Ms. Hester is Content Specialist with Contemporary OB/GYN and Contemporary Pediatrics.

Miranda Hester

Much focus has been given to a mother’s life and health before and during pregnancy and the impact that may have on her offspring, but only in recent years has it become clear that the same factors from fathers also have an impact on their child’s development. A report in 

 examines whether a link exists between a father’s early life stress exposure and his newborn offspring’s brain development.

Researchers use participants from the prospective 2-generation FinnBrain Birth Cohort, which collected data from 2011 to 2015. The mothers and fathers were recruited at gestation week 12 from maternity clinics all over Finland. Information on parental early life stress was found using the Trauma and Distress Scale, which covers 5 different areas: emotional neglect, emotional abuse, physical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. They calculated cumulative exposure for all parents until age 18 years. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to look at the brain development and imaging occurred during the child’s natural sleep cycle.

The investigators looked at 72 trios of infant, mother, and father. At delivery, the average age of the father was 31.0 years and 30.3 years for mothers. Forty-one of the infants were boys. They found that increasing levels of a father’s early life stress was linked with higher fractional anisotropy values in the newborn brain in the right superior corona radiata, retrolenticular parts of the internal capsule, and the body of the corpus callosum. This link persisted even after controlling for the mother’s early life stress, maternal body mass index, maternal socioeconomic status, child sex, child age from birth as well as gestation corrected age when imaged, and maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy. The link between fractional anisotropy values and the Trauma and Distress Scale sum scores were statistically significant in the regions of the brain that mature earliest eg, the genu of the corpus callosum (in the regression models, β = 0.00096; 95% CI, 0.00034-0.00158; 

 = .003) and the splenium (β = 0.00090; 95% CI, 0.00000-0.00180; 

The researchers concluded that there was a statistically significant link between a father’s early life stress and his offspring’s brain development. It adds yet more evidence that both parents’ live before conception can have an impact of their child.

1. Karlsson H, Merisaari H, Karlsson L et al. Association of cumulative paternal early life stress with white matter maturation in newborns. 

. 2020;3(11):e2024832. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.24832


Articles

It’s been long understood that a mother’s health and life before pregnancy can have an impact on her offspring’s development. An investigation offers some insight into how a father’s early life stress can alter his offspring’s brain development.

Can a father’s past stressors impact his child’s brain development?

When it comes to a child’s diet, there are many factors that can determine what it consists of and whether it’s healthful, such as what their peers are eating, diets in the household, and even pop culture. Advertising of foods deemed unhealthy have been restricted, particularly for children, in a number of countries, but depiction of food in movies is not regulated. An 

 looked at the nutrition shown in films and whether those food choices meet federal nutrition recommendations.

Researchers looked at the foods and beverages that were found in the 250 top-grossing movies in the United States from 1994 to 2018. The United Kingdom’s traffic light guidelines were used to determine nutrition ratings of food and beverages. In the guidelines, foods that are high in fats, sugars, and salt are given a red label; foods with medium levels are given an amber label; and foods with low levels are given a green label. They then compared the nutrition content of a film to the US Food and Drug Administration’s recommended daily levels of nutritional intake as well as the actual consumption reported through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015-2016. They also looked at the number of branded versus nonbranded items and whether this changed over time.

In the 250 movies studied, there were 9198 foods and 5748 beverages. Snacks and sweets, 2173 items, and alcoholic beverages, 2303 items, were the most commonly seen food and beverages in the movies. Alcohol alone made up 18.1% of beverages seen in G-rated movies, 27.0% of beverages seen in PG-rated movies, 41.8% of drinks seen in PG-13 movies, and 49.1% of drinks seen in R-rated movies. They found that a majority of the films would fail the legal limits of advertising to children and adolescents in the United Kingdom, with 178 movies earning less healthy food ratings and 222 earning less healthy beverage ratings. When looking at foods, many movies showed medium to high levels of saturated fat (208 of 245 [84.9%]), total fat (228 of 245 [93.1%]), sugar (229 of 245 [93.5%]), and sodium (123 of 245 [50.2%]). Visible branding of foods and drinks were relatively rare with just 11.5% showing commercial logos, but those with visible branding scored lower on nutrition ratings than items with no branding. Unfortunately, the food and drink nutrition scores did not improve over time, nor did they improve in movies that were advertised to appeal to children.

Movies are a frequent source of entertainment, especially for children. However, this study indicates that many movies are illustrating unhealthy food consumption that doesn’t meet dietary recommendations. It also indicates that the regulation that restricts food advertising may need to be extended to depictions of nutritional consumption in entertainment.

1. Turnwald B, Handley-Miner I, Samuels N, Markus H, Crum A. Nutritional analysis of foods and beverages depicted in top-grossing US movies, 1994-2018. 

. November 23, 2020. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.5421

Diet is impacted by more than just what a child sees in the home. An investigation examines the dietary quality seen in popular movies.

 Nutritional quality seen in movies gets 2 thumbs down

As the United States prepares for a much different Thanksgiving holiday than usual, the question of what families are planning to do remains up in the air for many. The University of Michigan’s latest C.S. Mott National Poll on Children’s Health tackles 

The researchers used a nationally representative sample of 1443 parents of children aged 0 to 12 years and asked them what their plans were for holiday gatherings with their extended family. Nearly every parent, 94%, said that their child gets together with extended family on a number of different occasions under normal circumstances. However, 51% of the parents said that the pandemic had led to a significant reduction in time spent with extended family and 23% said that it had led to only a slight reduction.

When asked about usual Thanksgiving plans, 76% of the parents said that their child usually sees extended family. Most of these Thanksgiving dinners are attended by grandparents or other older extended family members and 40% of the gatherings involve family members traveling from other states. Among families who usually have extended family for Thanksgiving, 61% plan to have extended family over for Thanksgiving later this week and 18% said that some of that family will be coming from out of state.

Many of the parents said that they had different priorities for Thanksgiving 2020. Many of the parents (78%), said that it was important to not spread COVID-19 at family gatherings. A little over half of the parents also said that it was imperative that children spend time with extended family, 53%, as well as sharing family traditions, 58%. When asked if the benefits of connecting with family for Thanksgiving outweighed the potential risk of spreading COVID-19, only 35% said that it did.

When asked how they were planning on preventing the spread of COVID-19 at their Thanksgiving celebration, they said they’d take the following precautions:

88% of parents will ask people to not come to Thanksgiving if they have COVID-19 symptoms or exposure;

76% of parents will limit the contact between their child and those who are high-risk, such as seniors and certain medical conditions;

68% of parents will make sure guests social distance during the celebration; and

64% of parents won’t invite people who haven’t been following precautions such as masking and handwashing.

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. National Poll on Children's Health: Considering Children in COVID-19 Thanksgiving Plans. 2020;37(3). Published November 23, 2020. Accessed November 23, 2020. Available at: Available at: 

https://mottpoll.org/reports/considering-children-covid-19-thanksgiving-plans

Despite public health agencies warning against gathering for Thanksgiving, many families are still planning to do so. A new poll offers some insight on why parents still plan to gather and what they are doing to try to keep everyone safe.

Families still planning to gather for Thanksgiving

The complete toll of COVID-19 will not be known for quite some time. However, a 

 offers some insight into the epidemiology of the disease in pediatric patients across the United States.

Investigators ran a retrospective cohort study that used data from electronic health records. They looked for patients aged younger than 25 years who had been tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from January 1, 2020 through September 8, 2020. They used data from PEDSnet, which is a network of 7 US pediatric hospital systems, which covers 6.5 patients from 11 states.

A total of 135,795 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2; 5374 of those tested were found to be infected with COVID-19 (12 per 10 000 population [range, 7-16 per 10 000 population]). When compared to white patients, Black, hispanic, and Asian children and young adults were found to have lower rates of testing (Black: odds ratio [OR], 0.70 [95% CI, 0.68-0.72]; hispanic: OR, 0.65 [95% CI, 0.63-0.67]; Asian: OR, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.57-0.63]). Unfortunately, these race/ethnicity groups are also significantly more likely to have positive test results (Black: OR, 2.66 [95% CI, 2.43-2.90]; Hispanic: OR, 3.75 [95% CI, 3.39-4.15]; Asian: OR, 2.04 [95% CI, 1.69-2.48]). Increased risk of infection was linked to public payer (OR, 1.43 [95% CI, 1.31-1.57]), emergency department testing (OR, 3.16 [95% CI, 2.72-3.67]), older age 5-11 years: OR, 1.25 [95% CI, 1.13-1.38]; 12-17 years: OR, 1.92 [95% CI, 1.73-2.12]; 18-24 years: OR, 3.51 [95% CI, 3.11-3.97]), and outpatient testing (OR, 2.13 [1.86-2.44]). Following univariate analysis, the researchers found that nonmalignant chronic disease was linked to lower likelihood of testing and preexisiting respiratory conditions were linked to a lower risk of positive test results (standardized ratio [SR], 0.78 [95% CI, 0.73-0.84]). A higher risk of positive test results were linked to a number of diagnosis groups, including:

cardiac disorders (SR, 1.18 [95% CI, 1.05-1.32]),

endocrinologic disorders (SR, 1.52 [95% CI, 1.31-1.75]),

gastrointestinal disorders (SR, 2.00 [95% CI, 1.04-1.38]),

genetic disorders (SR, 1.19 [95% CI, 1.00-1.40]),

hematologic disorders (SR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.06-1.47]),

malignant disorders (SR, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.19-1.93]),

mental health disorders (SR, 1.20 [95% CI, 1.10-1.30]),

metabolic disorders (SR, 1.42 [95% CI, 1.24-1.61]), and

musculoskeletal disorders (SR, 1.18 [95% CI, 1.07-1.30])

Among the patients who were found to be positive for COVID-19, 359 patients were hospitalization for hypotensive, respiratory, or COVID-19 specific illness. Intensive care unit services were needed for 99 of those who were hospitalized and 33 needed mechanical ventilation. The overall case fatality rate in this cohort was 0.2%.

The researchers concluded that COVID-19 infection rates were low and often mild in pediatric cases. Additionally, a number of factors were linked to identified infection such as nonrespiratory chronic medical conditions as well as adolescence and young adulthood.

1. Bailey L, Razzaghi H, Burrows E, et al. Assessment of 135,794 pediatric patients tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 across the United States. 

. November 23, 2020. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5052

A new study examines the epidemiology of pediatric COVID-19 cases in a large cohort.

Miranda Hester

Articles

Can a father’s past stressors impact his child’s brain development?

Nutritional quality seen in movies gets 2 thumbs down

Families still planning to gather for Thanksgiving

Looking at the epidemiology of COVID-19 in pediatrics