Using genetic data from more than 340,000 participants of European descent, research has identified five genetic variants that make people more susceptible to myopia in combination with intensive schooling, especially university studies. The results are published in PLOS Genetics.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open examines whether there is an association between newborn exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and impaired neurodevelopment compared to those born before the pandemic. Neurodevelopment in the first year of life was not modified by being born or growing up during the covid-19 pandemic or by gestational exposure to SARS-CoV-2. However, the authors appreciated that, regardless of whether maternal infection was present, the pandemic was associated with a risk of delayed communication in these infants.
A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health shows that 98% of a cohort of trans adolescents in the Netherlands who started hormone treatment before adolescence continued to do so years later.
Researchers have analysed the presence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in 72 textile products purchased online in the US and Canada in 2020 and 2021. The results, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, show high concentrations in school uniforms and higher concentrations in 100 % cotton as opposed to synthetics.
In the coming days, our children and young people will return to their schools. In addition to their education, schools offer the possibility to improve and maintain their health also through healthy and sustainable nutrition. This is one of the current challenges in Europe; a much more complex challenge than it may seem.
Using data from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey, researchers show that children and adolescents (aged 4-14 years) who skip breakfast or eat it away from home are more likely to have psychosocial behavioural problems. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
Research published in PNAS shows how, in a sample of more than 1,600 racially diverse (black and white) parents in the United States, freedom of school choice, regardless of the presence of students of other ethnicities, also increases segregation. The authors attribute this to different preferences between black parents, who favour higher school ratings, and white parents, who prefer proximity to the school.
Analysis of 45 commonly used chemicals in more than 1,000 pregnant women in six countries, including Spain, finds a link between increased exposure to these compounds and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. It is the first comprehensive study of prenatal exposure to these chemicals in combination, as they occur in real life.
A metagenomic comparison of the infant gut microbiome of industrialised and non-industrialised populations reveals robust differences that researchers say are lifestyle-dependent. The research involved samples from infants of Hadza, a group of modern hunter-gatherers living in Tanzania, and is published in the journal Science.
In recent weeks, several countries have detected unusually severe cases of hepatitis of unknown origin in healthy children. Some of the patients have required transplantation and at least one of them has died. Researchers are working on several hypotheses around an adenovirus, but the matter is still shrouded in uncertainty.