Heart disease kills 78,000 infants annually

An estimated 78,000 infants born with congenital heart disease die annually in India “due to inad­equate healthcare facilities and lack of aware­ness”, says top cardiac surgeon Dr. Ramakanta Panda, Group CEO, Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Mumbai. In con­trast, in advanced Western countries, the number of children dying from heart failure or related problems has dropped by 50 percent.

“Paediatric heart failure is a pressing issue as it is a prime cause of death in children under age five the world over. Moreover, children with heart failure face a higher mortality rate in emergency situations compared with adults,” said Dr. Panda, speaking to the media in Mumbai on the eve of Children’s Day (November 14).

Dr. Panda advises pregnant women to take several precautions to reduce the risk of children developing heart ailments. Among them: no drinking or smoking including passive smoking; regular vaccinations; man­aging chronic health issues; checking blood-sugar lev­els, taking multi-vitamins and consulting a doctor be­fore taking medication.

Indian teens face high risk of drug abuse

“Teenage children in India are at increased risk of drugs and alcohol abuse because of poor mental and physical health the outcome of violence, ex­ploitation and sexual abuse”, said Billy Batware, pro­gramme officer of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), speaking at the International Fo­rum on Children Matter — Right to a Drug-Free Child­hood held in Trivandrum on November 16-18. According to Batware, 13.1 percent of the population indulging in drug and substance abuse in India are below 20 years of age. “Nine out of 10 people with drug addiction be­gin using substances before they are 18 years old,” said Batware.

Batware added that UNODC has defined “harnessing the transformative power of youth and children as one of its three cross-cutting commitments”. He called for “stepping up community intervention and establishing preventive mechanisms targeting adolescents”.

Also speaking on the occasion, Arun Kandasamy, professor of psychiatry, Centre for Addiction Medicine, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, said that 70 percent of adoles­cents indulging in substance abuse have a family histo­ry of addiction. “Adolescents, who are a high-risk group for addiction, often come too late to treatment. If they can be identified and treated early, many complications can be addressed,” said Kandasamy.

Children have sophisticated ability to forgive others

Teaching children to appreciate other perspectives makes it easier for them to learn to forgive, says a recent study conducted by North Carolina State University, USA. The study, led by Kelly Lynn Mulvey, as­sociate professor of psychology at the university, also found that teaching children to render sincere apolo­gies helps them receive forgiveness.

Mulvey and her team of researchers interviewed 185 children, between the ages of five and 14 to assess their ‘theory of mind’ skills — the capability to understand other people’s beliefs, intentions and desires different from their own. “We found that children have sophisti­cated abilities to forgive others. They are capable of re­storing relationships with others, and are usually inter­ested in doing so. One of the biggest implications of our study is that teachers and parents need to actively help children to respect other points of view. A good starting point is getting kids to explain the rationale behind their own actions and how they impact others,” says Mulvey.

Mothers of younger children exercise less

Moms with young and multiple children are less likely to undertake strenuous physical exercise, according to a study published in open-access journal PLOS ONE (November). For the study, research­ers at the University of Cambridge, the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre and NIHR Southampton Biomedi­cal Research Centre studied 848 mothers who were asked to wear an accelerometer to track the intensity and duration of their physical activity for seven days. The data analysis revealed significant differences in physical activity between mothers of young children and mothers of children of different ages.

Mothers of children older than four years engaged in greater moderate or vigorous physical activities than mothers of younger children. Mothers of multiple chil­dren also engaged in lower amounts of moderate or vigorous physical activity.