Public Health News and Research

RSS

FDA warns manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today warned four companies that the caffeine added to their malt alcoholic beverages is an "unsafe food additive" and said that further action, including seizure of their products, is possible under federal law.

18 Nov 2010

Asbestos problem in NSW needs government attention: Report

A report from the NSW Ombudsman says that the state government is failing to deal with the deadly issue of asbestos despite repeated warnings regarding “immense” amounts of the dangerous material still scattered across NSW.

17 Nov 2010

Low back pain care initiated with chiropractic doctor saves 40% on health care costs

A new study finds that low back pain care initiated with a doctor of chiropractic (DC) saves 40% on health care costs when compared with care initiated through a medical doctor (MD), the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) announced today. The study, featuring data from 85,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield beneficiaries, concludes that insurance companies that restrict access to chiropractors for low back pain treatment may inadvertently pay more for care than they would if they removed such restrictions.

17 Nov 2010

St. Jude organizes tobacco cessation program for cancer survivors who smoke

Cancer survivors who smoke and need help quitting can receive help through a tobacco cessation program organized by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

17 Nov 2010

AMIA's Annual Symposium provides informatics program for work force

The 34th Annual Symposium on Biomedical and Health Informatics opened this week with keynote speaker Susan Dentzer, editor in chief of Health Affairs, addressing a crowd of more than two thousand professionals who are central to modernizing the nation's health sector by applying the science of informatics to a variety of specialized health domains, including public health, clinical practice, clinical research, and translational bioinformatics.

17 Nov 2010

Study finds interrupted sleep as a burden borne disproportionately by women

Working mothers are two-and-a-half times as likely as working fathers to interrupt their sleep to take care of others.

17 Nov 2010

8 states get better grade on 2010 March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card

Eight states earned a better grade on the 2010 March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card and 32 others and the District of Columbia saw their preterm birth rates improve.

17 Nov 2010

Better strategies beyond the legal arena needed to prevent sexual abuse among children and teens

The increase in the legal age of sexual consent from 14 to 16 years in 2008 may not be protecting those at greatest risk, according to researchers who have analyzed British Columbia population-based data and recommend additional strategies to safeguard vulnerable children and teens.

17 Nov 2010

Study finds gender differences linked to gaming and health risks associated with problematic gaming

A new study on gaming and health in adolescents, conducted by researchers at Yale School of Medicine, found some significant gender differences linked to gaming as well as important health risks associated with problematic gaming. Published today in the journal Pediatrics, the study is among the first and largest to examine possible health links to gaming and problematic gaming in a community sample of adolescents.

17 Nov 2010

Public Health Law Network receives $95,000 grant to develop legal training curriculum for NACCHO

The Public Health Law Network Western Region at Arizona State University has been awarded a $95,000 grant to develop a public health legal training curriculum and exercises for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

17 Nov 2010

Depression linked to risky sexual behaviours among young South Africans

University of Alberta research has discovered a strong link between depression and risky sexual behaviours such as improper condom use, transactional sex and relationship violence among young people in South Africa.

17 Nov 2010

Canada recognizes Nov. 18 as Antibiotic Awareness Day

Antibiotic resistance is an issue health practitioners around the world face daily. Numerous health-related organizations have partnered to mark tomorrow as the first Canadian Antibiotic Awareness Day in an effort to promote prudent use of antibiotics and fight the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

17 Nov 2010

Faster FDA action against alcoholic energy drinks needed

Alcoholic energy drinks have been making national headlines and four states to date have banned their sale following reports of blackouts and unsafe behaviors, especially among college students. These actions are encouraging to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center emergency physician Mary Claire O'Brien, M.D., who conducted groundbreaking research into the dangers of the manufactured drinks.

17 Nov 2010

Health officials gather in Uruguay to discuss WHO anti-smoking treaty

"As sales to developing nations become ever more important to giant tobacco companies, they are stepping up efforts around the world to fight tough restrictions on the marketing of cigarettes," the New York Times reports in an article ahead of a conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, which began on Monday. At the conference health officials are debating guidelines to enforce a global anti-smoking treaty known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) (Wilson, 11/13).

17 Nov 2010

FDA partners with CDC to kick off Get Smart about Antibiotics Week

This year, millions of antibiotics will be prescribed. Antibiotics can be used to treat bacterial infections; however, they are commonly over-prescribed. Patients sometimes ask their health care professional to prescribe antibiotic drugs for viral infections, like the common cold, despite the fact that they will not work and may lead to potentially harmful side effects. The misuse of antibiotics has contributed to one of the world's most pressing public health problems today, antibiotic resistance.

17 Nov 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Congress needs conservative leadership; reviving tort reform; can states afford to drop Medicaid?

Nothing has gone quite so awry as the massive, government-run Obama health program, and it is plain that the individual mandate, the employee mandate, the abortion funding, the tangle of outsider/insider councils like the comparative effectiveness board and the effective nationalization of healthcare under grants of authority to the Department of Health and Human Services.

16 Nov 2010

Gore REDUCE Clinical Study investigates PFO in stroke patients

W. L. Gore & Associates today joined the US principal investigators for the Gore REDUCE Clinical Study in reaffirming their commitment to the study of Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) in stroke patients using the GORE HELEX Septal Occluder.

16 Nov 2010

Study confirms healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health

Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age.

16 Nov 2010

New mathematical method predicts dominant strain of influenza virus

Rice University scientists have found a way to predict rapidly whether a new strain of the influenza virus should be included in the annual seasonal flu vaccine. While it sometimes takes new flu strains up to three years to become dominant worldwide, the new method can predict whether they will become dominant as little as two weeks after the sequence first appears in the GenBank database, the National Institutes of Health's collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.

16 Nov 2010

Canadian government announces new research initiative on childhood obesity

The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, today announced new initiatives for research on physical activity and childhood obesity through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

16 Nov 2010