A new report by the World Health Organisation shows that Africa has registered an increase in life expectancy by almost 10 years over the past 15 years.
Early life environments induce long-term changes in neurocognitive development and behaviour. In animal models, early environmental cues affect neuropsychological phenotypes via epigenetic processes but, as yet, there is little direct evidence for such mechanisms in humans. The researchers examined the relation between DNA methylation at birth and child neuropsychological outcomes in two culturally diverse populations using a genome-wide methylation analysis and validation by pyrosequencing.
Early life exposure to the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA) may contribute to development of obesity. Prospective evidence in humans on this topic is limited. Researchers examined prenatal and early childhood BPA exposures in relation to childhood measures of adiposity in the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) New York City birth cohort.
Raipur: Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday launched Mehtari Jatan Yojna to provide best nutritious diet to 2.5 lakh pregnant women at Aanganwadi centres across state.
Improved outcomes for women and children - more education, lower fertility rates, higher nutritional status, and lower incidence of illness, among other outcomes - have broad individual, family, and societal benefits.
The Global strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (2016–2030) provides a roadmap for ending preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030 and helping them achieve their potential for and rights to health and well-being in all settings. The global strategy has three objectives: survive (end preventable deaths); thrive (ensure health and well-being); and transform (expand enabling environments).
Underreporting hampers the accurate estimation of the numbers of infant and maternal deaths and stillbirths in India. In Haryana state, a surveillance-based model – the Maternal Infant Death Review System – was launched in 2013 to try to resolve this issue. The system is a mixture of routine passive data collection and active surveillance by specially recruited and trained field volunteers.
Prenatal exposure to ambient PM2.5, (i.e., fine particulate matter) has been associated with preterm birth and low birth weight. The association between prenatal PM2.5 exposure and intrauterine inflammation (IUI), an important risk factor for preterm birth and neurodevelopmental outcomes, has not been evaluated. The researchers aimed to investigate the association between maternal exposure to PM2.5 and IUI in the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC), a predominantly urban low-income minority population.
The unfolding story of Zika virus in the Americas is much more than a mosquito-borne disease that may affect fetal development. It is the story of a disease that exposed problems and raised challenges that the affected health systems and governments cannot ignore. Next, based largely on lessons provided by Brazil’s Zika epidemic, we discuss five critical problems and challenges and reflect on opportunities to remedy them.
