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$Vitamin D in pre-teen girls protects from stress fractures and bone injuries: Study$

Vitamin D in pre-teen girls protects from stress fractures and bone injuries: Study

A new study shows that girls and young women who got lots of vitamin D through their diet and supplements were half as likely to suffer a stress fracture as those who didn't.

5 Mar 2012

Antidepressants in pregnancy: weighing benefits and risks

There has been a debate on the use of antidepressant medication in pregnant women. Depression during pregnancy is, of course, difficult for the woman. In addition, depression that continues in the postpartum period may interfere with caretaking and bonding with the newborn.

5 Mar 2012

The Contraception Mandate is the end of individual liberty

In March 2010, the Democrat-controlled Congress forced the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (now known as ObamaCare) over the strong objections of the majority of Americans, most of whom were either already receiving taxpayer-funded health insurance or were satisfied with their private coverage.

5 Mar 2012

Asthma first aid charts launched

The National Asthma Council Australia has updated its popular First Aid for Asthma chart and launched a new paediatric Kids’ First Aid for Asthma chart, with advice reflecting the latest evidence and medications.

5 Mar 2012

Health care a big budget issue for Minn., Va. lawmakers

Lower health spending because of slower Medicaid enrollment growth is good news for Minnesota's budget. In Virginia, however, Democrats say a GOP budget doesn't spend enough on health care.

5 Mar 2012

USAID committed to early action on Sahel drought, drawing from lessons from Horn response

"A year after the worst drought in 60 years sent 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa into crisis, we are now facing a rising threat of crisis in the Sahel -- an arid belt that stretches from Senegal through Niger and Burkina Faso to Chad," Nancy Lindborg, head of democracy, conflict, and humanitarian assistance at USAID, writes in this post in Huffington Post's "The Blog."

5 Mar 2012

IRIN examines pilot project to increase ORS coverage for treatment of child diarrhea

IRIN examines ColaLife -- a pilot project set to start in Zambia in September 2012 that will ship single-dose anti-diarrhea kits (ADKs) in crates of Coca-Cola bottles in an effort to increase the coverage of oral rehydration salts (ORS) for the treatment of diarrhea in children in the developing world.

5 Mar 2012

Young children with SDB more likely to develop neurobehavioral problems

A study of more than 11,000 children followed for over six years has found that young children with sleep-disordered breathing are prone to developing behavioral difficulties such as hyperactivity and aggressiveness, as well as emotional symptoms and difficulty with peer relationships, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

5 Mar 2012

Home-food intake may reduce risk of obesity in children

University of Granada researchers have confirmed that there is a significant direct relationship between the nutritional status of children and the person who prepares their meal. The study revealed that the children who have lunch at home with their mother present a better nutritional status and are at a lower risk of suffering obesity than children whose meal is prepared by a person other than their mother.

4 Mar 2012

Premature by 2 to 3 weeks may raise risk for health issues: Study

Premature babies have always thought to be at risk of health issues but till now the health prospects of babies born two to three weeks premature were considered similar to those who were born at full-term.

4 Mar 2012

IPS examines gender discrimination, disparity in child mortality in India

Inter Press Service examines gender discrimination and mortality in India, writing, "Global infant and child mortality rates have been on the decline in recent years, with a large portion of the world seeing young girls experiencing higher rates of survival than young boys; but India remains the exception to this positive trend."

3 Mar 2012

New outcome measures may reduce disparities in children with asthma

Newly proposed asthma outcome measures will help standardize and improve results from the hundreds of millions of dollars the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends annually to study asthma, according to the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), the nation's only organization focused solely on childhood asthma.

3 Mar 2012

New pharma code expands guidelines for interactions with health care providers

A new practice code for pharmaceutical companies now covers all interactions with health care professionals and bans them from giving payments to doctors to attend conferences.

3 Mar 2012

VOA examines constitutional debate in Nigeria over government's right to require polio vaccination

"A constitutional debate is under way in Nigeria over whether the government can prosecute parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio, or if it has the power to force parents to have their children vaccinated against any communicable disease," VOA News reports.

3 Mar 2012

Prenatal home screening and remediation prevent childhood lead poisoning

An initiative in St. Louis targeted the homes of pregnant women to receive inspection and remediation of lead hazards before the birth of a child. According to a study just published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology this measure prevented childhood lead poisoning and reduced the overall burden of lead toxicity in children.

3 Mar 2012

Sachs says he is 'eager for challenge' of World Bank presidency

The new president of the World Bank "should come to office understanding the realities of flooded villages, drought-ridden farms, desperate mothers hovering over comatose, malaria-infected children, and teenage girls unable to pay high school tuition. More than knowing these realities, and caring to end them, the bank president should understand their causes and interconnected solutions," Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, writes in a Washington Post opinion piece.

3 Mar 2012

Research roundup: The push for hospital quality and concerns about disparities; Rating physicians online

Researchers wondered if pay-for-performance (P4P) programs, which reward hospitals for meeting quality targets, have unintentional effects on racial and/or ethnic disparities. Using federal patient-level quality data, researchers found that "many hospitals treat Whites and minorities equitably" but they noted that since many minorities tend to seek care at hospitals that "perform poorly on common quality score composites, the pay for performance efforts could unintentionally penalize hospitals serving high numbers of minorities.

3 Mar 2012

NGOs welcome announcement of U.S., North Korean nuclear arms agreement that could bring food aid to nation

"The State Department's announcement that North Korea would halt nuclear activities in exchange for 240,000 metric tons of U.S. food aid was welcomed by aid groups that have long struggled to raise money to feed hungry people under an unpopular regime," the Los Angeles Times' "World Now" blog reports.

3 Mar 2012

New book on women's lives in Europe

Women in Southern Europe wish they could live under a Nordic-style welfare state so they could improve their lives as women. But the financial crisis has made their dreams less realistic than ever. This is according to John Eriksen, a researcher at the Norwegian Social Research Institute and the co-editor of a new book on women's lives in Europe.

3 Mar 2012

Critical new details about structure of enterovirus 71

Researchers have discovered critical new details about the structure of a virus that causes potentially fatal brain swelling and paralysis in children, pointing toward designs for antiviral drugs to treat the disease.

3 Mar 2012