School Health News

The rate of vaccine exemptions rose slightly among children entering kindergarten in the 2018-2019 school year, with 2.5% having an exemption from at least one vaccine, according to new data published in MMWR. But researchers suggested an additional target to improve vaccine coverage rates in the United States: underimmunized children who begin school under grace periods or provisional enrollment.

Overall screen time does not negatively affect children’s and teenagers’ academic achievement, according to findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics. However, watching TV and playing video games were associated with a negative effect on language, math and composite academic performance scores for different age groups, researchers reported.

Results of a population-based cohort study that included more than 1 million school-age children in the United Kingdom suggested that the youngest children in a school class were around 1.4 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD compared with the oldest children. Researchers also noted that these children were 1.3 times more likely to be diagnosed with intellectual disability and depression.

The last few weeks of summer can be an exceptionally difficult time to find an epinephrine auto-injector in some parts of the country, an allergist told Healio Primary Care.

High school and middle school students who slept later and longer, and consequently started school later, had improved academic engagement, according to research discussed at the SLEEP annual meeting.

Three interventions in California — two legislative and one educational — appear to have been successful in reducing the rate of undervaccinated children entering kindergarten, according to researchers.

Detrimental effects on cardiovascular health can begin at an early age, but research published in Pediatrics suggested that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in childhood may slow this process.

Children who consumed sweet or salty snacks and sweetened beverages had lower standardized test scores, while kids who drank water regularly performed significantly better on a switching task, according two different presentations at Nutrition 2019.

All children attending school in the United States are permitted to carry albuterol inhalers if they have been prescribed one by a physician. However, few children — approximately 14% — have access to emergency inhalers, according to research published in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Pulmonology.

Students who were bullied used analgesics more than their non-bullied peers, according to findings from an Icelandic cohort that were recently published in Acta Paediatrica.