Child: care, health and development
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Child Care Health Dev · Mar 2012
ReviewA systematic review on the mental health of children and adolescents in areas of armed conflict in the Middle East.
For many decades, the Middle East has been troubled with numerous long-standing armed conflicts and wars. Children and adolescents were not spared the trauma and its consequences. Exposure to traumatic events can result in mental, behavioural and emotional problems in children and adolescents. ⋯ These findings bring to light the pressing need to provide children and adolescents living in conflict areas with help. They are useful in designing new interventions to strengthen child and adolescent resilience in areas of conflict worldwide. Specific recommendations are included.
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Child Care Health Dev · Mar 2012
Two-year follow-up of the 'Families for Health' programme for the treatment of childhood obesity.
The high prevalence of obesity in children in the UK warrants continuing public health attention. 'Families for Health' is a family-based group programme for the treatment of childhood obesity. Significant improvements in body mass index (BMI) z-score (-0.21, 95% CI: -0.35 to -0.07, P = 0.007) and other health outcomes were seen in children at a 9-month follow-up. ⋯ Improvements in BMI z-score and certain other outcomes associated with the 'Families for Health' programme were sustained at the 2-year follow-up. 'Families for Health' is a promising new childhood obesity intervention, and a randomized controlled trial is now indicated.
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Child Care Health Dev · Mar 2012
Comparative StudyA comparison of doctors', parents' and children's reports of health states and health-related quality of life in children with chronic conditions.
Health-related quality of life is an important outcome. Self-report is the gold standard, but in the paediatric setting we often rely on proxy reporting. Our understanding of the differences between self- and proxy reports and the factors that influence them is limited. These differences can impact on treatment choices and the patient-doctor relationship. ⋯ We identified factors associated with level of agreement for self- and proxy reporting on the HUI23. Parent-child agreement was higher than doctor-child agreement. Patients with significant pain or emotional distress and patients with a diagnosis of severe cerebral palsy or chronic neurological conditions were more susceptible to under-reporting of subjective aspects of well-being by doctors and parents and may benefit from formal assessment of health-related quality of life in the clinical setting.