Adolescent Health News and Research

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Study helps understand how dietary therapies work for epilepsy

Calorie restriction has long been associated with reduced seizures in epilepsy. New research from Boston Children's Hospital helps explain how fasting affects neurons in the brain and could lead the way to new approaches that would avoid the need for fasting or restrictive diets. The findings were published August 30 in the journal Cell Reports.

9 Sep 2022

New web app links children's daily activities with health

Researchers studying how children's daily activities are associated with their health have developed a web app that shows users how reallocating time in their day from one activity to another could impact their health and academic performance.

8 Sep 2022

Older heart muscle cells accumulate new genetic mutations -; while losing the ability to repair them

Why does the risk of heart disease go up as we age? Known risk factors such as hypertension or high cholesterol don't explain all cases.

12 Aug 2022

National follow-up study identifies risk factors for a prolonged COVID-19 recovery

In one of the largest follow-up studies to date, involving 25 pediatric hospitals, more than a quarter of children and adolescents hospitalized with coronavirus infection early in the pandemic still had health problems two to four months later, either persisting symptoms or activity impairment. The study, led by Boston Children's Hospital, is published August 12 in the journal Pediatrics.

12 Aug 2022

Overnight EEG studies may help inform care for girls with Rett syndrome

In Rett syndrome, a genetic condition affecting girls almost exclusively, mutations in the MECP2 gene cause a regression of language and motor skills starting at 12 to 18 months of age.

8 Aug 2022

Pediatric adjuvant formulation offers protection against RSV in newborns

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading global cause of death in children under age 5 and lacks an effective vaccine. In a study from the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital, a new vaccine formulation protected newborn mice against infection and evoked strong responses in immune cells from human newborns in the laboratory. Results were reported August 2 in Nature Communications.

2 Aug 2022

Parents set the tone for healthy technology use among teens, study says

Parents play a major role in determining whether teens' use of digital technology is healthy or puts their mental and physical health at risk, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

1 Aug 2022

Insufficient sleep could have long-lasting impact on the neurocognitive development of pre-teens

Elementary school-age children who get less than nine hours of sleep per night have significant differences in certain brain regions responsible for memory, intelligence and well-being compared to those who get the recommended nine to 12 hours of sleep per night, according to a new study led by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers.

29 Jul 2022

Symptomatology of long COVID among children below 14 years of age in Denmark

Researchers investigated long COVID symptoms among SARS-CoV-2-infected Danish children below 14 years of age.

24 Jun 2022

Adolescents and young adults less likely to get addiction treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

A study analyzing prescription claims for a drug used to treat opioid addictions found that adolescents and young adults were less likely than usual to get treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially if they were covered by private, commercial health insurance.

17 Jun 2022

Cellular "barcoding" in mice unravels the origins of blood

The origins of our blood may not be quite what we thought. Using cellular "barcoding" in mice, a groundbreaking study finds that blood cells originate not from one type of mother cell, but two, with potential implications for blood cancers, bone marrow transplant, and immunology. Fernando Camargo, PhD, of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children's Hospital led the study, published in Nature on June 15.

15 Jun 2022

States fight student mental health crisis with days off

Linnea Sorensen falls into a funk whenever her girlfriend of four years leaves for her six-month stints with the Marines, and the high school junior has trouble concentrating on her class work.

13 Jun 2022

Children with leukemia have higher survival than adolescents and young adults with the same cancer

Children (0-14 years) diagnosed with leukemia have benefited from decades of research to improve outcomes, and their five-year survival has increased more than that of adolescents (15-19 years) and young adults (20-24 years), suggests new research published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.

6 Jun 2022

New research may open a window to treating aggressive form of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Survival has improved greatly in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). But a certain form of ALL that occurs mostly in babies is still very lethal, with a survival rate below 50 percent: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia with rearrangements of the mixed lineage leukemia gene, or MLL B-ALL.

1 Jun 2022

Most members of Generation Z want health care providers to ask about "social determinants of health"

Their parents and grandparents probably never got asked by a doctor or nurse whether they had enough to eat, a safe and stable place to live, someone discriminating against them, or anything getting in the way of their education.

31 May 2022

Pediatric patients with prior COVID-19 or MIS-C are not protected against Omicron

Research drawing on the national Overcoming COVID-19 study, led by Boston Children's Hospital, and the hospital's own Taking On COVID-19 Together Group provides evidence that children who previously had COVID-19 (or the inflammatory condition MIS-C) are not protected against the newer Omicron variant.

27 May 2022

Study compares different types of moisturizers for children with eczema

The Best Emollients for Eczema trial has found that no one type of moisturizer is better than another. This study, the first in the world to directly compare different types of moisturizers, highlights the importance of patient education and choice when deciding which moisturizers to use for children with eczema.

26 May 2022

COVID-19 has exacerbated adolescent mental health crises and suicidality

The past decade has seen a worrisome increase in mental health crises among adolescents. A new study led by Patricia Ibeziako, MD, associate chief of clinical services in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services at Boston Children's Hospital, shows that the situation worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

17 May 2022

More evidence that pediatric COVID vaccination prevents MIS-C

Researchers designed a nationwide pediatric COVID-19 research project based on real-time data since the early phase of the pandemic.

9 May 2022

Researchers reveal the mechanism of action of century-old BCG vaccine

The century-old Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis is one of the world's oldest and most widely used vaccines, used to immunize 100 million newborns every year. Given in countries with endemic TB, it has surprisingly been found to protect newborns and young infants against multiple bacterial and viral infections unrelated to TB. There's even some evidence that it can reduce severity of COVID-19.

4 May 2022