Factors influencing verbal intelligence and spoken language in children with phenylketonuria

Objectives: To determine verbal intelligence and spoken language of children with phenylketonuria and to study the effect of age at diagnosis and phenylalanine plasma level on these abilities. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Children with phenylketonuria were recruited from pediatric hospitals in 2012. Normal control subjects were recruited from kindergartens in Tehran. Participants: 30 phenylketonuria and 42 control subjects aged 4- 6.5 years. Skills were compared between 3 phenylketonuria groups categorized by age at diagnosis/treatment, and between the phenylketonuria and control groups. Main outcome measures: Scores on Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence for verbal and total intelligence, and Test of Language Development-Primary, third edition for spoken language, listening, speaking, semantics, syntax, and organization. Results: The performance of control subjects was significantly better than that of early-treated subjects for all composite quotients from Test of Language Development and verbal intelligence (P >0.001). Early-treated subjects scored significantly higher than the two groups of late-treated subjects for spoken language (P =0.01), speaking (P =0.04), syntax (P =0.02), and verbal intelligence (P =0.019). There was a negative correlation between phenylalanine level and verbal intelligence (r= �0.79) in early-treated subjects and between phenylalanine level and spoken language (r= �0.71), organization (r= �0.82) and semantics (r= �0.82) for late-treated subjects diagnosed before the age one year. Conclusion: The study confirmed that diagnosis of newborns and control of blood phenylalanine concentration improves verbal intelligence and spoken language scores in phenylketonuria subjects. © 2015, Indian Academy of Pediatrics

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of Iranian health sciences students regarding hepatitis B and C virus infections: A national survey

Background: The World Health Organization seeks to achieve the goal of viral hepatitis elimination by 2030 and lack of general knowledge about viral hepatitis seems to be a barrier to reaching this goal. This study was designed to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) regarding hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among Iranian health sciences students in 12 Iranian medical sciences universities using a national survey. Methods: This survey was conducted during the second Hepatitis Awareness Campaign, which was held during the Iranian National Hepatitis Week (October 22-28, 2016). Students who visited our booths and were willing to participate in our survey were selected using convenience sampling and their HBV- and HCV-related KAP were evaluated. Results: Two thousand one hundred fifty-six health sciences students with mean age of 21.24 years participated in our survey. The mean KAP scores were 7.35 (out of 10), 4.88 (possible score, -20 to +20), and 5.67 (out of 9). Students with experience of accidental exposures to blood (21.6) had better KAP scores compared with the students without such experiences. The mean KAP scores were associated with subjects' year of education, field of study, university, and province (P < .05). Conclusions: Our study showed that HBV- and HCV-related KAP in a sample of Iranian health sciences students was not satisfying. The results also demonstrated priority of needing intervention regarding KAP in some subject areas, lower years of education, and some universities compared with others. © 2017 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc