No abstract

The findings do not suggest a fundamental difficulty with the recognition of basic emotions in adolescents with ASD.

Language loss is highly specific to ASD. The underlying developmental abnormality may be more prevalent than raw data might suggest, its possible presence being hidden for children whose language development is delayed.

Deficits in phonological short‐term memory and aspects of verb grammar morphology have been proposed as phenotypic markers of specific language impairment (SLI) with the suggestion that these traits are likely to be under different genetic influences. This investigation in 300 first‐degree relatives of 93 probands with SLI examined familial aggregation and genetic linkage of two measures thought to index these two traits, non‐word repetition and tense marking. In particular, the involvement of chromosomes 16q and 19q was examined as previous studies found these two regions to be related to SLI. Results showed a strong association between relatives’ and probands’ scores on non‐word repetition. In contrast, no association was found for tense marking when examined as a continuous measure. However, significant familial aggregation was found when tense marking was treated as a binary measure with a cut‐off point of −1.5 SD, suggestive of the possibility that qualitative distinctions in the trait may be familial while quantitative variability may be more a consequence of non‐familial factors. Linkage analyses supported previous findings of the SLI Consortium of linkage to chromosome 16q for phonological short‐term memory and to chromosome 19q for expressive language. In addition, we report new findings that relate to the past tense phenotype. For the continuous measure, linkage was found on both chromosomes, but evidence was stronger on chromosome 19. For the binary measure, linkage was observed on chromosome 19 but not on chromosome 16.

ObjectiveOur main objective was to describe the prevalence and associated sociodemographic factors of frailty and pre-frailty in rural community-dwelling older adults in Kegalle district of Sri Lanka.DesignCommunity-based cross-sectional study.SettingThe study was conducted in rural areas of Kegalle district in Sri Lanka.ParticipantsA total of 746 community-dwelling older adults aged ≥60 years were included in the study.ResultsThe prevalence of frailty and pre-frailty in rural Kegalle district was 15.2% (95% CI 12.3% to 18.6%) and 48.5% (95% CI 43.8% to 53.2%), respectively. We found a strong association between age and both frailty and pre-frailty. There were strong associations between longest-held occupation and frailty and education level and pre-frailty.ConclusionsThe prevalence of frailty in this rural Sri Lankan older population was high compared with high-income and upper middle-income countries. The profile of health and social care services in Sri Lanka needs to address frailty and its consequences.

As key covariates are unlikely missing completely at random, studies estimating net survival should not use complete records. When the missingness can be inferred from available data, appropriate multiple imputation should be performed. In the context of flexible parametric proportional hazards models with a partially observed stage covariate, a multinomial logistic imputation model for stage should be used and should include the Nelson-Aalen cumulative hazard estimate and the event indicator.

The oldest age groups with new depression diagnoses and symptoms have fewer recorded referrals to psychological therapies, and higher psychotropic drug treatment rates in primary care. This suggests potential inequalities in access to psychological therapies.

There is now little doubt that both environmental factors and genes are likely to make important contributions to the aetiology of specific language impairment (SLI). The most commonly proposed model for understanding these influences is the multifactorial model. In the present study we examine two expectations based on this model: that there will be a systematic relationship between the severity of proband language scores and the rate and severity of SLI in relatives and that relatives will be more strongly affected if they are relatives of a proband of the more rarely affected gender (female) because the latter require a higher genetic liability to become equally impaired. Ninety-three probands and their 300 first-degree relatives participated in this study. Results showed a relationship between proband severity at age 14 and an increased rate of SLI in relatives. This relationship was strong for child siblings and was significant with respect to both rate of SLI and severity over a range of language and literacy measures. In contrast, higher levels of SLI among relatives of female rather than male probands was entirely disproved.