Kids

Fewer children walk or bike to school, �鶹ֱ��app research finds – and that hurts everyone

sgupta — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 12:54:06 +0000

Fewer children walk or bike to school, �鶹ֱ��app research finds – and that hurts everyone sgupta Thu, 04/07/2016 - 08:54

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Professor Ron Buliung would like to see more students follow the lead of the girls seen above and walk or bike to school (photo by Jaap Joris via flickr)

Elaine Smith

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Elaine Smith

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City & Culture

Environment

Health

Kids

Pollution

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Ron Buliung: cars play an “increasingly dominant role” in the lives of kids and teens

More than twice as many kids are driven to school these days compared to 25 years ago, the University of Toronto's Ron Buliung says – and that's having an impact on everyone.

“We have a multi-billion dollar congestion problem in the region,” says Buliung, a professor of geography at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

“We’re dealing with the hangover from the auto century.”

In a study released April 5 by Metrolinx, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area’s transportation planning agency, Buliung found a decline among youth in the use of physically active modes of transportation to commute to school over a 25-year period.

Buliung,who has worked with Metrolinx on transportation research for a decade, looked at regional school transportation data from 1986 to 2011 and found that fewer students were walking or cycling to school. The agency's goal is to have 60 per cent of students engage in some form of active commuting to and from school by 2031.

Read the study

“We’re interested in creating a more active commuter workforce,” Buliung says, “and if we’re looking at a long-term cultural change, it’s important to look at children and young adults, because they are the adult commuters of the future.”

In 1986, 56 per cent of kids between the ages of 11 and 13 walked to school and only 12 per cent were driven. Twenty-five years later, only 39 per cent were walkers, compared to 31 per cent who were driven.

But the researchers found students in the 11 to 13 age group are still more likely to walk or cycle than their 14- to 17-year-old counterparts. (Transportation data are not recorded for children under the age of 11).

Buliung’s research also found that students ages 11 to 17 are more likely to be driven to school in the morning than the afternoon and that boys are more likely to use active modes of transportation than girls. These findings are consistent with societal trends toward two parents working – making them unavailable for afternoon car transport – and with personal safety concerns among girls.

In an interview with Radio Canada International, Buliung said “the walk to school provides an opportunity to acquire and practice geographic skills like spatial awareness, orientation, way-finding” as well as an opportunity to play with friends.

Parents tend to cite convenience and safety among the factors encouraging them to drive their kids, Buliung said. He added that while children may cite concerns about bullying by other kids, parents talk more about “stranger danger” and worries about traffic safety.

“Paradoxically, if you're driving your child to school you're making someone else's child a little less safe,” Buliung told Radio Canada.

Listen to the interview with Radio Canada

Given the prevalence of childhood obesity in North America, and the impact of traffic congestion and air pollution on everyone's health, Buliung says he was “disappointed” by the data but points out much effort has been made since the turn of this century to increase active transportation.

“In the last five years, we’ve really been gaining ground,” he says. “School boards in Hamilton-Wentworth and Toronto, for example, have created active and safe school travel charters, and Peel Public Health is very interested in active transportation for school and otherwise.”

Read a Toronto Star article about the study

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Buliung said walking or cycling may also result in a student having “an improved ability to concentrate” and there are benefits for parents who walk with their kids as well.

“One of the things that households can actually miss out on is that contact time, just hanging out on that walk to school and having a conversation about what’s happening in your child’s life,” Buliung told the Globe. “You learn things.”

Read the Globe and Mail article

“We want to get this research out into the public arena so we can reach the widest possible audience, have a discussion about the increasingly dominant role of the auto in the lives of our children and see what we can do to get them moving again,” Buliung says.

Read about university students' commute to school

(Visit Flickr to see the original of the photo by Jaap Joris used at top of article)

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Brain bleeds in newborns and fetuses may be caused by immune system, research shows

sgupta — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 08:52:14 +0000

Brain bleeds in newborns and fetuses may be caused by immune system, research shows sgupta Wed, 03/25/2015 - 04:52

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“What we’ve discovered means that platelet transfusions are necessary to control bleeding after birth but may not be an effective therapy for brain bleeds in fetuses,” says Professor Heyu Ni (photo by Carly Lesser and Art Draggles via Flickr)

Melissa Di Costanzo

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Melissa Di Costanzo

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St. Michael's Hospital

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Study challenges notion that low platelet counts are behind life-threatening condition

A newly-discovered bodily process in mice may explain why some human fetuses who have different antigens than their mothers suffer life-threatening brain bleeds, says a new study.

“Antigens are like the body’s national flag. They’re planted on each cell in the body and tell the immune system whether something in the body, such as a bacteria or virus, is foreign,” said Heyu Ni, a professor in the departments of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, medicine and physiology.

“Because each parent’s DNA is different, a fetus can have different antigens, or flags, on some cells than his or her mom. When a mom’s immune system identifies those cells as foreign to the body it attacks them, which can cause brain bleeds and result in neurological impairment or even death.”

The condition where mothers and fetuses have different antigens is called fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia, or FNAIT. It affects about one in 1,000 live births. Fetuses experience bleeding in the brain in about 10 to 20 per cent of FNAIT cases. The disease can also cause miscarriages, although that has not been well studied.

Platelets – cells in the blood that help form blood clots and stop bleeding – are one of the cell types that commonly have different antigens. Because they are often different in the mother and fetus, they can be targeted by the mother’s immune system. Until now, low amounts of platelets were considered the cause of brain bleeds in fetuses and newborns.

“Our research challenges the idea that low platelet counts are responsible for fetal brain bleeds and instead shows that the immune system’s attack on the new blood vessel cells in the brain is more likely responsible,” said Ni, who is a scientist in the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michael’s Hospital as well a Canadian Blood Services scientist. “An antigen, called beta 3 integrin, is found both on platelets and on the cells responsible for developing blood vessel in fetuses.”

Newborn platelet levels are tested at birth since it’s believed a lower platelet count signifies the newborn lacks the ability to stop bleeding. A safe level of platelets for newborns is between 150 million and 450 million cells per ml of blood. Babies with low platelet counts (less than 150 million cells per ml of blood) are usually treated right away with platelet transfusions.

“What we’ve discovered means that platelet transfusions are necessary to control bleeding after birth but may not be an effective therapy for brain bleeds in fetuses since platelets may be not essential to stop fetal bleeding,” said Ni. “We should consider different therapies to prevent brain bleeds and ensure blood vessels in the brain are developed properly before birth.”

Ni’s research team also looked at the potential treatment of intravenous immunoglobulin transfusions. He said IVIG –made of plasma from donated blood – may be an effective therapy to control this devastating disease, although more research is needed to confirm this.

The study was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The project was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and Canadian Blood Services.

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How expectant mothers' diets can affect offspring

sgupta — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 13:32:30 +0000

How expectant mothers' diets can affect offspring sgupta Fri, 03/20/2015 - 09:32

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Spinach is high in vitamins K and A (photo by Luminitsa via Flickr)

Vitaly Kazakov

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Vitaly Kazakov

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Study shows diet high in vitamin K, D, E and A can affect brain development and food preferences in animals

High-vitamin diets in pregnant rats can alter their offspring’s brain development and behaviour, University of Toronto researchers have found.

The study raises questions about the effects of diets, fortification of foods with nutrients and the use of vitamin supplements on prenatal brain development in humans.

The study looked at the effects of a high-vitamin A, D, E, and K diet during pregnancy on body weight gain, food intake and food preference in offspring. The results showed little effect on the rats’ weight gain and food intake, but their brain development and food preference were affected. For example, offspring showed changes in the brain dopamine system, which controls reward-seeking behaviour, and they had a decreased preference for sweetness.

“While this data provides novel information on the fundamental role of fat soluble vitamins in development in the rat brain, development stages are not the same as in the human,” said Harvey Anderson, the principal investigator on the study and a professor in the departments of nutritional sciences and physiology.

“Nevertheless, it is clear we know little about the effect of vitamins when taken above requirements on brain development.”

The journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism published the results March 19.

Most of the research in this area has focused on preventing deficiencies and the toxicity of very high intakes. At the same time, there is little science on the effect of intakes above requirements. Current diets may be high in vitamins because of mandatory fortification, non-mandatory additions to foods such as cereals and increased consumption of health foods and vitamin supplements.

Anderson, who also serves as executive director of the new �鶹ֱ��app Centre for Child Nutrition, Health and Development, hopes that the work of researchers at the Centre will help clarify implications for human mothers and children.

Many women consume better quality diets during pregnancy. At the same time, they are also likely to use vitamin supplements, putting them at risk for excessive vitamin consumption. Anderson says the relationship between human mothers’ vitamin intake and its effects on their children’s development needs close study in future research.

“Some of the Centre’s ongoing research on brain fat metabolism and maternal diet will help build on the findings of this study,” said Anderson. “It will help us develop new evidence to support better guidelines and policy, and improve childhood and maternal nutrition and health.”

Vitaly Kazakov is a writer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

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Back to School: how to calm students' stress and anxiety

sgupta — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 10:16:00 +0000

Back to School: how to calm students' stress and anxiety sgupta Mon, 09/08/2014 - 06:16

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Parents shouldn't dismiss a child's fears or pile on reassurances, experts say. Instead, help students learn to manage their fears.

Heidi Singer

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Heidi Singer

Back to School

Medicine

Kids

Hospital for Sick Children

Education

CAMH

Features

The heavy academic pressures so common today raise back-to-school stress like never before – and it’s not just high school seniors or university students who are feeling it right now.

“It’s very sad to hear an eight-year old say ‘if I don’t get an A on this book report, I’m not going to university,” says Sandra Mendlowitz, assistant professor of child psychiatry at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine. “We live in a very different world today, and children are facing all kinds of new pressure. Information overwhelms them. They’re overexposed.”

Parents can do a lot to help ease their children’s anxieties around school, she says. The key is to really listen, and let your child open up about their fears.

“You engage in a conversation when you’re not distracted by other things,” she says. “With younger children, you need to ask them specific questions that jog their memory. Ask what their teacher is like, not how their day was. If teens refuse to talk about their day, you could say, ‘Oh, sounds like something really juicy happened!’”

Performance aside, kids worry most about whether their teacher is friendly, and whether they will have a friend in the class, says Mendlowitz, who works on the anxiety disorders team at the Hospital for Sick Children. Younger children worry about whether their parents will be there to pick them up. Older kids might be anxious about whether their clothes or lunch will look weird to others. Parents shouldn’t dismiss their fears, but they should also resist the urge to pile on reassurance. Instead, help the child develop true confidence by thinking together about their fears and learning how to manage them. Work with the child on a plan to address the problem.

That’s also true for the college crowd, according to David Wolfe, a professor of psychiatry at �鶹ֱ��app and director of the centre for prevention science at CAMH. “Avoid helicopter parenting,” he advises, because hovering, overprotecting parents make it tough for kids to grow and become independent. That said, those newly independent university students probably do need help with time and money management, he notes – which means helping them develop a plan to manage their money, not just giving them more.

Showing your child how you solve problems is also a great solution, says Mendlowitz. “You could say, I had a great day except for one thing, and here’s how I managed it,” she advises.

And talking to your child’s teacher is also key, she adds. “It may be simply that the child is very uncomfortable with their seat mate. Or sometimes they’re too shy to ask for help, and the teacher needs to check in with them.”

If the parent shows anxiety, the child will likely pick up on this and become insecure, Mendlowitz warns. Parents should be aware of their own anxious signals: a high-pitched voice, asking the child if they’re okay too many times, or placing too much focus on the what-ifs.

“It’s never just one thing,” she says. “It’s the constellation of many different factors coming together that make a difference between whether your child is going to have a good or a difficult school year.”

Heidi Singer is a writer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

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Back(pack) to School: how much is too much?

sgupta — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 08:59:33 +0000

Back(pack) to School: how much is too much? sgupta Fri, 09/05/2014 - 04:59

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Place heavier items at the top of the backpack and make sure the pack is line with the hip bones, experts say

Erin Howe

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Erin Howe

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Experts weigh in on how much children and youth can safely tote

Students are returning to class this week lugging backpacks filled with books and binders. But how much is too much to carry?

Debra Cameron, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s department of occupational science and occupational therapy, says the acceptable weight for a backpack depends on the child’s age and stage of growth. Younger children should carry no more than 10 per cent of their body weight, while older teenagers should carry no more than 15 per cent of their body weight.

There are other ways to know if your child is carrying too heavy a load.

“I think if it induces a person’s posture to change drastically, it’s too heavy,” says Mark Erwin, an assistant professor in the divisions of neurological and orthopaedic surgery at �鶹ֱ��app. “If someone has red marks on their shoulders when they take their backpack off, or their arms or fingers fall asleep, it’s too heavy. If you’re struggling to get the backpack on, or you’re leaning forward or you’re pulled off to one side, that’s clearly out of balance.”

The result could be back or neck pain and poor posture, says Erwin, who is also a scientist in the division of genetics and development at Toronto Western Research Institute.

“A heavy backpack can pull you backwards,” he says. “As a response, you may lean forward. This brings your torso forward and your head down. But to walk, you’ve got to pull your head up to see where you are going. That results in extending your neck, and compressing the posterior part of your neck. And then, people tend to shrug their shoulders up to try and support the heavy backpack better.”

So, how do you pack smarter?

“You want some of the heavier items to be carried closer to the top of the backpack because that keeps the weight closer to your body. If the heavy items are at the bottom, the backpack tends to swing out and be further away from your body,” says Cameron. “You really want to balance weight over both shoulders to make sure you’re carrying the backpack the way the it was designed to be carried.”

Backpacks can vary greatly in size, and Cameron also says it’s a balance between finding one large enough without overwhelming the person wearing it. As well, the pack should be worn in line with the hip bones rather than being higher up the back or lower down on the buttocks.

Finally, says Erwin, “It’s another reason why increasing the overall fitness of young people may help decrease problems.”

Erin Howe is a writer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

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Back to school: the ABCs of getting 40 winks

sgupta — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:01:41 +0000

Back to school: the ABCs of getting 40 winks sgupta Tue, 09/02/2014 - 08:01

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Catching up on sleep you missed during a school night works for some but for others, erratic sleep can cause problems, says Shelly Weiss (photo by Dan DeLuca via Flickr)

Erin Howe

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Erin Howe

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Associate Professor Shelly Weiss on helping students get the sleep they need

How early is too early for school?

The American Association of Pediatricians recently recommended middle and high school start times be set no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The organization says the natural sleep cycles of teenagers make it tough for young people to fall asleep before 11 p.m. and difficult for them to “rise and shine” first thing in the morning.

But no matter what time the bell rings at your child’s school, there are ways of encouraging healthy habits to help maximize his or her sleep, says Shelly Weiss, an associate professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. And the amount of shut-eye a young person needs changes with age, Weiss says.

School-aged children generally need between 10 and 11 hours of shut-eye, says Weiss, while adolescents may need an average of 8.5 to 9.5 hours. But she also says there is no magic number that will be suitable for all kids.

“You might have a child who is a short sleeper, who needs less than the average, but they’re doing well during the day. Or you may have a child who is not getting enough sleep for their age, and they’re showing signs of sleepiness during the day,” says Weiss, who is also a neurologist at The Hospital for Sick Children and the author of the book Better Sleep for Your Baby and Child.

Weiss also says that many teenagers don’t realize how much sleep they need.

“Often they’ll stay up later during the week and try to catch up by sleeping in on the weekends,” she says. “For many teenagers and adults, that works fine. But it’s when people aren’t functioning well during the day that they have to look at their sleep habits and see if that erratic sleep is actually causing problems.”

The consequences of not getting enough sleep aren’t limited to fatigue. A child who isn’t sleeping enough may experience problems with memory or learning, have an inability to pay attention or feel irritable or hyperactive. Lack of sleep can also be associated with mental health issues such as depression.

But it isn’t just a question of how much sleep young people get. Weiss also says it’s also a question of how well they are sleeping.

“When children snore, they may have obstructive sleep apnea. If they’re not sleeping in the same bedroom through the night, for example if they fall asleep in their parents’ room and they’re moving rooms back and forth at night, that disrupts the quality of their sleep. So, it’s not just the amount of sleep, but whether it is consolidated, good healthy sleep,” she says.

Weiss’ tips for encouraging healthy sleep habits include:

Setting regular times to go to bed and wake up
Having some exposure to sunlight in the morning and sleeping in a dark bedroom (a night-light is fine)
Maintaining a healthy sleep environment (cool, quiet, free of electronics)
Having a soothing routine to transition from daytime to bedtime
Eating breakfast at around the same time every morning

For more information about sleep for children, visit the Canadian Sleep Society’s website.

Erin Howe is a writer with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

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YouTube star Dr. Mike Evans to tackle childhood nutrition

sgupta — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 15:14:44 +0000

YouTube star Dr. Mike Evans to tackle childhood nutrition sgupta Fri, 06/20/2014 - 11:14

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On YouTube, Associate Professor Mike Evans is better known as DocMikeEvans

Heidi Singer

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Heidi Singer

Viral video maker and University of Toronto Associate Professor Mike Evans has joined the fight against childhood obesity, with a mandate to engage kids around Canada and the world in the battle to improve their nutrition and turn the epidemic around.

His tools: addictively interesting videos, apps, radio, partnerships with film makers, designers, famous people, journalists, social media mavens and companies like Google and Apple.

The intended result: healthy viruses — engaging and evidence-based health messaging that people want to give to one another.

Evans has been named chair in patient engagement in child nutrition by the Faculty of Medicine’s Centre for Child Nutrition, Health and Development. He is best known for his Med School for the Public on YouTube that has 10 million views, and for his viral video: 23 and ½ hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

“We moved the dial on exercise with 23 and 1/2 hours,” said Evans, a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “I’m looking to do the same with eating and nutrition. But I also see that these two behaviours are intertwined with other behaviours such as sleeping, stress management and quality relationships. This cascade is incredibly powerful in preventing illness — but largely ignored by the healthcare system in favour of caring for people when they become sick.”

Evans knows all about children and teens. He is a father of three and wrote a childrens’ book called The Adventures of Medical Man. A former English major, he feels that good science needs a story and attributes his social media success to staying authentic and not preaching.

Nutrition will be a new area for Evans, an associate professor of Family and Community medicine who has tackled cancer with “The Truth of It” video series and created a series of popular public lectures at �鶹ֱ��app called Mini Med School.

“We’re looking to translate our knowledge into practice to make our society healthier,” said Catharine Whiteside, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “Professor Evans is an established leader in public engagement and a respected voice in health care. He will make an important contribution to the advancement of child nutrition.”

The Centre for Child Nutrition, Health and Development was recently launched as part of a $5-million gift from Joannah and Brian Lawson, philanthropists with a mission to improve nutrition and promote healthy food choices, starting in childhood. The establishment of the Chair was partially funded by that gift.

“The leadership and commitment the Lawsons have shown in child nutrition is inspiring,” said Whiteside. “Their generous gift underscores the importance of childhood nutrition and public education at the University of Toronto.”

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Racial bias "entrenched" in Canadian advertising

sgupta — Mon, 05 May 2014 10:03:22 +0000

Racial bias "entrenched" in Canadian advertising sgupta Mon, 05/05/2014 - 06:03

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The television program they're watching may be just fine but what about the ads? (photo by r. nail bradshaw via Flickr)

Elaine Smith

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Elaine Smith

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Asian = technocrat, black = blue collar, researchers find

The first systematic study of Canadian television commercials, conducted by sociologists Shyon Baumann and Loretta Ho from the University of Toronto Mississauga, shows that despite the country’s multicultural make-up, visible minorities are underrepresented and misrepresented in TV advertising.

"There have been systematic studies of the content of Candian print advertising," Baumann said. "But this is the first such study of the content of Canadian television advertising: we used a large sample and collected it in a way that allowed us to generalize about advertising more broadly."

The research, which examined prime-time commercials on all three major Canadian networks – Global, CTV and CBC – during an 18-month period, appears in the Canadian Review of Sociology, published May 1. Baumann, chair of the UTM Department of Sociology, and Ho, a recent PhD graduate, focused on food and dining commercials.

“Ads are part of a much larger puzzle about why change is slow to happen,” said Baumann. “Like the current case of racism in the NBA, this paper will force a conversation and an awareness of something many people aren’t admitting is out there. This is still a problem and there is still work to do.”

Baumann and Ho reviewed 244 commercials to see how frequently and in what way various visible minorities were portrayed. They found that blacks were not underrepresented, based on the percentage of the Canadian population that is black, but the same was not true for South Asians or East Asians. People of Middle Eastern ethnicity and Aboriginal peoples were basically invisible in prime-time advertising.

Meanwhile, whites were disproportionately represented in TV commercials, appearing in 87 per cent of commercials although they make up only 80 per cent of the population.

In terms of content, the researchers found that blacks, South Asians and East Asians were portrayed using narrow cultural schemas: the blacks as blue collar; the Asians as technocrats. By contrast, Caucasians were represented by four different schema – nostalgic, highbrow, nuclear family and natural (outdoorsy, health-conscious) – allowing for much more varied expectations of their behaviours and characteristics.

A schema is broader than a stereotype and can be defined as “a widely shared understanding at a descriptive level of the characteristics of a group and what their life is like relative to other groups,” said Baumann. Schemas affect the status of individual groups within society – and by fitting visible minorities into narrow schemas, advertisers are reinforcing assumptions about the behaviours and characteristics of particular groups, which can be limiting and erroneous, said Baumann.

“These things are so entrenched in the advertising world that it goes beyond just being a stereotype,” Ho told the Canadian Review of Sociology. “The way Asians are depicted gives me a script on how I should be acting: I should be the achiever, the unemotional robot, constantly striving for higher grades. Also, for the general public viewing this, it gives them a script on how to interact with me, before even knowing me, like ‘Oh, she’s an Asian. She must be smart."

Baumann said schemas inform our ideas on how to behave as a member of a group or towards a group member.

"When people act on schematic knowledge, it is kind of like being on auto-pilot," he said. We assume certain things about what the people are like and how they interact.

“Given the multicultural nature of Canadian society, we wanted to see if there was a discrepancy between the ads and what the culture is like. There was a good reason to expect positive results, because of our changing culture and demographics.”

However, given that blacks tended to be portrayed as blue-collar workers in a factory setting, Asians in the commercials fit the “smart and technologically focused” stereotype, and other visible minorities were absent in advertising, their expectations weren’t met.

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