Emerging Opportunities Provided by Technology to Advance Research in Child Health Globally

Current approaches to longitudinal assessment of children’s developmental and psychological well-being, as mandated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, are expensive and time consuming. Substantive understanding of global progress toward these goals will require a suite of new robust, cost-effective research tools designed to assess key developmental processes in diverse settings. While first steps have been taken toward this end through efforts such as the National Institutes of Health’s Toolbox, experience-near approaches including naturalistic observation have remained too costly and time consuming to scale to the population level. This perspective presents 4 emerging technologies with high potential for advancing the field of child health and development research, namely (1) affective computing, (2) ubiquitous computing, (3) eye tracking, and (4) machine learning. By drawing attention of scientists, policy makers, investors/funders, and the media to the applications and potential risks of these emerging opportunities, we hope to inspire a fresh wave of innovation and new solutions to the global challenges faced by children and their families.

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Prioritizing family planning for achieving provincial maternal child health and development goals

10.31899/rh10.1022 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Zeba Sathar ◽

Muhammad Wazir ◽

Maqsood Sadiq

Keyword(s):

Family Planning ◽

Child Health ◽

Maternal Child Health ◽

Health And Development ◽

Development Goals ◽

Maternal Child

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Improving Maternal and Child Health in Bangladesh: The Integration of Midwives in Conjunction With the United Nations Millenium Development Goals Initiative

International ResearchScape Journal ◽

10.25035/irj.03.01.10 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Elizabeth Casto

Keyword(s):

Child Health ◽

United Nations ◽

Maternal And Child Health ◽

Millennium Development Goals ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Cost Effective Method ◽

Development Goals ◽

The United Nations ◽

The Impact ◽

And Child Health

As the United Nations Millennium Development Goals initiative comes to a close, it is important to examine what has been effective in combating disparities in developing nations. In this paper I explore the impact midwives have on improving maternal and child health in Bangladesh by focusing on how the United Nations Millennium Development Goals initiative has helped to change societal views on women and birth as midwives become more integrated into improving maternal and child health. It is a quantitative and qualitative approach analyzing the statistics of implementing midwives as these impact cost-effectiveness and change in mortality rates in addition to social changes that have occurred in the culture towards maternal and child health. The paper further analyzes programs implemented by countries such as India and Sri Lanka comparatively. Data have been collected from published United Nations and governmental reports, media, and research articles. The paper concludes that the implementation of midwives has provided a cost-effective method of reducing maternal and child health in Bangladesh, and will be increasingly efficient as governmental programs continue to improve various aspects and laws of the country. It is important to analyze what is working in order to further improve maternal and child health on both a regional and global level. The use of midwives can provide a fundamental framework in communities that can aid in reducing health disparities as well as all improve all facets of reproductive wellness, providing the support needed at all stages to improve maternal and child health.

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Addressing inequities in child health and development: towards social justice

BMJ Paediatrics Open ◽

10.1136/bmjpo-2019-000503 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. e000503 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Nick Spencer ◽

Shanti Raman ◽

Bernadette O'Hare ◽

Giorgio Tamburlini

Keyword(s):

Child Health ◽

Life Course ◽

National Level ◽

Health Inequities ◽

Well Being ◽

Health Determinants ◽

Health And Development ◽

The Life Course ◽

The Impact ◽

And Child Health

Inequities have a profound impact on the health and development of children globally. While inequities are greatest in the world’s poorest countries, even in rich nations poorer children have poorer health and developmental outcomes. From birth through childhood to adolescence, morbidity, mortality, growth and development are socially determined, resulting in the most disadvantaged having the highest risk of poor health outcomes. Inequities in childhood impact across the life course. We consider four categories of actions to promote equity: strengthening individuals, strengthening communities, improving living and working conditions, and promoting healthy macropolicies. Inequities can be reduced but action to reduce inequities requires political will. The International Society for Social Paediatrics and Child Health (ISSOP) calls on governments, policy makers, paediatricians and professionals working with children and their organisations to act to reduce child health inequity as a priority. ISSOP recommends the following: governments act to reduce child poverty; ensure rights of all children to healthcare, education and welfare are protected; basic health determinants such as adequate nutrition, clean water and sanitation are available to all children. Paediatric and child health organisations ensure that their members are informed of the impact of inequities on children’s well-being and across the life course; include child health inequities in curricula for professionals in training; publish policy statements relevant to their country on child health inequities; advocate for evidence-based pro-equity interventions using a child rights perspective; advocate for affordable, accessible and quality healthcare for all children; promote research to monitor inequity as well as results of interventions in their child populations. Paediatricians and child health professionals be aware of the impact of social determinants of health on children under their care; ensure their clinical services are accessible and acceptable to all children and families within the constraints of their country’s health services; engage in advocacy at community and national level.

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The Center for Child Well-Being (CCW): Focussing on a Strengths-Based Paradigm for Child Health and Development

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e320312004-004 ◽

2000 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Child Health ◽

Well Being ◽

Health And Development

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Addressing Biodisaster X Threats With Artificial Intelligence and 6G Technologies: Literature Review and Critical Insights (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.26109 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zhaohui Su ◽

Dean McDonnell ◽

Barry L Bentley ◽

Jiguang He ◽

Feng Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Artificial Intelligence ◽

Language Processing ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Population Level ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Well Being ◽

Economic Consequences ◽

Unknown Risk ◽

Remote Design ◽

Shed Light

BACKGROUND With advances in science and technology, biotechnology is becoming more accessible to people of all demographics. These advances inevitably hold the promise to improve personal and population well-being and welfare substantially. It is paradoxical that while greater access to biotechnology on a population level has many advantages, it may also increase the likelihood and frequency of biodisasters due to accidental or malicious use. Similar to “Disease X” (describing unknown naturally emerging pathogenic diseases with a pandemic potential), we term this unknown risk from biotechnologies “Biodisaster X.” To date, no studies have examined the potential role of information technologies in preventing and mitigating Biodisaster X. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore (1) what Biodisaster X might entail and (2) solutions that use artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging 6G technologies to help monitor and manage Biodisaster X threats. METHODS A review of the literature on applying AI and 6G technologies for monitoring and managing biodisasters was conducted on PubMed, using articles published from database inception through to November 16, 2020. RESULTS Our findings show that Biodisaster X has the potential to upend lives and livelihoods and destroy economies, essentially posing a looming risk for civilizations worldwide. To shed light on Biodisaster X threats, we detailed effective AI and 6G-enabled strategies, ranging from natural language processing to deep learning–based image analysis to address issues ranging from early Biodisaster X detection (eg, identification of suspicious behaviors), remote design and development of pharmaceuticals (eg, treatment development), and public health interventions (eg, reactive shelter-at-home mandate enforcement), as well as disaster recovery (eg, sentiment analysis of social media posts to shed light on the public’s feelings and readiness for recovery building). CONCLUSIONS Biodisaster X is a looming but avoidable catastrophe. Considering the potential human and economic consequences Biodisaster X could cause, actions that can effectively monitor and manage Biodisaster X threats must be taken promptly and proactively. Rather than solely depending on overstretched professional attention of health experts and government officials, it is perhaps more cost-effective and practical to deploy technology-based solutions to prevent and control Biodisaster X threats. This study discusses what Biodisaster X could entail and emphasizes the importance of monitoring and managing Biodisaster X threats by AI techniques and 6G technologies. Future studies could explore how the convergence of AI and 6G systems may further advance the preparedness for high-impact, less likely events beyond Biodisaster X.

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No evidence that polygynous marriage is a harmful cultural practice in northern Tanzania

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1507151112 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 112 (45) ◽

pp. 13827-13832 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

David W. Lawson ◽

Susan James ◽

Esther Ngadaya ◽

Bernard Ngowi ◽

Sayoki G. M. Mfinanga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Child Health ◽

Large Scale ◽

Population Policy ◽

Population Level ◽

Well Being ◽

Cultural Practice ◽

Poor Child ◽

Aggregated Data ◽

Polygynous Marriage

Polygyny is cross-culturally common and a topic of considerable academic and policy interest, often deemed a harmful cultural practice serving the interests of men contrary to those of women and children. Supporting this view, large-scale studies of national African demographic surveys consistently demonstrate that poor child health outcomes are concentrated in polygynous households. Negative population-level associations between polygyny and well-being have also been reported, consistent with the hypothesis that modern transitions to socially imposed monogamy are driven by cultural group selection. We challenge the consensus view that polygyny is harmful, drawing on multilevel data from 56 ethnically diverse Tanzanian villages. We first demonstrate the vulnerability of aggregated data to confounding between ecological and individual determinants of health; while across villages polygyny is associated with poor child health and low food security, such relationships are absent or reversed within villages, particularly when children and fathers are coresident. We then provide data indicating that the costs of sharing a husband are offset by greater wealth (land and livestock) of polygynous households. These results are consistent with models of polygyny based on female choice. Finally, we show that village-level negative associations between polygyny prevalence, food security, and child health are fully accounted for by underlying differences in ecological vulnerability (rainfall) and socioeconomic marginalization (access to education). We highlight the need for improved, culturally sensitive measurement tools and appropriate scales of analysis in studies of polygyny and other purportedly harmful practices and discuss the relevance of our results to theoretical accounts of marriage and contemporary population policy.

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Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on preschool children’s eating, activity and sleep behaviours: a qualitative study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051497 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. e051497

Author(s):

Joanne Clarke ◽

Ruth Kipping ◽

Stephanie Chambers ◽

Kate Willis ◽

Hilary Taylor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Child Health ◽

Screen Time ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Well Being ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Sleep Habits ◽

Health And Development ◽

The Uk ◽

Healthy Activity ◽

The Impact

ObjectivesIn spring 2020, the first COVID-19 national lockdown placed unprecedented restrictions on the behaviour and movements of the UK population. Citizens were ordered to ‘stay at home’, only allowed to leave their houses to buy essential supplies, attend medical appointments or exercise once a day. We explored how lockdown and its subsequent easing changed young children’s everyday activities, eating and sleep habits to gain insight into the impact for health and well-being.DesignIn-depth qualitative interviews; data analysed using thematic analysis.SettingSouth West and West Midlands of England.ParticipantsTwenty parents (16 mothers; 4 fathers) of preschool-age children (3–5 years) due to start school in September 2020. Forty per cent of the sample were from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds and half lived in the most deprived areas.ResultsChildren’s activity, screen time, eating and sleep routines had been disrupted. Parents reported children ate more snacks, but families also spent more time preparing meals and eating together. Most parents reported a reduction in their children’s physical activity and an increase in screen time, which some linked to difficulties in getting their child to sleep. Parents sometimes expressed guilt about changes in activity, screen time and snacking over lockdown. Most felt these changes would be temporary, though others worried about re-establishing healthy routines.ConclusionsParents reported that lockdown negatively impacted on preschool children’s eating, activity and sleep routines. While some positive changes were identified, many participants described lack of routines, habits and boundaries which may have been detrimental for child health and development. Guidance and support for families during COVID-19 restrictions could be valuable to help maintain healthy activity, eating, screen time and sleeping routines to protect child health and ensure unhealthy habits are not adopted.

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