Improving the health of pre-adolescent children: The latest update to the Pediatric Medicine Collection

In celebration of PLOS Medicine’s 10th birthday, we announce an exciting update to the Pediatric Medicine Collection, highlighting new articles focusing on the health needs of 5 to 10 year old children globally.

In January 2014 PLOS Medicine launched a call requesting papers on the Health of Pre-Adolescent Children, and in light of PLOS Medicine’s own 10 year anniversary, the theme of the call was chosen with the aim to contribute to a better understanding of children who live beyond their 5^th birthday but aren’t yet at adolescence. This resulting collection has brought together a broad range of research and commentary.

Featured work in this latest update

Authors Angela Donin and colleagues invited 9-10 year old children to participate in a study examining risk factors for type 2 diabetes. By measuring the levels of insulin, glucose, and other markers, participants reported how often they ate breakfast. It was concluded that children who ate breakfast infrequently had higher fasting insulin levels and increased insulin resistance than children who ate breakfast every day who displayed a favourable type 2 diabetes profile in comparison.

A recent policy forum by Sumit Gupta and co-authors drew attention to the growing need for national childhood cancer strategies in low- and middle-income countries. Amongst severe resource constraints, deficits in infrastructure and other pressing health needs, pediatric oncology resourcing has yet to be translated through from high-income countries. The authors outline why pediatric cancer should now be considered a global child health priority.

Researchers from New Zealand attempted to evaluate the importance of using hand sanitizer for reducing illness in school children. Following a parallel-group cluster randomised trial across 68 primary schools, Patricia Priest and Joanne E McKenzie and colleagues discovered that the provision of hand sanitizer did not reduce the number of school absences due to a specific illness.

Through this collection we hope to provide a broad platform for the dissemination of new high-quality evidence and analysis of conditions that affect pre-adolescent children from around the world.

Please visit the collection at: www.ploscollections.org/pediatricmedicine

Or read the Flipboard version: http://flip.it/SzfOB