The common cold is associated with protection from SARS-CoV-2 Infections.

Background: Adults and children often respond differently to SARS-CoV-2 infection, with adults facing a higher risk of symptomatic and severe illness. We hypothesize that children's protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 may be due to more frequent respiratory viral infections, which prime their airway antiviral defenses.

Methods: Using case-cohort and case-control analyses in the Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 cohort, we evaluated whether infection with common respiratory viruses protects against SARS-CoV-2 infections and investigated airway molecular mechanisms by which this protection is achieved.

Impact of nasal and inhaled corticosteroids on SARS-CoV-2 infection susceptibility.

Background: It is unknown whether nasal corticosteroid (NCS) or inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) use impacts the susceptibility to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Objectives: We sought to examine the associations of NCS and ICS use with the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals with allergic rhinitis or asthma.

Methods: This is a prospective, multicenter, SARS-CoV-2 surveillance study of households with children.

Maternal prenatal carotenoids and child lung function: exploration of modifying factors.

Background: While childhood airway outcomes have been associated with prenatal nutrition, few studies examined carotenoids, a group of nutrients with antioxidant properties, as potential modifiers.

Objectives: In n=677 mother-child dyads enrolled in the Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood cohort, we examined associations between prenatal carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene and zeaxanthin) and child lung function at ages 8-9 years. Maternal-child factors that may modify associations were also assessed.

Single-cell profiling demonstrates the combined effect of wheeze phenotype and infant viral infection on airway epithelial development.

The development of the airway epithelium in asthma is unclear. We characterized nasal airway epithelial cell (NAEC) developmental phenotypes from children aged 2 to 3 years in an a priori designed nested birth cohort from four mutually exclusive groups of wheezers/nonwheezers and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-infected/uninfected in the first year of life. NAECs were differentiated, followed by single-cell RNA sequencing analysis and in vitro RSV infection.

A novel model to predict age of respiratory syncytial virus infection from birth timing in relation to RSV circulation.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common respiratory virus that infects all children by age 2 to 3 years of age and causes the greatest morbidity at the extremes of life. Recent evidence suggests that early-life RSV infection, defined using active and passive surveillance with quantitative polymerase chain reaction- and serology-identified infection, is causal for childhood asthma. As such, identifying infants that are likely to be infected with RSV during this critical susceptibility window has important implications for determining who is most at risk for chronic respiratory sequelae like asthma.

Early-life wheeze trajectories are associated with distinct asthma transcriptomes later in life.

Background: Early childhood wheeze is characterized by heterogeneous trajectories having differential associations with later-life asthma development.

Objective: We sought to determine how early-life wheeze trajectories impact later life asthma gene expression.

Methods: The Children's Respiratory Environmental Workgroup is a collective of 12 birth cohorts, 7 of which conducted an additional visit with a nasal lavage collected and subjected to bulk RNA-sequencing.

Maternal dietary flavonoid intake and child wheeze and asthma in the Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood (CANDLE) cohort.

Background: Higher intakes of flavonoids have been associated with better lung function in adults. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between maternal prenatal intake of flavonoids and offspring asthma and wheeze.

Methods: We conducted a prospective study of Black (62.

Observational birth cohorts for causal and predictive inference: The example of childhood asthma and allergic diseases.

Prospective birth cohort studies have identified important factors associated with the development and occurrence of early life conditions and facilitated exploration of causal mechanisms. We discuss the strengths, importance, and biases of birth cohort data for causal inference and predictive modeling, using childhood asthma and allergic disease research as an illustrative example. State-of-the-art study design and statistical methodologies are considered and recommended to mitigate bias and infer causality, as well as using cohort assembly for increased power, sample size, and generalizability.

A Latent Trait-based Measure as a Data Harmonization and Missing Data Solution Applied to the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort.

Background: Collaborative research consortia provide an efficient method to increase sample size, enabling evaluation of subgroup heterogeneity and rare outcomes. In addition to missing data challenges faced by all cohort studies like nonresponse and attrition, collaborative studies have missing data due to differences in study design and measurement of the contributing studies.

Methods: We extend ROSETTA, a latent variable method that creates common measures across datasets collecting the same latent constructs with only partial overlap in measures, to define a common measure of socioeconomic status (SES) across cohorts with varying indicators in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort, a consortium of pregnancy and pediatric cohorts.

A descriptive examination of rurality in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort: Implications, illustrations, and future directions.

Purpose: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort has enrolled over 60,000 children to examine how early environmental factors (broadly defined) are associated with key child health outcomes. The ECHO Cohort may be well-positioned to contribute to our understanding of rural environments and contexts, which has implications for rural health disparities research. The present study examined the outcome of child obesity to not only illustrate the suitability of ECHO Cohort data for these purposes but also determine how various definitions of rural and urban populations impact the presentation of findings and their interpretation.

Caregiver worry about COVID-19 as a predictor of social mitigation behaviours and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 12-city U.S. surveillance study of households with children.

Objective: Understanding compliance with COVID-19 mitigation recommendations is critical for informing efforts to contain future infectious disease outbreaks. This study tested the hypothesis that higher levels of worry about COVID-19 illness among household caregivers would predict lower (a) levels of overall and discretionary social exposure activities and (b) rates of household SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Methods: Data were drawn from a surveillance study of households with children ( = 1913) recruited from 12 U.

Development and Validation of a Diagnostic Algorithm for Down Syndrome Using Birth Certificate and International Classification of Diseases Codes.

Objective: We aimed to develop an algorithm that accurately identifies children with Down syndrome (DS) using administrative data.

Methods: We identified a cohort of children born between 2000 and 2017, enrolled in the Tennessee Medicaid Program (TennCare), who either had DS coded on their birth certificate or had a diagnosis listed using an International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code (suspected DS), and who received care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, a comprehensive academic medical center, in the United States. Children with suspected DS were defined as having DS if they had (a) karyotype-confirmed DS indicated on their birth certificate; (b) karyotype-pending DS indicated on their birth certificate (or just DS if test type was not specified) and at least two healthcare encounters for DS during the first 6 years of life; or (c) at least three healthcare encounters for DS, with the first and last encounter separated by at least 30 days, during the first six years of life.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus Prevalence and Risk Factors among Healthy Term Infants, United States.

In a population-based birth cohort study of respiratory syncytial virus surveillance in the United States, 897/1,680 (53.4%) children were infected during infancy; 25 (2.8%) of those were hospitalized.

Association of prenatal vitamin E levels with child asthma and wheeze.

Background: We investigated the individual and interaction effects of maternal plasma 𝛂- and ϒ-tocopherol levels (vitamin E isomers) on child asthma and wheeze at age 8-9.

Methods: Mother-child dyads were enrolled between 2006 and 2011 into the Conditions Affecting Neurocognitive Development and Learning in Early Childhood (CANDLE) prenatal cohort. Maternal second-trimester samples were analyzed for tocopherol and lipid concentrations.

Contribution of Gestational Weight Gain to Childhood Asthma Phenotypes: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: The contribution of prenatal anthropometric measures to the development of specific childhood asthma phenotypes is not known.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate associations between prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with allergic and nonallergic asthma phenotypes in childhood.

Methods: Our study population included term, healthy infants in the middle Tennessee region of the United States.

The association of infant urinary adrenal steroids with the risk of childhood asthma development.

Background: Adrenal steroids play important roles in early-life development. However, our understanding of the effects of perinatal adrenal steroids on the development of childhood asthma is incomplete.

Objective: To evaluate the associations between early-life adrenal steroid levels and childhood asthma.

Personalized Infant Risk Prediction for Severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Requiring Intensive Care Unit Admission.

Background: Currently, there are no available tools to identify infants at the highest risk of significant morbidity and mortality from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) who would benefit most from RSV prevention products. The objective was to develop and internally validate a personalized risk prediction tool for use among all newborns that uses readily available birth/postnatal data to predict RSV LRTI requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission.

Methods: We conducted a population-based birth cohort study of infants born from 1995 to 2007, insured by the Tennessee Medicaid Program, and who did not receive RSV immunoprophylaxis during the first year of life.