Maryland School Health partners' Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on School Health Services for Grades K-12

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routine school operations, including school health programs. This study aims to describe the pandemic's impact on school health service delivery from the perspective of Maryland school health partners.

METHODS

We conducted semi-structured interviews with health service representatives from public schools (K-12) between July and December 2021. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded through an iterative process to develop analytic themes.

RESULTS

Twenty school health partners from 15 Maryland school districts participated. Participants identified key impacts of COVID-19 on school health: (1) COVID-19 disrupted delivery of services such as dental, mental health, and preventative care, (2) COVID-19 necessitated changes in service delivery platforms, (3) COVID-19 affected school health staff through increased responsibilities and staffing shortages, and (4) COVID-19 prompted schools to become hubs for community outreach and health education.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY

Consideration of school health service disruptions and the increased demands on service providers may inform future priorities for school administrators, health departments, and policymakers.

CONCLUSIONS

COVID-19 impacted the timing and method of service delivery as well as the roles of school health staff and schools themselves in public health and education.

Effect of a Comprehensive School-Based Health Center on Academic Growth in K-8th Grade Students

OBJECTIVE

School-based health centers (SBHCs) improve health care access, but associations with educational outcomes are mixed and limited for elementary and middle school students. We investigated whether students enrolled in a comprehensive SBHC demonstrated more growth in standardized math and reading assessments over 4 school years versus nonenrolled students. We also explored changes in absenteeism.

METHODS

Participants were students enrolled in 2 co-located Title I schools from 2015-19 (1 elementary, 1 middle, n = 2480). Analysis of math and reading was limited to students with baseline and postbaseline scores (math n = 1622; reading n = 1607). Longitudinal regression models accounting for within-subject clustering were used to estimate the association of SBHC enrollment with academic scores and daily absenteeism, adjusting for grade, sex, body mass index category, health conditions, baseline outcomes (scores or absenteeism), and outcome pretrends.

RESULTS

More than 70% of SBHC-enrolled students had math (1194 [73.6%]) and reading 1186 [73.8%]) scores. Enrollees were more likely than nonenrollees to have asthma (39.7% vs 19.6%) and overweight/obesity (42.4% vs 33.6%). Adjusted baseline scores were significantly lower in math and reading for enrollees. Mean change from baseline for enrollees exceeded nonenrollees by 3.5 points (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2, 4.8) in math and 2.1 points (95% CI: 0.9, 3.3) in reading. The adjusted rate of decrease in daily absenteeism was 10.8% greater for enrollees (incident rate ratio 0.772 [95% CI: 0.623, 0.956]) than nonenrollees (incident rate ratio 0.865 [95% CI: 0.696, 1.076]).

CONCLUSIONS

SBHC enrollees had greater health and educational risk but demonstrated more growth in math and reading and less absenteeism than nonenrollees.

Parents' Trust in COVID-19 Messengers and Implications for Vaccination

PURPOSE

To characterize factors associated with parents' trust in messengers of COVID-19 guidance and determine whether trust in their doctors is associated with COVID-19 vaccination.

DESIGN

Web-based and mailed survey (January-June 2022).

SETTING

Maryland, USA.

SUBJECTS

567 parents/caregivers of public elementary and middle school students.

MEASURES

Parents rated trust in 9 messengers on a 4-point scale ["not at all" (0) to "a great deal" (3)], dichotomized into low (0-1) vs high (2-3). They reported on health insurance, income, race, ethnicity, education, sex, urbanicity, political affiliation, and COVID-19 vaccination.

ANALYSIS

ANOVA and t-tests were computed to compare overall trust by parent characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression was run to evaluate factors associated with high trust for each messenger. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between trust in doctors and odds of COVID-19 vaccination.

RESULTS

Most trusted messengers were doctors (M = 2.65), family members (M = 1.87), and schools (M = 1.81). Parents' trust varied by racial identity, sex, urbanicity, health insurance, and political affiliation. Greater trust in their or their child's doctor was associated with greater odds of child (aOR: 2.97; 95% CI: 1.10, 7.98) and parent (aOR: 3.30; 95% CI: 1.23, 1.47) vaccination.

CONCLUSION

Parent characteristics were associated with trust, and trust was linked to vaccination. Public health professionals should anticipate variability in trusted messengers to optimize uptake of public health guidance.

Defining and Promoting Pediatric Pulmonary Health: Equitable Family and Community Partnerships

Optimizing pulmonary health across the lifespan begins from the earliest stages of childhood and requires a partnership between the family, pulmonologist, and pediatrician to achieve equitable outcomes. The Community Pediatrics session of the Defining and Promoting Pediatric Pulmonary Health workshop weaved together 4 community-based pillars with 4 research principles to set an agenda for future pediatric pulmonary research in optimizing lung and sleep health for children and adolescents. To address diversity, equity, and inclusion, both research proposals and workforce must purposefully include a diverse set of participants that reflects the community served, in addition to embracing nontraditional, community-based sites of care and social determinants of health. To foster inclusive, exploratory, and innovative research, studies must be centered on community priorities, with findings applied to all members of the community, particularly those in historically marginalized and minoritized groups. Research teams should also foster meaningful partnerships with community primary care and family members from study conceptualization. To achieve these goals, implementation and dissemination science should be expanded in pediatric pulmonary research, along with the development of rapid mechanisms to disseminate best practices to community-based clinicians. To build cross-disciplinary collaboration and training, community-academic partnerships, family research partnerships, and integrated research networks are necessary. With research supported by community pillars built on authentic partnerships and guided by inclusive principles, pediatric lung and sleep health can be optimized for all children and adolescents across the full lifespan in the community in which they live and thrive.

Identifying and preventing fraudulent responses in online public health surveys: Lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic

Web-based survey data collection has become increasingly popular, and limitations on in-person data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled this growth. However, the anonymity of the online environment increases the risk of fraudulent responses provided by bots or those who complete surveys to receive incentives, a major risk to data integrity. As part of a study of COVID-19 and the return to in-person school, we implemented a web-based survey of parents in Maryland between December 2021 and July 2022. Recruitment relied, in part, on social media advertisements. Despite implementing many existing best practices, we found the survey challenged by sophisticated fraudsters. In response, we iteratively improved survey security. In this paper, we describe efforts to identify and prevent fraudulent online survey responses. Informed by this experience, we provide specific, actionable recommendations for identifying and preventing online survey fraud in future research. Some strategies can be deployed within the data collection platform such as careful crafting of survey links, Internet Protocol address logging to identify duplicate responses, and comparison of client-side and server-side time stamps to identify responses that may have been completed by respondents outside of the survey's target geography. Other strategies can be implemented during the survey design phase. These approaches include the use of a 2-stage design in which respondents must be eligible on a preliminary screener before receiving a personalized link. Other design-based strategies include within-survey and cross-survey validation questions, the addition of "speed bump" questions to thwart careless or computerized responders, and the use of optional open-ended survey questions to identify fraudsters. We describe best practices for ongoing monitoring and post-completion survey data review and verification, including algorithms to expedite some aspects of data review and quality assurance. Such strategies are increasingly critical to safeguarding survey-based public health research.

Pediatric Asthma Is Associated With Poorer 3-Year Academic Achievement in Urban Elementary and Middle-School Students

OBJECTIVE

Asthma has been associated with worse academic performance in a single school year, yet this association may be magnified over time as students with asthma continue to fall behind. This study examined the relationship between asthma and standardized test performance aggregated across 3 school years, including whether performance varied by likelihood of having significant asthma.

METHODS

Data were from students in grades K-8 at 2 urban public schools in the Northeastern United States (2015-2018). Asthma was based on parent- and self-report and school health center records. Standardized test performance was assessed using Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) and Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Mixed effects linear and logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between asthma and performance during 3 school years.

RESULTS

Any asthma was associated with worse MAP performance across the 3 academic years. Students with the most significant asthma demonstrated worse performance on MAP and PARCC. Aggregating across 3 school years, students scored 3.17 points worse on MAP reading (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.7-5.63; P = .012) and 3.56 points worse on MAP mathematics (95% CI: 0.52-6.6; P = .022); they had 48.8% (95% CI: 1.9%-73.2%; P = .044) and 58.0% (95% CI: 21%-78%; P = .007) lower odds of proficiency on PARCC English/Language Arts and Mathematics, respectively compared to those without asthma.

CONCLUSIONS

The relationship between asthma and poorer academic achievement in 1 school year may be magnified over multiple years, particularly among those with more significant asthma. School-based asthma interventions may support academic growth and more equitable health outcomes.

An Intervention to Promote Adherence to Glasses Wearing Among Urban Public Elementary School Students: Associations With Classroom Behavior

Glasses wearing at school remains low even when glasses are provided. This study investigated whether a classroom intervention to promote glasses wearing was associated with increased glasses wearing and improved classroom behavior. A pretest, posttest design was implemented with 44 students in Grades 1-4 at an urban public elementary school. Over 5 weeks, teachers encouraged eyeglass wearing through a classroom tracker, verbal reminders, and incentives. Glasses wearing and student behavior were monitored using the Direct Behavior Rating Scale of academic engagement and behavior for 13 weeks, including 4 weeks before and after the intervention. Glasses wearing increased from 56% to 73% (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.08, 0.26]) in the first 2 weeks of the intervention, but not after a spring recess. The intervention was associated with significantly improved academic engagement (4.31%, 95% CI [2.17, 6.45]), respect (3.55%, 95% CI [1.77, 5.34]), and disruption (-4.28%, 95% CI [-6.51, -2.06]) compared to baseline. Higher academic engagement and disruption persisted 4 weeks after the intervention ended. A classroom-based glasses tracking and incentive system is associated with improved eyeglass wearing and classroom behavior among elementary students. A longer term randomized trial is needed to confirm these promising results.

Higher Child Body Mass Index Is Associated with Greater School-Based Health Center Utilization

Background: Children with overweight status and obesity seek care for acute illnesses more often than normal weight peers. School-based health centers (SBHCs) have a role in acute and chronic disease management; however, little is known about SBHC use by children with overweight status and obesity. This study compared SBHC utilization by student body mass index (BMI) category and investigated whether SBHC visit diagnoses varied by BMI category. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of students (n = 1161) in grades K-8 enrolled in a large SBHC for 2 years. Negative binomial regression models were used to test the independent association between BMI category as defined by BMI percentile [normal/underweight (BMI percentile <85%) and overweight/obesity (BMI percentile ≥85%), either overweight (85% ≤BMI percentile <95%) or obesity (BMI percentile ≥95%)], and the number of SBHC visits (nurse, clinician, and total visits) for the 2-year interval. Top five diagnoses based on ICD-10 visit codes were compared. Results: Students in the overweight/obesity category (BMI percentile ≥85%) had higher visit rates than normal/underweight peers after adjusting for age and gender, but only total visits were statistically significant [nurse: incident rate ratio (IRR) 1.42 (95% CI 0.94-2.15); clinician: 1.27 (95% CI 0.93-1.75); total: 1.45 (95% CI 1.02-2.07)]. Visit diagnoses were similar by BMI category. Conclusions: Students with higher BMI percentiles, categorized as overweight/obesity, had higher SBHC utilization than normal/underweight peers, but visit diagnoses were similar. This higher utilization may provide an as-yet untapped opportunity to expand school-based obesity prevention and management.

A Risk Stratification Algorithm for Asthma Identification and Prioritization in a Low-Income Urban School

BACKGROUND

Asthma can interfere with school attendance and engagement. School health programs are central to asthma management. Case identification is limited by reliance on parent-completed forms, which are often missing. This project tested a low-burden screening algorithm to stratify students based on priority for nurse outreach at 2 large, urban schools with high asthma prevalence.

METHODS

Students in grades 1-8 completed a 4-item asthma screener. Two-stage stratification incorporated screener responses, school nurse records, and absenteeism. Students were assigned low, medium, or high priority for follow up. Asthma prevalence in the high priority group was calculated for substantiated asthma. Whether stratification was more likely than chance to identify new cases of asthma in the high-priority group was evaluated using chi-square tests.

RESULTS

Of 1397 students, 69.7% were screened. Secondary stratification decreased the number of students in the high and medium priority groups. New asthma cases were identified in 46.4% of high-priority families reached for follow up. High-priority students were more likely to be identified as having asthma than chance alone (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

A low-burden screening algorithm appropriately placed students with asthma in the high priority group. This approach may allow efficient, targeted follow up of the highest need students in high prevalence populations.

Versatile method for quantifying and analyzing morphological differences in experimentally obtained images

Analyzing high-resolution images to gain insight into anatomical properties is an essential tool for investigation in many scientific fields. In plant biology, studying plant phenotypes from micrographs is often used to build hypotheses on gene function. In this report, we discuss a bespoke method for inspecting the significance in the differences between the morphologies of several plant mutants at cellular level. By examining a specific example in the literature, we will detail the approach previously used to quantify the effects of two gene families on the vascular development of hypocotyls in Arabidopsis thaliana. The method incorporates a MATLAB algorithm and statistical tools which can be modified and enhanced to tailor to different research questions in future studies.

Organ-specific genetic interactions between paralogues of the PXY and ER receptor kinases enforce radial patterning in Arabidopsis vascular tissue

In plants, cells do not migrate. Tissues are frequently arranged in concentric rings; thus, expansion of inner layers is coordinated with cell division and/or expansion of cells in outer layers. In Arabidopsis stems, receptor kinases, PXY and ER, genetically interact to coordinate vascular proliferation and organisation via inter-tissue signalling. The contribution of PXY and ER paralogues to stem patterning is not known, nor is their function understood in hypocotyls, which undergo considerable radial expansion. Here, we show that removal of all PXY and ER gene-family members results in profound cell division and organisation defects. In hypocotyls, these plants failed to transition to true radial growth. Gene expression analysis suggested that PXY and ER cross- and inter-family transcriptional regulation occurs, but it differs between stem and hypocotyl. Thus, PXY and ER signalling interact to coordinate development in a distinct manner in different organs. We anticipate that such specialised local regulatory relationships, where tissue growth is controlled via signals moving across tissue layers, may coordinate tissue layer expansion throughout the plant body.

Feasibility of Implementing Group Well Baby/Well Woman Dyad Care at Federally Qualified Health Centers

OBJECTIVE

Group care has been shown to be effective for delivery of infant well child care. Centering Parenting (CP) is a model of group dyad care for mothers and infants. CP might improve quality and efficiency of preventive care, particularly for low-income families. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) might be optimal sites for implementation, however, facilitators and barriers might be unique. The aim of this qualitative study was to assess stakeholder perspectives on the feasibility of implementing CP in FQHCs in Baltimore.

METHODS

Semistructured interviews were conducted with mothers, clinicians, staff, and administrators recruited from 2 FQHCs using purposive sampling. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and uploaded to Atlas.ti version 7.0 (Atlas.ti Scientific Software Development, GmbH Berlin, Germany) for analysis. Using an inductive thematic analysis approach, 2 investigators coded the transcripts. Matrices of key codes were developed to identify themes and patterns across stakeholder groups.

RESULTS

Interviews were completed with 26 mothers and 16 clinicians, staff, and administrators. Most participants considered CP desirable. Facilitators included: peer support and education, emphasis on maternal wellness, and increased patient and clinician satisfaction. Barriers included: exposure to "others," scheduling and coordination of care, productivity, training requirements, and cost. Parenting experience did not appear to affect perspectives on CP.

CONCLUSIONS

Perceptions regarding facilitators and barriers to CP implementation in FQHCs are similar to existing group well-child care literature. The benefit of emphasis on maternal wellness is a unique finding. Maternal wellness integration might make CP a particularly desirable model for implementation at FQHCs, but potential systems barriers must be addressed.

Effectiveness of a Pediatric Primary Care Intervention to Increase Maternal Folate Use: Results from a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE

To assess the impact of provision of folate vitamins and a preconception health intervention on folate use among mothers bringing infants to pediatric primary care.

STUDY DESIGN

We conducted a cluster randomized trial in mothers presenting with their infants (<12 months) at 4 urban pediatric practices in the Baltimore, Maryland, metropolitan area. There were 45 clinicians randomized into an intervention group (15-item preconception health screening and counseling and 90-day multivitamin supply) and control group (preconception health and community resource handouts and 90-day multivitamin supply). Participating mothers were enrolled in the study group assigned to their child's clinician. Baseline and 6-month follow-up interviews were performed. The outcome was daily use of folate, multivitamin, and a prenatal vitamin containing folate. Primary independent variables were time of assessment and mother's study group (intervention or control groups). Covariates investigated were mother's and child's age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, income, insurance status, previous live births, and intention to have a pregnancy in the next 6 months.

RESULTS

We enrolled 415 mothers at baseline who were majority African American and low income. Of the 415 enrolled participants, 352 (85%) completed follow-up interviews. Among all participants, daily vitamin intake increased from baseline to 6-month follow-up (33.8% vs 42.6%; P = .016). After adjustment for covariates and clustered design, there was an augmented effect in the intervention vs control group (aOR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.04-3.98).

CONCLUSIONS

Offering vitamins and recommending folate intake to mothers within pediatric practice can increase use. Pediatric practice is an important contact point and context for improving maternal folate use.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.govNCT02049554.

Pediatric Residents' Perspective on Family-Clinician Discordance in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study

The engagement of families in health maintenance is associated with better child health outcomes, but demographic discordance between families and clinicians may be a barrier to family engagement. Using a longitudinal qualitative study design, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with five pediatric residents who elected to facilitate group well child care (GWCC). Four themes describing residents' perceptions of the role of discordance in family-clinician engagement include: 1) discordance was not a barrier; 2) discordance leads to a lack of engagement and trust; 3) residents transcended discordance in GWCC because either GWCC led residents to change their communication techniques or because, with GWCC, parents have concordant adults in the room; and 4) the education residents obtained in GWCC allowed them to empathize with the families' health-related decisions. Finding ways in which pediatric providers can improve skills in family engagement may be an important step in decreasing health inequities.

Association Between Preconception Counseling and Folic Acid Supplementation Before Pregnancy and Reasons for Non-Use

To examine the relationship between folic acid preconception counseling (PCC) and folic acid use and reasons for non-use among women with a recent live birth. We analyzed Maryland Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) survey responses from 2009 to 2011 (n = 4,426, response rate = 67%). Multivariable weighted logistic regression models were used to explore associations between folic acid PCC receipt and folic acid use and reasons for non-use. Approximately 30% of women reported daily folic acid use the month before pregnancy, with lower rates among those who were <30, non-white, or unmarried; received WIC during pregnancy; had suffered a stressful event prepregnancy; smoked prepregnancy; had a previous live birth; or had an unintended pregnancy (all p < 0.05). The most common reasons for folic acid non-use were "not planning pregnancy" (61%) and "didn't think needed to take" (41%). Folic acid PCC receipt was reported by 27% of women and was associated with three times the odds of folic acid use (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.15, 95% CI 2.47-4.03) and half the odds of reporting "didn't think needed to take" (aOR 0.47, 95% CI 0.28-0.78) as a reason for non-use. Less than one-third of recent Maryland mothers reported using folic acid daily before pregnancy and only 27% reported receiving folic acid PCC. However, folic acid PCC was associated with increased folic acid use and decreased reporting that women did not think they needed to take folic acid. Our data support initiatives to promote provision of folic acid PCC to all women of childbearing age.

Preconception health promotion among Maryland women

Despite current guidelines that all reproductive age women receive preconception care (PCC), most US women do not, especially women with a prior birth. The objective of our study was to identify factors associated with receipt of PCC health promotion counseling among Maryland women and to assess whether prior birth outcome affects receipt of counseling. We analyzed Maryland pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system data for a stratified random sample of women with a live birth in 2009-2010; 3,043 women with PCC data were included in the analysis. The dependent variable was receipt of any PCC counseling, and the primary independent variable, prior pregnancy outcome (no prior live birth, term, preterm). 33.1 % of the weighted sample received PCC. Odds of PCC were similar for women with a history of prior prior preterm birth (aOR 1.00, 95 % CI 0.57-1.78) and no prior live birth, but decreased for women with a prior full term delivery (aOR 0.69, 95 % CI 0.51-0.94). They were decreased for women with unintended births (aOR 0.36, 95 % CI 0.26-0.51) and increased for women with a diagnosis of asthma (aOR 1.74, 95 % CI 1.05-2.89) or diabetes (aOR 2.79, 95 % CI 1.20-6.45), who used multivitamins (aOR 2.58, 95 % CI 1.92-3.47), and had dental cleanings (aOR 1.60, 95 % CI 1.16-2.18). Although selected preventive health behaviors and high-risk conditions were associated with PCC, most women did not receive PCC. Characterization of women who do not receive PCC health promotion counseling in Maryland may assist in efforts to enhance service delivery.

Pediatric residents' perspectives on relationships with other professionals during well child care

This study aimed to examine pediatric residents' perspectives of primary care professional relationships. Using a longitudinal qualitative study design, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with five second-year pediatric residents who elected to participate in a one-year intervention, facilitating group well child care (GWCC). Pediatric residents described a spectrum of professional relationship types including: ignorant, transactional, workaround, educational and equitable. Residents described ignorant, transactional and workaround relationships with feelings of frustration, and they described educational and equitable relationships with feelings of satisfaction and humility. While residents described optimal relationships in both traditional WCC and GWCC, they described suboptimal relationships in only traditional WCC. Further study is needed to assess if our model of GWCC may create a scaffolding upon which optimal relationships in interprofessional teams are likely to flourish.

Computer simulation of three-dimensional heavy ion beam trajectory imaging techniques used for magnetic field estimation

A magnetic field mapping technique via heavy ion beam trajectory imaging is being developed on the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed field pinch. This paper describes the computational tools created to model camera images of the light emitted from a simulated ion beam, reconstruct a three-dimensional trajectory, and estimate the accuracy of the reconstruction. First, a computer model is used to create images of the torus interior from any candidate camera location. It is used to explore the visual field of the camera and thus to guide camera parameters and placement. Second, it is shown that a three-dimensional ion beam trajectory can be recovered from a pair of perspectively projected trajectory images. The reconstruction considers effects due to finite beam size, nonuniform beam current density, and image background noise. Third, it is demonstrated that the trajectory reconstructed from camera images can help compute magnetic field profiles, and might be used as an additional constraint to an equilibrium reconstruction code, such as MSTFit.

Core electrostatic fluctuations and particle transport in a reversed-field pinch

Potential and electron-density fluctuation profiles, phi(r) and ñ(e)(r)/n(e), are measured for the first time in the core of a reversed-field pinch using a heavy ion beam probe. It is found that the fluctuations are broadband and correlated with the core resonant m/n=1/6 tearing mode. The electrostatic-fluctuation-induced particle transport in the core of standard RFP plasmas, estimated from measured <ñ(e)phi>, is small compared to the total particle flux. Measurements of fluctuations and estimates of fluctuation induced particle transport in improved confinement RFP discharges are also presented.

Live Oka/Merck varicella vaccine in healthy children. Further clinical and laboratory assessment

A clinical trial among 137 healthy children, ages 1 to 12 years, was conducted with four different doses (4,350, 870, 435, and 43 plaque-forming units [pfu]) of live Oka/Merck varicella vaccine to evaluate clinical reactions and selected laboratory parameters and to determine the minimum effective dose and induction time of antibody. The vaccine was well tolerated with no significant difference in the rate of reported symptoms by dose. The frequency of varicellalike rash was 3% (4/137); all rashes were mild. Serum aminotransferase values were essentially unchanged after vaccination. Minor variations found in platelet counts after vaccination were not associated with any bleeding, bruising, or clotting. Among initially seronegative children who received doses of 435 pfu or greater, 94% assayed at two weeks and 100% assayed at four or six weeks seroconverted. The geometric mean titers were similar for all four doses at six weeks. IgG and IgA responses were demonstrated with no relation to the vaccine dose.

Live attenuated varicella virus vaccine. Efficacy trial in healthy children

We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled efficacy trial of the live attenuated Oka/Merck varicella vaccine among 956 children between the ages of 1 and 14 years, with a negative clinical history of varicella. Of the 914 children who were serologically confirmed to be susceptible to varicella, 468 received vaccine and 446 received placebo. The vaccine produced few clinical reactions and was well tolerated. There was no clinical evidence of viral spread from vaccinated children to sibling controls. Approximately eight weeks after vaccination, 94 per cent of the initially seronegative children who received vaccine had detectable antibody to varicella. During the nine-month surveillance period, 39 clinically diagnosed cases of varicella, 38 of which were confirmed by laboratory tests, occurred among study participants. All 39 cases occurred in placebo recipients; no child who received vaccine contracted varicella. The vaccine was 100 per cent efficacious in preventing varicella in this population of healthy children (P less than 10(-9).

Effects of culture conditions on glutathione content in A549 cells

The effects of varying culture conditions on glutathione content in A549 (human type II lung tumor derived) cells were examined. Parameters studied were growth time, serum concentration, and the presence or absence of a mixture of insulin, transferrin, and selenous acid. Glutathione content increased with serum concentration. When cells were grown with serum, glutathione increased sharply 24 hours after passage and decreased thereafter. Insulin, transferrin, and selenous acid had little effect on cell growth or glutathione content. Replacement of media with fresh media containing 10% serum did not prevent the growth dependent decrease in glutathione. These results demonstrate that glutathione content in A549 cells is strongly affected by culture conditions.