Epidemiologic Factors and Ocular Manifestations of Twin Children Compared with Controls

Purpose: To compare the epidemiological and ocular findings of twin children with non- twin age matched individuals as their control.Methods: In this cross sectional study, a total of 92 twins (184 cases) were compared with 182 non- twin matched children. The comprehensive ophthalmic examinations including measurement of the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), cycloplegic refraction, ocular deviation, strabismus as well as the anterior and posterior ophthalmic examinations were conducted. An organized questionnaire was also filled out for both groups to record their demographic information. Monozygotic twins were considered if there were similarity of their phenotypic characteristics and gender, otherwise the twins were considered as dizygotic. The mirror- image twins (MIT) was defined based on the laterality of symmetrical ocular characteristics of twins.Results: In this study, the mean age of the study subjects was 7.08±4.68 and 7.56±4.02 years in the twins and non-twins groups, respectively. Among the twins 27 (30%) were monozygotic. Refractive form of MIT was seen in 5 twins (5%). BCVA in the twins group (0.07±0.16LogMAR) was significantly worse than non-twins (0.03±0.08LogMAR, P<0.001) and higher percentage of them were amblyopic (21.8% versus 10.5%, P=0.005). Twin and controls had history of strabismus surgery in 7.8% and 3.3%, respectively (P=0.009). Multivariate analysis showed significant correlation among low gestational age and female gender, low birth weight and seizure. Conclusion: Female sex, less gestational age, low birth weight, amblyopia and strabismus were significantly higher in twins. Therefore, it is important to check their refractive error, anisometropia, MIT phenomenon and amblyopia to prevent their further complications.

Differences in Stress and Anxiety Among Women With and Without Children in the Household During the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns have had a disproportionate impact on parents of children under 18, particularly women. Mandatory school closures and loss of childcare resulted in parents balancing work, teaching, and childcare needs. A number of studies have examined changes in mental health of parents, but to date no studies have compared the differences in stress and anxiety levels between women with and without children in the United States. Adult women from the Washington State Twin Registry (WSTR) (N = 1,014, pair N = 529) and mothers of twin children enrolled in the WSTR (N = 147) completed an online survey examining several health-related behaviors and outcomes and their self-reported changes due to COVID-19. We conducted two studies to examine the impact of children on stress and anxiety levels among women. In study 1, we assessed whether women living in households with children under the age of 18 have higher levels of stress and anxiety than those without children in their household. We found that perceived stress levels did not differ between women with and without children in the household, but anxiety levels were higher among women living with children than those without. In study 2, we assessed whether the correlation between children in the household and stress/anxiety is accounted for by non-random genetic and environmental selection effects, causal processes, or both using a sample of adult female twins. We found that the presence of children in the household was associated with higher levels of stress and anxiety. However, this association is confounded by genetic and shared environmental factors. Our findings highlight the need to provide supporting resources to women living with children in the household during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effect of sex and dyad composition on speech and gesture development of singleton and twin children

Children's early vocabulary shows sex differences – with boys having smaller vocabularies than age-comparable girls – a pattern that becomes evident in both singletons and twins. Twins also use fewer words than their singleton peers. However, we know relatively less about sex differences in early gesturing in singletons or twins, and also how singletons and twins might differ in their early gesture use. We examine the patterns of speech and gesture production of singleton and twin children, ages 0;10-to-3;4, during structured parent-child play. Boys and girls – singleton or twin – were similar in speech and gesture production, but singletons used a greater amount and diversity of speech and gestures than twins. There was no effect of twin dyad type (boy-boy, girl-girl, boy-girl) on either speech or gesture production. These results confirm earlier research showing close integration between gesture and speech in singletons in early language development, and further extend these patterns to twin children.

Features Of Non-Specific Protection Factors And Cytokine Status In Inflammatory Diseases Of The Paranasal Sinuses In Twin Children

The Aim of this work was to study the functional activity of monocytes, neutrophils and cytokines in twin children with Inflammatory diseases of the paranasal sinuses in comparison with non-twins. It was found that with various rhinosinusitis in children, phagocytic activity of monocytes in blood decrease, which causes the development of a chronic purulent focus and is characterized by an increase in monocytes with viral inclusions. In patients with Inflammatory diseases of the paranasal sinuses, the activity of non-specific protective factors of the body is significantly reduced, which is expressed in a decrease phagocytic activity of monocytes and an increase monocyte with viral inclusions, which is more evidently in twin children than in non-twin children. Serum cytokines in children with Inflammatory diseases of the paranasal sinuses were significantly increased in relation to the data of healthy children. In children-twins and non - twins, the parameters of anti-inflammatory cytokines changed in different directions.

Twin Differences in Harsh Parenting Predict Youth’s Antisocial Behavior

In the current study, we leveraged differences within twin pairs to examine whether harsh parenting is associated with children’s antisocial behavior via environmental (vs. genetic) transmission. We examined two independent samples from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Our primary sample contained 1,030 families (2,060 twin children; 49% female; 6–10 years old) oversampled for exposure to disadvantage. Our replication sample included 240 families (480 twin children; 50% female; 6–15 years old). Co-twin control analyses were conducted using a specification-curve framework, an exhaustive modeling approach in which all reasonable analytic specifications of the data are interrogated. Results revealed that, regardless of zygosity, the twin experiencing harsher parenting exhibited more antisocial behavior. These effects were robust across multiple operationalizations and informant reports of both harsh parenting and antisocial behavior with only a few exceptions. Results indicate that the association between harsh parenting and children’s antisocial behavior is, to a large degree, environmental in origin.

Oral microbiota and dental caries data from monozygotic and dizygotic twin children

There are recent studies which aimed to detect the inheritance on the etiology of dental caries exploring oral composition. We present data on the oral microbiota and its relation with dental caries and other factors in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin children. Following clinical investigation, DNA samples were collected and isolated from saliva of 198 patients (49 MZ and 50 DZ twins) with an average age of 9.7 ± 2.7 years. Salivary bacterial microbiota analysis was performed using high throughput amplicon sequencing method targeting V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. A total of 8,297,859 raw reads corresponding to 41,908 reads per sample were obtained on average. The QIIME2-deblur workflow was used for 16S rRNA amplicon analysis. Microbiome similarity analyses between twins (based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, weighted and unweighted Unifrac distances) showed that monozygotic twins share more bacterial microbial content compared to dizygotic twins. This is a large microbial community dataset of MZ and DZ twins with or without dental findings which can be further used for children oral microbiome profile explorations.

Comparison of Motor Development in Preterm, and Term Children Aged 3 to 7 Years

Background: Human development is influenced by genetic, environmental, and social factors whose foundation is formed from infancy and childhood. Preterm birth and low birth weight are important issues that can affect the development and threaten the public health. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare motor development manipulation, balance, aiming, and receiving in low, very low birth weight, and normal children aged 3 to7 years. Methods: In this comparative study, 63 children were selected from among the preterm infants admitted to NICU ward. They were divided into three groups of (1) low birth weight children (mean 2066 ± 354 g) (n = 30), (2) very low birth weight children (mean 1325 ± 117 g) (n = 13), and (3) preterm twin children (mean 1781 ± 385 g) (n = 20).Also, 15 term children with an average weight (3345 ± 365 g) were selected. To evaluate the motor development of children, the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (Second Edition) (MABC-2) test was used. The results were analyzed by SPSS using one-way ANOVA test (P ≤ 0.05). Results: Low birthweight and very low birthweight children had poorer performance on manipulation, aiming, catching, and balance compared to normal children (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: VLBW children performed significantly poorer than LBW and Twin children on the subscales of posting coins, threading beads, drawing trail, one-leg balance, and walking heels raised.