Top Hot Read December 2006

1. Improving the use of research evidence in guideline development: 1. Guidelines for guidelines.  Health Research Policy and Systems 2006, 4:13     

The World Health Organization (WHO), like many other organisations around the world, has recognised the need to use more rigorous processes to ensure that health care recommendations are informed by the best available research evidence. This is the first of a series of 16 reviews that have been prepared as background for advice from the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research.

2. Socio-economic position and adolescents’ health in Italy: the role of the quality of social relations. Eur J Pub Health 2006 16(6):627-632

The quality of social relations in adolescence is possibly one of the major determinants of habits that can influence the health of young people, and it may also be one of the mediators of the effect of social position on health. The Italian data of the HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) survey 2001–02 was analysed to test this hypothesis. Logistic models were fitted using health behaviours as dependent variables and economic well-being and social relations as determinants. Difficult relations with adults were associated with higher probability of smoking, drinking alcohol and using cannabis; difficult relations with peers are associated with lower physical activity and lower probability of having used cannabis.

3. Parents often do not recognize overweight in their child, regardless of their socio-demographic background. Eur J Pub Health 2006 16(6):645-647

To involve parents successfully in the treatment of overweight in their child, they first need to be aware of the problem and its accompanying health risks. Data on 1840 9–11 year olds from the Rotterdam Youth Health Monitor were analysed to investigate whether awareness of parents differs according to socio-demographic characteristics. In the case of overweight children, 50% of the parents do not recognize that their child is overweight. Except for age none of the investigated socio-demographic characteristics, including ethnicity and parental education, was associated with awareness. Parents of obese children show greater awareness than parents of overweight children.

4. Social Circumstances and Education: Life Course Origins of Social Inequalities in Metabolic Risk in a Prospective National Birth Cohort.  AJPH December 2006, Vol 96, No. 12

This is a prospective birth cohort study. 1311 men and 1318 women aged 53 years in 1999, where studied and metabolic syndrome components were measured. Logistic regression analyses were used to calculate relative index of inequality estimates. Childhood social class was independently associated with the metabolic syndrome in women (OR=2.0; 95% CI=1.1, 3.6) but not in men (OR=1.1; 95% CI= 0.7, 1.8). Associations between adult social class and the metabolic syndrome or its components were largely accounted for by childhood socioeconomic measures.

5. Randomised trial of infant sleep location on the postnatal ward.  Archives of Disease in Childhood 2006;91:1005-1010

The aim was to determine whether postnatal mother–infant sleep proximity affects breastfeeding initiation and infant safety in a randomised non-blinded trial analysed by intention to treat. 64 newly delivered mother–infant dyads in postnatal wards of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVI), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK participated in the study. Infants were randomly allocated to one of three sleep conditions: baby in mother’s bed with cot-side; baby in side-car crib attached to mother’s bed; and baby in stand-alone cot adjacent to mother’s bed.

Bed and side-car crib infants breastfed more frequently than stand-alone cot infants  No infant experienced adverse events; however, bed infants were more frequently considered to be in potentially adverse situations. No differences were observed in duration of maternal or infant sleep, frequency or duration of assistance provided by staff, or maternal rating of postnatal satisfaction.

(What about SIDS???  SF)