ABSTRACT
Early life is a critical window period that determines the growth and development of children, but this delicate and complex period is highly susceptible to the disturbance of various exogenous chemicals, which in consequence may lead to short-term or long-term adverse health effects in human beings. The massive use of antibiotics has contributed to widespread exposure in early life, along with the potentially adverse effects on child health, and has caused great concern in public health. This review summarized recent epidemiological studies on the population with early-life antibiotic exposure and associated health outcomes such as growth and development, allergies, and psycho-behavioral problems in children, as well as potential biological mechanisms underlying these associations. Current findings suggested that antibiotic exposure early in life, including pregnancy and infancy, is strongly associated with childhood allergic diseases (e.g., atopic dermatitis and asthma), growth and development (e.g., obesity and birth length), and childhood psycho-behavioral problems (e.g., autism and anxiety). It also suggested that antibiotic exposure may affect individual health through gut microbiota, thyroid function, inflammation factors, mitochondrial function, and epigenetic mechanisms. In the future, more large prospective birth cohorts should be established to determine the levels of internal exposure to different types of antibiotics at multiple time points in early life and to explore their associations with child health outcomes, as well as to further validate relevant mechanisms, aiming to provide high-quality scientific evidence for research on child health associated with environmental exposure in early life.
ABSTRACT
Objective@#To evaluate the positive correlation between excessive screen-watching time, combined effect of screen-watching and outdoor time and the emotional problems in preschool children.@*Methods@#A total of 27 200 preschool children aged 3-6 years in 109 kindergartens in 11 cities in Jiangsu, Hubei, Anhui participated in the study. Information on both screen-watching and outdoor time and social-demographic characteristics was collected through the Questionnaire on the healthy Development of Preschool Children. Emotional problems of these children were accessed by using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Correlation intensity between excessive screen time and emotional problems (suspicious or abnormal) in preschool children, and the combined effects of screen-watching and outdoor time were analyzed by binary logistic regression model.@*Results@#The overall detected rate of emotional symptoms in preschool children was 17.9% (4 868/27 200). Rates showed in preschool children would include: with screen-watching time>1 h/d as 62.4% (16 983/27 200) and with outdoor time<2 h/d as 65.7% (17 873/27 200). After adjusting for confounding factors as gender, age, place of residence, family economic status, BMI, parents’ age and education level, data showed that the screen-watching time was positive correlated with emotional symptoms (OR=1.15, 95%CI: 1.08-1.24) while the outdoor time was positive correlated with emotional symptoms (OR=1.08, 95%CI: 1.01-1.16). Strong correlation between the combination of screen-watching and outdoor time and the existing emotional problems among preschool children was seen.@*Conclusions@#Excessive screen-watching time was prevalent among preschool children. Screen-watching time was positively associated with the existing emotional problems while the combined effect of screen-watching time and outdoor time was stronger.
ABSTRACT
Objective@#To examine the relationship of nighttime sleep duration and bedtime with preschool children's obesity, and to explore possible early life risk factors for childhood obesity.@*Methods@#A total of 14 946 valid children from 16 439 pre-school children aged 3-6 years in 91 kindergartens in Ma'anshan city participated in the study. The body mass index cut-offs for overweight and obesity in Chinese children and adolescents aged 2-18 years was used as the criterion for judging overweight and obesity, and pathological and secondary causes of obesity were excluded. The associations of nighttime sleep duration and bedtime with preschool children's obesity was analyzed by using non-conditional multivariate binary logistic regression model.@*Results@#Among the preschool children, 22.4% (n=3 345) had shorter sleep duration. 9.5% (n=1 415) had bedtimes after 22:00 on weekdays and 21.8% (n=3 260) had bedtimes after 22:00 on weekends. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 16.5% (n=2 466) and 10.5% (n=1 562), respectively. After the adjustent of age, gender, whether or not only child, residence in the last six months, parents' body mass index parents' educational level, diet preference, outdoor activities, TV viewing duration, sleep duration, bedtime on weekdays and weekends, only the shorter sleep duration (OR=1.25, 95%CI: 1.03-1.51) was still positively associated with the prevalence of obesity in preschool children.@*Conclusion@#Shorter sleep duration was positively associated with the prevalence of obesity among preschool children.