Feature Channels: Public Health

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, professor of family and preventative medicine, examined more than 15 years of data from the California Smokers’ Helpline and compared the use of Asian-language services by Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese callers to the use of English-language services by Caucasian callers. Their findings will appear in the March 18 online issue of The American Journal of Public Health.

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Nurses participating in shift work, especially those working rotating shifts, face a significantly increased risk of developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome and abdominal pain compared to those working a standard day-time schedule, according to research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

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Vitamin D is quickly becoming the "go-to" remedy for treating a wide range of illnesses, from osteoporosis to atherosclerosis. However, new evidence from a Wake Forest University School of Medicine study suggests that supplementing vitamin D in those with low levels may have different effects based on patient race and, in black individuals, the supplement could actually do harm.

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The University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville today announced that it has entered into a research collaboration with Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) to discover novel drugs for women's reproductive health.

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Experts at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center encourage people to review their polyp report.

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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) afflicts a large number of younger minority adults receiving medical care in settings that serve the uninsured and underinsured (settings collectively known as the healthcare safety net). Poor, minority adults with moderate to severe CKD are also two to four times more likely to progress to kidney failure than non-Hispanic whites. These are the findings from a study published online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).

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Daylight Saving Time can be hazardous for your health. Studies have found there's a higher risk of heart attacks, traffic accidents and workplace injuries on the first Monday of Daylight Saving.

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Immunizing children and adolescents with inactivated influenza vaccine resulted in reduced rates of influenza in their community compared to a similar community in which children did not receive the vaccine, suggesting that vaccinating children may help prevent transmission of the virus and offer protection for unimmunized community residents, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

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The potentially deadly yellow-fever-transmitting Aedes aegypti mosquito detects the specific chemical structure of a compound called octenol as one way to find a mammalian host for a blood meal.

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Visit the bedding section and you may find memory-foam contour pillows and mattresses. These frequently contain polyurethane foam which not only exudes an unpleasant odor for several days after purchase, but also can cause serious irritation to the eyes and lungs.

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A new study led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators disproves reports that well-fed children are more vulnerable to the dengue virus.

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If you smoked cigarettes when you were a teen, new research indicates you might be more susceptible to the negative effects of alcohol withdrawal later in life.

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The more that teens see cigarette ads, the greater their risk of taking a puff.

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If the behavior of the seasonal form of the H1N1 influenza virus is any indication, scientists say that chances are good that most strains of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus will become resistant to Tamiflu, the main drug stockpiled for use against it.

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Columbia University and FairChoice Systems, Inc. have signed a multi-year commercialization agreement that will bring to market a cost-effective, online student health information system developed and implemented by Columbia University’s own Student Health Services.

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Latest REGARDS data includes more than 26,500 participants followed for nearly five years with a documented 299 strokes. In the 45-54 age group, blacks had a 2.5-fold greater stroke rate compared to whites, and the stroke rate was greater than 12 percent higher in eight Southeast states known as the Stroke Belt. Notably, racial differences in stroke rates disappear and ultimately flip as age increases, UAB researchers said.

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Doctor discusses why this is the peak time for the flu but it's no where in sight.

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A novel compound is highly effective against the pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus, including some drug-resistant strains, according to new research led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist.

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While the proven negative health consequences of smoking and tanning are undeniable, tobacco and indoor tanning advertisers would like consumers to think otherwise. In fact, a new study comparing the tactics used in advertising tobacco and indoor tanning products found several similarities in how these two industries market unhealthy products.

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Public service advertising campaigns that use guilt or shame to warn against alcohol abuse can actually have the reverse effect, spurring increased drinking among target audiences, according to new research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

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Comments by ADA President Dr. Ron Tankersley on the Pew Center on the States’ report.

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Poor and low income women who have no health insurance will be able to get a mammogram and the medical care they need, at the next Project Homeless Connect event on Wednesday, February 24th.

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1) Living in Areas with High Household Income Influences Mortality Rates in Virginia; 2) Proximity to Physical Activity Resources Found to Benefit Older Men; 3) Child Labor Violations Still Occur with Youth Workers.

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Socioeconomic status can affect life expectancy, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher said in a study published today.

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Diners who are skeptical of the food safety practices in ethnic restaurants have new research to back up some of their assumptions. In a study of independently owned restaurants in 14 Kansas counties, Kansas State University researchers found a significantly higher number of food safety violations in ethnic restaurants than in nonethnic restaurants.

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With the national trend toward quitting smoking flat, psychologists are finding some success with treatments aimed at helping smokers from underserved groups, including racial and ethnic minorities and those with psychiatric disorders.

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It pays to advertise. It especially pays to advertise in Spanish if you want Spanish speakers to use a telephone helpline to quit smoking.

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Breast cancer rates are declining, but some groups have seen a more significant decline than others, with race, ethnicity and economic background playing a part.

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A campaign that makes seasonal flu vaccinations for hospital staff free, convenient, ubiquitous and hard to ignore succeeds fairly well in moving care providers closer to a state of “herd” immunity and protecting patients from possible infection transmitted by health care workers, according to results of a survey at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

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A leading immunology research institute has validated the long-held and controversial hypothesis that antibodies – usually the “good guys” in the body’s fight against viruses – instead contribute to severe dengue virus-induced disease, the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology announced today. The finding has major implications for the development of a first-ever vaccine against dengue virus, a growing public health threat which annually infects 50 to 100 million people worldwide, causing a half million cases of the severest form.

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The results of an innovative study to understand what factors may influence who contracts tuberculosis (TB)/HIV co-infection in San Diego show a significant shift in the ethnic makeup of the disease, with the majority of cases now coming from the Hispanic community.

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1) Racial Disparities Found in Vaccination Rates among Elderly in Nursing Homes; 2) WIC Interventions Shown to Reduce Disparities, Especially in African American Population; 3) Surprising Breast Cancer Disparities in Asian Women Urges Further Analysis.

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When it comes to meeting national health goals for physical activity, Mexican-Americans are the most active group in America and may benefit from exercise that researchers typically have not measured. The new research, which used electronic devices to measure people’s movement, challenges other studies that claimed whites are most active.

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An analysis of Union Army pension applications shows that 20 years after the Civil War ended, an expanding Pension Bureau left most black veterans behind. The shift away from the Bureau's color-blind roots was driven by black veterans' receiving less trust for medical claims that were not easily verified.

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Electronic cigarettes should be evaluated, regulated, labeled and packaged in a manner consistent with cartridge content and product effect – even if that effect is a total failure to deliver nicotine as demonstrated in a study supported by the National Cancer Institute and led by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher.

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Texting-on-the-go is one of the latest, ubiquitous hazards to life and limb sparked by our high-tech age.

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The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds two-thirds of parents worry about the safety of the H1N1 vaccine while one-half are worried about H1N1 illness. Among parents worried more about the H1N1 vaccine, only 10 percent of their children have been vaccinated.

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Cerebral palsy (CP) has increased in infants born prematurely in the United States, according to data presented by researchers from Loyola University Health System (LUHS). These findings were reported at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Chicago. They also were published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

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Providing preventive Tamiflu and educating and emphasizing the need for repeated hand sanitizer use and disinfectant spray helped stop the spread of H1N1 influenza at a boys' summer camp in northern Alabama, according to David Kimberlin, M.D., the co-director of the UAB Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

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Vaccination against seasonal influenza is safe and produces a protective immune response in infants as young as 6 to 12 weeks, concludes a study in the February issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

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“The tobacco industry has always been very nimble and aggressive in its responses to new regulations, and Altria’s current attempts to market smokeless tobacco as ‘less harmful’ are no exception,” says Douglas Luke, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “Part of what we're seeing here is the tobacco industry trying to position smokeless tobacco products so that they either do not come under the new Food and Drug Administration regulations or they come under weaker regulations.”

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The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health has launched the Midwest's first online Doctor of Public Health degree -- only the second such program in the U.S.

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A New Jersey study found that African-Americans with cancer are less likely to survive it than whites, and residents of poor neighborhoods less likely to survive than are those in wealthier areas of the state.

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New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may help more smokers keep their New Year’s resolution by helping them quit smoking. Extended use of a nicotine patch – 24 weeks versus the standard eight weeks recommended by manufacturers – boosts the number of smokers who maintain their cigarette abstinence and helps more of those who backslide into the habit while wearing the patch, according to a study which will be published in the February 2 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

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The American Academy of Dermatology (Academy) applauds the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for issuing a consent order that prohibits the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA) from making false health and safety claims about indoor tanning. The Academy raised its concerns about the false statements being made by the ITA with the FTC in 2008 after the ITA launched an advertising campaign designed to portray indoor tanning as safe and beneficial. The Academy and several of its leading members cooperated fully with the agency’s investigation into this important public health issue. The FTC is the federal government agency that works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them.

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Clinical and basic science researchers from around the world will convene in Hong Kong from January 28 to 30 for the First International Congress on Abdominal Obesity: “Bridging the Gap between Cardiology and Diabetology.” The congress, sponsored by the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk (ICCR) (www.cardiometabolic-risk.org), is the first-ever specialized forum for sharing new insights and evidence about abdominal obesity and its clinical and public health implications.

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Two days before the earthquake, Lora Iannotti, Ph.D., nutrition and public health expert from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, traveled to Port-au-Prince and Leogane, Haiti, to continue her research about undernutrition and disease prevention in young children. The massive tremor changed her focus from research for the future to survival, with her team helping children in the aftermath of the quake. Iannotti says that there are some immediate actions that can be taken to prevent more lost lives and protect livelihoods.

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Surprisingly, hepatitis B and C together infect three to five times more Americans than the AIDS virus does. In the next 10 years, these two liver-damaging infections will kill about 150,000 people in the US alone, says a new Institute of Medicine report.

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Chronic stress following Hurricane Katrina contributed to a three-fold increase in heart attacks in New Orleans more than two years after levee breaches flooded most of the city, according to researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine.

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Current projections estimate that the number of tobacco-related deaths in China will increase to 2 million annually by 2025. A new study in the February issue of the journal Anesthesiology looks at whether Chinese anesthesiologists are willing to help their patients quit smoking, and ultimately help reduce these projected tobacco-related deaths.