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The smoking prevalence among vocational education and training (VET) students is high. This paper describes the development and feasibility test of a multicomponent intervention designed to promote non-smoking behaviour at VET schools. We applied the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) stages and the capability, opportunity, and motivation for behaviour (COM-B) model to develop the intervention components based on theory, evidence, and a thorough needs-assessment study. Moreover, we feasibility-tested the preliminary ideas. All in all, our study was based on the literature, survey data, fieldwork, workshops, and expert and stakeholder involvement. The final intervention programme targets VET students’ smoking behaviour at the school, class, and individual levels through (a) a comprehensive tobacco policy to limit the physical and social opportunities to smoke, supplemented with a two-day staff course in conversations about smoking and an edutainment session (a lecture that both educates and entertains) to support a smoke-free environment; (b) classroom curricular with teaching materials to increase knowledge and social support, along with a quit-and-win competition to increase motivation; and (c) the national Quitline adapted to VET students to increase access to cessation support. The BCW model enabled a systematic and comprehensive development of an intervention, which demonstrates relevant techniques and delivery options to have the potential to reduce smoking in VET schools.

Abstract Background Manuscript preparation and the (re)submission of articles can create a significant workload in academic jobs. In this exploratory analysis, we estimate the time and costs needed to meet the diverse formatting requirements for manuscript submissions in biomedical publishing. Methods We reviewed 302 leading biomedical journals’ submission guidelines and extracted information on the components that tend to vary the most among submission guidelines (the length of the title, the running title, the abstract, and the manuscript; the structure of the abstract and the manuscript, number of items and references allowed, whether the journal has a template). We estimated annual research funding lost due to manuscript formatting by calculating hourly academic salaries, the time lost to reformatting articles, and quantifying the total number of resubmissions per year. We interviewed several researchers and senior journal editors and editors-in-chief to contextualize our findings and develop guidelines that could help both biomedical journals and researchers work more efficiently. Results Among the analyzed journals, we found a huge diversity in submission requirements. By calculating average researcher salaries in the European Union and the USA, and the time spent on reformatting articles, we estimated that ~ 230 million USD were lost in 2021 alone due to reformatting articles. Should the current practice remain unchanged within this decade, we estimate ~ 2.5 billion USD could be lost between 2022 and 2030—solely due to reformatting articles after a first editorial desk rejection. In our interviews, we found alignment between researchers and editors; researchers would like the submission process to be as straightforward and simple as possible, and editors want to easily identify strong, suitable articles and not waste researchers’ time. Conclusions Based on the findings from our quantitative analysis and contextualized by the qualitative interviews, we conclude that free-format submission guidelines would benefit both researchers and editors. However, a minimum set of requirements is necessary to avoid manuscript submissions that lack structure. We developed our guidelines to improve the status quo, and we urge the publishers and the editorial-advisory boards of biomedical journals to adopt them. This may also require support from publishers and major international organizations that govern the work of editors.

Abstract Preterm birth is associated with smaller body dimensions at birth. The impact on body size in later life, measured by body mass index (BMI) and height, remains unclear. A prospective register-based cohort study with 62,625 singletons from the Danish National Birth Cohort born 1996–2003 for whom information on gestational age (GA) at birth, length or weight at birth, and at least two growth measurements scheduled at the ages of 5 and 12 months, and 7, 11 and 18 years were available. Linear mixed effects with splines, stratified by sex, and adjusted for confounders were used to estimate standardised BMI and height. GA was positively associated with BMI in infancy, but differences between preterm and term children declined with age. By age 7, preterm children had slightly lower BMI than term children, whereas no difference was observed by adolescence (mean difference in BMI z-score − 0.28 to 0.15). GA was strongly associated with height in infancy, but mean differences between individuals born preterm and term declined during childhood. By adolescence, the most preterm individuals remained shorter than their term peers (mean difference in height z-score from − 1.00 to − 0.28). The lower BMI in preterm infants relative to term infants equalizes during childhood, such that by adolescence there is no clear difference. Height is strongly positively associated with GA in early childhood, whilst by end of adolescence individuals born preterm remain slightly shorter than term peers.

Background Preterm birth is the leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is associated with adverse developmental and long-term health outcomes, including several cardiometabolic risk factors and outcomes. However, evidence about the association of preterm birth with later body size derives mainly from studies using birth weight as a proxy of prematurity rather than an actual length of gestation. We investigated the association of gestational age (GA) at birth with body size from infancy through adolescence. Methods and findings We conducted a two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 253,810 mother–child dyads from 16 general population-based cohort studies in Europe (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, United Kingdom), North America (Canada), and Australasia (Australia) to estimate the association of GA with body mass index (BMI) and overweight (including obesity) adjusted for the following maternal characteristics as potential confounders: education, height, prepregnancy BMI, ethnic background, parity, smoking during pregnancy, age at child’s birth, gestational diabetes and hypertension, and preeclampsia. Pregnancy and birth cohort studies from the LifeCycle and the EUCAN-Connect projects were invited and were eligible for inclusion if they had information on GA and minimum one measurement of BMI between infancy and adolescence. Using a federated analytical tool (DataSHIELD), we fitted linear and logistic regression models in each cohort separately with a complete-case approach and combined the regression estimates and standard errors through random-effects study-level meta-analysis providing an overall effect estimate at early infancy (>0.0 to 0.5 years), late infancy (>0.5 to 2.0 years), early childhood (>2.0 to 5.0 years), mid-childhood (>5.0 to 9.0 years), late childhood (>9.0 to 14.0 years), and adolescence (>14.0 to 19.0 years). GA was positively associated with BMI in the first decade of life, with the greatest increase in mean BMI z-score during early infancy (0.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.00; 0.05, p < 0.05) per week of increase in GA, while in adolescence, preterm individuals reached similar levels of BMI (0.00, 95% CI: −0.01; 0.01, p 0.9) as term counterparts. The association between GA and overweight revealed a similar pattern of association with an increase in odds ratio (OR) of overweight from late infancy through mid-childhood (OR 1.01 to 1.02) per week increase in GA. By adolescence, however, GA was slightly negatively associated with the risk of overweight (OR 0.98 [95% CI: 0.97; 1.00], p 0.1) per week of increase in GA. Although based on only four cohorts (n = 32,089) that reached the age of adolescence, data suggest that individuals born very preterm may be at increased odds of overweight (OR 1.46 [95% CI: 1.03; 2.08], p < 0.05) compared with term counterparts. Findings were consistent across cohorts and sensitivity analyses despite considerable heterogeneity in cohort characteristics. However, residual confounding may be a limitation in this study, while findings may be less generalisable to settings in low- and middle-income countries. Conclusions This study based on data from infancy through adolescence from 16 cohort studies found that GA may be important for body size in infancy, but the strength of association attenuates consistently with age. By adolescence, preterm individuals have on average a similar mean BMI to peers born at term. In an individual participant data meta-analysis of >250,000 singleton births from 16 birth cohort studies, Dr. Johan Lerbech Vinther and colleagues, explore gestational age at birth and body size from infancy through to adolescence. Author summary Why was this study done? ■ Conditions and exposures in early life is suggested to play an important role in development of cardiometabolic health outcomes, including body size. ■ The majority of previous research focused on the impact of size at birth (i.e., birth weight), rather than the timing of birth (i.e., gestational duration). ■ Moreover, we know less about how different contextual factors influence associations between early life risk factors and later body size. What did the researchers do and find? ■ Our aim was to examine the association of gestational age with body mass index (BMI) and overweight from infancy through adolescence. ■ We used data from 16 cohort studies in Europe, North America, and Australasia, including information on 253,810 mother–child dyads. ■ We found that infants born preterm (What do these findings mean? ■ Our study suggests that, although being born early, preterm infants on average reach the body size as their term peers before adulthood. ■ In line with earlier findings, children born very preterm may even be at increased risk of overweight in adulthood, here already indicated at entrance to adulthood. ■ This last finding must be interpreted with caution, as only four cohorts (n = 32,089) contributed with data in adolescence. ■ In addition, our study is based on data from high-income countries; hence, the findings are not generalisable to low- and middle-income country settings.