Family

A new study has shown that kids who sit down and eat regular family meals and get plenty of vegetables in their diet tend to be in better shape than their peers who lack those eating habits.

The new study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, may not sound like a new idea. However, not a lot of studies have looked at the relationship between kids and the relationship between their weight and eating habits, which are far more complex than just sugar and fat consumption.

While it is generally thought that sitting down with their family to dinner is healthy for children, there is little research as to how doing so helps gets stay or get thin.

In the new study, Greek researchers studied 1,138 kids from the ages of 9 to 13. They looked at their diets, physical activity, and then used that information to identify five general diet-and-lifestyle patterns withing the group.

One was called the "dinner, cooked meals and vegetables" pattern. Children with this lifestyle had a higher intake of vegetables, regularly sat down to family dinner and had more traditional “cooked” meals (hot or cold) for lunch and dinner, rather than sandwiches, snack foods, or breakfast-like meals.

Kids in this pattern typically had a lower BMI. They also had slimmer waistlines and less body fat than their peers who did not fit the diet pattern.

The other four diet-and-lifestyle patterns that were identified were associated with children's weight or body fat levels.

The others included am “unstructured eating, fast food/sugary foods and sedentary lifestyle" pattern, and "high fiber," "breakfast," and "exercise, fruits and vegetables” patterns.

It is not clear why these other categories failed to show al ink to kids' weight, while the family meal/vegetable pattern did, according to researchers, headed up by Dr. Mary Yannakoulia of Harokopio University in Athens.

They write, however, that the habit of sitting down with families to dinner and having cooked meals on a regular basis could signify kids who are sticking to the traditional mediterranean diet, which is rich in vegetables, olive oil, whole grains and fish.

A major limitation of the study is that it only looked at the kids at one point in time. Only a study that lasts over time can show whether those who have a family meal/vegetable-type pattern are less likely to be overweight.

Yannakoulia nd her colleagues, however, write that the findings suggest that an eating pattern stands as a "potential preventive approach" to facing childhood obesity. They noted, also, that a "non-restrictive" pattern is a way of eating most children can live with.

NEW YORK – Teens and children who smoke marijuana may have a heightened risk of depression, a new study shows. Whether the drug itself is to blame is still unclear.

Several studies have shown an association between marijuana and increase risk of depression and anxiety disorders, but most have failed to confirm such a link. It remains unclear as to whether marijuana use or some other factor raises the risk in some studies.

In the new study that was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers used data from more than 50,000 adults in 17 countries taking part in a World Health Organization (WHO) mental-health study.

The researchers found a modest association between marijuana smoking before the age of 17 and the odds of suffering from depression later in life. Through all the countries, early marijuana use was liked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of developing depression after the age of 17.

The connection stayed when researchers accounted for other factors, including participants' self-reported recent marijuan use, smoking and drinking habits, and history of mental problems such as phobias and anxiety.

The marijuana-depression link was weakened when investigators factored in childhood conduct problems such as skipping school, getting into fights and shoplifting.

The implication is that conduct problems could explain the causality between early pot smoking and later depression, lead researcher Dr. Ron dr Graaf, of the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction in Utrecht said in an email.

De Graaf said, unfortunately, that he and his team lacked information on conduct problems from study participants in certain areas, including some of those where the connection between early pot use and depression were strongest like New Zealand and South Africa.

The full extent of that childhood problems may explain the link between marijuana and depression is still not clear.

Other key limitations were present in the study as well. Some participants were surveyed at a single point instead of over time, which is the best way to gauge which came first, drugs or depression.

The study participants were, instead, screened for spells of depression which are persistent feelings of sadness and other symptoms such as appetite change and sleep problems, that lasted for at least two weeks. They were then asked to recall when they first started experiencing episodes.

Those who were 17 years or older when the depression hit, they were considered “cases”. Across the countries studied, 9,647 participants fit the definition and were compared to the 41,000 plud men and women who had no current or past depression.

Of the group of depressed, 9 percent claimed that they had smoked marijuana before that age of 17, while the same was true of 7 percent o the comparison group. Men and women who said they had smoked pot before the age of 17 had a greater chance of a depression episode at 17 or later.

This study type cannot prove outright that marijuana contributed to the increased risk of depression. It may be, for instance, that young folks who are vulnerable to developing depression or other mental health problems are also more likely to use marijuana.

Still, according to de Graaf, it is possible that with other substances, like alcohol, kids' and teens' still-developing brains may be more vulnerable to any direct toxic effects of marijuana use.

Past studies have linked heavy marijuana use, especially with teens, to an increase in schizophrenia-like psychosis.

"Early cannabis (marijuana) use may have important consequences for later mental health," de Graaf said. "We know now -- also from other studies -- that cannabis use is not without negative consequences."

More studies are still needed, according to de Graaf. Ones that follow young people over time to see whether marijuana use does pecede the development of mental health problems in some kids will be vital.

Children between the ages of one to two years who were immunized against hepatitis A went up in the United States, and the rate of hepatitis A reached a record low after new vaccination recommendations were given a few years back, according to a federal report.

Hepatitis A is a liver disease that is contagious and could cause mild illness lasting for a few weeks or severe cases lasting several months.

The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, in 2006, suggested routine hepatitis A vaccination for all kids from 12-23 months in all categories and locations. The recommendation was given after the minimum age for the vaccine was lowewerd to 12 months from the previous 24 months.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reseachers analyzed data, in a new study, from eight Immunization Information Systems sentinel sites across the US and found the average hepatitis A vaccination coverage for one does for an infant increased from 17 percent in 2006 to 47 percent in 2009. The average full vaccination with two doses for infants increased from 1 percent to 15 percent last year.

The increase in vaccinations was the highest in 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, but the rate of increase then slowed and covered peaked, according to researchers.

The occurrence of hepatitis A in the US reached a low in 2007, which is the most recent year with data available.

In the report, the researchers wrote that “immunization programs and vaccine providers should encourage children to receive hepatitis A vaccine, beginning at age 12 months. Reminder/recall notification and school or child-care entry vaccination requirements might contribute to increased vaccination coverage. Continued monitoring is needed to assess the trend in completion of the hepatitis A vaccine series among children."

Schools have been trying for better nutrition, more exercise and improved education about healthy living to help kids who are at risk for obesity keep weight off, compared to kids in schools without similar programs.

The program, however, failed to reduce the overall number of obese and overweight school kids. The numbers fell by four percent over three years whether the 42 middles chools in the study had the health programs or not, researchers report.

"The intervention, surprisingly, did not result in a [population-wide] reduction in overweight or obesity," said lead researcher Gary D. Foster, a professor of medicine and public health and director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, Philadelphia. "What's surprising is that the control group improved as well," he said.

While the programs did not seem to have much influence on kids who were not already overweight or obese by sixth grade, it did impact children who were already having weight troubles.

For those kids, "there were small [weight-loss] effects of about 3 percent. Although that's small, it's enormous given the rates of obesity in this country," Foster said. "This was an unexpected but fortunate finding -- that we are actually impacting the kids at the greatest risk."

The discoveries are to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Orlando, and they are being published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Foster's team randomly selected about 4'600 students from 42 schools to go on a diet, exercise and information program, or a program where they have their height and weight assessed. The study targets schools with high levels of minority children, because studies have shown them to be at a high risk for obesity.

The selected children were offered healthier food choices throughout the school in the cafeteria, at snack bars and vending machines, and during class events. These included lower-fat, higher-fiber foods; more fruits and vegetables; and an emphasis on water, low-fat milk and drinks without added sugar.

Additionally, there were longer and more intense periods of physical exercise for the school kids, and activities and awareness campains to promote healthier living.

The research found that kids who were already obese at the programs outset lost a significant amount of weight, as shown by a reduction in waist size, compared to other children.

Actually, kids in program schools who were overweight or obese in sixth grade had 21 percent fewer chance of being obese by the end of eighth grade, compared with students in schools without initiatives. The program also lowered fasting insulin levels, a key indicator for diabetes risk, the researchers found.

The children from both types of schools had the same average blood sugar levels and the same amount of students with elevated blood sugar, the study noted.

Foster said that it is intriguing that the rate of overweight and obesity dropped by 4 percent regardless of the presence of an anti-obesity program or not. "This is potentially good news -- that the rates of childhood obesity appear to be declining [naturally]," he said.

Other factors may be involved in the weight decrease even among those kids putting more attention on their weight. The fact that researchers were measuring the kids' height and weight may have made the youngsters more self conscious, he said.

"Something has changed and we've got to figure out what that something is," Foster said.

Director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. David L. Katz, said that "the results of this study are open to interpretation, and thus conclusions are apt to reside in the eyes of the beholder."

People who do not put much stock in school-based intervention will point to a lack of effort overall. "However, those who perceive value in school-based interventions -- and I am among these -- will focus on the obvious pattern in an array of secondary outcomes, including reductions in body fat and insulin levels, which in turn would be expected to reduce diabetes risk," Katz said.

The program's effect on obese children is important, according tp Foster.

"There is a strong signal here that this [program] can make a difference," Foster said. "If we can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in children by reducing the rates of obesity and reducing waist circumference, that's an important outcome," he said.