childhood growth , age- and sex-normalised body mass index ( BMI ) and z scores for height and weight were calculated . Assessments of height were made after 4 years in the first cohort but up to 8 years in the second cohort .
A total of 788 racially diverse women with a mean age of 28.4 years were included in the analysis .
In the first cohort , the median caffeine and paraxanthine concentrations were 168.5 and 73.8ng / ml and which equated to a median consumption of less than 50mg per day . Their children ’ s height z scores were -0.21 ( 95 % CI -0.41 to -0.02) lower in the fourth ( upper ) quartile compared to the lowest across the ages of 4 to 8 years . Weight z scores were also lower ( -0.27 for the third compared to lowest quartile ). However , there were no differences in BMI z scores . In the second cohort , children of women in the highest caffeine quartile also had lower height z scores and but again there was no difference in BMI z scores across the quartiles .
In both cohorts , there was a similar association with height based on paraxanthine levels .
The authors discussed how these findings established that higher maternal caffeine intake was associated with a shorter stature and which persisted at least until 8 years of age . Just why this might happen is not known , although it has been speculated that because caffeine is a neural stimulant , it could accumulate in foetal tissue .
They concluded that maternal caffeine consumption , even at levels below the currently recommended intake during pregnancy , was associated with a smaller child height which persisted for at least 8 years . They added that further work was needed to understand the clinical implications of these findings .
Reference 1 Gleason JL et al . Association of Maternal Caffeine Consumption During Pregnancy With Child Growth . JAMA Netw Open 2022 .
Regular physical activity improves COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation
Regular physical activity is known to protect against adverse outcomes from COVID-19 infection but whether this same relationship applies among those who have been vaccinated is unclear .
Vaccination against COVID-19 has been found to significantly reduce the risk of hospital admission by between 73 % and 94 %. Previous research has also shown that regular and high levels of physical activity improve an individual ’ s immune response to influenza vaccination . Nevertheless , this has not been a consistent finding with vaccinations , as other research , particularly in women , found that the antibody response to the pneumococcal vaccine did not differ between those who either did , or did not , embark on physical activity . But whether there were important differences in the antibody response and hence risk of hospitalisation to vaccination against COVID-19 , among those with differing levels of physical activity was the subject of a study by South African researchers . The team looked at COVID-19 hospital admission data and information held in a health insurance database . The database provided information on activity records for individuals which was collected from wearable devices . The level of physical activity was defined as either low (< 60 minutes moderate activity per week ), moderate ( 60 to 149 minutes / week ) and high (> 150 minutes / week ). The researchers estimated the risk of a COVID-19-related hospital admission among individuals who were unvaccinated ( and who served as controls ), compared to those who were fully vaccinated , 28 days after a single dose of Ad26 . COV2 . S .
A total of 196,444 participants were included and divided into the three levels of physical activity ; 27.3 % in the lower activity group and 40.1 % in the highest activity group . Roughly two thirds of participants in each group were aged between 18 and 44 years . The vaccine effectiveness against a COVID-19- related hospital admission was 60 % ( 95 % CI 39 – 73.8 %) for the low activity group , 72.1 % ( 95 % CI 55.3 – 82.6 %) for the moderate group but 85.8 % ( 95 % CI 74.1 – 92.2 %) for those who had the highest level of activity . The authors calculated that the risk ratio for a COVID-19- related hospital admission was 2.8 times lower among those with highest compared to the lowest levels of physical activity ( p < 0.001 ). In fact , even among those who were deemed moderately active , the risk was still 1.4-times lower than participants with the lowest activity levels .
34 | Issue 102 | hospitalpharmacyeurope . com