Purpose

The purposes of this study were to: 1) Describe the incidence of disordered eating, weight bias, body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress, 2) Examine the relationship between sociodemographic variables (gender, ethnicity, and income) and disordered eating, weight bias, body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress in a sample of low-income adolescents.

Design and methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 105 adolescents from low-income neighborhoods. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess eating behaviors, weight bias, body dissatisfaction, and psychological functioning. Height and weight were measured, and information on household income was collected.

Results

The participant's mean age was 16.31 (SD=2.8) years, 66% female, 47% Hispanic, and 46% African American. The mean annual income was $17,018 (SD=11,355). Twenty-eight percent self-reported having some form of disordered eating, and 15% reported an eating disorder. The group with eating disorder reported the highest levels of weight bias (M=93.4, SD=109.6), body dissatisfaction (M=94.6, SD=47.6), and psychological distress (M=1.4, SD=0.97).

Conclusion

This study found a high prevalence of eating disorders with eating disorder participants experiencing the highest levels of weight bias and psychological distress. Future studies are needed to identify and evaluate community and school-based interventions to minimize weight bias and disordered eating.

Practice implications

Nurses are at the forefront of healthcare and should collaborate with educators, school counselors, administrators, coaches, parents, and students, to address weight bias and disordered eating in schools by implementing school-based curriculum and policies.

Objective

to present the cultural adaptation of the questionnaire Costs of caring for children with cancer, offering a valid and reliable tool to assess the economic repercussions of childhood cancer for Brazilian families.

Method

it is a methodological research with a cross-sectional design. The methodological framework to validate the questionnaire was a combined process that included seven steps: translation to Portuguese; first translated consensus version; evaluation by Expert Committee; consensus on the Expert Committee version; back-translation; consensus of back-translated versions; semantic validation. The study was conducted in two phases: phase one was the translation and back-translations process, with five expert committee members. Phase two was the semantic validation, with 24 participants, who answered an instrument about their impressions of the questionnaire and suggested modifications.

Results

in phase one, items were included, excluded, and replaced to make the content equivalent and valid for use with Brazilian context. In phase two, the majority of the participants were mothers, who made suggestions about the relevance and clarity of the items in the questionnaire.

Conclusions

the authors discussed these recommendations and made adaptations, turning the questionnaire into a valid and reliable tool for application.

Background

Childhood brain tumor survivors (CBTS) often experience treatment-related neurocognitive deficits affecting quality of life (QOL), but systemic chemotherapy contributions to outcomes are unclear. Our objective was to relate brain tissue changes to neurocognitive and QOL effects after systemic myeloablative chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue in CBTS.

Procedure

Regional brain volumes and diffusion tensor indices were correlated with neurocognitive, behavioral, and QOL measures, and compared between 8 CBTS (mean age 8.5 years, mean age at diagnosis 32 months), and 9 healthy controls (mean 9.3 years).

Results

Overall QOL, school, and psychosocial functioning were significantly lower in patients (P < .05). Most patients scored within normative ranges on neurocognitive and behavioral assessment. Elevated mean diffusivity and decreased fractional anisotropy, indicating gray and white matter injury, respectively, appeared in memory and executive functioning areas. Low scores on Inhibition on the Neuropsychological Assessment-II were correlated with elevated mean diffusivity in prefrontal cortex.

Conclusions

Brain injury, decreased QOL, and to a lesser extent, executive functioning deficits appear in CBTS treated with myeloablative chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic progenitor cell rescue. Early cognitive and psychological assessment and intervention are warranted in this population.

Young children with brain tumors are often treated with high-dose chemotherapy after surgery to avoid brain tissue injury associated with irradiation. The effects of systemic chemotherapy on healthy brain tissue in this population, however, are unclear. Our objective was to compare gray and white matter integrity using MRI procedures in children with brain tumors (n = 7, mean age 8.3 years), treated with surgery and high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic cell rescue (AuHCR) an average of 5.4 years earlier, to age- and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 9, mean age 9.3 years). Diffusion tensor imaging data were collected to evaluate tissue integrity throughout the brain, as measured by mean diffusivity (MD), a marker of glial, neuronal, and axonal status, and fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of axonal health. Individual MD and FA maps were calculated, normalized, smoothed, and compared between groups using analysis of covariance, with age and sex as covariates. Higher MD values, indicative of injury, emerged in patients compared with controls (p < .05, corrected for multiple comparisons), and were especially apparent in the central thalamus, external capsule, putamen, globus pallidus and pons. Reduced FA values in some regions did not reach significance after correction for multiple comparisons. Children treated with surgery and high-dose chemotherapy with AuHCR for brain tumors an average of 5.4 years earlier show alterations in white and gray matter in multiple brain areas distant from the tumor site, raising the possibility for long-term consequences of the tumor or treatment.