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At just six months old, Tahlea Dalgety was flown from Geraldton to Perth with a slim chance of survival after contracting meningococcal disease.

Research

Historically, adolescent pregnancy has been conceptualized as an outcome of child marriage, but in Southeast Asia, the contexts and drivers of adolescent pregnancy are less well-understood. This study examines the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and child marriage and explores the drivers of pregnancy in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Malaysia among adolescents who have experienced pregnancy.

Research

Measures of autistic traits are only useful – for pre-diagnostic screening, exploring individual differences, and gaining personal insight – if they efficiently and accurately assess autism as currently conceptualised while maintaining psychometric validity across different demographic groups. We recruited 1322 autistic and 1279 non-autistic adults who varied in autism status (non-autistic, diagnosed autistic, self-identifying autistic) and gender (cisgender men, cisgender women, gender diverse) to assess the psychometric properties of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory, a recently developed measure of autistic traits that examines six trait domains using 42 self-report statements.

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Background: Signs of clinical deterioration may appear differently in children with dark-coloured skin. How to assess children in this cohort is currently poorly defined. Aim: To explore available information on the assessment of clinical deterioration in children with dark-coloured skin and identify research deficits.

Research

Humidified high flow (HHF) oxygen is increasingly used to treat acute respiratory illnesses in children; however, use during aeromedical transfer is not well described. This was a retrospective cohort study. Children who were transferred from rural locations and were initiated on HHF prior to transfer between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2018 were identified from the Royal Flying Doctors Service database. Clinical variables prior to transfer, during flight and after transfer were collected from medical records and flight records. 

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To investigate the association between energy drink (ED) use and sleep-related disturbances in a population-based sample of young adults from the Raine Study.

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In addition to providing pathogen-specific immunity, vaccines can also confer nonspecific effects (NSEs) on mortality and morbidity unrelated to the targeted disease. Immunisation with live vaccines, such as the BCG vaccine, has generally been associated with significantly reduced all-cause infant mortality. In contrast, some inactivated vaccines, such as the diphtheria, tetanus, whole-cell pertussis (DTPw) vaccine, have been controversially associated with increased all-cause mortality especially in female infants in high-mortality settings.

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Hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes (HCPS) account for at least 10% of paediatric cancers.1 Li‐Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is a dominant HCPS caused by mutations in the TP53 gene and is associated with an 80–90% lifetime risk of cancer, commencing in infancy.2 Children of affected individuals are at 50% risk of inheriting the family mutation.

Research

The BCG vaccine has long been recognized for reducing the risk to suffer from infectious diseases unrelated to its target disease, tuberculosis. Evidence from human trials demonstrate substantial reductions in all-cause mortality, especially in the first week of life. Observational studies have identified an association between BCG vaccination and reduced risk of respiratory infectious disease and clinical malaria later in childhood.

Research

Planetary health is a broad multidisciplinary effort that attempts to address what has been described as “Anthropocene Syndrome”—the wicked, interrelated challenges of our time. These include, but are not limited to, grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, social injustices, erosion of wisdom and civility, together with the many structural underpinnings of these grand challenges.