Washington Post staffers walk off the job in 24-hour strike


Nicholas ROLL
Thu, 7 December 2023 

Employees of The Washington Post, joined by supporters, walk the picket line during a 24-hour strike outside of paper's headquarters (Brendan SMIALOWSKI)

Hundreds of staff at The Washington Post, one of America's most storied newspapers, walked off the job Thursday in a 24-hour strike after 18 months of contract negotiations failed to secure a deal.

Chanting "Fair pay now" and raising signs reading "Show us the $$$$," staff and supporters protested outside the paper's downtown Washington offices as the Post Guild estimated 750 people would be engaging in the work stoppage.

The strike comes amid a tumultuous US media landscape, which has not spared the national daily, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos -- one of the world's richest men, whose e-commerce giant has aggressively pushed back against unionization efforts there.

The media industry saw some 17,500 job cuts in the first half of 2023 alone, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a human resources consultancy. Over the past two decades, as the internet has eaten into traditional advertising revenue, some 2,500 newspapers have shuttered altogether.

At the same time, outlets like The New York Times -- a Post competitor -- have prospered, with the Times recently hitting 10 million subscribers as it expanded into offering cooking recipes and games, as well as acquiring sports outlet The Athletic.

The Post strike comes after failed talks to reach a new deal over pay, remote work and other conditions. Layoffs last year as well as hiring freezes are also affecting work conditions and morale, said Katie Mettler, a local reporter and union co-chair.

The Times reported earlier this year that the Post was on track to lose about $100 million this year, which the union has blamed on poor management.

"The company has tried to balance its books by laying off nearly 40 people in the last year," the union said in a letter announcing the strike. Some 240 voluntary buyouts were offered this fall, and the paper "has threatened that if they don't get enough people to leave, more layoffs will be next."

"We're not asking for charity," Mettler told AFP, adding that "we can't become profitable again if our employees leave... because this institution isn't paying us wages that keep up with inflation."

- Strikes across US -

A company spokesperson said the paper's goal "remains the same as it has from the start of our negotiations: to reach an agreement with the Guild that meets the needs of our employees and the needs of our business."

Media reports indicate that since reaching a high of three million subscribers during the frenzied years of Donald Trump's presidency, Post subscriptions have since dropped to 2.5 million.

The Post Guild has also accused the company of "refusing to bargain in good faith" and "breaking the law."

"It's frustrating to have worked for 18 months for a contract and to still not have one," striking reporter Jeanne Whalen told AFP.

The strike comes at a moment of resurgent US union activity and amid a tight labor market -- with everyone from Hollywood writers and actors to auto workers to baristas taking their grievances to the picket line in recent months.

The labor action at the Post follows a strike earlier this year at America's largest newspaper publisher, Gannett, and a 24-hour action by New York Times staff a year ago.

Workers at The Associated Press staged a "short break" last month over their lack of contract. Their guild has rejected a two percent raise offered by management.

nro-as/acb

Working night shifts causes sleep disorders in more than half of workers

New study shows that working night shifts favors development of sleep disorders, particularly in young adults with a lower education

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Sleep is critical for daytime and neurocognitive functioning, as well as physical and mental health. When people work shifts – in 2015, 21% of workers in the European Union did – their circadian sleep-wake rhythms are commonly disrupted. Now, researchers in the Netherlands have investigated the relationship between different shift working patterns, sociodemographic factors, and sleep disorders.

“We showed that compared to working regular shifts during daytime hours, working other shift types is associated with a higher occurrence of disordered sleep, particularly in rotating and regular night shift work,” said Dr Marike Lancel, a researcher at GGZ Drenthe’s Mental Health Institute and senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Of note, 51% of people working nights scored positive for at least one sleep disorder.”

Questioning sleep

“There is a lot of evidence that shift work reduces the quality of sleep. However, little is known about the influence of different types of shifts on the prevalence of various sleep disorders, and how this may vary depending on demographic characteristics,” Lancel continued.

To fill these gaps, the researchers recruited more than 37,000 participants who provided demographic information, indicating their shift work patterns (regular morning, evening, night, or switching between shifts).

They also completed a questionnaire screening for six common sleep disorder categories: insomnia, hypersomnia, parasomnia, sleep-related breathing disorders, sleep related movement disorders, and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders.

The responses suggested that working regular night shifts was the most debilitating condition concerning sleep. Half of the night shift workers reported to sleep less than six within 24 hours, 51% reported one sleep disorder, and 26% reported two or more sleep disorders.

Across the entire study population, approximately a third scored positive for at least one sleep disorder, while 12.6% screened positive for two or more.

Demographics and living situation matter

The researchers also investigated if demographic factors, such as sex, age, and highest level of education impacted sleep health. They also considered if participants lived alone, with a partner and/or children, or with others, such as friends or parents.

Their results showed that males slept fewer hours than females, but that sleep disorders were more common in women. Age also influenced sleep health: older participants tended to sleep shorter hours, but most sleep disorders and their comorbidities were found to be more prevalent among the youngest participant group, aged 30 and below.

Concerning education level and the likeliness to have disrupted sleep, the researchers found a correlation: “The effects of shift work on sleep are most prominent in young adults with a lower education,” Lancel pointed out. This group slept shorter hours and had a significantly higher prevalence of sleep disorders and comorbidities thereof.

Adjusting to active nights?

It is possible that some people working night shifts may experience fewer sleep related problems than others, the researchers said, but that for the average night shift worker, this out-of-rhythm work pattern will increase the likeliness of them struggling with regular, healthy sleep. “Because those working night shift will remain de-synchronized with the day-work focused environment they live in, it is unlikely to completely prevent all negative consequences of night work,” explained Lancel.

The researchers also pointed to certain limitations of their study. For example, individuals with sleep disorders might participate in sleep-focused studies more readily than healthy sleepers. Nevertheless, the authors said that their findings can provide crucial information for employers in professions where shift work is common. They also might be used to educate on strategies on how to best deal with and reduce consequences of working nights and sleeping days.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Psychiatry

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1233640 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Shift work is associated with extensively disordered sleep, especially when working nights

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Dec-2023

 

How a failure to understand race leads to flawed health tech

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

A new study focused on wearable health monitors underscores an entrenched problem in the development of new health technologies – namely, that a failure to understand race means the way these devices are developed and tested can exacerbate existing racial health inequities.

“This is a case study that focuses on one specific health monitoring technology, but it really highlights the fact that racial bias is baked into the design of many of these technologies,” says Vanessa Volpe, co-author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University.

“The way that we understand race, and the way that we put that understanding into action when developing and using health technologies, is deeply flawed,” says Beza Merid, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of science, technology, innovation and racial justice at Arizona State University.

“Basically, the design of health technologies that purport to provide equitable solutions to racial health disparities often define race as a biological trait, when it’s actually a social construct,” Merid says. “And the end result of this misunderstanding is that we have health technologies that contribute to health inequities rather than reducing them.”

To explore issues related to the way the development and testing of health tech can reinforce racism, the researchers focused specifically on photoplethysmographic (PPG) sensors, which are widely used in consumer devices such as Fitbits and Apple watches. PPG sensors are used in wearable technologies to measure biological signals, such as heart rate, by sending a signal of light through the skin and collecting data from the way in which the light is reflected back to the device.

For the study, the researchers drew on data from clinical validation studies for a wearable health monitoring device that relied on PPG sensors. The researchers also used data from studies that investigated the ways in which skin tone affects the accuracy of PPG “green light” sensors in the context of health monitoring. Lastly, the researchers looked at wearable device specification and user manuals and data from a lawsuit filed against a health technology manufacturer related to the accuracy of technologies that relied on PPG sensors.

“Essentially, we synthesized and interpreted data from each of these sources to take a critical look at racial bias in the development and testing of PPG sensors and their outputs, to see if they matched guidelines for responsible innovation,” Volpe says.

“These studies identified challenges with PPG sensors for people with darker skin tones,” says Merid. “We drew on scholarship exploring how innovative technologies can reproduce racial health inequities to dig more deeply into how and why these challenges exist. Our own expertise in responsible innovation and structural racism in technology guided our approach. If people are developing technologies with the goal of reducing harm to people’s health, how and why do these technologies end up with flaws that can exacerbate that harm?”

The findings suggest there are significant challenges when it comes to “race correction” in health technologies.

“Race correction” is a broad term that applies not only to technologies, but also involves correcting or adjusting health risk scores used to make decisions about the relative risk of disease and the allocation of health care resources.

“Race correction assumes that we can develop technologies or health risk scoring algorithms to first quantify and then ‘remove’ the effect of biological race from the equation,” says Merid. “But doing so assumes race is a biological difference that needs to be corrected for to achieve equitable health for all. This prevents us from treating the real thing that needs to be corrected – the system of racism itself (e.g., differential treatment and access to health care, systematic socioeconomic disenfranchisement).”

“For example, many – if not most – health technologies that use PPG sensors claim to be designed for use by everyone,” Volpe says. “But in reality those technologies are less accurate for people with darker skin tones. We argue that the systematic exclusion and erasure of those with darker skin tones in the development and testing of wearable technologies that are supposed to democratize and improve health for all can be a less visible form of race correction. In other words, the development process itself reflects the system of racism. The end result is a technological ‘solution’ that fails to deliver equity and is instead characteristic of the very system that created the problem.

“Race corrections assume that we have to make adjustments based on race as a biological construct,” Volpe says. “But we should be adjusting racism as a system so that the technologies developed work and are responsible and equitable for everyone – in both their development and their consequences.”

“Innovation can introduce unintended consequences,” Merid says. “Rather than coming up with a solution, you can potentially just introduce a new suite of problems. This is a longstanding challenge for trying to develop technological solutions to social problems.

“Hopefully, this work contributes to our understanding of the ways that race correction is problematic,” says Merid. “We also hope that this work advances the idea that assumptions about race in the health field are deeply problematic, whether we’re talking about health technology, diagnoses or access to care. Lastly, we need to be mindful about the ways in which emerging health technologies can be harmful.”

A paper on the study, “Race Correction and Algorithmic Bias in Atrial Fibrillation Wearable Technologies,” is published open access in the journal Health Equity.

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JOURNAL

Health Equity

DOI

10.1089/heq.2023.0034 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Race Correction and Algorithmic Bias in Atrial Fibrillation Wearable Technologies

Racial and ethnic disparities in clinical trial enrollment among women with gynecologic cancer

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Clinical trial enrollment was lower among certain minoritized racial and ethnic groups in this study of 562,000 women with endometrial, ovarian, or cervical cancer. Continued efforts are needed to address disparate clinical trial enrollment among underrepresented groups. 

Authors: Ashley S. Felix, Ph.D., of Ohio State University in Columbus, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.46494)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

 

Improving prediction of advanced breast cancer among women of different races and ethnicities

UCSF researchers suggest primary prevention in addition to regular screenings can decrease advanced breast cancer diagnoses

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO MEDICAL CENTER

While regular screenings may decrease the chance of diagnosis of advanced breast cancer in some women and lead to a 20% reduction in breast cancer mortality, other women will be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer despite screening at regular intervals. The chances of being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer are higher among women who are Black or Hispanic/Latinx as well as women who are overweight and obese.

In a study publishing December 7, 2023 in JAMA Oncology, UC San Francisco researchers found that regular screening is not always sufficient to prevent an advanced breast cancer diagnosis. To reduce the number of advanced cancer diagnoses, primary prevention is also necessary and should focus on assisting women who are overweight or obese attain normal weight, particularly women of color.

Advanced breast cancer is defined as American Joint Committee on Cancer prognostic pathologic stage II or higher. Advanced breast cancers are tumors that are large and/or have spread to lymph nodes or have other characteristics associated with poorer prognosis such as being high grade and estrogen receptor negative. They require surgery and systemic treatment and detecting breast cancers through screening before they become advanced may avert deaths from breast cancer.

Advanced breast cancer risk calculation for women who are screened regularly can guide screening frequency and supplemental imaging. Clinical risk factors associated with advanced breast cancer include high breast density, high body mass index, increasing age, family history in a first-degree relative with breast cancer, history of previous breast biopsies, and postmenopausal status. Black women have a two-fold higher rate for advanced breast cancer than White women among regular screeners.

To evaluate the population attributable risk proportions (PARPs) for advanced breast cancer – the proportion of advanced cancer incidence in the population attributed to a risk factor – the researchers conducted a cohort study using data collected prospectively from Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) community-based imaging facilities from January 2005 to June 2018.

The participants followed were 904,615 women aged 40 to 74 (with a median age of 57) undergoing 3,331,740 annual or biennial screening mammograms. Among them, 1815 advanced breast cancers were diagnosed within two years of screening examinations. The risk factors that were examined included heterogeneously or extremely dense breasts, first degree family history of breast cancer, overweight/obesity (body mass index greater than 25), history of benign breast biopsy, and screening interval (biennial versus annual) stratified by menopausal status and race and ethnicity (Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic/Latinx, White, other/multiracial).

Body mass index PARPs were larger for post-menopausal than for pre-menopausal women (30% vs 22%) and highest for post-menopausal Black women (38.6%) and Hispanic/Latinx women (31.8%) as well as for pre-menopausal Black women (30.3%). In addition, the overall prevalence of being overweight/obese was highest in pre-menopausal Black (84.4%) and postmenopausal Black (85.1%), and Hispanic/Latinx women (72.4%).

“Black and Hispanic/Latinx women are at higher risk of being diagnosed with advanced cancer than White, Asian, or Pacific Islander women, and this difference is only partially accounted for by screening,” said first author Karla Kerlikowske, MD, UCSF professor of Medicine and Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Co-PI of the BCSC. “Identifying risk factors that account for the largest proportion of advanced breast cancers among regular screeners and understanding the differences in factors associated with risk of advanced cancer by race and ethnicity is important for developing personalized, equitable screening strategies and primary preventions.”

Breast density PARPs were larger for pre-menopausal than for post-menopausal women (37% vs 24%, respectively) and premenopausal White women (39.8%) whose prevalence of dense breasts was high (62%). For both premenopausal and postmenopausal women, PARPs were small for family history of breast cancer (5% to 8%), history of breast biopsy (7% to 12%) and screening interval (2.1% to 2.3%).

Obesity is bigger risk factor than family history in the study

Among routinely screened women, the researchers found that screening frequency was a weak risk factor for advanced cancer and screening biennially vs annually accounted for only a small proportion of advanced cancer diagnoses in this study population. Being overweight or obese accounted for the largest proportion of advanced cancers in postmenopausal women (30%), while dense breasts accounted for the largest proportion of advanced cancers in pre-menopausal women (37%).

“This is the first study, to our knowledge, to calculate PARPs for advanced breast cancer,” said Kerlikowske. “We found that being overweight or obese accounts for the largest proportion of advanced breast cancers among postmenopausal Black and Hispanic/Latinx women. This contrasts with prior studies, reporting that overweight/obesity accounted for the largest proportions of invasive breast cancers for postmenopausal Black women, but not Hispanic /Latinx women.”

Family history of breast cancer accounted for a small proportion of advanced breast cancer in pre-menopausal (8%) and postmenopausal women (5%) in the study. Prior studies have shown that women perceive family history of breast cancer as the primary breast cancer risk factor, with others such as being overweight or obese or having dense breasts, as less important predictors. Kerlikowske adds that patients need to be educated on factors that contribute most to development of advanced breast cancer, and on primary prevention interventions that can modify these risk factors. Offering supplemental imaging with MRI or ultrasonography to women at high advanced cancer risk could also reduce the chance of being diagnosed with advanced cancer.

Additional authors include: Shuai Chen, PhD, Michael C. S. Bissell, PhD, Christoph I. Lee, MD, Jeffrey A. Tice, MD, Brian L. Sprague, PhD, and Diana L. Miglioretti, PhD

Funding: The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (PO1CA154292 and RO1CA266377).

About UCSF Health: UCSF Health is recognized worldwide for its innovative patient care, reflecting the latest medical knowledge, advanced technologies and pioneering research. It includes the flagship UCSF Medical Center, which is a top-ranked specialty hospital, as well as UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, with campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians and the UCSF Faculty Practice. These hospitals serve as the academic medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, which is world-renowned for its graduate-level health sciences education and biomedical research. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. Visit https://ucsfhealth.org. Follow UCSF Health on Facebook or on Twitter.

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Follow UCSF

ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | Twitter.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf

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JOURNAL

JAMA Oncology

DOI

10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.5242 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Population Attributable Risk of Advanced-Stage Breast Cancer by Race and Ethnicity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Dec-2023

Opioid prescribing by surgeons

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: This study found that during 2016 to 2022, the rate and size of opioid prescriptions from U.S. surgeons declined, but these declines were slower after mid-2020 compared with before 2020. During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid dispensing rate declined, potentially owing to decreased surgical volume, while opioid prescription size increased, potentially because surgeons wrote larger discharge prescriptions owing to barriers to obtaining refills. However, these changes were transient. 

Authors: Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.46426)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article  http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.46426?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=120723

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Surgery patients now less likely to get opioids – but decline has slowed

Opioid prescriptions from surgeons still average 44 pills, suggesting efforts to right-size prescribing are still needed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Post-surgery pain relief has shifted away from opioid-containing medications over the past seven years, but the downward trend has slowed since 2020, a new study shows.

Overall, the rate of surgery-related opioid prescriptions dropped by 36% from 2016 to the end of 2022, and the average amount of opioids in those prescriptions dropped by 46%, the study of pharmacy data finds.

That combination of declines means that the total amount of opioids dispensed to surgical patients in late 2022 was 66% lower compared with early 2016, according to the findings published in JAMA Network Open by a team from the University of Michigan.

But the rate of decline was much faster before the pandemic, the researchers report after comparing surgical opioid patterns before and after 2020. That’s even after they took into account the unusual circumstances of spring 2020, when most elective surgery temporarily stopped to free up hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients and reduce unnecessary exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Even with the overall declines, American surgery patients in late 2022 still received the equivalent of 44 5-milligram pills of hydrocodone from pharmacies after their operations on average. That’s far higher than what patients need for most procedures.

“These data suggest surgical teams have substantially reduced opioid prescribing, but also suggest that efforts to right-size opioid prescriptions after surgery must continue,” said Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., the senior author of the new study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at U-M. He worked with first author and former U-M research assistant Jason Zhang, who is now in medical school at Northwestern University.

The researchers also find that some types of surgeons have reduced the amount of opioids dispensed to patients more than others. For instance, reductions were particularly large in cardiothoracic surgery and ophthalmology.

Orthopedic surgeons still account for more than half of all surgical opioids dispensed to American patients, even as the rate and size of prescriptions filled by their patients dropped.

Right-sizing prescribing

The authors note that surgeons should not strive to eliminate opioid prescribing altogether.

“The goal should be to ensure that opioids are only prescribed when necessary, and that the amount of opioids prescribed matches the amount that patients need,” said Zhang. “Achieving these goals could help reduce the risk of opioid misuse, persistent opioid use, and diversion of pills to other people besides the patient.”

The potential for accidental exposure to opioids by others in the household, and interactions between opioids and other substances including alcohol and prescription drugs, are other reasons to focus on non-opioid surgical pain care.

Chua and colleagues have studied procedure-related opioid prescribing multiple times, including a recent study showing that the reduction in the rate of dental opioid prescribing  has similarly slowed in recent years.

They have worked with the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN) to develop prescribing guidelines for adult and pediatric surgical care available at https://michigan-open.org/prescribing-recommendations 

Surgical organizations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised surgeons to rely less on opioid-based acute pain relief for their patients since the mid-2010s. But no studies have examined surgical opioid prescribing trends using pandemic-era data.

The new study is based on data from a company called IQVIA that tracks prescriptions dispensed at 92% of U.S. pharmacies.

In addition to Chua and Zhang, the study’s authors include OPEN co-directors Jennifer Waljee, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. and Chad Brummett, M.D. All except Zhang are members of the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and Brummett co-directs the U-M Opioid Research Institute.

Chua is a member of the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center in the Department of Pediatrics, which also provided some of the funding for the study.

The study reported in this press release was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (DA057284, DA056438, DA048110), the Benter Foundation and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

Opioid Prescribing by US Surgeons, 2016-2022, JAMA Network Open, DOI:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.46426

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.46426 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Opioid Prescribing by US Surgeons, 2016-2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

7-Dec-2023

 

NIH study suggests maternal inflammation risk factors associated with children's behavioral and emotional regulation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES

Maternal inflammation risk factors may be associated with dysregulation in children, according to a study funded by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program at the National Institutes of Health. “Dysregulation” in this context refers to children’s attention, anxiety and depression, and aggression being measurably different from what is typically expected at their age. 

While inflammation is a normal bodily response to injury or infection, ECHO investigators wanted to learn whether factors linked to inflammation during pregnancy might be associated with dysregulation in children.

More youth with dysregulation (35%) were born to mothers with prenatal infections compared with 28% of youth without dysregulation. Other maternal factors studied, including being overweight before pregnancy, attaining less education, and smoking during pregnancy, were associated with higher likelihoods of childhood dysregulation. Children and adolescents who had a parent or sibling with a mental health disorder were also more likely to experience dysregulation.

“Addressing factors and treating conditions associated with behavior challenges may help improve outcomes for these children,” said Jean Frazier, MD, of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and a leader of the study.

Researchers used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to measure aggressive behavior, anxiety/depression, and attention problems in children. Approximately 13.4 % of children and adolescents in the study met the criteria for the CBCL Dysregulation Profile.

This study included 4,595 participants (ages 6-18 years) from 18 ECHO research sites across the United States.

Dr. Frazier and Mike O’Shea, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led this collaborative research published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

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About ECHO: Launched in 2016, the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program is a research program in the Office of the Director at the NIH with the mission to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.

 

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Perinatal Factors and Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Dysregulation in Childhood and Adolescence

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Dec-2023

 

Wasps that recognize faces cooperate more, may be smarter

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

ITHACA, N.Y. – A new study of paper wasps suggests social interactions may make animals smarter. The research offers behavioral evidence of an evolutionary link between the ability to recognize individuals and social cooperation.

Furthermore, genomic sequencing revealed that populations of wasps that recognized each other – and cooperated more – showed recent adaptations (positive selection) in areas of the brain associated with cognitive abilities such as learning, memory and vision.

The study focused on two distinct populations of paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus): A southern one from Louisiana where individuals are more uniform in appearance, and a northern one in Ithaca, where individuals have diverse color patterns on their faces. A series of experiments indicated that unlike southern counterparts, the northern population both recognized individuals and cooperated socially with some members over others.  

“The evidence for strong recent positive selection on cognition, learning and memory is much stronger in the northern populations compared to the southern populations,” said senior author Michael Sheehan, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University.

While individuals from northern and southern populations are of the same species, they look very different. Southern paper wasps tend to have very similar red color patterns on their faces. The northern ones have black and yellow patterns.

“As you go further north, you find the individuals become more variable in their color patterning, such that roughly around the Carolinas, they start becoming substantially variable and continue to be more variable as you go further north,” Sheehan said. In the Ithaca population, every individual is pretty distinct.

Behavioral studies were conducted in the lab with the Ithaca population and then others from Louisiana. Over four days, a wasp would be introduced to a stranger, and their level of aggression was recorded. When paper wasps first meet, they often fight by snapping, biting and slapping. Over subsequent days, the wasp was introduced to a stranger, then back again with the wasp they had previously met, and finally with another stranger.

Wasps from the northern population were aggressive to strangers, but much less so to the wasp they had previously met. “Individuals in the southern population treat everyone the same,” Sheehan said. “They don’t show any evidence of changing their behavior as a result of previously meeting that particular individual, which suggests they’re not recognizing them.”

Though more study is needed, Sheehan reports that there’s some indication that wasps from the northern population have more stable nesting groups, whereas the southern wasps had high turnover of members when they occasionally made nests.

The data suggests that being able to recognize individuals makes northern wasps more selective and better able to manage their social profiles, whereas the more homogenous-looking southern wasps interact more indiscriminately and have less consistent, cohesive social interactions, Sheehan said.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

Media note: Pictures and video of paper wasps can be viewed and downloaded here.

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2023.11.032