Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE:To explore attitudes and preferences related to remote nutrition education programming for Latino families in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and primary care. DESIGN/METHODS:Community-engaged, qualitative, thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups. SETTING/METHODS:Prenatal and pediatric primary care and WIC sites in Manhattan, Queens, and Nassau Counties, New York. PARTICIPANTS/METHODS:Four stakeholder groups: (1) past participants of a primary care-based obesity prevention program (Starting Early Program Prenatal) for Latino families that transitioned to remote delivery because of coronavirus disease 2019 (n = 40), (2) Latina WIC participants, including pregnant women and mothers of young children (n = 40), (3) Starting Early Program Prenatal staff (n = 6), and (4) WIC staff (n = 16). PHENOMENON OF INTEREST/METHODS:Attitudes and preferences related to in-person vs remote nutrition education programming. ANALYSIS/METHODS:Focus groups and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for emergent themes using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS:Four themes emerged: (1) valuing in-person social connection while recognizing barriers to in-person gathering, (2) navigating distraction-related barriers to remote engagement, (3) consistent content delivery but uncertain quality of remote programs, and (4) coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic-related contextual factors. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS/CONCLUSIONS:Future remote programs in WIC may benefit from incorporating opportunities for social interaction, explicit discussion of anticipated barriers, and strategies to overcome them.

OBJECTIVE:To assess associations between exposure to intrauterine SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent child neurodevelopment in a large, diverse cohort with confirmation of maternal SARS-CoV-2 status. STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:edition (ASQ-3) and at 18 months with the ASQ Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE) and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-Revised (M-CHAT-R). We compared exposed and unexposed infants' ASQ-3 total and subdomain scores, ASQ-SE and M-CHAT-R scores, and proportions meeting published referral thresholds, using multivariable linear and logistic regression. RESULTS:Among 1179 participants enrolled, 1008 (85.5%) had exposure, with 806 (80.0%) exposed during Omicron predominance. Of those with known timing, 349 (41.4%) and 295 (35.0%) were exposed in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy respectively. Exposure was not associated with differences in ASQ-3 (adjusted difference: -0.61, 95% CI: -10.03, 8.81) or ASQ-3 subdomains at 12 months, ASQ-SE at 18 months (adjusted difference: 0.19, 95% CI: -4.02, 4.41), or M-CHAT-R scores. Findings were similar for proportions meeting referral thresholds, and when stratified by variant or by trimester. CONCLUSIONS:In this multicenter cohort largely exposed since Omicron and in second or third trimester, intrauterine SARS-CoV-2 exposure was not associated with neurodevelopmental screening outcomes through 18 months of age. Further assessments of the impact of intrauterine SARS-CoV-2 on neurodevelopment beyond 18 months of age are needed.

IMPORTANCE/UNASSIGNED:Millions of children worldwide are experiencing prolonged symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet social risk factors for developing long COVID are largely unknown. As child health is influenced by the environment in which they live and interact, adverse social determinants of health (SDOH) may contribute to the development of pediatric long COVID. OBJECTIVE/UNASSIGNED:To identify whether adverse SDOH are associated with increased odds of long COVID in school-aged children and adolescents in the US. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS/UNASSIGNED:This cross-sectional analysis of a multicenter, longitudinal, meta-cohort study encompassed 52 sites (health care and community settings) across the US. School-aged children (6-11 years; n = 903) and adolescents (12-17 years; n = 3681) with SARS-CoV-2 infection history were included. Those with an unknown date of first infection, history of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or symptom surveys with less than 50% of questions completed were excluded. Participants were recruited via health care systems, long COVID clinics, fliers, websites, social media campaigns, radio, health fairs, community-based organizations, community health workers, and existing research cohorts from March 2022 to August 2024, and surveys were completed by caregivers between March 2022 and August 2024. EXPOSURE/UNASSIGNED:Twenty-four individual social determinant of health factors were grouped into 5 Healthy People 2030 domains: economic stability, social and community context, caregiver education access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and health care access and quality. Latent classes were created within each domain and used in regression models. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES/UNASSIGNED:Presence of long COVID using caregiver-reported, symptom-based, age-specific research indices. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:The mean (SD) age among 4584 individuals included in this study was 14 (3) years, and 2330 (51%) of participants were male. The number of latent classes varied by domain; the reference group was the class with the least adversity. In unadjusted analyses, most classes in each domain were associated with higher odds of long COVID. After adjusting for many factors, including age group, sex, timing of infection, referral source, and other social determinant of health domains, economic instability characterized by difficulty covering expenses, poverty, receipt of government assistance, and food insecurity were associated with an increased risk of having long COVID (class 2 adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.57; 95% CI, 1.18-2.09; class 4 aOR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.73-3.30); economic instability without food insecurity (class 3) was not (aOR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.70-1.23). Poorer social and community context (eg, high levels of discrimination and low social support) was also associated with long COVID (aOR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.77-2.66). Sensitivity analyses stratified by age group and adjusted for race and ethnicity did not alter or attenuate these results. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE/UNASSIGNED:In this study, economic instability that included food insecurity and poor social and community context were associated with greater odds of pediatric long COVID. Those with food security, despite experiencing other economic challenges, did not have greater odds of long COVID. Further study is needed to determine if addressing SDOH factors can decrease the rate of pediatric long COVID.

We combined data from five cohorts of mothers of young children across three cities to understand how COVID-19 affected parenting among predominantly Black and Latine families with low incomes. We examined whether mothers reported that their parenting got worse, got better, or stayed the same; drew on a qualitative substudy to identify themes describing parenting experiences; and used quantitative data to identify psychosocial characteristics associated with changes in parenting. Forty-four percent of mothers reported their parenting stayed the same after COVID-19 onset, 32% reported improvements, and 24% reported their parenting got worse. Qualitative data illustrated that mothers whose parenting got better spent more and higher-quality time with children, whereas mothers whose parenting got worse did not maintain family routines, had financial worries, and exhibited harsh responses to child problem behaviors. Quantitative data showed that depression, social support, COVID-19-related distress, and parenting self-agency were all associated with reported changes in parenting.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:In adolescents (12-17 years), it is unknown whether COVID-19 vaccination reduces progression from COVID-19 to Long COVID (LC) beyond preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection. We assessed the effect of vaccination among SARS-CoV-2 infected adolescents. METHODS AND RESULTS/RESULTS:Participants were recruited from over 60 US healthcare and community settings. The exposure was any COVID-19 vaccination 6 months prior to infection. The outcome was LC defined using the LC research index. Vaccinated (n = 724) and unvaccinated (n = 507) adolescents were matched on sex, infection date, and enrollment date. The risk of LC was 36 % lower (95 % CI, 17 %, 50 %) in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated participants. CONCLUSIONS:Vaccination reduces the risk of LC. Given the profound impact LC can have on the health and well-being of adolescents and the limited availability of treatments during this developmental stage, this supports vaccination as a strategy for preventing LC by demonstrating an important secondary prevention effect.

BACKGROUND:Childhood obesity is a global public health issue, which has prompted governments to invest in prevention programmes. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of parent-focused early childhood obesity prevention interventions globally. METHODS:We did a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. We searched databases and trial registries (MEDLINE, Embase, CENTRAL, CINAHL, PsycInfo, ClinicalTrials.gov, and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform) from inception until Sept 30, 2024, for randomised controlled trials commencing before 12 months of age examining parent-focused behavioural interventions to prevent obesity in children, compared with usual care, no intervention, or attention control. Individual participant data were checked, harmonised, and assessed for integrity and risk of bias. We excluded trials that were quasi-randomised, investigated pregnancy-only interventions, or did not collect any child weight-related outcomes. The primary outcome was BMI Z score at age 24 months (±6 months). We did an intention-to-treat, two-stage, random effects meta-analysis to examine effects overall and for prespecified subgroups. We assessed certainty of evidence using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation. This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42020177408. FINDINGS/RESULTS:=0·01; n=6505; 2623 missing). Findings were robust to prespecified sensitivity analyses (eg, different analysis methods and missing data), and we found no evidence of differential intervention effects for prespecified subgroups including priority populations and trial-level factors. INTERPRETATION/CONCLUSIONS:These findings indicate that examined parent-focused behavioural interventions are insufficient to prevent obesity at age 24 months (±6 months). This evidence highlights a need to re-think childhood obesity prevention approaches. FUNDING/BACKGROUND:Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

IMPORTANCE:Recent studies have identified characteristic symptom patterns of long COVID (LC) in adults and children older than 5 years. However, LC remains poorly characterized in early childhood. This knowledge gap limits efforts to identify, care for, and prevent LC in this vulnerable population. OBJECTIVES:To identify symptoms that had the greatest difference in frequency comparing children with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection to those without, to identify differences in the types of symptoms by age group (infants/toddlers [0-2 years] vs preschool-aged children [3-5 years]), and to derive an index that can be used in research studies to identify young children with LC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:This was a multisite longitudinal cohort study with enrollment from over 30 US health care and community settings, including infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection history. Study data were analyzed from May to December 2024. EXPOSURE:SARS-CoV-2 infection. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:LC and 41 symptoms among infants/toddlers and 75 symptoms among preschool-aged children. RESULTS:The study included 472 infants/toddlers (mean [SD] age, 12 [9] months; 278 infected with SARS-CoV-2; 194 uninfected; 234 male [50%]; 73 Black or African American [16%]; 198 Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish [43%]; 242 White [52%]) and 539 preschool-aged children (mean [SD] age, 48 [10] months; 399 infected with SARS-CoV-2; 140 uninfected; 277 female [51%]; 70 Black or African American [13%]; 210 Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish [39%]; 287 White [54%]). The median (IQR) time between first infections and completion of symptom surveys was 318 (198-494) days for infants/toddlers and 520 (330-844) days for preschool-aged children. A research index was derived for each age group based on symptoms most associated with infection history. The index is calculated by summing scores assigned to each prolonged symptom that was present, where higher scores indicate greater magnitude of association with history of SARS-CoV-2 infection: poor appetite (5 points), trouble sleeping (3.5 points), wet cough (3.5 points), dry cough (3 points), and stuffy nose (0.5 points) for infants/toddlers, and daytime tiredness/sleepiness/low energy (6.5 points) and dry cough (3 points) for preschool-aged children. Among infants/toddlers with infection, 40 of 278 (14%) were classified as having probable LC by having an index of at least 4 points. Among preschool-aged children, 61 of 399 (15%) were classified as having probable LC by having an index of at least 3 points. Participants with higher indices often had poorer overall health, lower quality of life, and perceived delays in developmental milestones. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:This cohort study identified symptom patterns and derived research indices that were distinct between the 2 age groups and differed from those previously identified in older ages, demonstrating the need to characterize LC separately across age ranges.

Although it is known that caregiver dietary behaviors influence child eating patterns, a gap remains in addressing the diet of a caregiver as much as their child in pediatric practice. A dyadic (caregiver-child) dietary approach would enhance the promotion of healthy eating patterns in children (and their caregivers) and achieve the population health goal of healthy eating across demographic groups. This study aimed to understand factors influencing dyadic dietary patterns (concordance, discordance) and contexts. Twenty professionals who provide nutrition-related expertise for families were recruited via maximum variation sampling. Qualitative thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed 3 themes: (1) variable professional perspectives on what constitutes "healthy eating," (2) eating patterns of a child in the setting of variable caregiver eating practices, and (3) challenges to the promotion of a healthy caregiver-child dyadic diet within a social context. The results offer insight for future interventions that promote positive intergenerational transmission of health.