Time in Parenting Activities in Dual‐Earner Families at the Transition to Parenthood

Time parenting was compared for new mothers and fathers in a sample of 182 dual‐earner families. Parenting domains included positive engagement, responsibility, routine child care, and accessibility. Time diaries captured parents' time use over a 24‐hour workday and nonworkday when infants were age 3 and 9 months. Parents were highly involved with their infants. Mothers were more involved than fathers in positive engagement and routine child care on days and at each assessment, and allocated more available time on workdays to these domains than fathers, with one exception. Fathers and mothers allocated similar shares of available workday time to positive engagement at 9 months. Greater equity in responsibility and accessibility was found; mothers spent more, and a greater share of, parenting time in responsibility than fathers on the 9‐month workday only, and were more accessible on the 3‐month workday only. Implications for parents in today's diverse families are discussed.     

Promoting Father Involvement for Child and Family Health

Paternal involvement in children's lives is associated with a variety of child outcomes, including improved cognition, improved mental health, reduced obesity rates, and asthma exacerbation. Given this evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics has promoted actions by pediatricians to engage fathers in pediatric care. Despite these recommendations, the mother–child dyad, rather than the mother–father–child triad, remains a frequent focus of care. Furthermore, pediatric care is often leveraged to improve maternal health, such as screening for maternal depression, but paternal health is infrequently addressed even as men tend to exhibit riskier behaviors, poorer primary care utilization, and lower life expectancy. Therefore, increasing efforts by pediatric clinicians to engage fathers may affect the health of both father and child. These efforts to engage fathers are informed by currently used definitions and measures of father involvement, which are discussed here. Factors described in the literature that affect father involvement are also summarized, including culture and context; interpersonal factors; logistics; knowledge and self-efficacy; and attitudes, beliefs, and incentives. Innovative ways to reach fathers both in the clinic and in other settings are currently under investigation, including use of behavior change models, motivational interviewing, mobile technologies, peer support groups, and policy advocacy efforts. These modalities show promise in effectively engaging fathers and improving family health.     

Vasculo–Behçet's syndrome with widespread arterial involvement

Abstract

An 18-year-old woman with a history of multiple oral ulcers followed by erythema nodosum was admitted to our hospital because of the lack of a pulse in her upper left extremity and occasional dizziness. High C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were detected in her serum. Arterial angiography showed a widespread narrowing of the major arteries, including both carotid arteries, the left vertebral artery, the left subclavian artery (branches of the aortic arch), the abdominal aorta, and left renal arteries. However, no involvement in the circle of Willis was noted, and this was confirmed by magnetic resonance angiography. Pulmonary scintigraphy showed no perfusion defect. The distribution of the arterial involvement, her youth, and nega-tive human leukocyte antigen (HLA) B51 were consistent with Takayasu arteritis, although the presence of mucocutaneous involvement favored a diagnosis of vasculo-Behçet's syndrome. We treated the patient with prednisolone and warfarin, which resulted in an improvement in CRP levels and no thrombosis-related complications.