Children's Health News and Research

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Many Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricane Katrina continue to have mental health problems, study finds

More than half of Louisiana and Mississippi residents affected by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 continue to experience significant mental health problems, according to a study released on Friday by the American Medical Association, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

2 Jun 2008

Waiting room touch pad device may prove to be a life-saver

Technology may be the key to identifying high-risk behaviors among adolescents. Injury risk, depressive symptoms and drug and alcohol use are the leading causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality; yet pediatricians often lack the time to screen for these behavioral concerns.

2 Jun 2008

13.7 million young adults in the United States lack health insurance coverage

The number of uninsured young adults in the United States rose to 13.7 million in 2006-an increase from 13.3 million in 2005-making the 19-to-29 age group one of the largest and fastest-growing segments of the population without health insurance. According to a newly updated report from The Commonwealth Fund, 38 percent of high school graduates who do not attend college and 34 percent of college graduates will spend some time uninsured in the year after graduation.

1 Jun 2008

NewYork-Presbyterian ranks top in U.S. News children's hospital survery

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only New York hospital to rank in all seven clinical areas reported in the 2008 U.S.News & World Report "America's Best Children's Hospitals" issue. The Hospital also ranks among the top 10 nationally in three categories: Neonatal Care (#4), Heart & Heart Surgery (#6) and Digestive Disorders (#8).

30 May 2008

States that rank high in measures of children's health tend to have lower rates of uninsured children, higher health costs

Children in states with higher rates of insured children are more likely to receive higher-quality health care, according to a Commonwealth Fund study released Wednesday, McClatchy/Kansas City Star reports.

28 May 2008

Americans believe wounded Iraq war veterans generally neglected

As part of the ongoing poll series, Debating Health: Election 2008, a recent survey by the Harvard Opinion Research Program at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harris Interactive finds that a majority of Americans (62%) believe that wounded Iraq war veterans do not receive high quality care in military and Veteran's Administration (VA) hospitals once they return to the U.S. Similar majorities feel that veterans requiring rehabilitation care and mental health care do not receive high quality care (62% and 65% respectively).

26 May 2008

Obesity concern over Indiana Jones film marketing

Obesity experts today questioned Burger King's commitment to improve its standards on marketing to children on the day it launched its new 'Indiana Jones' campaign in the US with toys, internet games and scratch competition prizes.

19 May 2008

Pediatric society leaders, health policy experts consider sisparities in children's health as top priority for political candidates

Top policy and research experts and leaders of seven pediatric societies last week convened in Hawaii at a public symposium about health care and poverty issues facing U.S. children and adolescents as part of an effort to make the issues a top priority for national and state election candidates this year, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports.

13 May 2008

Would you let your child participate in medical research?

Advances in medicine - new treatments, cures, vaccines and medicines - are driven by research involving humans. But when it comes to medical research that requires children to be involved, researchers often struggle to find participants.

13 May 2008

Facing the Presidential candidates; pollsters say sweeping health reform unlikely in new administration and congress

Despite the prominent role that health care reform is playing in the 2008 presidential election, leading Republican and Democratic pollsters agree that deep partisan divides among voters -- combined with a worsening economy -- may permit only incremental, rather than sweeping, changes to the health care system. The perspectives of political pollsters William McInturff and Celinda Lake are featured in a far-reaching thematic issue on health reform in the May/June 2008 issue of the journal Health Affairs.

13 May 2008

Shift in HIV prevention priorities needed - reducing multiple sexual partnerships and providing male circumcision services should be emphasized

According to a new policy analysis led by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of California, Berkeley, the most common HIV prevention strategies-condom promotion, HIV testing, treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), vaccine and microbicide research, and abstinence-are having a limited impact on the predominantly heterosexual epidemics found in Africa.

8 May 2008

Uninsured kids in middle class have same unmet needs as poor

Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

5 May 2008

New SCHIP enrollees have unmet health care needs

Even with prior private health insurance, patients enrolling in the state children's health insurance program (SCHIP) had unmet health care needs. Instituting a waiting period would further prolong these children's need to address asthma and other chronic health conditions.

5 May 2008

Who pays for health care when workers are uninsured?

Health insurance coverage and unpaid health care for full-time workers and their family members without employer coverage costs the U.S. public $45 billion a year, according to a report from The Commonwealth Fund released today.

2 May 2008

Intensive training for medical staff in Latin American hospitals reduces serious complication of pregnancy

An intensive educational program for physicians and midwives involving 19 hospitals in Argentina and Uruguay dramatically reduced the rate of postpartum hemorrhage, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

1 May 2008

Schwarzenegger to attempt second health care proposal

In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said that he would try again to pass legislation to overhaul the state's health care system and that he would not reduce the scale of his plan to get it approved, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports.

30 Apr 2008

Keep children's health in mind

If there is any real purpose to the 2020 summit, it could be to establish a national program of research, clinical and community activity that would deliver a 21st century response to the real child and youth mental health problems that our society creates.

18 Apr 2008