Public Health News and Research

RSS

Shift workers' body clocks studied to prevent certain cancers

Does shift work predispose you to cancer by altering the body's response to hormones?

2 Feb 2009

Results of the third school nutrition dietary assessment study published

A special Supplement to the February 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association presents findings from the recently released Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III), conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., as well as research from other studies using SNDA-III data.

2 Feb 2009

Recent reports regarding mercury and high fructose

ChemRisk, a leading scientific consulting firm, was asked by the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) to examine the recent publication by Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), "Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup," and the Environmental Health journal publication "Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar," by Dufault et al, 2009, and to offer our comments and analysis.

2 Feb 2009

New CDC study assesses impact of genetic testing on health outcomes

Some genomic tests developed to personalize medical decisions about cancer care are beneficial, while for others the evidence is uncertain and reliance on the test might even lead to poorer medical management of cancer in some cases, according new recommendation statements from an expert panel.

2 Feb 2009

Personal intervention reduces drinking among risky college drinkers

Brief but personal intervention reduces drinking among risky college drinkers, according to a research study at The University of Texas School of Public Health.

2 Feb 2009

Australia in need of a complete food-policy overhaul

The report by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) says that the only way to effectively address the priorities of chronic disease prevention, climate change and social inequality is by a complete overhaul of food policy in Australia.

2 Feb 2009

New bone cement may prevent amputations

Old technologies, bone cement and a well known antibiotic, may effectively fight an emerging infection in soldiers with compound bone fractures, according to a study published online in the Journal of Orthopedic Research.

29 Jan 2009

Avoiding environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy

Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) commonly called secondhand smoke or passive smoking, can harm a developing fetus and may account for complications during pregnancy and birth. It is now known that non-whites experience more adverse pregnancy effects than do whites from smoking and ETS exposure.

29 Jan 2009

Assessing the real risk of heart disease in young people with low short-term risks

Risk stratification has become central to strategies for the prevention of coronary heart disease, with the implication that priority is given to those at highest risk (ie, those with established heart disease).

29 Jan 2009

Sleeping with dogs!

According to new research from the U.S. dog owners are more likely to share germs with pets by not washing their hands than by sleeping with the dog.

28 Jan 2009

Can't help being the life of the party?

Maybe you were just born that way. Researchers from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego have found that our place in a social network is influenced in part by our genes, according to new findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Jan 2009

Researchers identify compound that frees trapped cholesterol

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified in mice a compound that liberates cholesterol that has inappropriately accumulated to excessive levels inside cells.

27 Jan 2009

Research identifies risk factors that affected World Trade Center evacuation

Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health have released findings identifying factors that affected evacuation from the World Trade Center (WTC) Towers on September 11.

27 Jan 2009

Second degree nurses are an efficient new solution to the current nursing shortage

As the United States continues to experience a nursing shortage that is expected to grow to one million nurses by 2016, a new research study highlights a pool of potential candidates who could alleviate the shortage in an economical way.

27 Jan 2009

Diabetes epidemic shows no signs of abating

In the United States, nearly 13 percent of adults age 20 and older have diabetes, but 40 percent of them have not been diagnosed, according to epidemiologists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whose study includes newly available data from an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT).

27 Jan 2009

Waging war on tropical diseases may be key to U.S. foreign policy

Stating that neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) not only promote poverty but also destabilize communities, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and Sabin Vaccine Institute President Peter Hotez call upon the public-health and foreign-policy communities to embrace medical diplomacy and NTD control as a means to combat terrorism in an article published January 27 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

27 Jan 2009

Experts suspect dengue mosquito is resistant to pesticides

With the number of confirmed dengue fever cases in north Queensland now thought to be in excess of 200, experts are concerned that the mosquitoes responsible for spreading the disease may have developed a resistance to pesticides.

27 Jan 2009

Study finds MRSA in swine and swine workers in the United States

The first study documenting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in swine and swine workers in the United States has been published by University of Iowa researchers.

23 Jan 2009

STDs disrupt genetic bottleneck that usually constrains HIV infection

Scientists have shown that HIV faces a genetic "bottleneck" when the virus is transmitted heterosexually from one person to another, by way of the genital mucosa.

23 Jan 2009

Morbidity rates increased substantially after Hurricane Katrina

In the year following Hurricane Katrina, the health of survivors 65 and over declined nearly 4 times that of a national sample of older adults not affected by the disaster, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

23 Jan 2009