The duration of breast milk feeding among Portuguese very preterm infants was shorter than recommended. However, this appears to be common globally. Research is needed to inform strategies to promote continued breast milk feeding.

Background: Birth cohorts provided essential knowledge for clinical and public health decision-making. However, little is known about retention and determinants of attrition in these specific longitudinal studies, although characterizing predictors of attrition sets the path to mitigate its occurrence and to promote valid inferences. We systematically reviewed retention in follow-ups of birth cohorts of very preterm or very low birth weight infants and the determinants of attrition. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42017082672.Methods: Publications were identified through PubMed®, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to December 2017. Studies were included when reporting at least one of the following: retention at follow-ups, reasons for attrition, or characteristics of non-participants. Quality assessment was conducted using the completeness of the report of participation features in the articles. Non-participant's characteristics were presented using descriptive statistics. Local polynomial regression was used to describe overall retention trends over years of follow-up.Results: We identified 57 eligible publications, reporting on 39 birth cohorts and describing 83 follow-up evaluations. The overall median retention was 87% (p25–p75:75.8–93.6), ranging from 14.6 to 100%. Overall, retention showed a downward trend with increasing child age. Completeness of retention report was considered “enough” in only 36.8% of publications. Considering the 33 (57.9%) publications providing information on participants and non-participants, and although no formal meta-analysis was performed, it was evident that participants lost to follow-up were more often male, had foreign-born, multiparous, and younger mothers, and with a lower socioeconomic status.Conclusion: This systematic review evidenced a lack of detailed data on retention, which may threaten the potential use of evidence derived from cohort studies of very preterm infants for clinical and public health purpose. It supports the requirement for a standardized presentation of retention features responding to current guidelines.

Background There is wide variation among societies in profiles of adolescent health and behaviors, but they all experience sexual and reproductive health as a major challenge. However, adolescents in middle- and low-income countries are of particular concern, as it is the case in Tanzania, where limited social, educational, and health services contribute to make them victims of unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortion, and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Thus, we undertook a descriptive systematic scoping review of the available published information on sexual and reproductive health among Tanzanian adolescents. Methods We performed a scoping review to collect and analyze observational data on sexual and reproductive health behaviors among Tanzanian adolescents. Publications were identified using PubMed®, Scopus®, Web of Science™, and Cochrane Library electronic databases from 2000 to December 2017. A protocol was defined to identify relevant studies. We included original observational studies conducted in Tanzania and published in English, both quantitative and qualitative, involving adolescents (10 to 19 years old), and that considered at least one of the following items: condom use, number of sexual partners, sexual debut, contraceptive prevalence, sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, abortion, or knowledge about reproductive health. All included articles were coded according to relevant exposures or outcomes and subsequently analyzed to assess frequencies. Results After screening for inclusion criteria, 13 publications were included in the datasheet developed to record the findings. Overall, the publications revealed that adolescents tend to be sexually active, with high rates of early sexual debut, have multiple sexual partners, and a limited use of condom and contraceptives. Sexual coercion and transactional sex were also frequent. Only one study addressed pregnancy as an outcome, and a single study looked at the relevant health services. No study was retrieved describing the frequency of unsafe abortion. Conclusion Adolescents engage in high-risk sexual behaviors and experience its adverse consequences. It is essential to collect more information, but the existing evidence supports a need for improving provision of sexual and reproductive health services among Tanzanian adolescents.

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China rapidly spread throughout the world, becoming a threatening pandemic with unprecedented consequences. Mobile technologies have led to a revolution in health and their applicability in the context of COVID-19 is promising. In this commentary, we provide an overview of the role that mobile technologies play in the COVID-19 pandemic context and discuss the main issues associated. Four main domains stood out: health communication, prevention, support and research. Strengthening local surveillance systems, geographic contact tracing, support for clinical practice and data collection of real-time longitudinal data at the population level are some of the main advantages of the applications reported so far. The potential conflict to data privacy urges for discussion on their use in a responsible manner. Along with fair regulation and close monitoring of data collection and process, data anonymisation must be a standard and personal data must be deleted after its usage. Preparation is key for effective containment of a public health crisis and learning lessons on the role of mobile technologies is useful for future challenges in global health. It is noteworthy that their use must be driven by an equitable and inclusive orientation, and mostly integrated into an articulated policy to respond to the crisis.

Background The long‐term follow‐up of very preterm and very low birthweight cohorts contributes to valuable evidence to understand life‐course outcomes in these vulnerable populations. However, attrition is a major challenge in long‐term outcome studies. Examining the techniques used by existing cohorts may help to reveal practices that enhance willingness to continue participation over time. Objectives To evaluate the effect of data collection methods and retention strategies on overall retention in European birth cohorts of individuals born very preterm and very low birthweight. Methods A survey of European cohorts integrated in the RECAP‐preterm Consortium provided data on study characteristics, retention at the most recent follow‐up, data collection methods and retention strategies. Cohorts were classified according to participants’ age at most recent follow‐up as child (<18) or adult cohorts (≥18 years old). Results Data were obtained for 17 (81%) cohorts (7 adult and 10 child) in 12 countries. Considering the baseline, at the most recent follow‐up, overall retention ranged from 10% to 99%. Child cohorts presented higher median retention (68% versus 38% or 52% for adult cohorts with ≤5 or >5 follow‐ups) and used relatively more retention strategies. For contact and invitation, cohorts mostly resorted to invitation letters, and to face‐to‐face interviews for assessments. Study duration was negatively correlated with retention and positively associated with the number of follow‐up evaluation. We identified 109 retention strategies, with a median of 6 per cohort; bond‐building (n = 41; 38%) was the most utilised, followed by barrier‐reduction (n = 36; 33%) and reminders (n = 32; 29%). Retention was not influenced by category or number of strategies. Conclusions Regular contact with cohort participants favour retention whilst neither the number nor the categories of retention strategies used seemed to have an influence, suggesting that tailored strategies focussed on participants at higher risk of dropout might be a more effective approach.