COVID-19 Pandemic Exposure and Toddler Behavioral Health in the ECHO Program.

Importance: Studies suggest developmental concerns for infants born during the COVID-19 pandemic, but evidence on its impact on toddler behavioral and emotional well-being remains limited.

Objective: To assess whether birth timing relative to the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with toddler internalizing and externalizing problems.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study utilized Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohort data collected between September 27, 2009, and July 21, 2023.

Caregiver empowerment, family asthma management, and patient-provider relationship for children with asthma.

Introduction: Caregivers play an important role in their child's asthma management. This study examines the association of caregiver empowerment with family asthma management, and the patient-provider relationship for urban children and their caregivers.

Method: Data were collected between 2011 and 2014.

Development and Tailoring of a Peer-Administered Asthma Management Intervention for Urban Latino Middle School Children.

: Children from Latino backgrounds face unique challenges in managing asthma. Barriers are compounded when children live in urban settings and are exposed to urban stressors (e.g.

Injectable buprenorphine during transition out of prison: A pilot partially randomized preference trial protocol.

Background: Individuals involved in the criminal legal system represent one of the most disproportionately affected populations in the opioid overdose crisis. Despite evidence of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) reducing overdose mortality, illicit opioid use, and recidivism, most correctional facilities do not offer these treatments. Sublocade and Brixadi, two distinct, branded, formulations of extended-release buprenorphine (XR-B), offer a promising approach to improving MOUD treatment adherence and reducing post-release overdose deaths.

The Effects of Asthma, Anxiety, and Depression on Sleep Outcomes Among Youth in Puerto Rico.

The objective of this study is to examine the associations among asthma, depression, and anxiety with sleep outcomes among youth in Puerto Rico and determine whether age moderates the associations. Data came from surveys of 333 youth aged 10-17 living in Puerto Rico. Predicted probabilities derived from logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of asthma, depression, and anxiety with sleep outcomes.

Addressing Pediatric Asthma Disparities through RI-AIR's Community Approach: A Randomized Trial.

Rationale: Clustering of social and environmental risks in low-income neighborhoods is a key factor in racial and ethnic asthma disparities. Integrating school and in-home programs, with treatment tailored to disease risk, is a promising approach for children with high disease burden.

Objectives: We evaluated the Rhode Island-Asthma Integrated Response (RI-AIR) Program in improving asthma outcomes at the individual and community levels.

Socio-ecological domains and adolescent mental health: An application of the dual-factor model.

Comprehensive assessment of mental health includes wellbeing and psychopathology. Using the dual-factor model of mental health, this study explored associations between socioecological domains and mental health profiles and subsequent moderations by sex, race and ethnicity, and age. Cross-sectional data were from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort (N = 2826).

Maternal Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Pregnancy and Offspring Blood Pressure at Age 2 to 18 Years.

Importance: Higher blood pressure in early life may signal cardiovascular disease over the life course, but determinants of blood pressure in early life are poorly understood.

Objective: To examine the association of maternal cardiometabolic risk factors during pregnancy with offspring blood pressure from age 2 to 18 years and explore whether the association is modified by offspring sex and race and ethnicity.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study analyzed data from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program between January 1, 1994, and March 31, 2023.

The behavioral health needs of legally involved sexual minority female adolescents.

Background: Sexual minority (SM) female adolescents involved in the legal system experience marginalization and health inequities. This study examined the differences in psychosocial functioning and risk behaviors among legally involved SM and heterosexual female adolescents to better understand their behavioral health needs. We hypothesized that SM females, as individuals at the intersection of two marginalized groups, would demonstrate greater psychiatric symptom severity and engagement in risk behaviors than their heterosexual counterparts.

Maternal vaginal and fecal microbiota in later pregnancy contribute to child fecal microbiota development in the ECHO cohort.

There is growing interest in the use of microbial-seeding interventions to mitigate the impacts of prenatal antibiotics, C-section, and lack of breastfeeding on mother-child microbe sharing. However, the relative importance of maternal vaginal vs. fecal microbiota in this process is unclear.

Neighborhoods, Caregiver Sexuality Communication, and Sexual Health of Adolescents Involved in the Legal System.

Adolescents in the juvenile legal system have unaddressed sexual health needs. Factors at multiple ecological levels-including caregivers or neighborhoods-may promote or hinder sexual health for this group. We aimed to identify targets for future intervention by determining the associations between sexual behaviors and multilevel risk and protective factors among adolescents involved in the juvenile legal system.

Concordance Between Asthma Symptom Reports and Objective Lung Function, and Associations With Sleep Outcomes in Urban Children.

Objectives: To examine the extent to which asthma symptom concordance (ASC) or discordance (ASD) is associated with sleep outcomes in children with persistent asthma. Also, to investigate whether the association between ASC and sleep outcomes varies as a function of children's level of asthma control and severity.

Methods: A retrospective data analysis of Project NAPS (Nocturnal Asthma and Performance in School), an observational study which examined asthma and sleep outcomes in children with persistent asthma.

Peripheral DNA Methylation of Cortisol- and Serotonin-Related Genes Predicts Hippocampal Volume in a Pediatric Population.

Background: Hippocampal volume increases throughout early development and is an important indicator of cognitive abilities and mental health. However, hippocampal development is highly vulnerable to exposures during development, as seen by smaller hippocampal volume and differential epigenetic programming in genes implicated in mental health. However, few studies have investigated hippocampal volume in relation to the peripheral epigenome across development, and even less is known about potential genetic moderators.

The effects of experimental sleep disruption on daytime performance among children with asthma living in urban environments.

Objectives: Children with asthma living in urban environments are at risk for disrupted sleep due to the presence of nocturnal asthma symptoms and urban stressors. Suboptimal sleep can affect children's daily functioning. The current study examined the effects of experimental sleep disruption on daytime performance in children with persistent asthma from urban backgrounds.

Demographic Correlates of Autism: How Do Associations Compare Between Diagnosis and a Quantitative Trait Measure?

Prevalence of autism diagnosis has historically differed by demographic factors. Using data from 8224 participants drawn from the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, we examined relationships between demographic factors and parent-reported autism-related traits as captured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS; T score > 65) and compared these to relations with parent-reported clinician diagnosis of ASD, in generalized linear mixed effects regression analyses. Results suggested lower odds of autism diagnosis, but not of SRS T > 65, for non-Hispanic Black children (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.

Research Priorities in Pediatric Asthma Morbidity: Addressing the Impacts of Systemic Racism on Children with Asthma in the United States. An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

In the United States, Black and Latino children with asthma are more likely than White children with asthma to require emergency department visits or hospitalizations because of an asthma exacerbation. Although many cite patient-level socioeconomic status and access to health care as primary drivers of disparities, there is an emerging focus on a major root cause of disparities-systemic racism. Current conceptual models of asthma disparities depict the historical and current effects of systemic racism as the foundation for unequal exposures to social determinants of health, environmental exposures, epigenetic factors, and differential healthcare access and quality.

Combining developmental and sleep health measures for autism spectrum disorder screening: an ECHO study.

Background: Sleep problems are reported for up to 80% of autistic individuals. We examined whether parsimonious sets of items derived from the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised (M-CHAT-R) and the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) are superior to the standard M-CHAT-R in predicting subsequent autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses.

Methods: Participants from 11 Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) cohorts were included.

The peripheral epigenome predicts white matter volume contingent on developmental stage: An ECHO study.

Epigenetic processes, including DNA methylation, are emerging as key areas of interest for their potential roles as biomarkers and contributors to the risk of neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and other brain-based disorders. Despite this growing focus, there remains a notable gap in our understanding of how DNA methylation correlates with individual variations in brain function and structure. Additionally, the dynamics of these relationships during developmental periods, which are critical windows during which many disorders first appear, are still largely unexplored.

Parental perceptions of body weight and appetite in infants and toddlers with cystic fibrosis.

Nutritional status has clinical relevance and is a target of guidance to parents of children with cystic fibrosis (CF). Growth is routinely monitored in CF clinics but there is no standardized way of assessing appetitive behaviors or parents' perceptions of their children's appetite. Greater understanding of these factors could improve clinical guidance regarding parent feeding behaviors.

Association of maternal education, neighborhood deprivation, and racial segregation with gestational age at birth by maternal race/ethnicity and United States Census region in the ECHO cohorts.

Background: In the United States, disparities in gestational age at birth by maternal race, ethnicity, and geography are theorized to be related, in part, to differences in individual- and neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (SES). Yet, few studies have examined their combined effects or whether associations vary by maternal race and ethnicity and United States Census region.

Methods: We assembled data from 34 cohorts in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program representing 10,304 participants who delivered a liveborn, singleton infant from 2000 through 2019.

A Pilot Randomized Control Trial Demonstrating the Efficacy of the SIESTA Sleep Hygiene Intervention.

Shorter sleep duration can negatively impact children's daytime functioning and health. Latino children living near urban areas in the Mainland U.S.