Few predicted, in September 2015, when the millennium development goals (MDGs) closed and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were signed into a global compact, that we might soon face the...
Medicine & Health
Global Child Health: From Birth to Adolescence and Beyond
In 2000, the UN adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were intended to address key determinants of human health and welfare, including poverty, hunger, and disease. One of the MDGs included the specific aim to reduce child mortality globally. However, now that the original 2015 target date has passed, concerns have been raised that not all of the MDGs, including targets on child health and welfare, have ultimately been met.
The WHO reports that, in 2018, still over 6 million children and adolescents died globally, of which over 5 million died before the age of 5. The majority of these deaths are preventable. In children under 5, the leading causes of death include pneumonia, diarrhoea, neonatal sepsis, and malaria. In adolescents 10–19 years, road injuries, self-harm, HIV, and interpersonal or collective violence are predominant causes of death, and their contributions to mortality differ for girls and boys.
This PLOS Medicine Special Issue brings together the latest research on child and adolescent health, and features topics including strategies to monitor and combat child mortality from birth through adolescence, marginalised populations of children and adolescents, environmental impacts on child health and mortality and adolescent and school-age health and welfare.
Image Credit: World Map WatercolorMichael Tompsett, CC BY 2.0
PLOS Medicine
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PLOS Medicine Sustainable Developmental Goals interrupted: Overcoming challenges to global child and adolescent health
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Image creditChildren Reading Pratham Books and Akshara by Pratham Books, CC BY 2.0PLOS Medicine Special Issue Editor’s choice: Global child health from birth to adolescence and beyond
In a new PLOS Medicine special issue, entitled “Global Child and Adolescent Health: From Birth to Adolescence and Beyond”, guest editors Zulfiqar Bhutta, Quique Bassat, and Kathryn Yount bring...
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PLOS Medicine Assessing the relationship between agency and peer violence among adolescents aged 10 to 14 years in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Blantyre, Malawi: A cross-sectional study
Background: Interpersonal violence has physical, emotional, educational, social, and economic implications. Although there is interest in…
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PLOS Medicine Grade repetition and bullying victimization in adolescents: A global cross-sectional study of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data from 2018
Background: Grade repetition is practiced worldwide and varies considerably across the globe. Globally, around 32.2 million students…
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PLOS Medicine Early childhood undernutrition, preadolescent physical growth, and cognitive achievement in India: A population-based cohort study
Background: There is a lack of nationally representative estimates for the consequences of early childhood undernutrition on preadolescent…
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PLOS Medicine Maternal hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and offspring early-onset cardiovascular disease in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood: A national population-based cohort study
Background: The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been increasing in children, adolescents, and young adults in recent…
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PLOS Medicine Implications of armed conflict for maternal and child health: A regression analysis of data from 181 countries for 2000–2019
Background: Armed conflicts have major indirect health impacts in addition to the direct harms from violence. They create enduring…
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PLOS Medicine The EmpaTeach intervention for reducing physical violence from teachers to students in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp: A cluster-randomised controlled trial
Background: School-based violence prevention interventions offer enormous potential to reduce children’s experience of violence perpetrated…
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PLOS Medicine Postmortem investigations and identification of multiple causes of child deaths: An analysis of findings from the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network
Background: The current burden of >5 million deaths yearly is the focus of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to end preventable deaths…
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Image creditCultured Rat Hippocampal Neuron by ZEISS Microscopy, CC BY 2.0PLOS Medicine Neurocognitive outcomes in Malawian children exposed to malaria during pregnancy: An observational birth cohort study
Annually 125 million pregnancies are at risk of malaria infection. However, the impact of exposure to malaria in pregnancy on neurodevelopment...
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PLOS Medicine Conditional cash transfer program and child mortality: A cross-sectional analysis nested within the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort
Brazil has made great progress in reducing child mortality over the past decades, and a parcel of this achievement has been credited to the Bolsa Família program (BFP). We examined the association...
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PLOS Medicine Gram-negative neonatal sepsis in low- and lower-middle-income countries and WHO empirical antibiotic recommendations: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Neonatal sepsis is a significant global health issue associated with marked regional disparities in mortality. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing concern in Gram-negative organisms, which...
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PLOS Medicine Examining the relationships between early childhood experiences and adolescent and young adult health status in a resource-limited population: A cohort study
Adolescence is a critical point in the realization of human capital, as health and educational decisions with long-term impacts are made. We examined the role of early childhood experiences on...
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PLOS Medicine Effectiveness and costs associated with a lay counselor–delivered, brief problem-solving mental health intervention for adolescents in urban, low-income schools in India: 12-month outcomes of a randomized controlled trial
Psychosocial interventions for adolescent mental health problems are effective, but evidence on their longer-term outcomes is scarce, especially in low-resource settings. We report on the 12-month sus
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PLOS Medicine Factors associated with the prevalence of HIV, HSV-2, pregnancy, and reported sexual activity among adolescent girls in rural western Kenya: A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data in a cluster randomized controlled trial
Adolescence is a sensitive time for girls’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH), as biological changes occur concurrently with heightening pressures for sexual activity. In western Kenya, adolescent g
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PLOS Medicine Regional differences in short stature in England between 2006 and 2019: A cross-sectional analysis from the National Child Measurement Programme
Short stature, defined as height for age more than 2 standard deviations (SDs) below the population median, is an important indicator of child health. Short stature (often termed stunting) has been...
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PLOS Medicine Effect of scheduled antimicrobial and nicotinamide treatment on linear growth in children in rural Tanzania: A factorial randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
Stunting among children in low-resource settings is associated with enteric pathogen carriage and micronutrient deficiencies. Our goal was to test whether administration of scheduled antimicrobials...
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PLOS Medicine Effectiveness of cash-plus programmes on early childhood outcomes compared to cash transfers alone: A systematic review and meta-analysis in low- and middle-income countries
To strengthen the impact of cash transfers, these interventions have begun to be packaged as cash-plus programmes, combining cash with additional transfers, interventions, or services...
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PLOS Medicine Effect of sunflower seed oil emollient therapy on newborn infant survival in Uttar Pradesh, India: A community-based, cluster randomized, open-label controlled trial
Hospitalized preterm infants with compromised skin barrier function treated topically with sunflower seed oil (SSO) have shown reductions in sepsis and neonatal mortality rate (NMR). Mustard oil...
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Image creditBand-aid on White Background with Container by Marco Verch Professional, CC BY 2.0PLOS Medicine The relationship between psychosocial circumstances and injuries in adolescents: An analysis of 87,269 individuals from 26 countries using the Global School-based Student Health Survey
Over a million adolescents die globally each year from preventable or treatable causes, with injuries (intentional and unintentional) being the leading cause of these deaths. To inform strategies...
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PLOS Medicine Drought and child vaccination coverage in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: A retrospective analysis of national survey data from 2011 to 2019
Extreme weather events, including droughts, are expected to increase in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and are associated with a number of poor health outcomes; however, to the best of our knowledge...
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PLOS Medicine A novel intervention combining supplementary food and infection control measures to improve birth outcomes in undernourished pregnant women in Sierra Leone: A randomized, controlled clinical effectiveness trial
Innovations for undernourished pregnant women that improve newborn survival and anthropometry are needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 3. This study tested the hypothesis that...
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PLOS Medicine Ambient and household PM2.5 pollution and adverse perinatal outcomes: A meta-regression and analysis of attributable global burden for 204 countries and territories
Particulate matter <2.5 micrometer (PM2.5) is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes, but the impact on disease burden mediated by this pathway has not previously been included in the Global...
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PLOS Medicine Exposure to conflicts and the continuum of maternal healthcare: Analyses of pooled cross-sectional data for 452,192 women across 49 countries and 82 surveys
Violent conflicts are observed in many parts of the world and have profound impacts on the lives of exposed individuals. The limited evidence available from specific country or region contexts...
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PLOS Medicine Severe bacterial neonatal infections in Madagascar, Senegal, and Cambodia: A multicentric community-based cohort study
Severe bacterial infections (SBIs) are a leading cause of neonatal deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, most data came from hospitals, which do not include neonates who did...
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PLOS Medicine Gender-equitable caregiver attitudes and education and safety of adolescent girls in South Kivu, DRC: A secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial
Adolescent girls face myriad threats to their well-being and safety as a result of gender-inequitable attitudes and norms, and these risks are often exacerbated during humanitarian emergencies...
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Image creditChild silhouette by Norbert Eder, CC BY 2.0PLOS Medicine Cost-effectiveness and economic returns of group-based parenting interventions to promote early childhood development: Results from a randomized controlled trial in rural Kenya
Early childhood development (ECD) programs can help address disadvantages for the 43% of children under 5 in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experiencing compromised development. However...
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PLOS Medicine Evaluation of a community-based mobile video breastfeeding intervention in Khayelitsha, South Africa: The Philani MOVIE cluster-randomized controlled trial
In South Africa, breastfeeding promotion is a national health priority. Regular perinatal home visits by community health workers (CHWs) have helped promote exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in...