Premature babies often catch up to peers in school
Obesity rising in nations rich & poor, especially in kids
WASHINGTON, June 13, (Agencies): A study following more than 1.3 million premature babies born in Florida found that two-thirds of those born at only 23 or 24 weeks were ready for kindergarten on time, and almost 2 percent of those infants later achieved gifted status in school.
Such very prematurely born babies did score lower on standardized tests than full-term infants, but as the length of pregnancy increased, the differences in test scores became negligible, according to the study, conducted by Northwestern University and published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics medical journal.
“What excites me about this study is that it changes the focus for the clinician and families at the bedside from just focusing on the medical outcomes of the child to what the future educational outcomes might be for a child born early,” Craig Garfield, the first author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics and medial social sciences at Northwestern Medicine, said in a statement.
Researchers analyzed the school performance of 1.3 million infants born in Florida from 1992 to 2002 who had a fetal development term of 23 to 41 weeks and who later entered the state’s public schools between 1995 and 2012.
They found that babies born at between 23 and 24 weeks tended to have normal cognitive functions later in life, with 1.8 percent of them even achieving gifted status in school. During the time period the study covered, 9.5 percent of children statewide were considered gifted.
Premature birth happens when a baby is born before at least 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A normal pregnancy term is around 40 weeks, and a preterm birth can lead to serious medical problems, underdevelopment in early childhood or death for the infant.
The study does not account for why these extremely premature infants later performed well in school, Garfield said in the statement, and did not look at whether their success could be related to extra support from family or schools, or the children’s biological make-up.
Also: NEW YORK:
The global obesity problem now affects 1 in 10 people in the world, it is rising in countries rich and poor, and in many countries it is increasing faster in children than adults, according to a new study.
The researchers estimated more than 107 million children and 603 million adults are obese.
The research found obesity has tripled in children and young adults in countries like China, Brazil and Indonesia. Those numbers are particularly troubling because it means more young people are on track to become obese adults and develop problems like diabetes, heart disease and a range of cancers, some experts said.
The study was led by a team at the University of Washington in Seattle. It was published online Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a food science and policy meeting in Stockholm.
NEW DELHI:
The World Health Organization says Bhutan and the Maldives have eliminated measles, becoming the first countries in their region to stop the highly contagious child killer.
WHO said Tuesday that the Maldives has not reported any case of indigenous measles since 2009, and Bhutan since 2012. Bhutan and the Maldives launched immunization programs around 40 years ago with a strategy of mass vaccination campaigns in high-risk populations.
WHO has set a deadline of 2020 for the elimination of measles in 11 countries in Asia, among other regions.
WASHINGTON:
A unanimous Supreme Court is speeding up the time for generic biotech drugs to become available to the public in a ruling that means a loss of billions in sales to the makers of original versions.
The justices ruled Monday in favor of generic drug maker Sandoz in its dispute with rival Amgen over a near-copy of Amgen’s cancer drug Neupogen.
The case involves biologics — drugs made from living cells instead of chemicals. The drugs have led to major advances in treating diseases, but come at steep prices.