BACKGROUND: Growing up with a sibling with a chronic health problem or a disability requiring assistance can affect the lives of the family members in various ways. Previous studies documented health problems among siblings of children with a chronic health problem or a disability. However, these studies are limited in that they tend to rely on small convenience samples of children with specific illnesses/disabilities. This study aims to investigate mental health and self-rated health status of siblings of such children using data from a population study in Japan. METHODS: We used data from the 2016 wave of Japan's Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. The analytic sample included 16,510 adolescents aged 15-19 years who were living with a sibling with or without care needs. The outcomes were psychological distress as defined by K6 score of 13 or higher and poor self-rated health. We examined these health outcomes of adolescents who have a sibling with care needs to relative to adolescents with a sibling without such needs via logistic regression. RESULTS: Adolescents who live with a sibling with care needs were more likely to have psychological distress (Odds Ratio (OR) 2.47; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 1.46-4.17) and poor self-rated health (OR 2.21; 95% CI, 1.30-3.75). These associations were more pronounced in post-high school age (18-19 years old) group than in high school age (15-18 years old) group. CONCLUSION The presence of a child with care needs in the household was associated with spillover psychological distress and poorer subjective health among siblings. Providing support for children/adolescents with care needs may have additional benefits in terms of well-being of their siblings.
Humans ; Adolescent ; Male ; Female ; Siblings/psychology* ; Young Adult ; Psychological Distress ; Japan/epidemiology* ; Health Status

We reviewed past studies on the identification of familial relationships using 22 short tandem repeat markers. As a result, we can obtain a high discrimination power and a relatively accurate cut-off value in parent-child and full sibling relationships. However, in the case of pairs of uncle-nephew or cousin, we found a limit of low discrimination power of the likelihood ratio (LR) method. Therefore, we compare the LR ranking method and data mining techniques (e.g., logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, diagonal linear discriminant analysis, diagonal quadratic discriminant analysis, K-nearest neighbor, classification and regression trees, support vector machines, random forest [RF], and penalized multivariate analysis) that can be applied to identify familial relationships, and provide a guideline for choosing the most appropriate model under a given situation. RF, one of the data mining techniques, was found to be more accurate than other methods. The accuracy of RF is 99.99% for parent-child, 99.44% for full siblings, 90.34% for uncle-nephew, and 79.69% for first cousins.
Classification ; Data Mining ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Forests ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Methods ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Siblings ; Support Vector Machine ; Trees

Excessive weight gain in children diagnosed with celiac disease (CD) is becoming more common. We describe 2 siblings (9-year and 6 months-old female and 6-year and 9 months-old male) with obesity showing attenuated gastrointestinal and atypical symptoms in which CD was diagnosed in the absence of a known family history of CD. After children's diagnosis, CD in their parents was also investigated. It was detected in their father affected by overweight. The presentation of patients with CD has changed. While patients with overweight and obesity commonly have symptoms such as abdominal pain, reflux, headache, and constipation due to lifestyle factors, CD should also be considered in patients with or without a family history of CD. Careful nutritional status assessment and follow-up monitoring after the diagnosis of CD are mandatory, especially in subjects who are already overweight at the presentation of this disease.
Abdominal Pain ; Celiac Disease ; Child ; Constipation ; Diagnosis ; Fathers ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Headache ; Humans ; Life Style ; Nutritional Status ; Obesity ; Overweight ; Parents ; Recognition (Psychology) ; Siblings ; Weight Gain

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to review interventions available to nurses caring for siblings of children with cancer. METHODS: Searches of CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, and RISS identified ten intervention studies published from January, 2000 to November, 2016. RESULTS: Ten studies on interventions for siblings of pediatric cancer patients were identified as follows: 4 included camps, 4 included support groups, and 2 provided individual interventions. Theoretical frameworks were mainly cognitive behavioral theory and most studies were led by psychologists and multidisciplinary teams. The purpose of the interventions was primarily enhancing psychosocial adjustment. Siblings' fear of disease, self-esteem, and social support were improved significantly after the interventions. Findings were inconsistent with regard to depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, post-traumatic stress, health-related quality of life, and siblings' perceptions of the illness. CONCLUSION: Study findings showed the potential for enhancing emotional and behavioral outcomes in siblings of children with cancer. However, the number of studies was very small, and several methodological limitations were identified. In the future, more randomized controlled trials with larger samples are needed to extend the evidence base. Moreover, future research should identify sibling's characteristics and circumstances most likely to bring benefits to the siblings.
Anxiety ; Child ; Depression ; Humans ; Problem Behavior ; Psychology ; Quality of Life ; Self-Help Groups ; Siblings*

OBJECTIVE: To measure the prevalence of and factors associated with online inappropriate sexual exposure, cyber-bullying victimisation, and computer-using time in early adolescence. METHODS: A two-year, prospective school survey was performed with 1,173 children aged 13 at baseline. Data collected included demographic factors, bullying experience, depression, anxiety, coping strategies, self-esteem, psychopathology, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, and school performance. These factors were investigated in relation to problematic Internet experiences and computer-using time at age 15. RESULTS: The prevalence of online inappropriate sexual exposure, cyber-bullying victimisation, academic-purpose computer overuse, and game-purpose computer overuse was 31.6%, 19.2%, 8.5%, and 21.8%, respectively, at age 15. Having older siblings, more weekly pocket money, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and passive coping strategy were associated with reported online sexual harassment. Male gender, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms were associated with reported cyber-bullying victimisation. Female gender was associated with academic-purpose computer overuse, while male gender, lower academic level, increased height, and having older siblings were associated with game-purpose computer-overuse. CONCLUSION: Different environmental and psychological factors predicted different aspects of problematic Internet experiences and computer-using time. This knowledge is important for framing public health interventions to educate adolescents about, and prevent, internet-derived problems.
Adolescent ; Anxiety ; Bullying ; Child* ; Demography ; Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Internet* ; Longitudinal Studies* ; Male ; Prevalence* ; Prospective Studies ; Psychology ; Psychopathology ; Public Health ; Sexual Harassment ; Siblings

The limited donor organ supply is a main problem for transplant surgeons in Korea, and forces them to use organs from extended sources. In one such case, we reused a transplanted kidney allograft in August 2012. This was the first successful case involving the reuse of a transplanted kidney allograft in Korea. The kidney donor was a 44-year-old man brain-dead due to spontaneous subdural hemorrhage. He received a kidney transplant from his sister in 2006. The second recipient was a 59-year-old man who had been receiving hemodialysis for 11 years. There were full human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matches between the first donor and the first recipient, and two HLA mismatches between the first donor and the second recipient. Fortunately, we were able to perform a crossmatch test between the first donor and the second recipient as well as the first recipient and the second recipient (with the first donor's agreement). We used the left iliac artery for perfusion instead of the aorta during organ procurement. The cold ischemic time was 4 hours and the initial kidney function was excellent. The patient has been doing well, without any significant complications or rejections, for 3 weeks. His last serum creatinine level was 0.91 mg/dL. Our case shows that the reuse of kidney allografts could be a possible solution for the shortage of donor kidneys. However, this method requires careful consideration and an agreement among participants before its performance.
Aorta ; Brain Death ; Cold Ischemia ; Creatinine ; Hematoma, Subdural ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Korea ; Leukocytes ; Perfusion ; Rejection (Psychology) ; Renal Dialysis ; Siblings ; Tissue and Organ Procurement ; Tissue Donors ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Transplants

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism that results in accumulation of copper primarily in the liver, brain and cornea. Mutations in the WD gene, ATP7B, cause failure of copper excretion from hepatocyte into bile and a defective synthesis of ceruloplasmin. More than 500 mutations are now recognized, scattered throughout the ATP7B gene. Since WD has protean clinical presentations, awareness of WD in clinical practice is important for the early diagnosis and prevention of accumulated copper toxicity. Molecular genetic testing is playing an increasingly important role in the diagnosis of WD in uncertain cases and family screening. Siblings should be screened for WD once an index case has been diagnosed. Discrimination of heterozygotes from asymptomatic patients is essential to avoid inappropriate lifelong therapy for heterozygotes. Genetic testing, either by haplotype analysis or by mutation analysis, is the only definite solution for differentiating heterozygote carriers from affected asymptomatic patients. Routine genetic testing, because of the multitude of documented mutations, has been thought to be impractical until recently. However, genetic testing is now being more actively applied to the diagnosis of WD, particularly in young children in whom conventional biochemical diagnosis has much limitation and only genetic testing is able to confirm WD. Because advancement of modern biochemical technology now allows more rapid, easier, and less expensive mutation detection, direct DNA sequencing could be actively considered as the primary mode of diagnostic investigation rather than a supplementary test to the conventional biochemical tests. This review will focus on the recent advancement of molecular genetics and genetic diagnosis of WD in very young children on the basis of research data of the Seoul National University Children's Hospital and recent literature.
Bile ; Brain ; Ceruloplasmin ; Child ; Clinical Laboratory Techniques ; Copper ; Cornea ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Early Diagnosis ; Genetic Testing ; Haplotypes ; Hepatocytes ; Hepatolenticular Degeneration ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Liver ; Mass Screening ; Molecular Biology ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Siblings

Primary aldosteronism, is defined as a group of disorders characterized by the excess of aldosteron, with suppressed rennin activity, resulting in hypertension and hypokalemia. In most cases, primary aldosteronism is sporadic due to a unilateral adrenal adenoma or bilateral adrenal hyperplasia. Familial hyperaldosteronism is a rare cause of primary aldosteronism and its prevalence has not been established well. We describe two cases of primary aldosteronism in a family involving a sister and brother due to an aldosterone producing adenoma in the left adrenal gland. Their hypokalemia and hypertension were cured by complete resection of the adrenal adenoma. Genetic analyses could not be done because of patients' rejection.
Adenoma ; Adrenal Glands ; Adrenocortical Adenoma ; Aldosterone ; Chymosin ; Humans ; Hyperaldosteronism ; Hyperplasia ; Hypertension ; Hypokalemia ; Prevalence ; Rejection (Psychology) ; Siblings

BACKGROUND: The shortage of living related and deceased donor groups is one of the major problems of kidney transplantation. We examined the results of spouse and spousal exchange among living kidney transplantation. METHODS: Living donor kidney transplants at a single center between 1991 and 2005 were studied, retrospectively (n=593). We compared the graft survival rates of 24 spousal, 53 spousal exchange transplantations with those of 125 sibling, 142 other living related donor (LRD) or 249 other living unrelated donor (LURD) procedures. We analyzed graft survival rate, acute rejection rate among each groups. RESULTS: The 5, 10 year graft survival rates of spousal donor were 75.0%, 69.2%, those of other LURD and spousal exchange were 74.6%, 64.5% (P=0.80) and 86.6%, 84.8% (P=0.11), those of sibling and other LRD were 82.3%, 75.9% (P=0.37) and 75.7%, 65.4% (P=0.84). Spousal exchange donor were more good graft survival rates rather than other LRD and LURD (P=0.01, 0.01). Acute rejection rates of spousal donor were not significant difference among sibling, other LRD and LURD groups. But acute rejection rates of spousal exchange donor (22.6%) were lower than spousal (45.8%) and other LURD (38.7%) (P=0.04, 0.04). In the multivariate analysis of donor groups, other LRD and LURD groups were associated with a high relative odds of graft survival (odds ratio 2.88+/-0.38 (P=0.02), 2.35+/-0.37 (P=0.01)) compared to spousal exchange donor groups. CONCLUSIONS: The spousal exchange donors had more good graft survival rates than other LRD and LURD groups and spousal donors were as good as other living donors. We expect that the spousal and spousal exchange transplantations are one of the good programs for donor pool expansion.
Graft Survival ; Humans ; Kidney ; Kidney Transplantation ; Living Donors ; Multivariate Analysis ; Odds Ratio ; Rejection (Psychology) ; Retrospective Studies ; Siblings ; Spouses ; Tissue Donors ; Transplants ; Unrelated Donors

OBJECTIVES : A neural circuit including amygdala, the hippocampal complex and prefrontal cortex was associated with deficits in facial processing in schizophrenia. These deficits have a significant impact on social functioning in schizophrenia. Both neuropsychological deficits and brain structural abnormalities in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients suggest that they may also have the deficit in facial information processing as genetic factors. The purpose of this study was to explore the dysfunction of facial information processing in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients using functional magnetic neuroimaging (fMRI). METHODS : Ten non-affected siblings of schizophrenic patients and 10 normal comparison subjects having no schizophrenic siblings underwent fMRI during the d ynamic facial change procedure consisting of presentations of facial emotion and gender discrimination stimuli. The emotion discrimination condition consisted of the presentation of 12 happy faces and 12 disgust/fear faces. The gender discrimination condition consisted of the presentation of 12 male faces and 12 female faces. Condition-specific brain activations were compared between non-affected siblings and normal comparison subjects RESULTS : The facial information processing related brain regions including fusiform gyrus, several areas of frontal, temporal, occipital, and cerebellar regions exhibited more activation during gender discrimination than emotion discrimination tasks in each group. During gender discrimination task, siblings of schizophrenic patients showed less activation in right fusiform gyrus, both middle and superior frontal gyrus, left cuneus, and left inferior frontal gyrus, compared with normal comparison subjects. CONCLUSION : Dysfunctional facial information processing, such as a deficit in gender discrimination, might be an endophenotype of schizophrenia.
Amygdala ; Automatic Data Processing ; Brain ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Endophenotypes ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnetics ; Magnets ; Male ; Neuroimaging ; Prefrontal Cortex ; Schizophrenia ; Siblings