News

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can happen to anyone, at any age. Approximately 1.7 million people experience a TBI in the United States each year; about 53,000 die from TBI-related causes.

Nearly half of all cases of diabetes during pregnancy could be prevented if the expecting mothers ate well, exercised regularly, stopped smoking, and maintained a healthy body weight before pregnancy, a new study finds.

Researchers have used brain scans to track how young children learn to read, raising the possibility that the method could be used to diagnose young children with dyslexia and other reading disorders before they experience problems in school. Once identified, the children could be fast-tracked to interventions designed to help them overcome their reading difficulties.

World population is likely to keep growing throughout the 21st century, reaching 11 billion by 2100, according to results of a new study. That’s about 2 billion higher than previous estimates. The revised forecast uses statistical methods to combine government data and expert forecasts for trends such as mortality rates, fertility rates, and international migration.

While the prevalence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the United States has decreased by 50% over the last 20 years, SIDS remains the leading cause of death for U.S. infants 1 month to 1 year of age.1 This SIDS Awareness Month, the NICHD highlights SIDS resources and research to help parents, caregivers, and medical professionals reduce the risk of SIDS.

A study by a National Institutes of Health research network calls into question plans to increase access to steroid treatment for pregnant women in low resource settings at high risk for preterm birth. The study concluded that the treatment—a standard, life-saving practice in high income countries such as the United States—could potentially cause harm in low resource settings where many births take place outside the advance care hospitals that are standard in high income countries.

Shavon Artis, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., coordinator of the NICHD-led Safe to Sleep® campaign, recently published a blog post on safe infant sleep environments for the Parents Magazine website.

National Institutes of Health grantee William E. Moerner of Stanford University in California shares the 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on optical microscopy that has opened the understanding of molecules by allowing researchers to see how the molecules work close up.

The NICHD has recently launched the Media Smart Youth® Teen Leaders Program, a new community service opportunity for teens and young adults interested in teaching youth about media’s influence on health.

It’s normal for most women to gain weight during pregnancy, but gaining too much weight can pose serious health risks for mother and baby. Now researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have found that an integrated program offering support and nutrition counseling succeeds where the traditional approaches failed and helps keep women from adding too much weight during pregnancy.

NIH researchers have concluded that women who experience prolonged labor have an excellent chance for a successful vaginal delivery. However, the researchers did find a slightly increased risk of complications for mothers and babies. The researchers advised women and their health care practitioners to weigh the increased benefits of vaginal delivery against the slightly increased risk.

Countless factors, from family and environment to genes and biology, influence a child’s growth and development. Scientists in the NICHD’s Section on Child and Family Research study how these factors affect the physical, mental, and social development of growing children, along with their health and well-being.

Behind every NICHD investigator is a team of students and trainees, learning the ropes one experiment at a time. For them, a summer internship or postdoctoral fellowship may be the turning point that gives direction and momentum to their future careers in science. And for many investigators, the responsibility of training the next generation of scientists is as important as making their next discovery.

The National Institutes of Health is making funding awards of $35 million over the next five years to support the Centers for Collaborative Research in Fragile X program. Investigators at these centers will seek to better understand Fragile X-associated disorders and work toward developing effective treatments.

A recent survey shows that one in four young children (ages birth to 5) are at moderate to high risk for developmental, behavioral, or social delays.1 To raise awareness of these risks and promote early screening, the NICHD has joined the Administration for Children and Families and a number of other federal partners in launching Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive!

Preschool educational interventions have long been studied for their value in preparing children for school. Recent studies, however, indicate that these interventions might do much more, possibly affecting social and emotional skills later in life, and even adult physical health.

This August, we focused on pregnancy—providing information, tips, and resources, plus a chance for members of the public to chat with experts over a Twitter #pregnancychat.

NICHD Director Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., announced that after a rigorous national search, Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., has been selected as Deputy Director of the NICHD. For the past two years, Dr. Spong has served as the inaugural NICHD Associate Director for Extramural Research and the Director of the Division of Extramural Research.

Using a teaspoon or a tablespoon to give children medicine doubled parents’ chances of giving an incorrect dose, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Learning is easier when it only requires nerve cells to rearrange existing patterns of activity than when the nerve cells have to generate new patterns, a study of monkeys has found. The scientists explored the brain’s capacity to learn through recordings of electrical activity of brain cell networks. The study was partly funded by the National Institutes of Health.