Mental and physical benefits of dogs have been reported for adults and children with special needs, but less is known about benefits of cats for children. A cat that can be held by a child could provide important therapeutic companionship for children with severe or less severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who otherwise may lack prosocial behaviors. Because relatively little is known about th...

In a context where 46 countries now consider their fertility rate to be too low, attention is turning to the need for policy actions to increase fertility rates. This article discusses the reasons why action is required and why countries have been slow to take policy action. It then considers a wide range of possible policies and assesses them against a set of eleven social policy principles. T...

Personality has been implicated in romantic and sexual relationships, but its association with childbearing is poorly understood. The authors assessed whether 3 personality traits--sociability, emotionality, and activity--predicted the probability of having children and whether having children predicted personality change. The participants were women and men from the Cardiovascular Risk in Youn...

background: allergic rhinitis is one of the most common forms of allergic disorders affecting children. the prevalence rate of allergic rhinitis differs among countries and even among regions within the same country.   objectives: to determine the prevalence of childhood allergic rhinitis and the presence and significance of eosinophilia in nasal secretions.   method: 4584 children aged 11-15 y...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of caries in children aged 8-13 years having dental fluorosis and to determine the correlation between the grades of dental fluorosis and caries. MATERIAL AND METHODS 451 school children in the age group of 8-13 years were selected for the study and were divided into six age groups. The children were assessed for ...

The process of child׳s mental development depends heavily on the social interrelationship between the mother and her child. Schizophrenia in mothers potentially disrupts mother-infant relationship and adaptation to motherhood. Literature is limited on evaluating the emotional and behavioral problems of children of mother having schizophrenia with nearly none from the Indian subcontinent. The ai...

We describe parents' perspectives on research interviews with their children with single gene conditions. One hundred forty-two parents were interviewed between 2002 and 2003 in a larger study using a qualitative descriptive design. Two questions from the semi-structured interview guide were used to identify parents' perspectives about future interviews. Almost all of the parents said they woul...

BACKGROUND Although children with developmental delay are known to have increased health care use, it is unclear what proportion of that health care use is related to associated chronic health conditions. OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence of isolated developmental delay and to determine the role of developmental delay in health care use controlling for chronic health conditions. DESIGN Re...