Table of contents

Original research

• Gestational age at birth and child special educational needs: a UK representative birth cohort study (22 January, 2021)

  Neora Alterman, Samantha Johnson, Claire Carson, Stavros Petrou, Oliver Rivero-Arias, Jennifer J Kurinczuk, Alison Macfarlane, Elaine Boyle, Maria A Quigley

  This is a UK population analysis using data from the powerful Millennium Cohort Study. It provides epidemiological confirmation that gestational age is inversely associated with special educational needs.at school age, even for early term (37-38 weeks gestation) infants.

• Microcephaly in Australian children, 2016–2018: national surveillance study (23 November, 2020)

  Carlos Nunez, Anne Morris, Cheryl A Jones, Nadia Badawi, Gareth Baynam, Michele Hansen, Elizabeth J Elliott

  The study describes infants <12m with microcephaly looking at causes and highlights the high proportion of idiopathic cases. This has implications for prevention and management and suggests the need for a standardised diagnostic approach.

• Population-based surveillance of severe microcephaly and congenital Zika syndrome in Canada (8 January, 2021)

  Shaun K Morris, Daniel S Farrar, Steven P Miller, Marianna Ofner, Ari Bitnun, Chantal R M Nelson, Michael Shevell, Aideen M Moore, Joanne Tataryn, Jane A Evans, Amy R Zipursky, Charlotte Moore Hepburn

  The authors present the results of a Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program study identifying cases of severe microcephaly, with the intention of establishing the incidence of Congenital Zika syndrome (CZS) in Canada. A low incidence of severe microcephaly of just 4.5 per 100,000 live births was found, with CVS accounting for only a very small number.

• Telephone-guided self-help for mental health difficulties in neurological conditions: a randomised pilot trial (5 January, 2021)

  Sophie D Bennett, Isobel Heyman, Anna E Coughtrey, Sophia Varadkar, Terence Stephenson, Epilepsy and Mental Health Programme Development Grant Research Group, Roz Shafran

  Recruitment to a pilot trial of telephone-guided self-help went well but participant retention proved problematic and further research is needed before this promising approach can be better evaluated.

• Development of an international standard set of patient-centred outcome measures for overall paediatric health: a consensus process (11 December, 2020)

  Beatrix Algurén, Jessily P Ramirez, Matthew Salt, Nick Sillett, Stacie N Myers, Albie Alvarez-Cote, Nancy J Butcher, Luiz F Caneo, Jaime A Cespedes, John E Chaplin, Kee Chong Ng, Juan J García-García, Jan A Hazelzet, Anne F Klassen, Aida Luiza R Turquetto, Emma J Mew, Michael Morris, Martin Offringa, Matthew O'Meara, James M Papp, Carlos Rodrigo, Timothy L Switaj, Catalina Valencia Mayer, Kathy J Jenkins

  This paper attempts to develop a suite of metrics that allow clinicians to quantify the value of the care they deliver and to compare this across services and institutions.

• Long-term outcomes in children with absent pulmonary valve syndrome: it is not just fixing the heart (25 February, 2021)

  Katalin Torok, Elizabeth Brettle, Tarak Desai, Paul Miller, Natasha Khan, John Stickey, Prasad Nagakumar, Anna Seale

  This single centre study reports a 10 year experience of management of children with the 'Absent Pulmonary Valve' variant of Tetralogy of Fallot. This peculiar variant mainly has respiratory implications including long term ventilation due to its strong association with trachea-bronchomalaica, but some also have significant neurodevelopmental problems. This paper highlights the strong multidisciplinary team approach required for the care of many cardiac patients, and we should also consider the psychosocial comorbidities this can engender.

• Modelling the determinants of health and cancers as perceived by children: using imagery as a mediator of expression and narration (10 February, 2021)

  Chloé Gay, Maeliane Deyra, Pauline Berland, Laurent Gerbaud, Frank Pizon

  Using photographs and discussion, this paper sought to appreciate how primary school children understand the causes and outcomes of cancers. They attribute these to individual choices, with some environmental influence, and don't recognise the influence of the health services. Such studies can help us consider how to build educational campaigns to improve health outcomes.

• Antibiotic exposure during pregnancy and childhood asthma: a national birth cohort study investigating timing of exposure and mode of delivery (9 February, 2021)

  Cecilie Skaarup Uldbjerg, Jessica E Miller, David Burgner, Lars Henning Pedersen, Bodil Hammer Bech

  This analysis of the Danish National Birth Cohort (one third of all births in Denmark, 1996-2002) reports that maternal antibiotic exposure in the 2nd-3rd trimester was associated with higher odds of asthma in vaginally-born children, but not those born by caesarean section.