Parental psychological distress associated with COVID-19 outbreak: A large-scale multicenter survey from Turkey

Aims: Pandemics can cause substantial psychological distress; however, we do not know the impact of the COVID-19 related lockdown and mental health burden on the parents of school age children. We aimed to comparatively examine the COVID-19 related the stress and psychological burden of the parents with different occupational, locational, and mental health status related backgrounds. Methods: A large-scale multicenter online survey was completed by the parents (n = 3,278) of children aged 6 to 18 years, parents with different occupational (health care workers—HCW [18.2%] vs. others), geographical (İstanbul [38.2%] vs. others), and psychiatric (child with a mental disorder [37.8%]) backgrounds. Results: Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that being a HCW parent (odds ratio 1.79, p <.001), a mother (odds ratio 1.67, p <.001), and a younger parent (odds ratio 0.98, p =.012); living with an adult with a chronic physical illness (odds ratio 1.38, p <.001), having an acquaintance diagnosed with COVID-19 (odds ratio 1.22, p =.043), positive psychiatric history (odds ratio 1.29, p <.001), and living with a child with moderate or high emotional distress (odds ratio 1.29, p <.001; vs. odds ratio 2.61, p <.001) were independently associated with significant parental distress. Conclusions: Parents report significant psychological distress associated with COVID-19 pandemic and further research is needed to investigate its wider impact including on the whole family unit. © The Author(s) 2020

The frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease in children with isolated transaminase elevation: results from the observational VICTORIA study

IntroductionElevated transaminases and/or creatine phosphokinase can indicate underlying muscle disease. Therefore, this study aims to determine the frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) in male children and Pompe disease (PD) in male and female children with isolated hypertransaminasemia.MethodsThis multi-center, prospective study enrolled patients aged 3–216 months with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and/or aspartate transaminase (AST) levels &gt;2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) for ≥3 months. Patients with a known history of liver or muscle disease or physical examination findings suggestive of liver disease were excluded. Patients were screened for creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels, and molecular genetic tests for DMD/BMD in male patients and enzyme analysis for PD in male and female patients with elevated CPK levels were performed. Genetic analyses confirmed PD. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the patients were analyzed.ResultsOverall, 589 patients [66.8% male, mean age of 63.4 months (standard deviation: 60.5)] were included. In total, 251 patients (188 male and 63 female) had CPK levels above the ULN. Of the patients assessed, 47% (85/182) of male patients were diagnosed with DMD/BMD and 1% (3/228) of male and female patients were diagnosed with PD. The median ALT, AST, and CPK levels were statistically significantly higher, and the questioned neurological symptoms and previously unnoticed examination findings were more common in DMD/BMD patients than those without DMD/BMD or PD (p &lt; 0.001).DiscussionQuestioning neurological symptoms, conducting a complete physical examination, and testing for CPK levels in patients with isolated hypertransaminasemia will prevent costly and time-consuming investigations for liver diseases and will lead to the diagnosis of occult neuromuscular diseases. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04120168

Assessment of the applications to Kocaeli derince research and education hospital in 2012 and 2013 to obtain disabled children’s health board report

In this study, it is aimed to determine the neurodevelopmental disorders of children and adolescents applied to health committee for the disability, in a definite period. Cases of 0-18 aged 1512 children and adolescents who applied to health committee of our hospital between January 2012-December 2013 were analysed retrospectively. The study included cases whose 37.6% (569) were female and 62.4% (943) were male. The mean age was 7.66±3.8. 36.3% (549) of the cases were in the range of 0-6 years of age, 63.7% (963) of the cases were in the range of 7-18 years of age. The most common diagnoses were developmental delays in the range of 0-6 years of age and intellectual disability in the range of 7-18 years of age. Results of such studies investigating the applications will contribute to the statistical data of disabled population in our country, and will faciliate the organisation of social and educational rights of disabled children and adolescents applied to the health committees. Copyright © 2014 OMU