Latest news with #JAMAPediatrics
Forbes
an hour ago
- General
- Forbes
How Does Long Covid Manifest In Infants And Young Children?
Washington DC, USA- September 19: Protestors lay down outside the White House to call attention to ... More those suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and âlong Covidâ on September 19th, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Long Covid symptoms are completely different in infants and toddlers, a recent JAMA Pediatrics study found. While infants and toddlers between the ages of 0 to 2 years are more likely to experience a stuffy nose, cough, poor appetite, fussiness, and sleep problems, children between the ages of 3 to 5 years mainly complain of sleepiness, feeling tired during daytime, low energy and dry cough. The study included 472 infants and toddlers, out of which 278 tested positive for Covid-19 and another 539 preschool-aged children. In this age group, 399 had been infected with the coronavirus. 'Studying long Covid in early childhood presents unique challenges due to rapid developmental changes and limited verbal communication, requiring caregivers to observe, identify, and interpret symptoms,' the researchers wrote in the study. 'These challenges have limited the understanding of symptom profiles in young children. Most long Covid studies that involve young children, including controlled studies, either do not report age-specific subgroup analyses or young children are not well represented.' 'Other Covid-19 studies have focused on SARS-CoV-2 exposure during pregnancy and offspring outcomes, with mixed findings related to birth defects, prematurity, and delayed developmental milestones. However, incomplete knowledge of prolonged symptoms experienced after a young child's own SARS-CoV-2 infection hinders prevention and treatment of LC in infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. This is a substantial gap, given that early childhood is a critical period in setting lifelong health trajectories,' they added. The researchers observed that 114 of the 278 infants/toddlers with a history of a Covid-19 infection and 49 of 194 infants or toddlers who did not get infected had at least one prolonged symptom. Whereas 45% of children who had Covid-19 and 37% who did not test positive reported at least one prolonged symptom. Among children, the most common symptom was dry cough (74%), followed by tiredness and daytime sleepiness (33%). "The findings that infants/toddlers and preschool-aged children have varied symptoms may be explained by the fact that symptoms in younger children are reported based on what caregivers can observe rather than what the children themselves are feeling and describing because most children in this age group do not yet have the language, social skills, or understanding of symptoms to share what they are experiencing," the researchers explained. "For example, fears and feelings of pain, brain fog, headache, tiredness, or changes in taste and smell may be hard to identify if the child cannot verbalize their internal feelings or sensations, whereas a symptom such as a cough is easily observed," they added. "A further complication is that the identified symptoms may occur commonly in young children because of their naive immune systems. Daytime sleepiness, trouble sleeping, cough, stuffy nose, and poor appetite can occur in many acute and chronic early childhood illnesses." A 2021 study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics compared the long Covid symptoms of children of all age groups including newborn infants to 18-year-olds, and observed that persistent post-viral symptoms were significantly more common after a Covid-19 infection. The most common symptoms were fatigue, irritability and mood changes, headaches, runny nose, cough, and loss of smell and taste.
AFP
a day ago
- Health
- AFP
'Make America Healthy Again' report cites nonexistent studies: authors
The highly anticipated "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) report was released on May 22 by the presidential commission tasked with assessing drivers of childhood chronic disease. But it included broken citation links and credits authors with papers they say they did not write. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed the errors as "formatting issues" during a press briefing on May 29 (archived here). "It does not negate the substance of the report," said Leavitt, who expressed confidence in Kennedy and his team, and insisted their work was "backed on good science." Image White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 29, 2025 (AFP / Jim WATSON) The issues were first reported May 29 by NOTUS (archived here), a US digital news website affiliated with the nonprofit Allbritton Journalism Institute. Noah Kreski (archived here), a Columbia University researcher listed as an author of a paper on adolescent anxiety and depression during the Covid-19 pandemic, told AFP the citation is "not one of our studies" and "doesn't appear to be a study that exists at all." The citation included a link (archived here) that purported to send users to an article in the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, but it was broken. Jim Michalski, a spokesman for the JAMA Network (archived here), said it "was not published in JAMA Pediatrics or in any JAMA Network journal." Columbia University epidemiologist Katherine Keyes (archived here), who was also listed as an author of the supposed JAMA study, told AFP she does research on the topic but does not know where the statistics credited to her came from, and that she "did not write that paper." She expressed concern about the error saying: "Citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science." She said she would be happy to send her actual research on depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults "to the MAHA committee to correct the report, although I have not yet received information on where to reach them." Guohua Li, another Columbia University professor named in the citation (archived here), said the reference is "totally fabricated" and that he does not even know Kreski. AFP also spoke with Harold Farber, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine (archived here), who said the paper attributed to him "does not exist" nor had he ever collaborated with the co-authors credited in the MAHA report. Similarly, Brian McNeill, spokesperson for Virginia Commonwealth University, confirmed that professor Robert Findling (archived here) did not author a paper the report says he wrote about advertising of psychotropic medications for youth. A fourth paper on ADHD medication was also not published in the journal Pediatrics in 2008 as claimed in the MAHA report, according to the journal's publisher, the American Academy of Pediatrics. A keyword search reveals a blog post with the same title as the purported paper, "Direct-to-consumer advertising and the rise in ADHD medication use among children" but it has a different author and is not a peer-reviewed publication (archived here). The Democratic National Committee blasted the report as "rife with misinformation" in a May 29 press release, saying Kennedy's agency "is justifying its policy priorities with studies and sources that do not exist" (archived here). Citations edited The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declined to comment, referring AFP's questions to the White House. At her briefing, Leavitt declined to answer how the report was produced and whether artificial intelligence tools may have been used to craft it, directing those questions back to HHS. t reported its analysis of the citations showed "oaicite" was attached to the URLs, the presence of which indicates the use of artificial intelligence products from OpenAI (archived here). Within hours of the briefing, an edited version of the report replaced the original paper on the White House website (archived here). Changes are not flagged or marked as corrections, but the four citations investigated by AFP were replaced with working links. The modifications are as follows: The paper said to come from the team at Columbia University was swapped out for a reference to a briefing on the Teen National Health Interview Survey published by KFF (archived here). The nonexistent paper credited to Farber was replaced with a paper on oral corticosteroid medication prescribed for asthma he published in Pediatrics in 2017 (archived here). An article published in the journal Psychiatric Services in 2006 replaced the paper initially credited to Findling (archived here). The reference to a paper on ADHD medication advertising was supplanted by a 2013 article from The New York Times (archived here) Concerns about Kennedy The revelations about the MAHA study came just a day after Kennedy attacked major medical journals, accusing them of collaborating with the pharmaceutical industry and threatening to bar government scientists from publishing in them. Kennedy was approved as health secretary earlier this year despite widespread alarm from the medical community over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and denying scientific facts. Since taking office, he has ordered the National Institutes of Health to probe the causes of autism -- a condition he has long falsely tied to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The report's chronic disease references appear to nod to that same disproven theory, discredited by numerous studies since the idea first aired in a late 1990s paper based on falsified data. It also criticizes the "over-medicalization" of children, citing surging prescriptions of psychiatric drugs and antibiotics, and blaming "corporate capture" for skewing scientific research. Image US Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) (L) look on as Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya holds up a copy of a MAHA health report during a MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Commission Event in the White House in Washington, DC, on May 22, 2025. A White House report detailing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s priorities devotes sizable space to stoking fear about vaccines -- even as it tackles more grounded worries over chemicals and diet. (AFP / Jim WATSON) Read more of AFP's reporting on health misinformation here. Gwen Roley and Manon Jacob contributed reporting to this article.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Millions of US children have parents with substance use disorder, and the consequences are staggering − new research
About 1 in 4 U.S. children – nearly 19 million – have at least one parent with substance use disorder. This includes parents who misuse alcohol, marijuana, prescription opioids or illegal drugs. Our estimate reflects an increase of over 2 million children since 2020 and an increase of 10 million from an earlier estimate using data from 2009 to 2014. Those are the key findings from a new study my colleagues and I published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. To arrive at this estimate, our team used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2023, the most recently released year of data. Nearly 57,000 people ages 12 and up responded. As a researcher who studies substance use in adolescents and young adults, I know these children are at considerable risk for the disorder, and other mental health issues, such as behavioral problems and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Substance use disorder is a psychiatric condition marked by frequent and heavy substance use. The disorder is characterized by numerous symptoms, including behaviors such as driving while intoxicated and fights with family and friends over substance use. This disorder also affects a parent's ability to be an attentive and loving caregiver. Children of these parents are more likely to be exposed to violence, initiate substance use at a younger age, be less prepared for school and enter the child welfare system. They are also more likely to have mental health problems both as children and as adults, and they have a much higher chance of developing a substance use disorder in adulthood. Of the 19 million children, our study found about 3.5 million live with a parent who has multiple substance use disorders. More than 6 million have a parent with both a substance use disorder and significant symptoms of depression, anxiety or both. Alcohol is by far the most common substance used, with 12.5 million children affected. Our 19 million estimate is significantly larger than an earlier estimate based on older data. That study, which reviewed data from 2009 to 2014, indicated that 8.7 million U.S. children – or roughly 1 in 8 – lived with a parent, or parents, with substance use disorder. That's a difference of about 10 million children. This happened primarily because between the time of the two studies – from 2014 to 2023 – the criteria for diagnosing someone with substance use disorder became broader and more inclusive. That change alone accounted for more than an 80% jump in the estimate of children affected by parental substance use disorder. There was also a further increase of 2 million in the number of affected children since 2020, which reflects the rising number of parents with a substance use disorder. There is a critical need to better identify parents with substance use disorder and the children who are affected by it. In my experience, many pediatric clinicians screen children for substance use, but they are much less likely to screen accompanying parents. So the first step is to make such screenings common and expected for both children and their adult caregivers. But that is not the case now. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that recommends screening and prevention best practices for clinicians, does not yet recommend such a screening for children, although that could help direct those in need to treatment and prevent the worst outcomes from substance use disorder. Additional intervention, which requires funding, is needed from federal, state and local government. This may seem fanciful in an age of scrutinized government budgets. But the alternative is a bill that comes due later: millions of adults exposed to this disorder at an early age, only to struggle decades later with their own substance use and mental health problems. The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Ty Schepis, Texas State University Read more: Alcohol use disorder can be treated with an array of medications – but few people have heard of them Drinking alcohol before conceiving a child could accelerate their aging – new research in mice Binge drinking is a growing public health crisis − a neurobiologist explains how research on alcohol use disorder has shifted Ty Schepis receives funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Any views expressed are those of Dr. Schepis and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIH/NIDA, the FDA, or SAMHSA. These funders had no role in any articles, and there was no editorial direction or censorship from the funders.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s ‘MAHA report' revealed to have cited studies that don't exist, and misinterpreted others
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released his 73-page 'MAHA Report,' commissioned by the Trump administration, last week. Aiming to find the root causes of chronic disease in the U.S., it included sections on childhood illness, ultra-processed foods, chemicals, technology and children's mental health, and medication and vaccines for children. It cited 522 studies, with RFK calling the report a 'milestone' achievement for public health filled with 'gold standard' science. But now its veracity has now come under scrutiny, as the non-profit, non-partisan outlet NOTUS revealed that several of the studies were misinterpreted in the report—and that seven of them did not exist. Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes, who is cited in the report as the author of a study on anxiety in adolescents titled 'Changes in mental health and substance use among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic,' told NOTUS that not only was she surprised to hear she was cited in the report, but that she did not write any such paper. 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' Keyes told NOTUS. 'We've certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.' The link for the alleged study is broken, and the journal issue that the report cites it to be in contains no papers on that topic. NOTUS also revealed that two papers included in the report's section on 'corporate capture of media' could not be found. Each allegedly illustrated the concept that direct-to-consumer advertising was driving medication use among children and adolescents. But one of the authors cited confirmed that he did not write the article cited in the report, while the other researcher didn't seem to exist. In another case, pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Harold J. Farber denied writing a cited study titled, 'American Children are on Too Much Medicine—A Recent and Emerging Crisis.' He said he never worked with the other listed authors, either. Farber told NOTUS that the MAHA report had egregiously overgeneralized research about the overprescribing of asthma medication to children. 'It is a tremendous leap of faith to generalize from a study in one Medicaid managed care program in Texas using 2011 to 2015 data to national care patterns in 2025,' Farber told NOTUS. That seemed to be a common theme in the rest of the report, NOTUS found. In one section about mental health medication—another point of contention for Kennedy—the report cites a paper as evidence that therapy alone is as or more effective than psychiatric medicine. But according to one of that paper's statisticians, that's not an accurate takeaway. Joanne McKenzie, a biostatistics professor at an Australian university, told NOTUS that their study didn't measure or compare therapy's effectiveness as a mental health treatment at all. 'We did not include psychotherapy in our review. We only compared the effectiveness of (new generation) antidepressants against each other, and against placebo,' she said in an email to NOTUS. NOTUS revealed further inaccurate representations in the report: Another cited study was reported to claim that 'antipsychotic prescriptions for children increased by 800% between 1993 and 2009,' but the years were actually 1995 to 2005. Another medical researcher revealed to NOTUS that the MAHA report mischaracterized her study on how screen time affects children's sleep—and further, RFK Jr.'s report named the wrong journal of publication for the study. 'The conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect. It was not published in Pediatrics. Also, the study was not done in children, but in college students,' Mariana G. Figueiro told NOTUS. In response to NOTUS' findings, press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the inaccuracies 'formatting issues,' and stated that the White House has 'complete confidence' in both RFK Jr. and his MAHA commission. 'I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated,' she said at a press briefing on Thursday. 'But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that's ever been released by the federal government, and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.' For more on RFK Jr.: Major food brands will stop using artificial dyes. Here's why RFK is sounding the alarm As RFK Jr. defends cuts to public health, experts warn of devastating effects that could haunt Americans for decades RFK Jr. blames these 5 environmental toxins for a spike in autism cases This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s MAHA report cited nonexistent studies
Certain studies within the Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" report do not exist as cited, ABC News has confirmed. Dr. Katherine Keyes, a researcher cited in the report as a first author of a paper on rates of depression and anxiety among teens during the pandemic, confirmed to ABC News that she did not write a paper cited in the report that the White House's Make America Healthy Again Commission headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled last week. "I was surprised to see what seems to be an error in the citation of my work in the report, and it does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science," Keyes wrote to ABC News in an email. MORE: White House releases RFK Jr.-led report on chronic disease Keyes is cited in a paper titled "Changes in mental health and substance use among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic," which appears on page 52 of the MAHA report and lists JAMA Pediatrics as the journal. A representative for the journal confirmed to ABC News the paper does not exist. Keyes noted she has done research on the topic cited in the MAHA report, but that she and her listed co-authors did not write the paper cited. "I would be happy to send this information to the MAHA committee to correct the report, although I have not yet received information on where to reach them," she noted. At least two research journals -- the American Academy of Pediatrics and the JAMA Pediatrics, one of the journals of the American Medical Association -- have also confirmed to ABC News that they were not able to find certain papers within the MAHA report in their publications despite being cited as such. The news first appeared in NOTUS. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the mistakes were due to "formatting issues," and that they were being corrected and "the report will be updated." She said the citation issues did not "negate the substance of the report." Leavitt added the administration had "complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS." Calley Means, a senior adviser to Kennedy who was instrumental in coordinating the report, defended it, saying the "underlying data and conclusions are correct" and that "any formatting errors have been corrected." An updated version did remove mention of at least some reports that did not exist, replacing them with other sources. The new version also appeared to soften some language to accommodate the citation changes. For instance, a section about direct-to-consumer advertisements initially claimed the ads "led parents to overestimate ADHD prevalence and to request ADHD drugs inappropriately." The updated version claims that the ads "potentially" have that impact. "Minor citation and formatting errors have been corrected, but the substance of the MAHA report remains the same — a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation's children. Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy, our federal government is no longer ignoring this crisis, and it's time for the media to also focus on what matters," HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. MORE: RFK Jr. says people should not take medical advice from him, defends HHS cuts during congressional hearings All this comes as Kennedy has said he plans to direct federal researchers to stop publishing their work in independent, peer-reviewed journals and instead called on the National Institutes of Health to develop its own research journals. "We're probably going to stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and those other journals because they're all corrupt," Kenned said on the "Ultimate Human" podcast earlier this week. The MAHA report, led by Kennedy, has more than 500 citations listed, mostly from studies published in peer-reviewed, independent journals. Studies from JAMA, a top-tier journal published by the American Medical Association, were cited 30 times in the report. It is standard practice in peer-reviewed research for authors to use citations when referencing science from another source. It also provides a roadmap to the research process and is often used to justify or back up the necessity of research. Studies in peer-reviewed journals typically use a DOI, or Digital Object Identifier, to uniquely identify a paper that provides it with a permanent web address. Some of the papers listed in the MAHA report, including the nonexistent study with Dr. Keyes listed, result in a DOI not found error. RFK Jr.'s MAHA report cited nonexistent studies originally appeared on
