Bullied kids have more behavioral problems

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 16:05:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are bullied during their early school years may experience behavior problems as a result, new study findings suggest.

"Our results indicate that bullying victimization in the early school years is an influential experience for a child's behavioral development and mental health problems," study author Dr. Louise Arseneault, of King's College, London, and her colleagues write.

"Prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing mental health problems during childhood should target bullying as an important risk factor," they add.

According to previous research, victimization may be associated with mental health problems in adults. It is also known that some mental health problems in adults stem from poor mental health in childhood. In the current study, Arseneault and her team investigated bullying in childhood, looking at the extent to which bullying contributed to later adjustment problems.

They analyzed information for 2,232 subjects who participated in home-visit assessments at 5 years old and follow-up assessments at age 7.

Those assessments revealed that the majority of children had never bullied another child or experienced bullying between ages 5 and 7. However, 14.4 percent were "pure victims" and 6.2 percent were "bully/victims," children who had been bullied and who also victimized others. Another 1,387 children who were not involved in bullying served as a comparison, or "control," group.

Both groups of children had significantly more behavior problems and problems adjusting in school at 7 years old, compared with the control children, the investigators report in the journal Pediatrics.

Pure victims had more internalizing problems, such as being withdrawn, anxious or depressed, and were also more unhappy at school compared with children in the control group.

Bully/victims also had internalizing problems. In addition, they had fewer prosocial behaviors, such as being considerate of other people's feelings; and were less happy at school at age 7 compared with the pure victims and children in the control group.

In light of their findings, "bullying could be regarded as a stressful life event that might influence children's normal development," Arseneault and her co-authors conclude.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, July 2006.

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Higher thyroid cancer rate from Chernobyl confirmed

Last Updated: 2006-07-06 15:34:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study confirms a substantially increased risk of thyroid cancer among people exposed to radiation during childhood and adolescence after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.

A total of 13,127 of the 32,385 individuals living in the most contaminated area of the Ukraine during the nuclear plant meltdown and who were under 18 at the time were screened between 1998 and 2000, Dr. Geoffrey R. Howe of Columbia University in New York and colleagues report. They found that 45 cases of thyroid cancer occurred compared with 11.2 cases that would have been expected in the absence of radiation exposure. Plus, the higher the dosage of radioactive iodine, the greater the thyroid cancer risk.

The study is the first to measure the risk of thyroid cancer associated with specific radiation dosage, Howe and his team note in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Radioactive iodine and cesium were the main components of the Chernobyl fallout. Because radioactive iodine is used frequently in medicine -- and is also likely to be a chief contaminant released in any future nuclear emergency -- understanding the risk associated with exposure is a public health concern, as well as of scientific interest, the researchers point out.

A spike in thyroid cancer cases had already been observed among Ukraine residents who were children and adolescents when the Chernobyl accident occurred. However, the researchers note, increased rates of screening for thyroid cancer and a low dietary iodine intake, which increases the uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland, "almost certainly" were factors in this increase.

To investigate the specific risk associated with radiation exposure, the researchers estimated each person's radiation exposure using measurements made after the accident and from interviews.

They found a "strong" relationship between radiation exposure and thyroid cancer risk. While there was a tendency for risk to be greater among people exposed at younger ages, as well as among females, neither was statistically significant.

"We estimate that 75 percent of the thyroid cancer cases would have been avoided in the absence of radiation," the researchers conclude. "This estimate demonstrates a substantial contribution of radioactive iodines to the excess of thyroid cancer that followed the Chernobyl accident."

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, July 5, 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.