Intra-word consistency and accuracy in Finnish children aged 3–6 years

This study examined intra-word consistency and accuracy in typically developing Finnish children and their relation to children’s vocabulary size and phonological skills. A total of 80 typically developing Finnish children aged 3;0 to 6;11 were asked to name 20 words three separate times during a single assessment session. Responses were classified into four categories: 1) consistently correct productions, 2) consistently incorrect productions, 3) variable productions with hits (variable productions including at least one matched adult target), and 4) variable productions with no hits. The results revealed that 5- and 6-year-old children produced significantly more often consistently correct responses than younger children. However, even for the 3- and 4-year old children the most frequent response type was consistently correct production. Between these two youngest age groups (3 and 4), the only significant difference was in consistently incorrect responses, which the 3-year-olds produced more often than the older children. There was a significant negative correlation between consistently incorrectly produced words and children’s phonological skills, but no other relationships were found. The results indicate that when assessing children with speech sound disorder (SSD), Finnish clinicians need to take into account the fact that even 3-year-old typically developing children generally produce words correctly, either consistently or inconsistently.     

Health-related quality of life among patients with major depression

The study compared health-related quality of life in 165 patients with major depression and 165 randomly selected and with age- and gender-matched controls from a population sample. Health-related quality of life was measured with the self-report questionnaire (RAND-36), which consists of eight dimensions. Overall, perceived quality of life was broadly reduced among depressive outpatients, and as compared with the control group, significant impairment was observed for all eight dimensions of health-related quality of life. Accompanying somatic diseases causing disability had no additional impact on the reduction of quality of life in depressive patients. Depression per se impairs an individual's functioning ability in a number of ways. It has a significant effect not only on mental well-being but also on perceived physical functioning and bodily pain, and even on general health perceptions. Major depression seems to explain the broad decline in the quality of life among depressive patients.     

Fathers' and mothers' perceptions of their child and maternal depressive symptoms

Fathers' reports concerning their children have seldom been considered in the previous studies on maternal depression and child development. The literature on parental reports in general suggests that discrepancies in mothers' and fathers' perceptions are associated with the psychological state of the parent and the gender of the child. As part of a prospective follow-up study, fathers' and mothers' perceptions of children's social competence and behavioural/ emotional problems were assessed by the Child Behavior Checklists (CBCLs) when the firstborn children were 8–9 years old. The depressive symptoms of the mothers were screened by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at the same time point. The level of children's social competence and behavioural/emotional problems reported by the fathers were analysed by background factors. The reports of both parents were explored by the gender of the child and by the presence of maternal depressive symptoms. The concordance of parental reports concerning child's social competence was high, but fathers usually reported lower problem levels than mothers, particularly for boys' problems. The presence of maternal depressive symptoms was associated with child's high problem levels from both fathers' and mothers' perspective. Parental ratings of children's externalizing problems in particular were associated with high maternal depressive symptom level.     

Adherence to transition guidelines in European paediatric nephrology units

Background

There is increasing focus on the problems involved in the transition and transfer of young adult patients from paediatric to adult renal units. This situation was addressed by the 2011 International Pediatric Nephrology Association/International Society of Nephrology (IPNA/ISN) Consensus Statement on transition.

Methods

We performed a survey of transition practices of 15 paediatric nephrology units across Europe 2 years after publication of the consensus statement.

Results

Two thirds of units were aware of the guidelines, and one third had integrated them into their transition practice. Forty-seven per cent of units transfer five or fewer patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 5 per year to a median of five adult centres, with higher numbers of CKD stages 2–4 patients. Seventy-three per cent of units were required by the hospital or government to transfer patients by a certain age. Eighty per cent of units commenced transition planning after the patient turned 15 years of age and usually within 1–2 years of the compulsory transfer age. Forty-seven per cent of units used a transition or transfer clinic. Prominent barriers to effective transition were patient and parent attachment to the paediatric unit and difficulty in allowing the young person to perform self-care.

Conclusions

Whereas awareness of the consensus statement is suboptimal, it has had some impact on practice. Adult nephrologists receive transferred patients infrequently, and the process of transition is introduced too late by paediatricians. Government- and hospital-driven age-based transfer policies distract focus from the achievement of competencies in self care. Variable use of transition clinics, written patient information and support groups is probably due to economic and human-resource limitations. The consensus statement provides a standard for evolving and evaluating transition policies jointly agreed upon by paediatric and adult units.