Anthropologist News and Research

RSS

Study looks at feasibility of text message use to deliver health educational information to teens

Teenagers spend a lot of time texting, receiving an average of 3,417 texts a month, or 114 per day, according to the Nielsen consumer research group.

21 Jan 2013

Moms more likely to use TV to entertain and soothe fussy infants

Moms, especially those who are obese, are more likely to use TV to entertain and soothe infants who are more fussy and active, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The finding adds to the growing body of knowledge that may help explain the escalating rate of obesity and inactivity in U.S. children, and has led to behavioral and educational strategies that may help mothers combat these effects.

9 Jan 2013

Group health approved for PCORI research awards to study care for back pain

Group Health has been approved for two research awards from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study ways to improve care for back pain and to connect patients with community resources. The projects are part of a portfolio of patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness research that addresses PCORI's National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda.

28 Dec 2012

Medical and anthropological expertise can promote multicultural women's healthcare

Collaboration between medical and anthropological expertise can solve complex clinical problems in today's multicultural women's healthcare, shows Pauline Binder, a medical anthropologist, who will present her thesis on 1 December at the Faculty of Medicine, Uppsala University, Sweden.

29 Nov 2012

WSU researcher receives NSF fund to study on antibiotic resistance

In March, the director-general of the World Health Organization warned of "an end to modern medicine as we know it."

3 Nov 2012

NCAR launches study into impact of open-fire cooking on regional air quality and disease

Expanding its focus on the link between the atmosphere and human health, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is launching a three-year, international study into the impact of open-fire cooking on regional air quality and disease.

3 Nov 2012

New light into evolution of human physiology and brain development

A skull fragment unearthed by anthropologists in Tanzania shows that our ancient ancestors were eating meat at least 1.5 million years ago, shedding new light into the evolution of human physiology and brain development.

6 Oct 2012

Cognitively-based compassion training can boost empathic accuracy

A compassion-based meditation program can significantly improve a person's ability to read the facial expressions of others, finds a study published by Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

5 Oct 2012

Simple low-cost biosensor to detect contaminated drinking water

Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old - killing as many as 1.5 million children worldwide every year. These startling statistics from the World Health Organization (2009) point to the reason why a group of undergraduate students from Arizona State University is working to develop a low-cost biosensor - a simple device that would detect contaminated drinking water.

7 Sep 2012

'Medical travel' can be used to access advanced technologies

The search for medical technologies through 'medical travel' can change the lives of patients and their family members, according to medical anthropologists Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Linda M. Whiteford, who examined the lives of Bolivian and Paraguayan families who traveled to Buenos Aries, Argentina, seeking pediatric oncology care for their children.

21 Jul 2012

Better methods needed to diagnose and treat HIV, TB in children

Jennifer Furin, an infectious diseases physician and medical anthropologist who specializes in the management of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in resource-poor settings, writes in a post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog that "when it comes to the great advancements made in global HIV and TB care, children are being left behind."

19 Jul 2012

Poor mothers will invest more resources in daughters: Study

Poor mothers will invest more resources in daughters, who stand a greater chance of increasing their status through marriage than do sons, suggests a study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

23 Jun 2012

Brazil's HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention program may be in jeopardy, some experts say

The Miami Herald reports on Brazil's national HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention program, writing, "By the mid-1990s, more effective and powerful antiretroviral therapies replaced the older treatments, and in 1996 Brazil declared that it would offer free antiretroviral treatment to all citizens with AIDS."

14 Jun 2012

Study compares breast milk fatty acid composition in the U.S. and Tsimane women

Working with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, anthropologists at UC Santa Barbara have found high levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids in the breast milk of economically impoverished Amerindian woman as compared to women in the United States.

11 Jun 2012

Religious practices more successful at promoting certainty about paternity

Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

5 Jun 2012

ITM in Antwerp receives Gates Foundation grant for malaria research

The Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine has received a $3m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for malaria research. They will use it to attack malaria mosquitoes from a new angle.

25 May 2012

Study to understand, prevent and reverse radicalization of young people

A University of Maryland-led team of international experts will investigate ways to understand, prevent and reverse the radicalization of young people in destabilized areas of the world, and to keep them from embracing terror as a political tool.

3 May 2012

Researchers to examine how climate change may affect humans, societies

A new grant to awarded George Mason University's Center for Social Complexity will allow researchers to examine how climate change may affect humans and societies over the next 100 years.

3 May 2012

IADR/AADR publish two studies about dental caries in children

The International and American Associations for Dental Research have published two studies about dental caries in children. These articles, titled "Hypoplasia-Associated Severe Early Childhood Caries - A Proposed Definition" and "Deciduous Molar Hypomineralization and Molar Incisor Hypomineralization" discuss the definitions of dental caries susceptibility to the hypomineralization and hypoplasia.

24 Apr 2012

Blog posts respond to selection of Jim Yong Kim to lead World Bank

The World Bank on Monday selected U.S.-nominated Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American physician and anthropologist, as its new president. The following is a summary of blog posts and commentary published in response to his election.

19 Apr 2012