JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting

Invasive meningococcal disease has a high fatality rate and can lead to severe long-term health issues. In Europe, serogroup B meningococcal disease (MenB) accounts for over half of invasive meningococcal disease cases. In Italy, MenB vaccination is recommended for all newborns, but uptake is below the Ministry of Health Vaccination Plan target (uptake: 80.91%; target: 90%).

Excessive infant crying affects approximately 20% of families and can lead to parental distress, anxiety, and strained relationships. Despite its prevalence, many parents report feeling misunderstood and unsupported during these challenging periods.

Background: Managing a child undergoing Growth Hormone treatment (GHt) can be burdensome for the families, which can lead to psychological problems and poor treatment adherence. Adhera Caring Digital Program (ACDP) is a mobile-based digital health intervention designed to support the physical and mental well-being of families of individuals with chronic conditions.

It is challenging to recruit vulnerable populations such as pregnant individuals, particularly during the perinatal period which involves significant life changes and stressful situations that may create barriers to participation. Barriers to participation are even more prominent in historically marginalized populations, such as minoritized and low-income populations. Current literature is limited on recruitment methods and specific activities may be best to recruit diverse pregnant individuals into online studies for the promotion of perinatal mental health.

Parents of preterm born (PT) infants often face challenges in transitioning from hospital to home, requiring reliable and accessible information to support their caregiving. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have the potential to supplement post-discharge education and empower parents by providing tailored, evidence-based information.

Standard urotherapy for childhood incontinence involves traditional tools like paper bladder diaries, timer watches, wetting alarms and uroflowmeters. However, little is known about how these tools are experienced by today’s digitally native children.

More than 5 million US adolescents experience mental or behavioral health conditions, yet two-thirds remain untreated, and suicide is the second leading cause of death. These gaps highlight the urgent need for accessible care. Digital mental health interventions that integrate measurement-based care (MBC) and personalized mental health care provider matching offer a promising solution, but few studies have examined their real-world impact among adolescents at elevated suicide risk.

Background: The healthcare system faces challenges of inconsistent quality, inefficiency, and rising costs. Fragmented applications of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), Clinical Pathways (CP), and Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) payment systems have limited their synergistic potential.

Health care digitalization and pediatric information and communication technology have facilitated the use of telemedicine and digital communication tools in pediatric practice, improving accessibility and efficiency. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a promising tool in medicine. However, the rapid adoption of these technologies has raised concerns regarding reliability and ethics.

Social Media groups (SMG) enable individuals with rare disease to connect with one another, and access instant support and advice. Accelerated diagnoses of genetic neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) over the last decade have driven rapid expansion of gene specific SMG membership. Limited literature regarding parental use of SMGs in the context of managing their child’s NDD exists.

Disciplining a child is a complex, multidimensional aspect of parenting, involving emotional guidance, behavioral correction, and consistent communication. Disciplinary practices applied to children may vary due to social, cultural, and geographic contexts. Among these practices, child shaking and its potentially severe consequences, including traumatic brain injury and long-term neurodevelopmental impairments, are more frequently documented in high-income countries. Although child shaking also occurs in low- and middle-income countries, particularly among infants, where it is primarily triggered by persistent crying, it is rarely reported in formal studies. Moreover, primary caregivers, particularly mothers, may not perceive shaking as a form of punitive discipline, and maternal depression is often associated with their caregiving attitude toward children. Furthermore, notable functional variations are also observed in the parenting practices of low-income urban and rural mothers, often influenced by divergent socioeconomic and environmental factors.

The United Nations considers children a crucial national asset and makes their welfare a top priority. However, infant mortality remains a persistent challenge, notably in Arab nations. Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman, despite sharing similar income brackets and healthcare systems, differ in health policies, demographics, and maternal-child resource allocation. These countries also faced sharp fiscal deficits during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Compared to wealthier nearby nations like the United Arab Emirates, their lower gross domestic product further complicates efforts to reduce the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and sustain effective, equitable child health strategies.