The US government reported Monday that one in seven Americans struggled to get enough food to eat. This startling statistic highlights the difficulties of older adults who are rapidly aging into poverty. [More]

The Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA) unveiled a national senior hunger study, underwritten by the Harrah's Foundation. Developed as an extension of the study originally presented in 2008, this state-by-state analysis of senior hunger revealed that the number of seniors facing the threat of hunger is increasing with seniors in the South experiencing the greatest risk of going hungry. [More]

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations on November 20, 1989. The CHU Sainte-Justine and The Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre are joining forces to highlight the importance of this day, a reminder of the many injustices committed against children around the world. [More]

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set the stage for a climactic debate in the Senate over health care by unveiling a 10-year, $848 billion bill that would extend insurance to 31 million Americans without coverage," The Wall Street Journal reports. [More]

Massachusetts today announced extraordinary results from its aggressive efforts to help Medicaid beneficiaries quit smoking by providing easy access to coverage for smoking cessation medication and counseling. [More]

Mercy Corps is challenging Americans to put the "giving" back in Thanksgiving by matching the amount they spend on a meal this Thanksgiving Day with a donation that fights global hunger. [More]

A study has found that, if left unchecked, 43 percent of Americans will be obese by 2018, costing the health care system $344 billion annually. [More]

States consider how health legislation on Capitol Hill might affect their Medicaid programs and budgets. [More]

Tufts University researchers have identified a gene-diet interaction that appears to influence body weight and have replicated their findings in three independent studies. Men and women carrying the CC genotype demonstrated higher body mass index (BMI) scores and a higher incidence of obesity, but only if they consumed a diet high in saturated fat. These associations were seen in the apolipoprotein A-II gene (APOA2) promoter. [More]

An alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide today announced their first targets for concerted action in the fight against "chronic non-communicable diseases" (CNCDs). [More]

Despite reports that the numbers of new H1N1 (swine flu) are leveling off in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the virus continues to spread, the WHO said Friday, Reuters reports. "In an update on the H1N1 swine flu virus, the WHO said parts of the southern and southeastern United States, as well as Iceland and Ireland, seemed to have weakening levels of disease after an unusually early start of the winter flu season," the news service writes. [More]

Delegates at the World Summit on Food Security, which kicked off Monday, "rallied around a new strategy to fight global hunger and help poor countries feed themselves," the Associated Press reports. [More]

World AIDS Day 2009 will be marked with both grim and hopeful data: more than 25 million people have died of AIDS worldwide since 1981; 33 million are living with HIV/AIDS. While potent, effective medications have changed an HIV diagnosis from death sentence to manageable chronic illness in resource rich countries, global rates of infection still outstrip prevention and treatment capacity. [More]

Almost a third of the children under age five who die each year could be saved if governments rebalance health spending to ensure low-cost, simple interventions such as safe water and hygiene, bed nets and basic maternal and newborn care, leading aid agency World Vision said today. Currently, 8.8 million children a year die before age five, most of preventable causes. [More]

CCH has issued a special Briefing on the employer and Medicare- and Medicaid-related provisions in the House version of health care reform, detailing provisions of the legislation approved on November 7. [More]