Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in schools using built environment testing in Ottawa, Canada: A multi-facility prospective surveillance study.

Classroom and staffroom floor swabs across six elementary schools in Ottawa, Canada were tested for SARS-CoV-2. Environmental test positivity did not correlate with student grade groups, school-level absenteeism, pediatric COVID-19-related hospitalizations, or community SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels. Schools in neighbourhoods with historically elevated COVID-19 burden showed a negative but non-significant association with lower swab positivity.

Social Inequities Contributing to Gestational Diabetes in Indigenous Populations in Canada: A Scoping Review.

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is dramatically higher in Indigenous compared with non-Indigenous populations in Canada. In this scoping review, we synthesize the existing literature regarding GDM among Indigenous peoples in Canada, including social and structural determinants that contribute to its higher prevalence in this population. Seven themes related to GDM in Indigenous populations emerged from a synthesis of the 44 included articles. The themes were GDM prevalence and trends; risk factors; screening; diagnosis and treatment; maternal outcomes; child outcomes; systemic barriers; and Indigenous perceptions, concerns and health behaviours. The findings from this review suggest culturally appropriate health care and improved screening practices may help to mitigate the high prevalence and poor health outcomes associated with GDM in Indigenous communities across Canada. More community-driven, participatory research that includes the social determinants of health and a culturally safe lens is required to assess the effects and reduce the impact of GDM in this population.

Programming of weight and obesity across the lifecourse by the maternal metabolic exposome: A systematic review.

Exposome research aims to comprehensively understand the multiple environmental exposures that influence human health. To date, much of exposome science has focused on environmental chemical exposures and does not take a lifecourse approach. The rising prevalence of obesity, and the limited success in its prevention points to the need for a better understanding of the diverse exposures that associate with, or protect against, this condition, and the mechanisms driving its pathogenesis. The objectives of this review were to 1. evaluate the evidence on the maternal metabolic exposome in the programming of offspring growth/obesity and 2. identify and discuss the mechanisms underlying the programming of obesity. A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines to capture articles that investigated early life metabolic exposures and offspring weight and/or obesity outcomes. Scientific databases were searched using pre-determined indexed search terms, and risk of bias assessments were conducted to determine study quality. A final total of 76 articles were obtained and extracted data from human and animal studies were visualised using GOfER diagrams. Multiple early life exposures, including maternal obesity, diabetes and adverse nutrition, increase the risk of high weight at birth and postnatally, and excess adipose accumulation in human and animal offspring. The main mechanisms through which the metabolic exposome programmes offspring growth and obesity risk include epigenetic modifications, altered placental function, altered composition of the gut microbiome and breast milk, and metabolic inflammation, with downstream effects on development of the central appetite system, adipose tissues and liver. Understanding early life risks and protectors, and the mechanisms through which the exposome modifies health trajectories, is critical for developing and applying early interventions to prevent offspring obesity later in life.