Adolescents encouraging healthy lifestyles through a peer‐led social marketing intervention: Training and key competencies learned by peer leaders

BackgroundAdolescents who participate as peer leaders can benefit and acquire competencies from their peer leadership experience.ObjectivesTo identify the competencies gained by adolescents who participated as peer leaders in a healthy lifestyle study and to determine whether the training characteristics were related to improvement in competencies.DesignThe present study was part of the European Youth Tackling Obesity (EYTO) project, a multicentre social marketing intervention involving four European countries.Setting and ParticipantsEighteen peer leaders (aged 13–15 years, three or five leaders per country) from disadvantaged neighbourhoods received training in designing and implementing activities for their peers.MeasuresThe peer leaders'' confidence, experience and interest in 11 tasks related to lifelong learning competencies were assessed with questions rated on a colour scale at baseline and at the end of the study.ResultsThe peer leaders demonstrated improvements in experience, confidence and interest in different tasks, such as research, website or logo design, oral presentations, social media use and collaboration with people from other countries. They increased their confidence in management tasks (p = 0.03) and their confidence and experience in communication tasks (p = 0.01). The peer leaders from Spain and Portugal had greater improvements than those from the other countries.ConclusionThe peer leaders improved their confidence in management tasks and their confidence and experience in communication tasks. Slight differences were detected in improvement in competencies by country, likely due to the differences in the peer training applied. Recommendations for peer leader training are proposed, although these results should be verified with larger sample size.Patient or Public ContributionThe peer leaders contributed to the design and implementation of the training and intervention.     

Hereditary Ataxias in Cuba: A Nationwide Epidemiological and Clinical Study in 1001 Patients

The Cerebellum - The prevalence estimations of hereditary ataxias are biased since most epidemiological studies are confined to isolated geographical regions and few nationwide studies are...     

Reply to “Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome Responsive to Intravenous Milrinone”

Neurocritical Care -     

Intranasal Dexamethasone Reduces Mortality and Brain Damage in a Mouse Experimental Ischemic Stroke Model

Neuroinflammation triggered by the expression of damaged-associated molecular patterns released from dying cells plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke. However, the benefits from the control of neuroinflammation in the clinical outcome have not been established. In this study, the effectiveness of intranasal, a highly efficient route to reach the central nervous system, and intraperitoneal dexamethasone administration in the treatment of neuroinflammation was evaluated in a 60-min middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model in C57BL/6 male mice. We performed a side-by-side comparison using intranasal versus intraperitoneal dexamethasone, a timecourse including immediate (0 h) or 4 or 12 h poststroke intranasal administration, as well as 4 intranasal doses of dexamethasone beginning 12 h after the MCAO versus a single dose at 12 h to identify the most effective conditions to treat neuroinflammation in MCAO mice. The best results were obtained 12 h after MCAO and when mice received a single dose of dexamethasone (0.25 mg/kg) intranasally. This treatment significantly reduced mortality, neurological deficits, infarct volume size, blood–brain barrier permeability in the somatosensory cortex, inflammatory cell infiltration, and glial activation. Our results demonstrate that a single low dose of intranasal dexamethasone has neuroprotective therapeutic effects in the MCAO model, showing a better clinical outcome than the intraperitoneal administration. Based on these results, we propose a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of the damage process that accompanies ischemic stroke.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13311-020-00884-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Development of a biochemical marker to detect current breast milk intake

The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, but despite interventions, breastfeeding rates remain stubbornly low. Financial voucher incentives have shown promise but require a biomarker for validation of intake. This study aimed to develop a simple biochemical assay of infant urine that would tell if an infant was receiving any breast milk to validate maternal report. Urine samples were collected and snap frozen from 34 infants attending with minor illness or feeding problems, of whom 12 infants were exclusively breastfed, nine exclusively formula fed, and 11 mixed breast/formula fed. High‐performance anion exchange chromatography was used to identify discriminating patterns of monosaccharide composition of unconjugated glycans in a sequence of three experiments. The absolute concentration of all human milk oligosaccharides measured blind could detect “any breastfeeding” only with a sensitivity of 48% and specificity of 78%. Unblinded examination of N‐acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) measured as GlcNH₂ after hydrolysis of GlcNAc improved sensitivity to 75% at the expense of a specificity of 28%. Estimation of the relative abundance of GlcNH2 (GlcNH2[%]) or the ratio of GlcNH2 to endogenous mannose (Man) improved accuracy. In a further blind experiment, the GlcNH2/Man ratio with a cut‐off of 1.5 correctly identified all those receiving “any breast milk,” while excluding exclusively formula fed infants. The GlcNH2/Man ratio in infant urine is a promising test to provide biochemical confirmation of any breastfeeding for trials of breastfeeding promotion.