Integrated sibling-parent group intervention to improve sibling knowledge and adjustment to chronic illness and disability

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an integrated group intervention for siblings and parents designed to increase sibling understanding of and adjustment to chronic illness and developmental disability (CI/DD). METHODS: Fifty-four well siblings (ages 8-13 years) and their parents were recruited through hospital-based and community agencies serving children with CI/DD. Measures of sibling knowledge, sibling adjustment to the disorder, sibling connectedness, and sibling global behavioral functioning were collected before and after the intervention. A subsample of 20 families completed a 3-month follow-up to assess maintenance of results. RESULTS: Sibling knowledge of the child's disorder and sibling connectedness increased, while sibling reports of negative adjustment to the disorder and parent reports of sibling global behavioral functioning decreased significantly from pre- to posttreatment for both boys and girls, regardless of the type of diagnostic condition. Improvements in sibling knowledge, connectedness, and behavioral problems maintained at 3-month follow-up. Parent satisfaction with the program was high. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the future conduct of more controlled evaluation of the integrated sibling and parent group intervention model to improve sibling knowledge of and adjustment to CI/DD.     

Impact of Parental Health Problems on Children: Concepts, Methods, and Unanswered Questions

Described conceptual and methodological issues that arise inthe design and analysis of data from studies of the impact ofparental health problems on children. Researchers should considerhow the functional effects, duration, and type of exposure ofparental health problems affect children's psychological experience.Multiple pathways (e.g., parental modeling, family socializationpractices, and genetic factors) that affect the transmissionof psychological and/or health risk to children need to be considered.Important methodological issues in this area of research includesample selection and bias, confounding factors, and limitedassessment of family influences. Future work should identifyfactors that enhance child and family resilience to the effectsof parental health problems. Studies are also needed to developand test interventions to reduce the psychological morbidityassociated with parental health problems.     

Partially Inverted Tandem Repeat Isolated from Pericentric Region of Chicken Chromosome 8

The majority of chicken repetitive sequence is nuclear-membrane-associated sequence (CNM), which resides in a large number of microchromosomes (chromosomes 11–39) and is absent from macrochromosomes 1–5, ZW, and some of the intermediate chromosomes 6–10. Two repetitive families, EcoRI/XhoI, are confined to the female-specific W chromosome. The core repeat units of the three families are 21 bp, containing (A)_3–5 and (T)_3–5 clusters separated by 5–7-bp sequences. In this article, we describe the isolation and initial characterization of a novel repeat family that is related to CNM/EcoRI/XhoI families. The novel family, designated as PIR, consists of multiple types of partially inverted repeat units of about 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 kb. The PIR sequence is restricted to chicken chromosome 8, and accounts for about 3.8 mb, or 2500 copies of the 1.4-kb units, of the chicken genome. The evolution of PIR and related sequences is discussed.     

HLA antigens are candidate markers for prediction of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer

We investigated the association between human leucocyte antigen (HLA) antigens and lymph node metastasis in 724 gastric cancer patients. Among patients who had poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with or without HLA-DR4 antigen, lymph node metastasis was detected in 80.8 and 54.9%, respectively (relative risk (RR)=3.5, P = 0.0005, corrected P = 0.0285). It was more common in patients with a family history of cancer death (RR = 7.7). Among signet ring cell carcinoma patients with or without HLA-1152 antigen, lymph node metastasis was detected in 57.7 and 19.7%, respectively (RR =5.6, P=0.0001, corrected P=0.0086). It was more common in patients who were smokers (RR = 8.3). Our findings suggest that HLA-DR4 and HLA-1152 antigens are associated with lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.     

Preferential VH/V lambda pairings occur in the available B cell repertoire of adult BALB/c mice.

To gain insights into the composition of the B cell repertoire, we have investigated VH gene family expression associated with individual light chains. For this purpose, we have examined the use of 12 VH gene families in a large collection of hybridomas expressing one of the four lambda light chains [lambda 1 (V1J1), lambda 2 (V2J2 and V x J2) and lambda 3 (V1J3)]. Our results show that the distribution of the VH families is very different from one lambda subtype to another. This suggests that a few substitutions between VL regions are sufficient to generate very different associated repertoires by strong selection mechanisms. Moreover, we assume that the global VH expression pattern is not random but rather composed of many preferential VH/VL associations.     

Serum levels of total IgE in non-allergic children

The purpose of this study was to establish the range of total serum IgE in a healthy population lacking personal and family history of allergy, as well as the influence of genetic factors (family history of allergy), environmental factors (degree of air pollution), age, and sex on the serum IgE levels. Using a commercial enzyme immunoassay (Phadezym IgE Prist) the mean serum level of IgE was determined in 363 non-atopic children from 0 to 12 years of age. The geometric mean of serum IgE increased according to age, indicating a positive correlation between both. Higher mean values of serum IgE were found for children with a family history of allergy, than for children without (27.82 and 14.49 U/ml respectively). The percentage of variation due to age was about 94.5% in children with no family history of allergy. The mean value of serum IgE increased with the degree of air pollution in the living area (15.49 U/ml in non-polluted areas, 20.78 U/ml in very polluted areas). However, the influence of air pollution was smaller than the influence of family history on the mean values of serum IgE. The mean value of serum IgE was not modified by sex.     

Psychogenic pain: a study of marital adjustment

The marital adjustment of patients with psychogenic pain disorder was evaluated and compared with a matched group of patients with other neurotic disorders. Pain patients spouses were found to have better marital adjustment and less psychiatric morbidity than the spouses of neurotic patients. These findings are discussed in terms of the concepts of "sick role homeostasis" and "tertiary gain".     

焦虑在家庭亲密度与发育迟缓儿童自我意识关系间的中介效应分析

目的 调查发育迟缓儿童的自我意识水平,并探讨焦虑在家庭亲密度与自我意识的中介作用。方法 采取便利抽样法,于2019年7月—2021年4月抽取辽宁省某医院儿科门诊就诊和复查的200例发育迟缓儿童作为研究对象。采用一般资料调查问卷、家庭亲密度与适应性量表(FACES-Ⅱ)、儿童焦虑量表与儿童自我意识量表进行调查。结果 200例发育迟缓儿童的自我意识总分为45.87±4.15,FACES-Ⅱ得分与自我意识总分呈负相关 (r＝-0.607,P＜0.01);FACES-Ⅱ得分与儿童焦虑呈正相关(r=0.416,P＜0.001);儿童焦虑与自我意识呈负相关(r＝-0.367,P＜0.01)。中介效应检验结果显示,儿童焦虑在家庭亲密度对自我意识之间存在显著的部分中介效应,95%CI为(-0.257,-0.043)。中介效应值为-0.077,占总效应的9.50%。 结论 发育迟缓儿童自我意识较低,要重点关注对儿童焦虑情绪的疏导,营造良好的家庭氛围和融洽的亲子关系,提高发育迟缓儿童心理健康与自我意识水平。     

家庭社会经济状况与3岁以内儿童生长发育及营养状况的关系

目的 探究家庭社会经济状况(SES)与3岁以内儿童生长发育及营养状况的关系,为我国儿童预防保健提供科学依据。方法 数据源于2015年中国九市7岁以下儿童体格发育调查的西安地区数据。研究共纳入父/母亲文化程度、父/母亲职业和家庭年收入5项指标因子,构建了SES综合指标作为自变量。结局变量为身长、体重和评估的营养状况结局。调整儿童性别和月龄后,分别建立线性回归和Logistic回归模型,分析SES与身长体重和营养结局的关系。结果 研究共纳入3岁以内儿童12 017人,经评估营养不良者281人(2.3%),营养过剩者531人(4.4%)。调整儿童性别和月龄后,与低水平SES儿童相比,中等水平SES儿童身长增加0.32 cm(95%CI:0.16~0.47),发生营养过剩的风险降低20%(OR =0.80, 95%CI:0.65~0.98);高水平儿童身长增加0.77 cm(95%CI:0.61~0.92),体重增加0.06 kg(95%CI:0.006~0.12),发生营养过剩的风险降低33%(OR=0.67, 95%CI:0.53~0.83)。结论 较好的社会经济状况可能降低营养过剩的风险,有助于儿童的发育与营养健康。应改善家庭育儿环境,加强对低SES家庭的儿保宣教,提高儿童的健康水平。