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Kids more active when playground well equipped

Children play harder and longer when their child-care centers provide portable play equipment such as balls and jump ropes, more opportunities for active play and physical activity training and education for staff and students, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health.

12 Dec 2007

Exercise testing may help predict seriousness of mitral regurgitation

In as many as one in five people over age 55, when the heart contracts to send blood around the body, some degree of backward leakage occurs across the mitral valve, a condition known as mitral regurgitation (MR).

12 Dec 2007

$15 million boost for malaria treatment in rural Tanzania

The Global Program on Malaria at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP) received a $15 million grant to develop communication strategies to prevent and treat malaria in rural Tanzania.

12 Dec 2007

Study finds disease management programs improve the quality of health care

Disease management programs that help guide the care of patients with chronic health problems appear to improve the quality of health care, but there is little evidence that such efforts actually save money, according to a study issued by the RAND Corporation.

10 Dec 2007

Abdominal obesity predicts heart disease

Abdominal obesity is a strong independent risk factor for heart disease, and using the waist-hip ratio rather than waist measurement alone is a better predictor of heart disease risk among men and women, researchers reported in a study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

10 Dec 2007

Nicotine has significant effects on brain GABA

There is a clear link between GABA - a chemical substance of the central nervous system that inhibits neurons in the brain - and nicotine dependence, according to a study presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annual meeting.

10 Dec 2007

Research findings link weight gain and diabetes to a variety of cancers

During this holiday season with its tempting bounty of edible delights, new research calls attention to the role of the expanding American waistline in health and medicine.

10 Dec 2007

Boost for tick disease research

Roman Ganta, a professor of diagnostic medicine and pathobiology at Kansas State University, has been awarded a grant of $1,825,000 by the National Institutes of Health to figure out how to stop the tick-borne bacteria, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, from making animals and people sick.

10 Dec 2007

Winter flu doubles the risk of heart attacks and stroke

Scientists in Britain say a dose of winter infections such flu can double the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

9 Dec 2007

Health inspectors took bribes for food health certificates

At a time when consumers confidence has been repeatedly shaken by an almost continual series of food scares often involving contaminated food, two former Chicago Public Health Department inspectors are facing charges by federal authorities in the United States for allegedly taking bribes for food-service sanitation certificates.

6 Dec 2007

Obesity all set to make future generations fatter and sicker

Researchers from the United States and Denmark are warning that unless steps are taken to reverse the growth in the number of obese children, future generations will be both fatter and sicker than their parents.

6 Dec 2007

York academics to help shape access to medical database

Social scientists at the University of York are to investigate public attitudes to the way medical information relating to hundreds of thousands of people is managed, particularly the rules governing third-party access to the data.

5 Dec 2007

Gap in health rates between socioeconomic classes unchanged

Over the past century, the United States has witnessed historic advances in public health and medicine that have contributed to improved health and a significant increase in life expectancy for all socioeconomic groups.

5 Dec 2007

Costs of lower-calorie foods are rising the fastest

As food prices rise, the costs of lower-calorie foods are rising the fastest, according to a University of Washington study appearing in the December issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

5 Dec 2007

Dengue fever health education is "insufficient, under-funded, and irregular" in Cambodia

Health education regarding the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of dengue fever is "insufficient, under-funded, and irregular" in Cambodia, according to a new study published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

5 Dec 2007

Honey a cheaper and more effective treatment for children's coughs than cough medicine

Experts in the United States say when it comes to children's coughs, natural honey offers a cheaper and more effective alternative to expensive over-the-counter cough medicines.

5 Dec 2007

Treating patients with psychiatric disorders for hepatitis C

People with severe mental illnesses are far more likely to be infected with Hepatitis C virus compared to the general population, however, they often do not get treatment for their liver disease because current antiviral therapies have known psychiatric side effects.

4 Dec 2007

Almost half of New Orleans residents have anxiety or mood disorders

Almost half of pre-hurricane residents of New Orleans and one-fourth of those living in other affected areas had evidence of an anxiety or mood disorder five to seven months following Hurricane Katrina, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

4 Dec 2007

Public-health approach for HIV control in India needs to become more scientific

The 2007 UNAIDS/WHO AIDS epidemic update released last week has revised the global estimate of HIV/AIDS primarily due to a major reduction of the estimate for India to 2.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS, which is less than half of the previous official estimate of 5.7 million people.

4 Dec 2007

FDA launches e-mail alert system

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced a new e-mail service that alerts subscribers whenever information is updated on certain FDA Web pages.

3 Dec 2007