Feature Channels: Public Health

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

A new study is the first to provide real-world evidence of the effectiveness of smoking warning labels that include graphic photos of the damage caused by regular tobacco use.

• share
• favorite_border

Adolescents with moderate emotional health problems do not smoke, but they may vape, USC study finds.

• share
• favorite_border

Saint Louis University public health research study calls for immediate, low-cost steps to address issue.

• share
• favorite_border

If governments want to discourage smoking among young people, both high taxes and smoking bans do the job – but bans may have one key advantage.

• share
• favorite_border

Epilepsy is not a public health priority, yet it takes more lives than sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or fires, according to an article reviewing the topic. Doctors say epilepsy deaths should be a focus of research and education to understand and prevent those deaths, according to the “Views and Reviews” article published in the December 16, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers from Stony Brook University, led by Yusuf Hannun, MD, have found quantitative evidence proving that extrinsic risk factors, such as environmental exposures and behaviors weigh heavily on the development of a vast majority (approximately 70 to 90 percent) of cancers.

• share
• favorite_border

From helping determine safe levels of common items like fluoride and caffeine to determining how environmental exposures may increase cancer risk and from using computational modeling and animal alternatives in chemical safety testing to improving patient care, the 2016 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Award recipients have had pronounced impacts on creating a safer and healthier world.

• share
• favorite_border

Today Harvard University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and a range of other partner organizations are launching the Planetary Health Alliance, a new effort to dramatically improve our understanding of the linkages between environmental change and human health across the globe.

• share
• favorite_border

Increasing state alcohol taxes could help prevent sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, according to University of Florida Health researchers, who found that gonorrhea rates decreased by 24 percent in Maryland after the state increased its sales tax on alcohol in 2011.

• share
• favorite_border

With food everywhere you look, difficult relatives and pressure to create perfect memories, the holidays can be a tough time for those who struggle with eating disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Mothers who smoke are putting more than their own health at risk, suggests a study published today in BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (BJOG). Young men whose mothers smoked during pregnancy had lower aerobic fitness compared to those whose mothers did not.

• share
• favorite_border

Team of scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute among those who combined large genomic and proteomic datasets to identify novel host targets to treat flu

• share
• favorite_border

In newly published research, scientists at The Wistar Institute show that continued semen exposure in sex workers sustains changes in the cervical and vaginal microenvironment that may actually increase HIV-1 resistance. This information may lead the way to better preventative strategies that block the transmission of the virus and improved designs for future HIV vaccine studies that can monitor the described changes when recruiting sex workers into vaccine trials.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study suggests that Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) are the main anesthesia professionals ensuring patient access to critical anesthesia care in lower-income areas where the populations are more likely to be uninsured, unemployed and/or Medicaid eligible.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health, in collaboration with the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, have identified a molecule expressed by Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi) that may facilitate the parasite’s evasion of the host’s immune system.

• share
• favorite_border

People who are diagnosed with mental health conditions did not see improvements in coordination and quality of care as hoped but did not experience large cuts in access as some had feared under an early alternative payment model designed to encourage coordinated health care, according to a team led by researchers from Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Sydney study has revealed that tooth decay (dental caries) can be stopped, reversed, and prevented without the need for the traditional 'fill and drill' approach that has dominated dental care for decades.

• share
• favorite_border

When it comes to learning about the safety of e-cigarettes, physicians are the most trusted source. The research from investigators at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Rutgers School of Public Health appears in the November 2015 issue of 'Preventive Medicine Reports.'

• share
• favorite_border

What happens to take-home pay when health insurance costs rise?

• share
• favorite_border

In October, Macy's joined a growing list of major retail stores that have pledged to stop selling furniture containing flame retardants, which research suggests could cause developmental problems. Despite the trend, however, it could take years before widespread exposure declines. And now, a study in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology has revealed more bad news: Infants could potentially be affected the most. The report also looks at potential exposure routes.

• share
• favorite_border

Emotional appeal is among the factors increasing the chance that disaster communiques posted on social media by emergency management agencies will be retransmitted by recipients, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Kentucky have found.

• share
• favorite_border

Gunshot violence is the leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-old African American males and the second leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds males overall in the United States. A new Penn Medicine study is the first to outline the details of how an individual’s location and activities influence that risk.

• share
• favorite_border

Investing in simple diagnostic tests could save lives and end disease epidemics in the developing world, say researchers in a supplement in the journal Nature.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Electronic cigarettes produce highly-reactive free radicals – molecules associated with cell damage and cancer – and may pose a health risk to users, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study into the prevention of HIV transmission, people who took the antiretroviral drug Truvada were 86% less likely to contract the disease than those who took a placebo, report the researchers who led the study.

• share
• favorite_border

Higher taxes and prices for cigarettes are strongly associated with lower infant mortality rates in the United States, according to a new study from Vanderbilt University and the University of Michigan released Dec. 1 in the journal Pediatrics.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Research out of Melbourne University’s Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre tested a wide rage of sugar-free soft drinks and found that many of them can be just as harmful to teeth as their sugared counterparts due to acidic additives.

• share
• favorite_border

A program by Stony Brook Children’s Hospital that involves the use of trained community health workers on child immunization reveals that home intervention improves vaccine rates in at-risk children.

• share
• favorite_border

A larger portion of Africa is currently at high risk for malaria transmission than previously predicted, according to a new University of Florida mapping study.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from the University of Birmingham, UK, has shown that progesterone supplements in the first trimester of pregnancy do not improve outcomes in women with a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriages.

• share
• favorite_border

A study recently published online on November 23rd in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that that those who breastfed were a great deal less likely -- up to 50 percent less -- to develop diabetes 2 in subsequent years than those who did not breast feed.

• share
• favorite_border

In 2014, there were about 36.9 million people living with HIV and about 2 million were infected. The virus, which causes AIDS, is commonly spread through sexual activity, and although antiretroviral therapy has turned the once-universally fatal condition into a chronic one, 1.2 million people died as a result of AIDS-related diseases last year.

• share
• favorite_border

Monday, Nov. 23: A Live Streamed Event on the Physics of Surfing, the Complex Secrets of the Sneeze, a Flounder’s Disappearing Act, and How Fur Keeps Animals Warm in Cold Water -- News from the 68th Annual Meeting of APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in Boston

• share
• favorite_border

In a study examining compliance with NYC’s law increasing legal age for purchasing cigarettes from 18 - 21, researchers with NYU, UCLA found retailer compliance with ID checks significantly decreased since the law became effective. Prior to this change, 29% of retailers sampled were noncompliant; afterward, 38% of retailers sampled failed to ask for ID when selling cigarettes to young people. Researchers also examined new minimum price laws for cigarettes and discovered a similar pattern.

• share
• favorite_border

According to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rates of sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis climbed considerably in the U.S. in 2014. The center called the increases "alarming." The new data also show that among the more than 3,000 counties in the nation, Los Angeles County had the most cases of all three diseases in 2014.

• share
• favorite_border

Loyola University Chicago’s Public Health Program has received a five-year accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

Although strongly protective of gun rights in general, most Tennessee voters favor requiring background checks for gun sales among private individuals and at gun shows and support laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns, according to the latest MTSU Poll.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of Florida State University researchers found that the endurance competition called the Ultraman can lead to large reductions in body fat, but also causes temporary muscle damage and potentially insulin resistance.

• share
• favorite_border

Chagas Disease, all a deadly bug-borne infection, Is spreading in Texas. Chagas is transmitted via the "kissing bug."

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Georgia researcher has found that low levels of vitamin D may limit the effectiveness of HIV treatment in adults.

• share
• favorite_border

In a substantial number of cases—some two billion, in fact—the tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) isn’t active at all. Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have discovered several first-in-class compounds that target these hidden infections.

• share
• favorite_border

November 19, 2015 marks the date of the Great American Smokeout, when cigarette smokers are asked to refrain from smoking for one day in hopes that the effort will lead to quitting forever. Most people know a smoker they would like to see stop, but wonder if making that request is appropriate. Research from the University of Vermont says “yes” – smokers who are exposed to cues to stop are twice as likely to try to quit.

• share
• favorite_border

According to data released by the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, and analyzed in the annual State of Obesity report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Arizona, North Carolina and New Mexico at least 75 percent of Native American adults are overweight or obese. Texas had the lowest obesity rate for Natives at 51 percent. By Mallory Black / Native Health News Alliance

• share
• favorite_border

A report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns that the widespread practice of giving antibiotics to livestock for growth promotion and the prevention of disease among animals in agriculture is making the drugs ineffective when they are needed to treat infections in people.

• share
• favorite_border

A group of experts, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, today issued recommendations aimed at stemming the prescription opioid epidemic, a crisis that kills an average of 44 people a day in the U.S.

• share
• favorite_border

Quit and Stay Quit Monday (QSQM) and The Great American Smokeout are combating the number one cause of preventable deaths in the United States. On Thursday, November 19th the 39th annual Great American Smokeout celebrates smokers kicking the habit. Research shows smokers are most successful when they have continued support. Using weekly words of encouragement and accessible free materials, QSQM helps guide clients to success throughout the quitting process.