Bullying Victimization Type and Feeling Unsafe in Middle School.

Given their significance to school violence, this study quantifies the association between bullying victimization and perceptions of safety separately for victimization where the type is not specified versus victimization that is physical in nature. Generalized liner mixed modeling was employed with 5,138 sixth- to eighth-grade students in 24 schools who self-reported on their bullying victimization and perceptions of school safety on an anonymous survey in fall 2015. Results indicate a multiplicative interaction exists with regard to the odds of feeling unsafe at school among those who were bullied at all (odds ratio [ OR] = 3.1) compared to those who were bullied physically ( OR = 9.12). For school nurses who work with students with a variety of concerns and health issues, this research indicates that the use of bullying victimization as an outcome, proxy and/or predictor, requires inquiry into the type of bullying experienced to aid in the care and support received.

Disparities in Fitness and Physical Activity Among Children.

BACKGROUND: Adequate physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness aid in the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Large sociodemographic/economic disparities exist for these conditions, which develop over time beginning in childhood. This paper examines disparities in both activity and fitness levels among children and adolescents in Wisconsin. METHODS: The Wisconsin Partnership for Childhood Fitness collected cardiorespiratory fitness and physical activity data on 3,798 6th grade students in 37 schools in fall 2011. Fitness data were collected via testing in physical education classes. Activity data were collected via self-report, 1-day activity logs administered during school. Using hierarchical linear models, disparities in fitness and physical activity by race/ethnicity and school-level characteristics were investigated. RESULTS: Widespread race and ethnic disparities exist in aerobic fitness, as well as more limited disparities in physical activity levels. In addition, students from schools with higher overall socioeconomic status (SES) were more active and had higher fitness levels than those from schools with overall lower SES levels. CONCLUSIONS: Among Wisconsin adolescents, race/ethnicity and school-level SES contribute to significant differences in both fitness and physical activity levels. Modifiable elements of the school environment to increase physical activity, and potentially fitness, may provide opportunities to reduce health disparities among children, contributing to improved long-term health outcomes among Wisconsin adults.

Fetal alcohol syndrome surveillance: age of syndrome manifestation in case ascertainment.

BACKGROUND: Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a leading cause of developmental disability (Abel & Sokol, ). Active public health surveillance through medical record abstraction has been used to estimate FAS prevalence rates, typically based on birth cohorts. There is an extended time for FAS characteristics to become apparent in infants and young children, and there are often delays in syndrome recognition and documentation. This methodological study analyzes the age at case ascertainment in a large surveillance program. METHODS: The Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Surveillance (FASSLink) Project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sought to estimate FAS prevalence rates in eight U.S. states. FASSLink used linked abstractions from multiple health care records of suspected cases of FAS. The present study analyzed data from this effort to determine the child's age in months at confirming abstraction. RESULTS: The average age at abstraction for confirmed/probable FAS cases (n = 422) was 48.3 (±19.5) months with a range of 0 to 94 months. Age of ascertainment varied by state and decreased with each birth year; the number of cases ascertained also decreased in a steep stepwise gradient over the 6 birth years in the study. CONCLUSION: FAS surveillance efforts should screen records of children who are much older than is typical in birth defects surveillance. To best establish rates of FAS using medical records abstraction, surveillance efforts should focus on 1-year birth cohorts followed for a fixed number of years or, if using multi-year cohorts, should implement staggered end dates allowing all births to be followed for up to 8 years of age.

Standardized childhood fitness percentiles derived from school-based testing.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a statewide school-based program of measuring and reporting cardiovascular fitness levels in children, and to create age- and sex-specific cardiovascular fitness percentile-based distribution curves. STUDY DESIGN: A pilot study validated cardiovascular fitness assessment with Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) testing as an accurate predictor of cardiovascular fitness measured by maximal oxygen consumption treadmill testing. Schools throughout the state were then recruited to perform PACER and body mass index (BMI) measurement and report de-identified data to a centralized database. RESULTS: Data on 20 631 individual students with a mean age 12.1 ± 2.0 years, BMI of 21.4 ± 5.1, and a cardiovascular fitness measured with PACER of 29.7 ± 18.2 laps (estimated maximal oxygen consumption of 36.5 mL/kg/min) were submitted for analysis. Standardized fitness percentiles were calculated for age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the feasibility of performing, reporting, and recording annual school-based assessments of cardiovascular fitness to develop standardized childhood fitness percentiles on the basis of age and sex. Such data can be useful in comparing populations and assessing initiatives that aim to improve childhood fitness. Because health consequences of obesity result from both adiposity and physical inactivity, supplementation of BMI measurement with tracking of cardiovascular fitness adds a valuable tool for large-scale health assessment.