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Photochemical air pollution: its effects on respiratory function of elementary school children.

The effects of photochemical air pollution on respiratory function of Tokyo elementary school children were investigated. Nine types of environmental factors were continuously recorded. Seven categories of respiratory function tests were performed on 20 normal 11-year-old children once a week from June to December 1972, as a general rule. The correlation coefficients between respiratory function measurements and each of the environmental factors were calculated. The maximum expiratory flow rate (V max) showed high correlation with the largest number of environmental factors. Among environmental factors, temperature highly affected various respiratory function tests. The O3 was significantly associated with airway resistance (Raw) or specific airway conductance (Gaw/Vtg), NO or NO2 with V max, and temperature with Raw, Gaw/Vtg, and V max. Two subjects among all subjects were considered as the reactors to the environmental factors.

Air Pollutants

Similarities and differences in correlates of alcohol consumption and problem behaviors among male and female adolescents.

This study examined similarities and differences in correlates of alcohol consumption and problem behaviors among a random household sample of male and female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. Several similarities emerged between the two gender groups which were consistent with previous research, including a pattern of convergence among the variables of alcohol consumption, times drunk in the last year, and delinquent behavior; the salience of the peer context in alcohol-related behavior; and high associations between reasons, or motives, for drinking and alcohol consumption and problem behaviors. With respect to reasons for drinking, excitement-seeking, or pleasurable, reasons were highly related to outcome variables. Gender differences were reported for relationships between two indices of affective functioning, namely distress symptoms and escapist, tension-reducing reasons for drinking, and outcome variables related to delinquent behavior, school functioning, and aspects of self-concept. These differences are discussed with respect to possible differential socialization experiences among males and females.

Adolescent

University of Rochester Child and Family Study: risk research in progress.

The University of Rochester Child and Family Study (URCAFS) is a risk research program concerned with cross-sectional and developmental relationships among three areas: parental psychopathology and health, family system functioning and dysfunctioning, and child psychopathology and health. The preliminary findings indicate that both parental psychopathology and family variables predict significantly to independent measures of school functioning of index sons during their childhood and early adolescence. Although the offspring have not yet reached the age of major risk for schizophrenia, 52 percent of the families have one or more offspring either in psychiatric treatment or for whom treatment had been recommended.

Adolescent

Perceptual-motor functioning in children with phenylketonuria.

Children with treated phenylketonuria (PKU) have been described as being at high risk for perceptual-motor dysfunction. In this study, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Bender Gestalt test were administered to 19 school age children with treated PKU and of average intelligence who have been off diet from five months to six years four months. Perceptual-motor performance was evaluated, and school functioning was rated by classroom teachers. Substantial impairment of perceptual-motor functioning as measured by the Bender Gestalt test and lower WISC performance IQs than verbal IQs were observed in children of average intelligence. Quality of dietary control was found to be associated with performance on the Bender Gestalt test. These findings suggest the possibility of a specific deficit that could seriously interfere with academic progress, but which is not signalled by obvious impairment of overall intellectual functioning.

Achievement

The effects of fatigue, distractibility, and absenteeism on school achievement in children with rheumatic diseases.

Children with chronic health impairments have a variety of psychosocial, physical, and medical complications affecting daily life. This study investigated the relationship between the effects of a rheumatic disease (RD) and school functioning. Factors investigated were fatigue, distractibility, and absenteeism. In addition, disease severity and mobility were assessed. Forty-six children with RD and their parents participated in the study. Results indicated that inattention and distractibility were highly related to school achievement. A minimal relationship between fatigue and absenteeism and school performance was noted. In addition, ratings of mobility used by physicians were unrelated to success on math and reading achievement testing.

Absenteeism

Outcome predictors in acute schizophrenia. Prospective significance of background and clinical dimensions.

In a prospective 2-year follow-up of 37 young acute schizophrenics, we examined the predictive significance and relative contribution of historical, genealogical, course, and clinical dimensions. Patients were evaluated multidimensionally at index admission and after 21 to 33 months, at which time 19 cooperated in follow-up involving clinical, functional, psychometric, and objective outcome measures. Multiple regression analysis found that combinations of 3 to 4 index variables significantly predicted 13 of 14 outcome measures, yielding multiple R values between .63 and .93 (X = .78). In total, a set of eight parameters contributed in explaining the outcome variance. The strongest overall predictor of favorable outcome was baseline negative syndrome. Other significant predictors were good premorbid school functioning, favorable prior disposition, sudden onset of illness, nonparanoid subdiagnosis, family history of alcoholism, psychomotor retardation, and depression. Accordingly, a patient's premorbid adjustment, course of illness, and presenting clinical profile provided nonoverlapping sources of outcome prediction. Of these three dimensions, it was proposed that the prognostic significance of the clinical profile may be phase specific, carrying different implications when assessed in the acute vs. chronic stage of illness.

Acute Disease

The use of teacher checklists to identify children at risk for later behavioral and emotional problems.

Measures of child behavior based on teacher checklists have been shown to be reliable and valid indicators of a child's current school functioning. Such measures, however, are not very accurate predictors of behavior in other settings, or of the development of future behavior problems; they should not be used to label a child as "high risk." The primary care physician could help the teacher decide which children to refer for more thorough evaluation by providing the teacher with information on the child's development and neurologic status, home behavior, and family situation. Follow-up studies suggest that many behavioral disturbances seen in pre-school settings are transient situational disturbances that could be adequately managed through use of behavior modification techniques or simply through the passage of time.

Affective Symptoms

Self-concept, motivation, and competence among preschoolers from maltreating and comparison families.

Maltreated children are at risk for impaired cognitive and school functioning. In this study, the role that home environment, self-concept, and mastery motivation play in this relation was investigated. Thirty-six preschool children and their mothers, representing three family backgrounds (12 low-income maltreating, 12 low-income comparison, 12 middle-income comparison), were assessed in a preschool/home study. Children from maltreating families scored lower than their peers on several measures of cognitive and physical competence and on ratings of motivation. At the same time, these children significantly overrated their physical competence, and self-ratings of competence and acceptance tended to be higher (and less realistic) than those of their low-income peers. An overall difference in developmental quality of the home environment of maltreating families was largely accounted for by socioeconomic status (SES), but the tendency of these homes to be less clean and safe remained significant even after SES was controlled. Various aspects of the home environment were associated with superior task performance, but not with motivation or self-perceptions. Whereas the general home environment may affect competence, relationship factors implicated in maltreatment may be more important in shaping self-concept and motivation.

Achievement

Maternal affective disorders, illness, and stress: risk for children's psychopathology.

Stressful circumstances that covary with maternal affective disorder may account for some of the risk to children for psychological dysfunction. Children (ages 8-16) of mothers with unipolar or bipolar disorders were compared with children of mothers who had chronic medical illness and children of normal mothers. Comparisons included Kiddie-SADS (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia) diagnoses and evaluations of behavior problems, school functioning, and social competence. Compared to the other groups, children of mothers with affective disorder (especially unipolar) had high rates of diagnosis. With the effects of chronic stress statistically controlled, psychosocial outcome variables showed fewer differences between groups but indicated particular impairment for children of unipolar mothers.

Adolescent

Goodness of fit in the home: its relationship to school behavior and achievement in children with learning disabilities.

This study examined whether a "goodness of fit" theoretical model, applied to families with and without children with learning disabilities, would be valuable in understanding the children's performance in school. A home interview was conducted with 63 families with a child with learning disabilities and 53 families with a comparable child without learning disabilities. The mothers were asked to rate how their own child fit into the family's expectations for children. It was found that, for both groups of families, children who were rated as a "poor fit" in the home demonstrated less positive behavior in the classroom and poorer achievement over the elementary school years. There was some evidence that poor fit in the home was even more negatively related to outcomes for children with learning disabilities. Discussion is centered on the importance of this theoretical model for understanding the importance of the home on successful school function.

Achievement

Substance abuse among adolescents with chronic mental illnesses: a pilot study of descriptive and differentiating features.

Twenty-six adolescents with a chronic mental illness (schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder of at least 1.5 years' duration) were assessed for the presence or absence of comorbid substance abuse. The two groups were compared on a number of variables believed to identify or predict substance abuse. The substance abusing subgroup were significantly different in levels of social functioning, school achievement, premorbid substance abuse, having parents or siblings who abused substances, dysfunctional families, cigarette smoking, number of hospital admissions, and emergency room visits. These findings are discussed in the context of clinical issues regarding the management of adolescents with chronic mental illnesses.

Adolescent

A younger aged reference group for the WISC-R.

The present study obtained WISC-R scores for a younger aged sample. Standard scores for this sample are presented along with an adequate three factor solution reflecting verbal, general performance, and auditory-attention-perceptual-performance dimensions. Furthermore, coefficients of concordance are reported for the present sample with a three factor solution for the normative WISC-R 6 1/2 year old group. Problems with the skewness of some of the subsets are discussed in light of a possible psychometrically guided approach to constructing early infant intellectual assessment measures. Implications of finding a different, from traditional, third factor are considered with respect to early school functioning.

Child

[Psychosocial aspects of the so-called short-bowel syndrome in children].

In a retrospective study of 16 patients with (congenital) bowel pathology, aged 2 to 12, attention was paid to the psychosocial aspects of the short bowel syndrome. Parents were interviewed and parents' and teachers' reports of children's behavioural and emotional problems were obtained. Parents as well as children appeared to have reached a reasonable level of adjustment. Parents' emotions concerning the period of hospitalisation still appeared to be strikingly strong. Although most children did not show obvious psychopathology, problems were observed in the areas of behaviour and attention, interfering with optimal school functioning in the case of some children.

Adaptation, Psychological

[Dislocation of the elbow as a clinical problem with reference to rehabilitation].

In the period from 1970 till 1974, 106 patients with the clean luxation without the injury of the bone supstrate were treated. From that number there were 68 men and 38 women. In the total anaesthesia the reposition and imobilisation in the upper arm longeta were performed. This longeta was removed after three weeks and then the rehabilitation was continued (medical school). Functional results are neat.

Adolescent

Effects of indoor air pollution on lung function of primary school children in Kuala Lumpur.

In a cross-sectional study of 7-12 year-old primary school children in Kuala Lumpur city, lung function was assessed by spirometric and peak expiratory flow measurements. Spirometric and peak expiratory flow measurements were successfully performed in 1,214 and 1,414 children, respectively. As expected, the main predictors of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity (FEF25-75), and peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) were standing height, weight, age, and sex. In addition, lung function values of Chinese and Malays were generally higher than those of Indians. In multiple regression models which included host and environmental factors, asthma was associated with significant decreases in FEV1, FEF25-75, and PEFR. However, family history of chest illness, history of allergies, low paternal education, and hospitalization during the neonatal period were not independent predictors of lung function. Children sharing rooms with adult smokers had significantly lower levels of FEF25-75. Exposures to wood or kerosene stoves were, but to mosquito repellents were not, associated with decreased lung function.

Air Pollutants

Moderate to heavy infections of Trichuris trichiura affect cognitive function in Jamaican school children.

A double-blind placebo trial was conducted to determine the effect of moderate to high loads of Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) infection on the cognitive functions of 159 school children (age 9-12 years) in Jamaica. Infected children were randomly assigned to Treatment or Placebo groups. A third group of randomly selected uninfected children were assigned to a Control for comparative purposes. The improvement in cognitive function was evaluated using a stepwise multiple linear regression, designed to control for any confounding variables. The expulsion of worms led to a significant improvement in tests of auditory short-term memory (P less than 0.02; P less than 0.01), and a highly significant improvement in the scanning and retrieval of long-term memory (P less than 0.001). After 9 weeks, treated children were no longer significantly different from an uninfected Control group in these three tests of cognitive function. The removal of T. trichiura was more important than Ascaris lumbricoides in determining this improvement. The results suggest that whipworm infection has an adverse effect on certain cognitive functions which is reversible by therapy.

Albendazole

Departmental review in medical schools: focus and functions.

Approximately two-thirds of all U.S. and Canadian medical schools have provisions for the evaluation of their departments on a periodic or ad hoc basis. Most of these institutions have initiated the departmental review process since 1970. It appears that use of the practice is increasing and is becoming an important tool in providing guidance for departmental activities, programs, and leadership. Departmental review may be conducted in a variety of ways with varying levels of intensity, flexibility, and skill, depending on the environment, resources, dean, department chairmen, faculty, and attitudes of university administrators. Departmental review may be employed to identify, elaborate, document, and/or contribute to the resolution of current and potential organizational concerns. When carefully administered, the process can be a stabilizing rather than a disruptive force; however, by itself, it does not solve major institutional problems.

Canada