August 2018

While abundant evidence supports the benefits of early, exclusive and extended breastfeeding, these practices have not become the global social norm. Optimal breastfeeding is more prevalent in low-income than in high-income societies; however, levels in impoverished settings still represent a significant missed opportunity in public health. Meanwhile, policymakers in low-income countries increasingly face trade-related pressures that seek to give the advantage to commercial providers of nutrition, including infant formula.

In this month's Editorial, PLOS Medicine Special Consulting Editor Lars Åke Persson of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine describes the mismatch between the availability of efficacious breastfeeding promotion interventions, and national priorities that focus elsewhere. He provides public health, fiscal and sustainability rationale for moving quickly into implementation research and scale-up.

Image Credit: MaxPixel.com

Essay

A collaborative translational research framework for evaluating and implementing the appropriate use of human genome sequencing to improve health

Muin J. Khoury, W. Gregory Feero, David A. Chambers, Lawrence E. Brody, Nazneen Aziz, Robert C. Green, A. Cecile J.W. Janssens, Michael F. Murray, Laura Lyman Rodriguez, Joni L. Rutter, Sheri D. Schully, Deborah M. Winn, George A. Mensah

PLOS Medicine: published August 2, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002631

Perspective

Different scientific approaches are needed to generate stronger evidence for population health improvement

Martin White, Jean Adams

PLOS Medicine: published August 28, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002639

Policy Forum

Choices in vaccine trial design in epidemics of emerging infections

Rebecca Kahn, Annette Rid, Peter G. Smith, Nir Eyal, Marc Lipsitch

PLOS Medicine: published August 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002632

Research Articles

Metabolic and lifestyle risk factors for acute pancreatitis in Chinese adults: A prospective cohort study of 0.5 million people

Yuanjie Pang, Christiana Kartsonaki, Iain Turnbull, Yu Guo, Ling Yang, Zheng Bian, Yiping Chen, Iona Y. Millwood, Fiona Bragg, Weiwei Gong, Qinai Xu, Quan Kang, Junshi Chen, Liming Li, Michael V. Holmes, Zhengming Chen

PLOS Medicine: published August 1, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002618

Age at puberty and risk of asthma: A Mendelian randomisation study

Cosetta Minelli, Diana A. van der Plaat, Bénédicte Leynaert, Raquel Granell, Andre F. S. Amaral, Miguel Pereira, Osama Mahmoud, James Potts, Nuala A. Sheehan, Jack Bowden, John Thompson, Debbie Jarvis, George Davey Smith, John Henderson

PLOS Medicine: published August 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002634

Benzodiazepine prescribing for children, adolescents, and young adults from 2006 through 2013: A total population register-linkage study

Anna Sidorchuk, Kayoko Isomura, Yasmina Molero, Clara Hellner, Paul Lichtenstein, Zheng Chang, Johan Franck, Lorena Fernández de la Cruz, David Mataix-Cols

PLOS Medicine: published August 7, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002635

Understanding preferences for HIV care and treatment in Zambia: Evidence from a discrete choice experiment among patients who have been lost to follow-up

Arianna Zanolini, Kombatende Sikombe, Izukanji Sikazwe, Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, Paul Somwe, Carolyn Bolton Moore, Stephanie M. Topp, Nancy Czaicki, Laura K. Beres, Chanda P. Mwamba, Nancy Padian, Charles B. Holmes, Elvin H. Geng

PLOS Medicine: published August 13, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002636

Mass azithromycin distribution for hyperendemic trachoma following a cluster-randomized trial: A continuation study of randomly reassigned subclusters (TANA II)

Jeremy D. Keenan, Zerihun Tadesse, Sintayehu Gebresillasie, Ayalew Shiferaw, Mulat Zerihun, Paul M. Emerson, Kelly Callahan, Sun Y. Cotter, Nicole E. Stoller, Travis C. Porco, Catherine E. Oldenburg, Thomas M. Lietman

PLOS Medicine: published August 14, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002633

Family history–based colorectal cancer screening in Australia: A modelling study of the costs, benefits, and harms of different participation scenarios

Mary Dillon, Louisa Flander, Daniel D. Buchanan, Finlay A. Macrae, Jon D. Emery, Ingrid M. Winship, Alex Boussioutas, Graham G. Giles, John L. Hopper, Mark A. Jenkins, Driss Ait Ouakrim

PLOS Medicine: published August 16, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002630

Using routinely collected laboratory data to identify high rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis burden communities in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: A retrospective spatiotemporal analysis

Avery I. McIntosh, Helen E. Jenkins, Laura F. White, Marinus Barnard, Dana R. Thomson, Tania Dolby, John Simpson, Elizabeth M. Streicher, Mary B. Kleinman, Elizabeth J. Ragan, Paul D. van Helden, Megan B. Murray, Robin M. Warren, Karen R. Jacobson

PLOS Medicine: published August 21, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002638

Metabolic syndrome and risk of Parkinson disease: A nationwide cohort study

Ga Eun Nam, Seon Mee Kim, Kyungdo Han, Nan Hee Kim, Hye Soo Chung, Jin Wook Kim, Byoungduck Han, Sung Jung Cho, Ji Hee Yu, Yong Gyu Park, Kyung Mook Choi

PLOS Medicine: published August 21, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002640

Crowdsourcing to expand HIV testing among men who have sex with men in China: A closed cohort stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial

Weiming Tang, Chongyi Wei, Bolin Cao, Dan Wu, Katherine T. Li, Haidong Lu, Wei Ma, Dianmin Kang, Haochu Li, Meizhen Liao, Katie R. Mollan, Michael G. Hudgens, Chuncheng Liu, Wenting Huang, Aifeng Liu, Ye Zhang, M. Kumi Smith, Kate M. Mitchell, Jason J. Ong, Hongyun Fu, Peter Vickerman, Ligang Yang, Cheng Wang, Heping Zheng, Bin Yang, Joseph D. Tucker

PLOS Medicine: published August 28, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002645

Influence of puberty timing on adiposity and cardiometabolic traits: A Mendelian randomisation study

Joshua A. Bell, David Carslake, Kaitlin H. Wade, Rebecca C. Richmond, Ryan J. Langdon, Emma E. Vincent, Michael V. Holmes, Nicholas J. Timpson, George Davey Smith

PLOS Medicine: published August 28, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002641

Relationship between very low low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations not due to statin therapy and risk of type 2 diabetes: A US-based cross-sectional observational study using electronic health records

QiPing Feng, Wei-Qi Wei, Cecilia P. Chung, Rebecca T. Levinson, Alexandra C. Sundermann, Jonathan D. Mosley, Lisa Bastarache, Jane F. Ferguson, Nancy J. Cox, Dan M. Roden, Joshua C. Denny, MacRae F. Linton, Digna R. Velez Edwards, C. Michael Stein

PLOS Medicine: published August 28, 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002642

Cover

Breastfeeding in low-resource settings: not a "small matter"