conclusions: The goodness of fit and the overall variance explained were good. However, the results between children' and adults' tests differed and denote a conceptual gap between adult and children measures. Indeed, there is a lot of variety in pediatric Health Related Quality of Life measures, which represents a lack of a common definition of pediatric Health Related Quality of Life. We recommend that researchers invest time in the development of pediatric Health Related Quality of Life theory and theory based evaluations.</p

The association between active participation in a sports club, physical activity and social network on the development of lung cancer in smokers: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study analyses the effect of active participation in a sports club, physical activity and social networks on the development of lung cancer in patients who smoke. Our hypothesis is that study participants who lack social networks and do not actively participate in a sports club are at a greater risk for lung cancer than those who do.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data for the study were taken from the <b>Co</b>logne <b>Smo</b>king <b>S</b>tudy (<b>CoSmoS</b>), a retrospective case-control study examining potential psychosocial risk factors for the development of lung cancer. Our sample consisted of n = 158 participants who had suffered lung cancer (diagnosis in the patient document) and n = 144 control group participants. Both groups had a history of smoking.</p> <p>Data on social networks were collected by asking participants whether they participated in a sports club and about the number of friends and relatives in their social environment. In addition, sociodemographic data (gender, age, education, marital status, residence and religion), physical activity and data on pack years (the cumulative number of cigarettes smoked by an individual, calculated by multiplying the number of cigarettes smoked per day by the number of years the person has smoked divided by 20) were collected to control for potential confounders. Logistic regression was used for the statistical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results reveal that participants who are physically active are at a lower risk of lung cancer than those who are not (adjusted OR = 0.53*; CI = 0.29-0.97). Older age and lower education seem also to be risk factors for the development of lung cancer. The extent of smoking, furthermore, measured by pack years is statistically significant. Active participation in a sports club, number of friends and relatives had no statistically significant influence on the development of the cancer.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of the study suggest that there is a lower risk for physically active participants to develop lung cancer. In the study sample, physical activity seemed to have a greater protective effect than participation in a sports club or social network of friends and relatives. Further studies have to investigate in more detail physical activity and other club participations.</p

Inhibition of Plk1 and Cyclin B1 expression results in panobinostat-induced G(2) delay and mitotic defects

Work by JP is funded by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship award. Experiments carried out by MBP were supported by the Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine / Montefiore Medical Center.The development of clinically useful histone deacetylase inhibitors has expanded greatly. In a preclinical study, we showed that panobinostat (LBH589) inhibits cell cycle progression of human head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines at G(2)/M and an associated decrease in expression of particular genes required for passage through G(2) and mitosis. In this study we sought to analyse the mechanistic underpinnings of panobinostat-induced growth arrest. HNSCC cell lines were synchronised and progression through mitosis monitored. We demonstrate that panobinostat causes a marked G(2) delay and mitotic defects. A loss of G(2)-specific Plk1 and Cyclin B1 expression and co-incident increase in p21(Waf1/Cip1) expression is also shown. Furthermore, we show a significant loss of E2F1 recruitment to the promoters of these genes in response to panobinostat treatment. These data provide mechanistic evidence of panobinostat-induced cell cycle arrest and highlight its potential as a chemotherapeutic agent for HNSCC.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Longitudinal changes in health related quality of life in children with migrant backgrounds

Background: Little is known about longitudinal changes in the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among children with migrant backgrounds. Methods: The sample comprised 350 children with predominantly migrant backgrounds enrolled in 7 kindergartens in Frankfurt and Darmstadt, Germany. At baseline, the participants’ mean age was 4.4 years (SD 0.9). Data collection started in May 2009. Two waves of data were collected one year apart (94% response rate). HRQoL was evaluated with the Kiddy-KINDL. The other variables under study were sex, age, socioeconomic status, country of origin, developmental status (WET) and individual behavior (VBV). Data were collected from the children, parents and teachers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess the Wilson and Cleary theoretical framework on changes in HRQoL and Generalized Estimated Equations (GEE) to model the longitudinal trend in HRQoL. Results: Overall HRQoL remained stable between baseline and follow-up. SEM model fit was χ2 = 8.51; df = 5; p = 0.13; SRMR = 0.02 RMSEA = 0.06 and indicated that there were differences in kindergarten activities (p<0.05). The GEE model elucidated that the differences in HRQoL between the baseline and follow-up varied according to kindergarten activities that the children were assigned to (music, art, or no activities) (p<0.05), but that there were no differences in terms of country of origin. On average, girls reported better HRQoL. Conclusion: Overall HRQoL scores remained stable over follow-up in a sample of migrant children and there were no differences in terms of origin. However, there was heterogeneity in the results depending on the kindergarten activities that the children were assigned to

HRQoL at baseline and follow-up by the study variables.

<p>HRQoL at baseline and follow-up by the study variables.</p

Descriptive statistics of the participants.

<p>Descriptive statistics of the participants.</p