Importance Severe early life neglect is associated with compromises in brain development and associated behavioral functioning. Although early intervention has been shown to support more normative trajectories of brain development, specific improvements in white matter pathways that underlie emotional and cognitive development are unknown. Objective To examine associations between early life neglect, early intervention, and microstructural integrity of white matter pathways in middle childhood. Design, setting, and participants The Bucharest Early Intervention Project is a randomized clinical trial of high quality foster care as an intervention for institutionally reared children in Bucharest, Romania. During infancy, children were randomly selected to remain in an institution or to be placed into foster care. Developmental trajectories of these children were compared to a group of socio-demographically matched children reared in biological families at baseline and several points throughout development. At around eight years of age, 69 of the original 136 children underwent structural MRI scans. Intervention(s) for Clinical Trials Institutionally reared children were randomized into high quality foster homes in Bucharest, Romania. Main Outcome Measure(s) Four estimates of white matter integrity (Fractional Anisotropy, and Mean, Radial, and Axial Diffusivity) for 48 white matter tracts throughout the brain were obtained through Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Results Significant associations emerged between early life neglect and microstructural integrity of the body of the corpus callosum and tracts involved in limbic circuitry (fornix crus, cingulum), fronto-striatal circuitry (anterior and superior corona radiata, external capsule) and sensory processing (medial lemniscus, retrolenticular internal capsule). Follow up analyses revealed that early intervention promoted more normative white matter development among previously neglected children who entered foster care. Conclusions and Relevance Results suggest that removal from conditions of severe early life neglect and entry into a high quality family environment can support more normative trajectories of white matter growth. Findings have implications for public health and policy efforts designed to promote normative brain development among vulnerable children. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00747396
Objectives Although US state laws shape population health and health equity, few studies have examined how state laws affect the health of marginalized racial/ethnic groups (eg, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx populations) and racial/ethnic health inequities. A team of public health researchers and legal scholars with expertise in racial equity used systematic policy surveillance methods to develop a comprehensive database of state laws that are explicitly or implicitly related to structural racism, with the goal of evaluating their effect on health outcomes among marginalized racial/ethnic groups. Methods Legal scholars used primary and secondary sources to identify state laws related to structural racism pertaining to 10 legal domains and developed a coding scheme that assigned a numeric code representing a mutually exclusive category for each salient feature of each law using a subset of randomly selected states. Legal scholars systematically applied this coding scheme to laws in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia from 2010 through 2013. Results We identified 843 state laws linked to structural racism. Most states had in place laws that disproportionately discriminate against marginalized racial/ethnic groups and had not enacted laws that prevent the unjust treatment of individuals from marginalized racial/ethnic populations from 2010 to 2013. Conclusions By providing comprehensive, detailed data on structural racism–related state laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia over time, our database will provide public health researchers, social scientists, policy makers, and advocates with rigorous evidence to assess states’ racial equity climates and evaluate and address their effect on racial/ethnic health inequities in the United States.
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