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Rationale: Puerto Ricans have the highest prevalence of and morbidity from asthma of all ethnic groups in the United States. One potential contributor to the high burden of asthma in Puerto Rican children is exposure to stress and violence.Objectives: To examine whether exposure to stress and violence is associated with an increased risk of asthma among Puerto Rican children.Methods: This study was a population-based probability sample of children in the San Juan and Caguas metropolitan areas in Puerto Rico. Information was collected in a household survey of 1,213 children and their primary caretakers.Measurements and Main Results: The prevalence of lifetime physician-diagnosed asthma was 39.6%. In the year before the survey, 14% of children had witnessed an act of violence, 7% had been victims of violence, and 6% had been victims of physical or sexual abuse. Although stressful life events and exposure to neighborhood violence were not associated with asthma, a history of physical or sexual abuse was associated with approximately twice the odds of current asthma (odd ratio [OR], 2.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27-5.00), health care use for asthma (OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 0.96-3.96), and medication use for asthma (OR, 2.35; 95% CI, 1.05-5.26).Conclusions: Physical or sexual abuse is associated with high asthma morbidity among Puerto Rican children. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association between childhood abuse and asthma. Our findings highlight the importance of screening for asthma among victims of childhood abuse, and to be aware of the possibility of physical or sexual abuse among children with asthma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: This study examined patterns of mental health service use among depressed children and adolescents and factors associated with help seeking and treatment modalities. METHODS: The sample consisted of 206 children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 years who were assessed as part of a larger survey of mental health service use in five service systems and in the community and who met DSM-III-R criteria for depressive disorders (major depression or dysthymia). RESULTS: Among the 206 children, 75 (36 percent) never received professional help for depressive symptoms. Among the 131 children who received professional help for depression, antidepressants were prescribed for 40 (31 percent) in the year before the interview. The findings indicate possible undertreatment of depression among children and adolescents, especially among African Americans. Socioeconomic factors, such as the mother's education and the child's health insurance, were not associated with receiving professional help for depressive symptoms but were associated with receiving antidepressants. Parental perception of a child's mental health service need was associated with receiving professional help but not with receiving antidepressants. Also, depressed children were more likely to receive antidepressants when they had life-threatening or severe symptoms, such as a suicide attempt or drug abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Whether a depressed child receives mental health services and the types of treatment received are influenced by different individual and family factors and by the type of symptoms exhibited. Better understanding of these factors will help in meeting the service needs of depressed children and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: Sleep quality is a known marker of overall health. Studies suggest that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with sleep disturbances among children and adults., Objective: To examine the association of retrospective and prospective ACEs with sleep quality among a cohort of Puerto Rican young adults from 2 sociocultural contexts., Design, Setting, and Participants: This prospective cohort study used data from the Boricua Youth Study (BYS), a population-based study representing Puerto Rican children from the South Bronx, New York, and Puerto Rico conducted from August 2000 to August 2003. Participants who were 5 to 9 years of age at enrollment in the BYS and who participated in wave 4 of the BYS took part in the Health Assessment (HA) when they were 18 to 29 years of age, from April 2013 to August 2017. Of the eligible 982 participants, 813 (82.8%) participated in the HA. Statistical analysis was conducted from January 2023 to January 2024., Exposures: Prospective ACEs measured from parent and youth responses and retrospective ACEs measured among young adults using questions from the validated ACE questionnaire from the original ACEs study conducted by Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in 1998. Analysis included 8 overlapping items from both questionnaires., Outcomes: Sleep quality was assessed in the HA with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The summary score included 7 components of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The hypothesis was formulated after data collection. Sleep quality information was gathered at the same time as retrospective ACEs in the HA., Results: Of the 813 participants, 438 (53.9%) lived in Puerto Rico as children, 411 (50.6%) identified as female, and the mean (SE) age of participants was 22.9 (0.07) years. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, retrospective ACEs had a significant association with worse sleep outcomes (β [SE] = 0.29 [0.07]; 95% CI, 0.15-0.44; P < .001). Prospective ACEs did not have a significant association with sleep quality, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors (β [SE] = 0.05 [0.10]; 95% CI, -0.14 to 0.24; P = .59)., Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that there is a significant association between retrospective ACEs and sleep quality among Puerto Rican young adults, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Prospective ACEs were not significantly associated with sleep disturbances, after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Addressing ACEs reported in young adulthood may help reduce sleep disorders.

Background: Barriers to mental health care access among Latinx children contribute to mental health disparities. It is unclear whether traditional spiritual guides in Latinx communities may function more as gateway providers or in some instances as deterrents to mental health treatment. This study assesses whether family involvement in Espiritismo and/or Santeria, two forefront non-Christian spiritual traditions among Latinx families, is associated with mental health care utilization among Puerto Rican children in two contexts., Methods: Data are from Waves 1-3 (2000-2004) of the Boricua Youth Study, a population-based longitudinal cohort study of Puerto Rican children from San Juan and Caguas, Puerto Rico (PR), and the South Bronx, New York (SBx), 5 to 17 years of age (N = 2491)., Results: At baseline, 5.02% (n = 58) of the families reported involvement with Espiritismo and/or Santeria in the SBx and 3.64% (n = 52) in PR. Logistic regression models predicting mental health service use found, after adjusting for multiple risk and protective factors, that families involved with Espiritismo and/or Santeria were 2.41 times more likely (p = 0.0034) to use mental health services over the course of 3 years than children with no family involvement in these practices in the SBx. The same association was not found in PR., Conclusions: The findings among PR families in the SBx lend support to the gateway provider model in which spiritual guides open doors to mental health treatment. Forming community connections between mental health providers and traditional spiritual groups may be a culturally considerate, fruitful approach to reducing barriers to mental health treatment among Latinx families., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

A study of the growth-promoting effects of penicillin, oxytetracycline, lincomycin, bambermycin , and tylan was made over a 2-year period involving 2030 broiler chicks in 11 experiments. The laboratory used for this study has been subjected to the continuous use of low level dietary antibiotics for over 30 years. Results show that growth promotion by penicillin, oxytetracycline, and lincomycin were still significant (P less than .01). The effect of tylan was also significant (P less than .05). The antibiotics tended to promote better growth effects in chicks from young breeder hens. Significant growth improvement by antibiotics was observed in nutritionally adequate diets regardless of the presence or absence of soybean meal and excesses of certain vitamins and minerals.

An experiment was conducted to study the influence of dietary total phosphorus (TP) level and source on the performance of two strains of commercial layers for two consecutive production years (26 to 68 and 76 to 116 weeks of age, respectively). Diet 1 contained .4% TP; Diets 2, 3 and 4 contained .5, .6, and .7% TP with supplemental P from dicalcium phosphate (DCP); Diets 5 and 6 contained .5 and .6% TP, respectively, with supplemental P from a sample of raw rock phosphate (RRP-1); Diets 7 and 8 contained .5 and .6% TP, respectively, with supplemental P from a second sample of raw rock phosphate (RRP-2). Calcium level was 2.75% in all diets, and crushed oyster shell provided ad libitum to all birds increased the total calcium to about 3.00%. Diet 1 was inferior to the average of all supplemented diets relative to feed consumption rate (P less than .005) and egg weight (P less than .005) during the first year. Diet 1 was also inferior relative to egg production rate (P less than .01), feed consumption rate (P less than .005), and egg weight (P less than .005) during the second year, whereas it was superior in shell quality (P less than .05) during the first year. Increasing TP from DCP resulted in a significant linear increase in feed consumption (P less than .05), feed conversion ratio, and Haugh units (P less than .005). Increasing TP from DCP also resulted in a significant linear decrease in shell quality (P less than .05) and significant linear and quadratic decreases in egg weight (P less than .005) during the first year. During the second year, increasing TP from DCP resulted in a significant linear decrease in egg production rate (P less than .005) and feed efficiency but significant linear (P less than .01) and quadratic (P less than .05) increases in feed consumption, and significant linear and quadratic increases (P less than .005) in Haugh units. Hens receiving RRP diets responded differently during the first and second years. The DCP supported greater egg weight than the RRP during the second year and permitted better feed conversion during both years. Strain A produced larger eggs than Strain B regardless of treatment (P less than .005). When egg production rate and most other response criteria were considered, .5% TP with DCP as the supplemental source gave the best results in both production years. A TP of .6% from RRP-2 gave similar results in both years.

Experiments were conducted to determine the limiting amino acids in chick diets containing 40% spray-dried heat coagulated alfalfa protein concentrate (APC) and 40% spray-dried fermented alfalfa protein concentrate (FAPC). Significant improvements in chick gains were observed when methionine (met) was supplemented to the 40% APC (82 vs. 119 g) and 40% FAPC (72 vs. 95 g) diets. Feed efficiency (gain/feed) was also improved by met supplementation (.233 vs. .343) to APC and (.236 vs. .299) in FAPC diets. Supplementation of lysine (lys) alone did not improve the gain in body weight in either APC or FAPC, but the addition of lysine improved the feed efficiency of chicks fed the FAPC + Met (.323).

Experiments were conducted to study the influence of dietary antibiotics on the bursal, intestinal, and spleen weights and antibody responses of broiler chicks. Results indicate a tendency for chicks fed antibiotics to have heavier bursae but significantly reduced intestinal weights. The antibiotics had no effect on spleen weights and antibody response to sheep red blood cells. It was concluded that the beneficial effects of dietary antibiotics for chicks do not appear to be the result of an enhanced immunocompetence and that the use of antibiotics at subtherapeutic levels does not have an adverse effect on the chicks' humoral immune system.

Factorial experiments were arranged in a completely randomized or randomized block design. The factors included: selenium and day of injection; mercury and day of injection; selenium and mercury; and selenium, mercury and day of injection. Each treatment factor consisted of several levels, selenium ranged from 0.00 p.p.m. to 0.05 p.p.m., mercury from 0.00 p.p.m. to 0.30 p.p.m. and injection was performed on day-3, 9, and 15 of incubation. Babcock-300, and White Leghorn x New Hampshire cross eggs were obtained from 13-15 month old hens. Mercury was injected into the air cell at 4 or 24 hours after selenium injection. Analysis of variance on arcsine transformed data showed that selenium significantly decreased survival at all 3 injection times (P less than 0.01). Survival was significantly greater with increasing age at injection (P less than 0.01). Survival of embryos significantly decreased (P less than 0.01) with increasing levels of mercury from 0.00 p.p.m. to 0.20 p.p.m. injected into eggs on day-3 of incubation. Survival of embryos injected at later stages was less than that of controls but not significantly less. Injection of low levels of selenium, 0.01 p.p.m. or 0.02 p.p.m., to mercury treated eggs tended to improve the survival of embryos as compared to treatment with mercury alone, although individual differences were not significant. At higher levels, selenium accentuated the toxicity of mercury.

A low-sodium diet (.08% Na) was used to force molt 409 hens. Another 421 hens were force molted by conventional water and feed restrictions. Birds were 68 weeks of age at that time, and two strains were about equally represented in each treatment group. These strains were: A, DeKalb; and B, Hisex. The low-sodium diet and water were provided ad libitum to the first group for the entire period of molt (42 days). The second group received no water for 3 days, and no feed for 4 days, after which incremental amounts of whole oats were provided as the only feed until Day 18. After Day 18, incremental amounts of a regular laying mash and decremental amounts of whole oats were provided through Day 26, when laying mash only was given ad libitum. Both treatment groups were in the same building and received the same lighting program during the force-molt period. This program consisted of: Days 1 to 3, no light; Days 4 to 18, 8 hr/day; Days 19 to 25, 9 hr/day; Day 26, 10 hr; then, light was increased 30 min weekly until 14 hr daily was attained. The low-sodium group ceased laying after 28 to 31 days, lost 8.7% of their premolt body weight, reduced feed consumption by 35%, and decreased egg production from 62.3% (in the 28 days preceding the molt) to 19% in the 42 days of molt; their mortality rate was 3.4%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

A culture filtrate from Trichoderma viride was used as a source of cellulose degrading enzymes. This filtrate, when added to a barley ration fed to chicks, improved growth and feed efficiency by 19% and 8%, respectively. The response was saturable since increasing amounts of filtrate above 50 mg/kg produced no further improvement. Barley eta-glucan was added to a corn-based diet (10 g/kg) to evaluate the effect of the culture filtrate on the viscosity of beta-glucan in the chick intestinal contents. Barley beta-glucan increased the viscosity of the supernatant of the chick intestinal contents threefold and the culture filtrate reduced the viscosity to near control levels when combined with the diet containing beta-glucan. The presence of beta-glucan in barley probably limits growth of chicks by increasing viscosity of intestinal contents.

Spray-dried leaf protein concentrate prepared from Red Clover and alfalfa with low or high saponin content were evaluated by studying their effect on growth and feed efficiency of broiler chicks at the 40% level. Excellent growth and feed efficiency were recorded when 40% of low saponin alfalfa protein concentrate (APC) prepared from fresh alfalfa was incorporated in the diets. Saponin in APC estimated by hemolysis test was an important factor affecting the growth, feed efficiency, and mortality of chicks. Analysis of variance showed no significant (P less than .05) difference in body weight gain between Red Clover protein concentrate and low saponin APC. A significant reduction in body weight gain of both broiler and egg type chicks was observed when 40 parts of wet alfalfa protein concentrate were incorporated in the diets. A combination of 30 parts of wet alfalfa protein concentrate (wet APC) and rice bran in a broiler diet did not adversely affect growth. Supplementation of additional vitamins did not improve gain in body weight when 40 parts of wet APC and rice bran were included in the diet. Supplementation of vitamin E seems to be crucial when higher levels of wet APC and rice bran are included in broiler diets.

These experiments show that the pigmentation-suppressing factor in fish-liver oils is vitamin A. Carotene fed at comparable levels does not exert a suppressing effect on pigmentation. Inhibition of pigmentation takes place when there is a sufficiently large bodily store of vitamin A; it is not exclusively an intestinal phenomenon.