Early Childhood Adversity, Toxic Stress, and the Role of the Pediatrician: Translating Developmental Science Into Lifelong Health

This policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics addresses early childhood adversity, toxic stress, and the role of the pediatrician.

This article was taken from American Academy of Pediatrics

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In-Store Calorie Signs Reduce Teenage Sugary Drink Consumption

This study found that signs with calorie information reduced the probability of adolescents buying sugary beverages by approximately 40% in comparison to providing no calorie information. The most effective sign provided a physical activity equivalent and reduced the chances of the Black teens buying one by 50%. This investigation is the first to analyze if various signs of calorie information for these drinks may influence customers purchases.

This article was taken from Medical News Today

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Parental Involvement With Their Working Teens

Approximately 146,000 adolescents are injured in the workplace yearly, according to federal data, with about 70 dying as a result.A study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health suggests that parents are unprepared to help their teens stay safe.

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Designed for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes

This report, a companion piece California Center for Public Health Advocacy’s 2007 study, Searching for Healthy Food, documents that people who live near an abundance of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes regardless of individual or community income, and provides policy recommendations.

This article was taken from California Center for Public Health Advocacy, PolicyLink, and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. April 2008.

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Environmental Injustice: Childhood Lead Poisoning, Teen Pregnancy, and Tobacco

Abstract: This study investigates the persistent relationships between childhood lead exposure, repeat teen pregnancy, and tobacco use in a sample of teenage females in Syracuse, NY. We analyzed the association of childhood lead poisoning with repeat pregnancy and tobacco use among 536 teens (aged 15–19 years) in Syracuse, NY, who received services at Syracuse Healthy Start between 1998 and 2002. The mothers’ childhood lead exposure, controlling for race, age, and Medicaid status, was associated with repeat teen pregnancy and tobacco use. Long-term negative health outcomes associated with childhood lead exposure should not be underestimated. This study helps to shore up prior research that found lead poisoning to have a long-lasting impact on children’s functioning and healthy development. Policy efforts focused on neighborhood development and health education continue to be sorely needed.

This article was taken from Sandra D. Lane, Noah J. Webster, Brooke A. Levandowski, Robert A. Rubinstein, Robert H. Keefe, Martha A. Wojtowycz, Donald A. Cibula, Johanna E.F. Kingson, Richard H. Aubry. Journal of Adolescent Health, Volume 42, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 43-49

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National environmental health measures for minority and low-income populations: Tracking social disparities in environmental health

Abstract: Healthy People 2010 has established as a top priority the elimination of health disparities. Current research suggests that characteristics of the social, physical and built environment contribute to these disparities. In order to track progress and to assess the potential contributions of the various components of the “environment,” tools specific to environmental health disparities are required. In this paper, we discuss one potential tool, a set of candidate measures that may be used to track disparities in outcomes, as well as measures that may be used analytically to assess potential causal pathways. Several other reports on health and environmental measures have been produced, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) America’s Children and the Environment. However, there has not been a comprehensive discussion about environmental measures that focus on racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in health. Therefore, we focus on measures specific to historically disadvantaged populations. Based on a conceptual framework that views health disparities as partially driven by differential access to resources and exposures to hazards, we group the measures into four categories: social processes, environmental contaminants/exposures, body burdens of environmental contaminants, and health outcomes. We provide a few examples to illustrate each category, including residential segregation, PM2.5 exposures, blood mercury concentrations, and asthma morbidity and mortality. These measures and categories are derived from a review of environmental health disparities from several disciplines. As a next step in a long-term effort to better understand the relationship between social disadvantage, environment, and health disparities, we hope that the proposed measures and literature review serve as a foundation for future monitoring of environmental health disparities. These efforts may aid community organizations, local agencies, scientists and policy makers in allocating resources and developing interventions.

This article was taken from Devon Payne-Sturges, Gilbert C. Gee. Environmental Research, Volume 102, Issue 2, October 2006, Pages 154-171

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Fostering Youth Leadership to Address Workplace and Community Environmental Health Issues: A University-School-Community Partnership

Abstract: Many communities of color are disproportionately exposed to workplace and community environmental hazards. This article presents the results of a pilot project designed by a university-school-community partnership to develop youth leadership to confront these exposures. Using a popular empowerment education approach, students applied peer education, research, and organizing skills learned in the classroom to community-based internships in a service-learning model. Evaluation results from pretests and posttests, focus groups, and in-depth interviews demonstrated that students shared what they learned about young workers’ rights and environmental justice with family and friends. They developed a critical analysis of environmental inequities, created a citywide youth coalition that advocates around legal, educational, and environmental issues affecting youth, and implemented campaigns to enforce child labor laws and to prevent school construction on contaminated land. This multifaceted model can serve as an important foundation to develop youth leaders to influence environmental policies in a variety of communities.

This article was taken from Linda Delp, MPH. Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 6, No. 3, 270-285 (2005)

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The effect of air pollution on lung development from 10 to 18 years of age.

Abstract: Whether exposure to air pollution adversely affects the growth of lung function during the period of rapid lung development that occurs between the ages of 10 and 18 years is unknown. In this prospective study, we recruited 1759 children (average age, 10 years) from schools in 12 southern California communities and measured lung function annually for eight years. The rate of attrition was approximately 10 percent per year. The communities represented a wide range of ambient exposures to ozone, acid vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. Linear regression was used to examine the relationship of air pollution to the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and other spirometric measures. Over the eight-year period, deficits in the growth of FEV1 were associated with exposure to nitrogen dioxide (P=0.005), acid vapor (P=0.004), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) (P=0.04), and elemental carbon (P=0.007), even after adjustment for several potential confounders and effect modifiers. Associations were also observed for other spirometric measures. Exposure to pollutants was associated with clinically and statistically significant deficits in the FEV1 attained at the age of 18 years. For example, the estimated proportion of 18-year-old subjects with a low FEV1 (defined as a ratio of observed to expected FEV1 of less than 80 percent) was 4.9 times as great at the highest level of exposure to PM2.5 as at the lowest level of exposure (7.9 percent vs. 1.6 percent, P=0.002). The results of this study indicate that current levels of air pollution have chronic, adverse effects on lung development in children from the age of 10 to 18 years, leading to clinically significant deficits in attained FEV1 as children reach adulthood.

This article was taken from Gauderman WJ, Avol E, Gilliland F, Vora H, Thomas D, Berhane K, McConnell R, Kuenzli N, Lurmann F, Rappaport E, Margolis H, Bates D, Peters J. New England Journal of Medicine 9; 351(11):1057-67 (2004)

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