Future of Children Meeting Princeton, NJ April 14, 2011 Childhood Health: Trends and Consequences over the Life-Course By Liam Delaney and James P Smith Review by Michael C Lu Future of Children Meeting Princeton, NJ April 14, 2011
Innovations
Innovations Smith retrospective childhood health module.
Innovations Sibship comparisons
Innovations Importance of child mental health
Questions
1. Definition & Conceptualization of Childhood Health How do the authors define and conceptualize childhood health?
2. Imprecise Measurement How precise is the measurement of childhood health (or better yet, childhood diseases) using PSID responses to child health history?
3. Importance of Timing Are there sensitive or critical periods during which childhood mental or physical health problems might have the greatest impact on adult outcomes?
4. Potential for Bias What is the potential for bias in this paper?
5. Potential for Confounding What is the potential for confounding in this paper?
6. Mechanisms and Pathways How do childhood mental or physical problems influence adult health outcomes or future economic outlook?
7. Design of Interventions How would you design interventions to bend life course trajectories of children with chronic physical or mental health problems?
8. Timing of Interventions Does timing of interventions make a difference? Are there sensitive or critical periods during which childhood depression is more amenable to interventions? Are there sensitive or critical periods during which childhood depression is actually preventable? I won’t go into the details, but just want to let you know that there is a strong body of scientific evidence linking stress to preterm birth.
9. Research Recommendations What are the top research prioritles to further this work on the life-course consequences of childhood health problems?
10. Practice & Policy Recommendations Do we know enough from this work to make practice and policy recommendations?
Discussion How do we define maternal health? How will we use “maternal health” in the NCS? What existing measures of maternal health are there? How will we develop measures of maternal health for the NCS?
Domain: Feeling function perception Comparability, reliability and validity, flexibility, inclusiveness