Additional file 3 of Incidence and prevalence of neurofibromatosis type 1 and 2: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Supplementary Material

Additional file 2 of Incidence and prevalence of neurofibromatosis type 1 and 2: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Supplementary Material

Additional file 1 of Incidence and prevalence of neurofibromatosis type 1 and 2: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Supplementary Material

Evaluating the accuracy of a geographic closed-ended approach to ethnicity measurement, a practical alternative

Purpose: Measuring ethnicity accurately is important for identifying ethnicity variations in disease risk. We evaluated the degree of agreement and accuracy of maternal ethnicity measured using the new standardized closed-ended geographically based ethnicity question and geographic reclassification of open-ended ethnicity questions from the Canadian census.  Methods: A prospectively designed study of respondent agreement of mothers of healthy children age 1-5 years recruited through the TARGet Kids! practice based research network. For the primary analysis, the degree of agreement between geographic reclassification of the Canadian census maternal ethnicity variables and the new geographically based closed-ended maternal ethnicity variable completed by the same respondent was evaluated using a kappa analysis.  Results: 862 mothers who completed both measures of ethnicity were included in the analysis. The kappa agreement statistic for the two definitions of maternal ethnicity was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.84-0.90) indicating good agreement. Overall accuracy of the measurement was 93%. Sensitivity and specificity ranged from 83-100% and 96-100% respectively.  Conclusion: The new standardized closed-ended geographically based ethnicity question represents a practical alternative to widely used open-ended ethnicity questions. It may reduce risk of misinterpretation of ethnicity by respondents, simplify analysis and improve the accuracy of ethnicity measurement.</p

Children’s screen use and school readiness at 4-6 years: prospective cohort study

Background The primary aim of this study was to determine if screen use in early childhood is associated with overall vulnerability in school readiness at ages 4 to 6 years, as measured by the Early Development Instrument (EDI). Secondary aims were to: (1) determine if screen use was associated with individual EDI domains scores, and (2) examine the association between screen use and EDI domains scores among a subgroup of high screen users. Methods This prospective cohort study was carried out using data from young children participating in a large primary care practice-based research network in Canada. Logistic regression analyses were run to investigate the association between screen use and overall vulnerability in school readiness. Separate linear regression models examined the relationships between children’s daily screen use and each separate continuous EDI domain. Results A total of 876 Canadian participants participated in this study. Adjusted logistic regression revealed an association between increased screen use and increased vulnerability in school readiness (p = 0.05). Results from adjusted linear regression demonstrated an association between higher screen use and reduced language and cognitive development domain scores (p = 0.004). Among high screen users, adjusted linear regression models revealed associations between increased screen use and reduced language and cognitive development (p = 0.004) and communication skills and general knowledge domain scores (p = 0.042). Conclusions Screen use in early childhood is associated with increased vulnerability in developmental readiness for school, with increased risk for poorer language and cognitive development in kindergarten, especially among high users.</p