Child rights and health equity news round-up (April 12-19, 2010)
Contents
Child’s play ‘a political issue’
Kidney stones on the rise in South Carolina children
DNA egg swap prevents rare diseases in babies
Boys ‘prefer cars from early on’
Video games ‘hardly affect sleep’
Birth defect children in Northamptonshire agree pay-out
Fatherly chats ‘can stop smoking’
Vaccine hope over lung infection
Child’s play ‘a political issue’
By Sean Coughlan
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/8580536.stm
Published: 2010/03/23
Children’s access to safe places to play should be treated as a serious political issue, say campaigners promoting the right to play.
Play England has issued a manifesto – including demands for a 20mph (32km/h) speed limit in residential areas.
A survey for the charity says 83% of adults want the government to promote policies to help children have more opportunities for outdoor play.
Charity director Adrian Voce says play is a “serious issue for voters”.
The group’s campaign follows concerns that too many children are denied the opportunity for independent outside play.
Playing out
Fears over children’s safety and worries about traffic have caused “play deprivation”, with children stuck inside and ferried between activities, according to campaigners.
They quote a survey finding that “71% of adults used to play near their home every day when they were a child compared to only 21% of children today”.
And there have been concerns about the loss of play areas, with the number of adventure playgrounds in London having halved since the 1980s.
Play England, part of the National Children’s Bureau and funded by the lottery, wants the availability of safe play areas for children to be recognised as an important aspect of children’s well-being.
“There is a tendency to think of children’s play as something that isn’t a matter for government, but the modern world has erected many barriers to something that used be taken for granted, with growing consequences for children’s health and development,” said Mr Voce.
“Government policy on planning, housing, transport and public health – as well as education and childcare – can have a big impact.
“Communities where children can play in freedom and safety are happy, healthy communities. We want to know what each of the parties will do for children’s play if they are elected,” he said.
Child-friendly
Play England has called for three pledges from political parties at the forthcoming election.
It wants “to make all residential neighbourhoods child-friendly places where children can play outside”.
This would include the introduction of 20mph speed limits in residential streets. And it would mean designing public spaces in a way that allows them to be used for play, including safe access routes for children.
The second pledge is: “To give all children the time and opportunity to play throughout childhood.”
This would mean encouraging schools to maintain time for play and to protect outdoor play spaces.
The third pledge is: “To give all children somewhere to play – in freedom and safety – after school and in the holidays.”
The charity says that this is a call for children to be provided with staffed outdoor play areas, including at after-school clubs and in school holidays.
Kidney stones on the rise in South Carolina children
Rachael Myers Lowe
Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:17pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Kidney stones can be excruciating no matter what your age and while they are rare in children, a new study shows they increased four-fold among South Carolina kids between 1996 and 2007.
“The trend is concerning,” Dr. David J. Sas, a pediatric kidney specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina, told Reuters Health.
Sas and colleagues combed state hospital emergency department data for the diagnosis of kidney stones in children from birth to age 18.
They found that the number of cases per 100,000 children climbed from 7.9 to 18.5 over the 12 years of the study. In all, 1,535 children were diagnosed with the painful disease. The greatest increase occurred among white adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18, according to a report in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Running contrary to the gender breakdown of kidney stone formation in adults, the increase in stone formation among South Carolina girls was particularly intriguing to the researchers.
“In the 90s, the rate of stone formation was the same between boys and girls. However, over the last decade and a half, the girls have outpaced the boys and are now about 50 percent more likely to form stones than boys,” Sas said.
The South Carolina study is the “largest investigation to date of pediatric stone formation” but does not try to answer why stone formation is on the rise among the state’s children.
Sas said pinning down a cause to the increase is hard to do but there are several suspects: obesity, too much salt and too little milk in the diet, and changes in antibiotic use.
While obesity among South Carolina children has gone up along with the incidence of kidney stones, Sas says anecdotal evidence from his own practice would argue against obesity as the major cause.
“In my clinic, most of the stone formers are pretty fit kids,” he said.
To much salt in the diet is a more likely suspect. Roughly 92 percent of American kids have “excessive sodium intake,” Sas and colleagues point out. In adults, excess sodium is associated with stone formation.
Another suspect is a drop in milk consumption because lower calcium consumption is thought to up the risk of stone formation.
Sas said there is some interest in studying the effect of antibiotic use on stone formation. It’s hypothesized that over-use of antibiotics may kill normal bacteria of the gut that consume minerals that can form kidney stones.
While the current study only looked at South Carolina data, the state is part of what’s called the “stone belt,” an area of the country with high adult kidney stone rates stretching roughly from Virginia to Florida to Texas. Sas believes the current results may be reflected throughout the stone belt and possibly the rest of the United States, which adds to the urgency of more research.
In adults, kidney stones can have a long-term adverse effect on health and are associated with other chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure and more serious kidney disease.
In addition, treating kidney stones in children is costly and can be more dangerous than it is in adults. Unlike many adult stone formers, children, because of their smaller body size, often don’t “pass” the stones naturally. Troublesome stones may require surgery or other procedure to remove. “It’s an unappealing thought for an adult and downright traumatic for kids,” Sas said.
Citing the cost burden that treating pediatric kidney stones puts on the healthcare system ($12.6 million from 2005 to 2007), Sas and colleagues urge study into what may be behind the troubling increase in pediatric kidney stones in South Carolina so that “appropriate preventive measures can be used.”
In the meantime, Sas says one way parents can cut their children’s risk of developing kidney stone is to make sure their kids drink enough water. Dehydration is recognized as a leading risk factor in kidney stone formation.
SOURCE: Journal of Pediatrics, online April 2, 2010.
DNA egg swap prevents rare diseases in babies
Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:06pm EDT
By Ben Hirschler
(Reuters) – British scientists have mastered a controversial technique using cloning technology to prevent some incurable inherited diseases by swapping DNA between two fertilised human eggs.
Lead researcher Doug Turnbull of Newcastle University said on Wednesday he hoped the first babies free from so-called mitochondrial diseases would be born within three years.
But applying the technique in the clinic, to help women at risk of passing on the disorders, will require a change in British law that currently bans reproduction from such manipulated embryos, which would end up having three biological parents.
Around one in 6,500 children are born with serious diseases caused by malfunctioning mitochondrial DNA, leading to a range of conditions that can include fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular weakness.
The Newcastle team’s technique effectively replaces mitochondria, which act as tiny energy-generating batteries inside cells, so a baby doesn’t inherit faults from its mother. Mitochondria are only passed down the maternal line.
“What we’ve done is like changing the battery on a laptop. The energy supply now works properly, but none of the information on the hard drive has been changed,” Turnbull said.
“A child born using this method would have correctly functioning mitochondria, but in every other respect would get all their genetic information from their father and mother.”
The researchers use a variation of the same technique used to make Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996.
Within a day of uniting egg and sperm using in vitro fertilisation, nuclear DNA is removed from the embryo and implanted into a donor egg, whose own nucleus has been removed and discarded.
TWO OR THREE PARENTS?
The resulting embryo inherits nuclear DNA, or genes, from both its parents but mitochondrial DNA from a second “mother” who donated the healthy egg. In humans, about 37 genes are found in the mitochondria — the rest of the more than 20,000 known genes are in the DNA found in the nucleus.
For critics like Josephine Quintavalle of campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics that makes it “a step too far in meddling with the building blocks of human life”.
“No matter how small the contribution from the egg of the donor woman, the fact remains that an attempt is being made to create a three-parent child,” she said.
But Alison Murdoch of the Newcastle Fertility Centre, whose patients donated eggs used in the studies, told reporters such criticisms ignored the fact that all the characteristics of the baby would come from its two real parents.
Researchers in Newcastle first disclosed two years ago they had created a handful of embryos with swapped DNA, but it is only now that the process has been shown to produce viable embryos.
Writing in the journal Nature, the team said 80 embryos were created and developed in the laboratory for six to eight days to reach the blastocyst stage, comprising a ball of around 100 cells. They were then destroyed, in line with current rules.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
Boys ‘prefer cars from early on’
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/8624999.stm
Published: 2010/04/16
Boys naturally gravitate towards cars and girls towards dolls from the moment they first crawl, a study suggests.
City University researchers put a range of toys a metre from 90 children – aged nine to 36 months – and recorded what was played with and for how long.
They found boys spent more time playing with cars and balls, while girls spent more time playing with the dolls.
Researchers said the study suggested there was an “intrinsic bias” in children towards gender-typical toys.
They presented their findings at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Stratford Upon Avon on Friday.
“ Children of this age are already subject to a great deal of socialisation ”
Dr Brenda Todd
One of the researchers, Sara Amalie O’Toole Thommessen, said: “It was very obvious that even the youngest children went straight for gender-typed toys and colours.
“Boys went straight for the ball and the black car, and girls went to the teddy bear and the doll.”
The team said its study was the first to have found such consistent and stable differences in toy choices between genders in children younger than 18 months.
A fellow researcher, Dr Brenda Todd, said: “We were surprised to find the differences so early.”
But she added: “Children of this age are already subject to a great deal of socialisation, but these findings are consistent with the idea of an intrinsic bias in children to show interest in particular kinds of toys.”
Video games ‘hardly affect sleep’
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8620949.stm
Published: 2010/04/14
Playing a video game before bed appears to have only a mild effect on how long it takes a male teenager to fall asleep, a preliminary study suggests.
Those who played a relatively violent video game took only marginally longer to fall asleep than those who watched a relaxing nature documentary.
The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine study pitted Call of Duty 4 against March of the Penguins.
There is little scientific data on the effects of video games on sleep.
But anecdotal evidence has long suggested that playing such games at night could have a detrimental impact on sleep because the stimulation keeps one awake even after the game has ceased.
To test the theory, researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, recruited 13 males between the aged of 14 and 18 with no existing sleep problems.
Soldiers v penguins
On one night they sat beneath the covers playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for 50 minutes – a game in which the player takes on the role of an SAS recruit among others carrying out various violent missions.
“ What happens to the teen’s virtual character could begin to evoke feelings of anxiety or frustration that could have larger effects on their sleep ”
Michael Gradisar Study leader
On a second night a week later they spent an equal amount of time watching March of the Penguins, the award-winning French documentary which follows the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica across vast swathes of ice to their breeding grounds.
Three fell asleep while watching the film, while none dozed off while playing Call of Duty.
The majority of the teenagers did take longer to fall asleep after playing the video game, but most were asleep within seven-and-a-half minutes – only four minutes longer than when they watched March of the Penguins.
“We purposefully chose a very tranquil film to contrast against the very stimulating effect of playing a violent video game in the hope of producing the greatest effect on sleep,” said Michael Gradisar, a senior lecturer in clinical child psychology who led the research.
“We were surprised that playing the violent video game did not lead to a much longer time taken to fall asleep.”
However he acknowledged there were limitations to the small study, notably that very few teenagers who played would limit their playing time to just 50 minutes a night.
“With greater time invested there could be a greater emotional investment in the game. What happens to the teen’s virtual character could begin to evoke feelings of anxiety or frustration that could have larger effects on their sleep.”
And however tranquil March of the Penguins may be, some sleep experts urge no screen activity before bed – be it computer, game or TV.
There has been increasing focus on the quality and length of young people’s sleep, in part because of the impact on concentration but also amid mounting suggestions that poor sleep may be contributing to obesity levels.
A French study published this week found that young men ate 25% more calories a day when they had four hours of sleep the night before compared to when they had slept for eight hours.
Birth defect children in Northamptonshire agree pay-out
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/8625442.stm
Published: 2010/04/16
The 19 families of children born with deformities caused by toxic dust from a former steelworks, have reached an out-of-court settlement over compensation.
Last year a High Court judge said Corby Borough Council was negligent in its clean-up of the site which allowed chemicals to affect pregnant women.
Poisonous dust released into the air was “capable” of causing limb deformities, the court ruled.
The families will share an undisclosed amount after an out-of-court deal.
Corby Borough Council has agreed to drop its challenge to the High Court ruling on negligence and instead will immediately pay compensation to each of the children without accepting liability in this case.
The financial terms of the settlement remain confidential and in the case of the younger children will require approval by the court.
Corby Borough Council’s chief executive Chris Mallender said the authority recognised “that it made mistakes in its clean-up of the former British Steel site years ago and extends its deepest sympathy to the children and their families”.
He added: “The council sincerely hopes this apology and the agreement will mean that they can now put their legal battle behind them and proceed with their lives with a greater degree of financial certainty.”
Des Collins, solicitor for the families, said: “My clients live with the daily reminder of the sub-standard clean-up of the former British Steel plant in Corby.
“The agreement recognises the many years of emotional and physical suffering the 19 families have endured and will continue to endure.
“It provides a financial award which will help towards the healthcare costs and loss of earnings they will inevitably face in the future.
“I pay tribute to the immense determination and spirit the Corby children and their families have shown.
“The families are grateful for the apology and expression of good wishes from Mr Mallender.”
Sarah Pearson, mother of Lewis Waterfield who was born with significant deformities affecting both hands, said: “We are just so relieved our fight is finally at an end.
“We would also like to give credit to the council for including three other children in this agreement, despite the court’s ruling last year.”
Fatherly chats ‘can stop smoking’
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8620487.stm
Published: 2010/04/15
Boys and girls who discuss issues that are important to them with their fathers are less likely to smoke in their early years, a study has found.
A big factor in stopping children trying cigarettes was how often their fathers talked with them about “things that mattered”.
The study by Dr James White, of Cardiff University, involved 3,500 youngsters between the ages of 11 and 15.
He said fathers should be encouraged to talk to their children more often.
Dr White, of the university’s School of Medicine, will present his findings to the British Psychological Society’s annual conference later.
The three-year study used data from the British Youth Panel Survey.
Youngsters were asked to rate how often they spoke to their fathers on issues that were important to them on a scale of from “hardly ever” to “most days”.
“ Fathers should be encouraged and supported to improve the quality and frequency of communication with their children ”
Dr James White
What was important to them depended on the child and could cover any subject.
Only children who had never smoked at the time the study began took part.
After three years, the responses of children who had remained non smokers were compared to those who said they had experimented with smoking at some point.
Dr White said: “This study suggests that a greater awareness of parents’ and especially fathers’ potential impact upon their teenagers’ choices about whether to smoke is needed.
“Fathers should be encouraged and supported to improve the quality and frequency of communication with their children during adolescence.
“The impact of teenager parenting is relatively un-researched and further research is very much needed.”
‘Arguments’
He said the study also looked at the influence of mothers and while they did not seem to be as influential in terms of smoking, Dr White said they were a positive influence in many other aspects of a child’s wellbeing.
As well as their smoking, the children were also asked about the frequency of parental communication, arguments with family members and the frequency of family meals.
The study found the frequency of family arguments and family meals did not have a significant effect.
Dr White said recognised risk factors for smoking, such as age, gender, household income, parental monitoring and parental smoking were all taken into account during analysis of the study’s findings.
Vaccine hope over lung infection
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8623153.stm
Published: 2010/04/16
A virus that causes wheezing and pneumonia claims the lives of up to 200,000 children worldwide each year, a study has found.
University of Edinburgh scientists found that about 3.4 million children were hospitalised after contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
RSV is the single largest cause of lung infection in children.
The scientists hope the research will help contribute to the development of a vaccine against the infection.
The study, which has been published in The Lancet, confirmed that RSV – which infects most children before the age of two – usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, but can lead to serious illness in babies who are born prematurely or who have congenital heart disease.
“ This is the first time we have gathered information on such a global scale and is the best estimate we have for the number of children dying each year from this preventable illness ”
Dr Harish Nair University of Edinburgh
It is the first time that the numbers of children dying globally from RSV before the age of five have been quantified.
The international team analysed unpublished data from developing countries as well as all the published medical research on RSV infection.
They found that about 33.8 million children become infected with RSV each year and that 99% of RSV-related deaths occur in developing countries.
The team hopes that by identifying the numbers affected by the virus, it can contribute to the development of a vaccine against the infection.
Dr Harish Nair, of the University of Edinburgh’s department of population health studies, said: “Our greatest hope of fighting this virus is to develop a vaccine, but before we can implement an immunisation programme, we need to understand exactly how big a problem RSV poses.
“This is the first time we have gathered information on such a global scale and is the best estimate we have for the number of children dying each year from this preventable illness.”
Professor Warren Lenney, spokesman for the British Lung Foundation, the only charity helping people with all lung diseases, said: “Acute Viral Bronchiolitis (RSV) is a respiratory virus which is not well known, however it is the most common reason for tiny babies to be admitted to hospital within the first year of life – across England and Wales RSV causes 20,000 babies to be admitted to hospital each year during the winter months.”
He welcomed the research as indicating the size of the problem on a global scale.
“RSV not only causes respiratory problems in early life but can lead to other long-term chest problems well into teenage years,” the professor added.