A new study from the University of California, Davis, finds that combining words that label objects, such as “bear,” with spatial words such as “here” or “there” captures infants’ attention for longer than using those types of words alone or using other words that are neither labels nor spatial. Adding gestures, such as pointing, holds babies’ attention the longest. 

The study, the first believed to measure associations between spatial words and infants’ attention, was published online Sept. 1 in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death and disability for adults in the U.S. Recent projections from the American Heart Association suggest that by 2050, more than 45 million American adults will have clinical CVD and more than 184 million will have hypertension. As a result, inflation-adjusted direct health care costs related to CVD risk factors are projected to triple between 2020 and 2050, to $1.34 trillion annually, and direct costs related to clinical CVD conditions are projected to rise from $393 billion to $1.49 trillion. Thus, understanding early-life determinants of cardiovascular health behaviors and health factors are of particular interest.

In the first prospective study of social determinants from birth, and how they impact young adult cardiovascular health, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and colleagues are investigating the upstream causes of cardiovascular disease — the factors that drive poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, nicotine exposure, poor sleep, obesity, and adverse blood cholesterol, blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Known as the Future of Families Cardiovascular Health Among Young Adults (FF-CHAYA) Study, a new paper describes the rationale, study design, methods and characteristics of the FF-CHAYA cohort, a novel longitudinal study designed to examine associations of childhood social determinants with young adult cardiovascular health and early arterial injury.