Prevalence of Access to Prenatal Care in the First Trimester of Pregnancy Among Black Women Compared to Other Races/Ethnicities: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: To analyze the prevalence of access to prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy among black women compared to other races/ethnicities through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Searches were carried out at PUBMED, LILACS, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, and in the grey literature. The quality of the studies and the risk of bias were analyzed using the Joanna Briggs Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies instrument. The extracted data were tabulatesd and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively through meta-analysis. Results: Black women had the lowest prevalence of access to prenatal services in the first trimester, with prevalence ranging from 8.1% to 74.81%, while among white women it varied from 44.9 to 94.0%; 60.7% of black women started prenatal care in the first trimester, while 72.9% of white women did so. Conclusion: Black women compared to other racial groups had lower prevalence of access to prenatal care, with less chance of access in the first trimester, and it can be inferred that the issue of race/skin color is an important determinant in obtaining obstetric care. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020159968_, PROSPERO CRD42020159968.

Frequency-Following Response in Newborns and Infants: A Systematic Review of Acquisition Parameters.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to characterize parameters used for frequency-following response (FFR) acquisition in children up to 24 months of age through a systematic review. Method The study was registered in PROSPERO and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses' recommendations. Search was performed in six databases (LILACS, LIVIVO, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) and gray literature (Google Scholar, OpenGrey, ProQuest)as well as via manual searches in bibliographic references. Observational studies using speech stimuli to elicit the FFR in infants with normal hearing on the age range from 0 until 24 months were included. No restrictions regarding language and year of publication were applied. Risk of bias was assessed with the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist. Data on stimulus, presentation rate, time window for analysis, number of sweeps, artifact rejection, online filters, stimulated ear, and examination condition were extracted. Results Four hundred fifty-nine studies were identified. After removing duplicates and reading titles and abstracts, 15 articles were included. Seven studies were classified as low risk of bias, seven as moderate risk, and one as high risk. Conclusions There is a consensus in the use of some acquisition parameters of the FFR with speech stimulus, such as the vertical mounting, the use of alternating polarity, a sampling rate of 20000 Hz, and the /da/ synthesized syllable of 40 ms in duration as the preferred stimulus. Although these parameters show some consensus, the results disclosed lack of a single established protocol for FFR acquisition with speech stimulus in infants in the investigated age range.

Vocal and Laryngeal Symptoms and Associated Factors in Wind Instrumentalists: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: This is a systematic literature review to identify vocal and laryngeal symptoms and associated factors in adult wind instrumentalists. METHOD: The authors performed a systematic review in the electronic databases Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and LILACS, gray literature, and manual search. There were no language or publication time limitations, as recommended by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. They also performed title and abstract analysis followed by full-text analysis, risk of bias assessment (Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies), and result synthesis. Two researchers conducted the research independently. RESULTS: Although six articles met the eligibility criteria, none of them fulfilled all the criteria for the methodological quality analysis. According to the six studies selected for this review, the main vocal symptoms in wind instrumentalists are dysphonia, altered vocal quality, hoarseness, and voice failures; and laryngeal symptoms are dryness, sore throat, throat irritation, throat clearing, discomfort, and tension. The associated factors identified for those symptoms were shorter working time, intense use of the instrument, and individual vocal issues. CONCLUSION: The several vocal and laryngeal symptoms found in wind instrumentalists in the selected studies were associated with individual factors (prior vocal alteration, inappropriate vocal habits) and organizational factors (working time, intense use, and instrument type and technique). Although wind instrumentalists' vocal health is recognized in the literature, and vocal and laryngeal symptoms are identified and associated with playing a musical instrument, broadening studies with precise methodologies and analyses is necessary.

Early exposure to environment sounds and the development of cortical auditory evoked potentials of preterm infants during the first 3 months of life.

OBJECTIVE: Preterm infants are exposed earlier than their term counterparts to unattenuated sounds from the external environment during the sensitive period of the organization of the auditory cortical circuitry. In the current study, we investigate the effect of preterm birth on the course of development of auditory cortical areas by evaluating how gestational age (GA) correlates with the latency of the P1 component of the cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) of two experimental groups measured at 1 or 3 months of age. RESULTS: Our sample consisted of 23 infants delivered at GA ranging from 31.28 to 41.42 weeks and separated into two groups evaluated transversally at 1 or 3 months of corrected age (CA). In the group evaluated at 1-month CA, the latency of the component P1 was similar in both terms and infants classified as late-preterm (GA > 32 weeks). However, in the group evaluated at 3 months CA, P1 latency was significantly smaller in preterms. These preliminary results suggest an acceleration of the development of auditory cortical pathways in preterms, probably due to their early exposure to socially relevant auditory stimuli from the external environment.