In the pediatric population, pain is frequently under-recognized and inadequately treated. Improved education and training of health care providers can positively impact the management of pain in children. The purpose of this review is to provide a practical clinical approach to the management of acute pain in the pediatric inpatient population. This will include an overview of commonly used pain management modalities and their potential pitfalls. For institutions that have a pediatric acute pain service or are considering initiating one, it is our hope to provide a useful tool to aid clinicians in the safe and effective treatment of pain in children.
BACKGROUND: COVID-19 restrictions such as the closure of schools and parks, and the cancellation of youth sports and activity classes around the United States may prevent children from achieving recommended levels of physical activity (PA). This study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on PA and sedentary behavior (SB) in U.S. children. METHOD: Parents and legal guardians of U.S. children (ages 5-13) were recruited through convenience sampling and completed an online survey between April 25-May 16, 2020. Measures included an assessment of their child's previous day PA and SB by indicating time spent in 11 common types of PA and 12 common types of SB for children. Parents also reported perceived changes in levels of PA and SB between the pre-COVID-19 (February 2020) and early-COVID-19 (April-May 2020) periods. Additionally, parents reported locations (e.g., home/garage, parks/trails, gyms/fitness centers) where their children had performed PA and their children's use of remote/streaming services for PA. RESULTS: = 8.73 [SD = 2.58] years) represented 35 states and the District of Columbia. The most common physical activities during the early-COVID-19 period were free play/unstructured activity (e.g., running around, tag) (90% of children) and going for a walk (55% of children). Children engaged in about 90 min of school-related sitting and over 8 h of leisure-related sitting a day. Parents of older children (ages 9-13) vs. younger children (ages 5-8) perceived greater decreases in PA and greater increases in SB from the pre- to early-COVID-19 periods. Children were more likely to perform PA at home indoors or on neighborhood streets during the early- vs. pre-COVID-19 periods. About a third of children used remote/streaming services for activity classes and lessons during the early-COVID-19 period. CONCLUSION: Short-term changes in PA and SB in reaction to COVID-19 may become permanently entrenched, leading to increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in children. Programmatic and policy strategies should be geared towards promoting PA and reducing SB over the next 12 months.
Genevieve Fridlund Dunton, Bridgette Do, Shirlene D. Wang
Virtual reality (VR) offers children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) an inexpensive and motivating medium to learn and practice skills in a personalized, controlled, and safe setting; however, outcomes of VR interventions can vary widely. In particular, there is a need to understand the predictors of VR experience in children with ASD to inform the design of these interventions. To address this gap, a sample of children with ASD (n=35, mean age: 13.0 ± 2.6 years; 10 female) participated in a pilot study involving an immersive VR experience delivered through a head-mounted display. A data-driven approach was used to discover predictors of VR safety and sense of presence among a range of demographic and phenotypic user characteristics. Our results suggest that IQ may be a key predictor of VR sense of presence and that anxiety may modify the association between IQ and sense of presence. In particular, in low-anxiety participants, IQ was linearly related to experienced spatial presence and engagement, whereas, in high-anxiety participants, this association followed a quadratic form. The results of this pilot study, when replicated in larger samples, will inform the design of future studies on VR interventions for children with ASD.
Mahan Malihi, Jenny L. Nguyen, Robyn E. Cardy et al.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic, children have increased their use of mobile electronic devices to access the internet. Among the main applications used by children between 9 and 17 years old are the social and communication media platforms Instagram and TikTok (CGI.br, 2023). Consequently, they are more exposed to risky situations (e.g.objectionable content, sexual predators, cyberbullying, etc). To address this scenario, we conducted a systematic mapping study evaluating 33 primary studies to identify recommendations and general guidelines for parental control tools, which should be part of any social media app used by children. Based on this study, we derived 16 functional (FR) and 13 non-functional requirements (NFR) for IT companies to develop features that help caregivers and children promote online protection via assertive decisions and proper safeguards. We used those functional requirements as lenses of analysis of the two main social media software platforms largely used by children:Instagram and TikTok. Our findings revealed that TikTok’s parental control features are more mature and present more options for supervising and restricting children’s online activities than Instagram’s. Therefore, this research expands knowledge about the features for parental control and raises the discussion around children’s protection and welfare as relevant digital citizens.
What works to reduce child labour in agriculture? In this paper, we evaluate two randomised livelihood intervention programs, aimed to reduce child labour, particularly in its most exploitative forms, in rural areas of Peru. We evaluate a livelihood intervention provided to farmers in Peru that use the labour of their children on their family farms, accompanied by an education intervention aimed to improve the quality of schools and an awareness-raising intervention. We find that when the livelihood intervention is provided alone, it does not improve economic conditions, and hence generally fails to reduce child labour rates in rural areas. However, when the livelihood intervention is combined with measures to improve the quality of education, we see a reduction in hazardous child labour and child labour overall. Awareness-raising interventions, aimed at changing the perceptions of parents through community interaction, appear to have also had an effect in the reduction of child labour, and these effects were reinforced by education interventions. Results indicate that a comprehensive approach including livelihood support with education and awareness-raising components is a more effective way to reduce child labour and hazardous labour for children in the agricultural sector.
While the World Health Organization calls for a universal ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), 200 million women and girls around the world are affected by the ongoing practice [1]. Physicians in high-income countries will encounter patients with FGM/C more frequently. For example, in 2021, over half of the top ten countries of origin for […]
It is estimated that 200 million women have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) and of these, 44 million are girls younger than 15.1 FGM is the removal of part or all of the female genitalia or organs for non-medical reasons and often takes place under traumatic, unsterile conditions. FGM leads to medical and psychiatric complications for the affected woman herself, and can harm future generations who may suffer from FGM-related complications of labour. Immediately after the procedure a girl or woman may experience haemorrhaging, sepsis, urinary retention and sometimes death. In the long term, women who have experienced FGM may suffer from chronic menstrual issues, urinary tract infections, dyspareunia, post-traumatic stress disorder or depression. Moreover, FGM may lead to increased caesarean section rates, and some studies have demonstrated increased rates of infant death.2
FGM is a human rights violation, public health issue and form of interpersonal violence. Just as health professionals need to be equipped to respond to modern slavery, or human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault, they need to have the tools to care for those who have experienced FGM.3
In 2012, the United Nations outlined the important role the health …
O propósito desse artigo foi realizar um levantamento sistematizado das pesquisas de pós-graduação Strictu Sensu, contendo informações relevantes sobre a problemática da violência sexual contra crianças e adolescentes no Brasil. Após a seleção filtrada de 46 trabalhos, foi possível identificar a prevalência das pesquisas realizadas em Instituições Públicas de Ensino Superior (IFES) localizadas nas regiões Nordeste e Sudeste. Em relação ao perfil das vítimas, prevalece a violência sexual contra meninas, e o risco de violência aumenta na medida em que estas se aproximam da adolescência (faixa entre 12 e 14 anos). Ficou bastante claro que a temática deve ser entendida sob um aspecto multidisciplinar, havendo, assim, necessidade de articulação entre os diversos atores sociais envolvidos na formulação de políticas públicas voltadas para proteção das crianças e adolescentes.Palavras-Chave: violência sexual, crianças e adolescentes, Brasil
Antônio Carlos Miranda, Maria de Lourdes Mattos Barreto, Viviani Silva Lírio et al.
Corporal punishment is a unique, but common, form of violence against children in Canada because along with being legally protected, it is also often socially normalized. Faith leaders have played an important role in this process by, over centuries, animating interpretations of sacred texts that are rooted in colonial patterns of power and control. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 6 urges the Repeal of Section 43 of Canada’s Criminal Code. One contributing factor to blocking progress on this Call to Action is the amplification of colonial Christian interpretations of sacred texts that normalize violence against children and that are rooted in colonial-shaped ideas about gender roles and power. Repeal of Section 43 is a substantive piece of a clear decolonizing strategy. It concretely addresses violence towards children and reshapes society in the best interests of all children.
ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the development, validation, and evaluation of an educational video on the prevention of sexual violence against children for family caregivers. Method: Methodological study developed in three stages: 1) Development of the educational video; 2) Content and appearance validation with 22 referees; and 3) Semantic evaluation with 11 family caregivers. Validated data collection instruments were used for content and appearance validation with referees, as well as for semantic evaluation. The validation criterion was agreement above 80%, analyzed using the content validity index, binomial test and absolute frequency. For semantic evaluation, intentional non-probabilistic sampling was used. Results: the video included elements such as concept, victim and aggressor profile, identification (child's report and signs and symptoms), forms of prevention, forms of reporting, and protection network, distributed in opening, eight scenes, and closing, with a total time of nine minutes and 35 seconds. In content validation, agreement was satisfactory, with an average content validity index of 0.99, and in appearance validation, the average content validity index was 0.83. The semantic evaluation, conducted with 11 representatives of the target audience, obtained 100% agreement for all evaluated items. Conclusion: the video was considered valid in terms of content and appearance by the referees and understandable by representatives of the target audience, becoming a technology that can contribute to the prevention of sexual violence against children.
Valdirene Tenório Siqueira, Gabriela Cunha Schechtman Sette, Jaqueline Galdino Albuquerque Perrelli et al.
