State Policies Mandating Physical Education And Recess Associated With Increase In Overall In-School Physical Activity Among Children

On December 5, 2011, in Health | Fitness, Political | Legal, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
children playing soccer

State and school district-level policies mandating minimum requirements for in-school physical education and recess time are associated with increased odds of schools in those states and districts meeting physical activity recommendations for students, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Medication Spending Is Up, While Psychotherapy Utilization Decreases For Depression

On December 5, 2011, in Depression, Healthcare, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
Prozac

Over a 10-year period, spending for Medicaid-enrolled patients with depression increased substantially but only minimal improvements in quality of care were observed, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The study was carried out by Catherine A. Fullerton, M.D., M.P.H., of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston, and colleagues.

Medicaid Increases Use Of Healthcare, Decreases Financial Strain, And Improves Health

On July 7, 2011, in Healthcare, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
physician and patient

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Providence Health & Services have found that expanding low income adults’ access to Medicaid substantially increases health care use, reduces financial strain on covered individuals, and improves their self-reported health and well-being. This is the first study to evaluate the impact of insuring the uninsured in the United States using a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard in medical and scientific studies.

Southern United States Lag In Reducing Death Rates From Colorectal Cancer

On July 7, 2011, in Cancer, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
United States

Improvements in colorectal cancer mortality rates are concentrated in the northern part of the United States, while southern states continue to fall behind, according to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Ahmedin Jemal, D.V.M., Ph.D., vice president for surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, said the decrease in death rates ranged from about 37 percent in Massachusetts to no reduction in Mississippi.

Adults In The United States Not Only Eat More, But More Often

On June 30, 2011, in Health | Fitness, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
hamburger

Over the past 30 years U.S. adults have been eating larger portions and eating more often, according to a new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers. The findings help illustrate that how Americans are eating contributes to the country’s obesity epidemic. Check the end of this report for a link to download this open access study that is freely available in June 2011 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.

New International Study Finds That 350 Million Adults Have Diabetes

On June 27, 2011, in Diabetes, Public Health, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
Professor Majid Ezzati

A major international study collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes since 1980 has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The research, published today in The Lancet, reveals that the prevalence of diabetes has risen or at best remained unchanged in virtually every part of the world over the last three decades.

Diabetic Kidney Disease More Prevalent In The United States

On June 21, 2011, in Diabetes, Public Health, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
Kidney

Over the past 2 decades the prevalence of diabetic kidney disease in the U.S. increased in direct proportion to the prevalence of diabetes itself, according to a study in the June 22/29 issue of JAMA. Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a common complication of diabetes and the leading cause of chronic kidney disease in the developed world. Approximately 40 percent of persons with diabetes develop DKD, which also accounts for nearly half of all new cases of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States.

10 Percent Of Middle-Aged Europeans Are On Antidepressant Medication

On June 21, 2011, in Healthcare, Medication, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
Professor Andrew Oswald

New research from the University of Warwick and the IZA Institute in Bonn shows that 10% of middle-aged Europeans took antidepressants in 2010. The researchers looked in detail at the lives of a randomly selected sample of nearly 30,000 Europeans. The study covered 27 countries. Check the end of this report for a link to download the original report (in Microsoft Word format).

Girls Who Are Obese Are More Than Twice As Likely To Be Addicted To Smoking

On June 21, 2011, in Health | Fitness, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
Cigarette

Obese teenage girls are more than twice as likely as other girls to develop high-level nicotine addiction as young adults, according to a new study. Nearly 20 percent of American adolescents currently are obese, the authors note. The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Poorer Families Tend To Have More Sedentary Children

On June 15, 2011, in Health | Fitness, submitted by Christopher Fisher, PhD
child watching television

It is not strange to expect that families with better living conditions enjoy better health and a longer life expectancy. Now, a new study has also confirmed the relationship between a family’s socioeconomic situation and certain sedentary behaviors, such as watching television and playing video games, during the first years of life. The study, carried out in five Spanish cities (Granada, Madrid, Santander, Murcia, and Zaragoza), analyses the link between a family’s socioeconomic level and the time that teenagers devote to three sedentary activities – watching television, playing videogames and studying, all outside school hours.

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