0965 The Association Between Liquid Consumption and Sleep Patterns in School Children

Introduction

Liquid consumption is essential for daily function and may also play a role in sleep regulation. The aim of this study was to assess 1) the association between the frequency of liquid consumption and sleep patterns; and 2) the different types of liquids on the association between liquid consumption and sleep.

Methods

Participants included 597 children ages 9-13 years old from the China Jintan Child Cohort Study. To assess child liquid intake, children self-reported the types of liquids consumed and the frequency these liquids were consumed. To assess sleep patterns, both parents and children reported sleep patterns using the parent-reported Child Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ) and a child self-reported questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests analyses were performed to examine the differential effects of liquid consumption frequency and sleeping habits.

Results

Overall, a slight dose-dependent relationship between liquid consumption and sleep quality was observed. Less sleep problems and improved sleep quality were observed for water (bedtime resistance, sleep anxiety, night awakenings, parasomnias, sleep-disordered breathing, daytime sleepiness; p<0.05) and milk (parasomnias, sleep-disordered breathing, p<0.05) consumption. Caffeinated soda tended to increase sleep problems (sleep-disordered breathing, p<0.05). Sleep onset delay had a different pattern from that of other subscales, in which water increased sleep problems and caffeinated soda decreased sleep problems. There was some discrepancy between parent- and self-reported parasomnias, but sleep disordered breathing showed consistent patterns.

Conclusion

Children who consumed more liquid, especially water and milk, were more likely to experience less sleep problems. However, caffeinated soda consumption may be linked to increased sleep problems. Findings suggest that school children may need consume more healthy liquids for better sleep patterns. Future randomized-controlled trial studies are needed to verify these findings.

Support

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Institutes of Health (R01-ES-018858, K02-ES-019878, and K01-ES015877).

Test-retest reliability of brain responses to risk-taking during the balloon analogue risk task

The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) provides a reliable and ecologically valid model for the assessment of individual risk-taking propensity and is frequently used in neuroimaging and developmental research. Although the test-retest reliability of risk-taking behavior during the BART is well established, the reliability of brain activation patterns in response to risk-taking during the BART remains elusive. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and evaluated the test-retest reliability of brain responses in 34 healthy adults during a modified BART by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and Dice’s similarity coefficients (DSC). Analyses revealed that risk-induced brain activation patterns showed good test-retest reliability (median ICC = 0.62) and moderate to high spatial consistency, while brain activation patterns associated with win or loss outcomes only had poor to fair reliability (median ICC = 0.33 for win and 0.42 for loss). These findings have important implications for future utility of the BART in fMRI to examine brain responses to risk-taking and decision-making.

Determining the Degree of Deterioration of Cooking Oil by Assessing Polar Compound Content (FS14-07-19)

Objectives

Degradation of oil is characterized by oxidation, polymerization and hydrolysis of the chemical compounds of the oil. This process of deterioration increases the amount of several types of compounds, including polar compounds, such as alcohols, ketones and free fatty acids. Currently, there is no universal assay for measuring the quality of frying oil, and tests that do exist to examine frying oil are often costly and time consuming. This study set out to examine the utility of Reichardt's dye, a solvatochromic dye that indicates degrees of solvent polarity, as a possible way to accurately predict the degree of degradation of cooking oils.

Methods

Several pH indicators were used to indicate the pH of the substances tested. Reichardt's dye was first tested against well-known indicators, including Bromophenol blue, Bromothymol blue, Bromocresol purple, and Phenolphthalein. One milliliter of each oil sample was combined with 0.5 milliliters of the Reichardt's dye solution and the color changes were observed. To determine the percentage of free fatty acids in each of the three oils, approximately 2 grams of oil with a pH indicator was dissolved in 100% ethanol and titrated with 1 M potassium hydroxide solution. The titrations assigned quantitative values to the color changes observed when Reichardt's dye was used.

Results

The addition of Reichardt's dye solution to all three oils indicated presence of polarized substances through varying degrees of color change whereby the fresh vegetable oil had the lowest concentration of polar compounds (dark blue) and the degraded oil had the highest concentration of polar compounds (greenish-orange). The degree of color change correlated with the results of titrations which demonstrated increasing amounts of free fatty acid (FFA) content in the fresh vegetable oil (0.17% FFA), the slightly degraded kitchen oil (2.7% FFA) and the degraded oil (15% FFA).

Conclusions

Our experiment showed that Reichardt's dye was effective in indicating the polarity of oil substances, a reflection of the degree of degradation in oil. Given that oxidized oil is harmful to health, it is important to measure this oxidation process. This study warrants future research into the utility of Reichardt's dye.

Funding Sources

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH; University of Pennsylvania TREES Program (R25 ES021649).

Inflammatory bowel disease in Scottish children

Most children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) require specialist care in a tertiary medical centre. The records of 105 children with IBD who presented to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow between 1976 and 1995 were studied retrospectively. Fifty seven children and Crohn's disease (CD) (median age of presentation 7.9 years) and 48 had ulcerative colitis (UC) (median age of presentation 8.7 years). The number with CD doubled in the decade 1986-95 compared to 1975-85. 23% with CD and 13% with UC developed symptoms before the age of five years. Median time to diagnosis from symptom onset was 45.8 weeks for CD and 12.7 weeks for UC. Histological diagnosis was obtained in all children. The mainstay of treatment was aminosalicylates, and few children underwent surgery (CD 26%, UC 10%). Thirty percent with CD and 23% with UC had no relapses in the study period, and only one child with UC died. Growth was poorly recorded. The majority of children with CD and over 50% with UC had a height-for-age Z score below zero.

Developmental aspects of gastroschisis

The development of gastroschisis was studied experimentally as well as clinically, particularly concerning the characteristic fibrous coating of the protruding bowel loops, associated intestinal atresia, and postoperative hypoperistalsis without intestinal obstruction. Experimental investigation was carried out in the chicken embryo. The clinical study was a joint one, involving a total of 50 patients with gastroschisis seen at the Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow, between 1972 and 1985. Some patients were followed antenatally. The results, correlating with previous experiments, were compared with data from the literature. The fibrous coating of the protruding bowel loops appeared to be a late occurrence and directly related to changes of the amniotic fluid secondary to the onset of renal function. Associated intestinal atresia and postoperative hypoperistalsis in the absence of an obstruction both appeared to be due to another late gestational event, consisting of ischemic changes of the bowel wall secondary to the compression of bowel loops and mesentery in the small abdominal wall defect.

Group meetings for parents in a children's burns unit

Thermal injuries in childhood occur mainly in the first three years of life and often lead to hospital admission: most are due to scalds in the home. The distress and anxiety of parents bears on the management of the young sick child in hospital, on his subsequent recovery at home and on the welfare of the whole family. To help parents, a weekly meeting was held with a small group of staff in the Burns Unit at which there was free and open discussion of all problems and worries connected with the child's accident. This paper describes the working of the group and the contribution it made to the care of 149 children admitted with burns and scalds during one year.