Complementary and alternative medicine use increased among blacks, whites, Asian-Americans and Hispanics between 2002 and 2007, but at different rates.
At a time when access to prompt treatment might affect survival, a large new study finds that African-American and Hispanic women newly diagnosed with breast cancer often face delays in care of more than a month.
In the confined space of a classroom, gastrointestinal illnesses can spread quickly, causing sufferers many painful and uncomfortable symptoms. But what is to blame for a school-based outbreak? In most cases, improper food handling is the culprit, says a Ryerson University public health expert.
Highly-caffeinated energy drinks – even those without alcohol – may pose a significant threat to individuals and public health, say researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. They recommend action by health providers, consumer, manufacturers and federal regulators.
New research suggests that people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may be up to three times more likely to have a stroke compared to those not affected with HIV. The study is published in the January 19, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) has released new medical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Loyola physician Pauline Camacho, MD, was part of a committee that developed the guidelines to manage this major public health issue.
Patricia Gregory of Cary was only 24 years old when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Now a mother of an 11-year-old daughter, she considers herself blessed to have a child, as cervical cancer can make women unable to bear children.
The American Academy of Dermatology (Academy) has updated its position statement on vitamin D based on the results of a review of the increasing body of scientific literature on this vitamin and its importance for optimal health recently conducted by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM).
An international team of lung experts has new evidence from a study in shantytowns near Lima, Peru, that teens living immediately next to a busy roadway have increased risk of allergies and asthma. The odds can go up by 30 percent for developing allergies to dust mites, pet hairs and mold, and can double for having actual asthma symptoms, such as wheezing and using medications to help them breathe.
Known by many as one of the least favorite wintertime chores, shoveling snow can also be hazardous and is associated with many serious, even fatal events among both adults and children. A recent study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that an average of 11,500 snow shoveling-related injuries and medical emergencies were treated in U.S. emergency departments each year from 1990 to 2006.
In research described as “a stark warning” to those tempted to start smoking, scientists are reporting that cigarette smoke begins to cause genetic damage within minutes — not years — after inhalation into the lungs. Their report, the first human study to detail the way certain substances in tobacco cause DNA damage linked to cancer, appears in ACS’ Chemical Research in Toxicology, a monthly journal.
Identifying tuberculosis patients in Africa using passive methods is leaving many cases undiagnosed, according to researchers from the Netherlands, Kenya and the United States, who studied case detection methods in HIV-prone western Kenya. Tuberculosis (TB) occurs commonly in men and women with HIV, but in these patients TB can be more difficult to detect.
1) Arizona’s secondhand smoke-related hospital admissions down after statewide smoking ban; 2) TB’s vast spread in sub-Saharan Africa compounded by mining activity; 3) Homeless adults in New York City have similar health risks as low-income adults.
On Jan. 12, 2010, Lora Iannotti, PhD, nutrition and public health expert at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, was in Leogane, a seaside town 18 miles west of Port au Prince, Haiti, working with local officials on improving the health of Haitian children. That’s when a catastrophic earthquake struck the poverty-stricken country.
“Men’s concepts of what it means to be a ‘real’ man are generally shaped by traditional masculine role norms, which encourage men to be extremely self-reliant and these norms often affect their health behavior,” said Wizdom Powell Hammond, Ph.D., assistant professor of health behavior and health education at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a member of UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We’ve seen in other studies that men with strong commitment to traditional masculine role norms delay health care because they don’t want to seem weak.
Humanitarian and medical aid workers traveling to remote or resource-limited areas of the world need to take appropriate precautions and risk-mitigation efforts to prevent the transmission of disease while abroad.
Although the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic infected an estimated 60 million people and hospitalized more than 250,000 in the United States, it also brought one significant benefit—clues about how to make a vaccine that could protect against multiple strains of influenza.
A family physician and faculty member at the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine offers practical advice for coping with - and avoiding - a virus that is sending a crush of patients to physician offices and hospital ERs.
Despite the decrease in birth rates in the last 20 years, the latest National Poll on Children's Health shows Americans want a change in how the nation deals with teen pregnancy. Programs may include community service child care, paternity testing and other programs aimed at increasing the responsibility of teen fathers.
For every four to five reported cases of mesothelioma worldwide, at least one case goes unreported, according to estimates published online January 6 ahead of print in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). This study is the first to provide a global estimate of unreported mesothelioma cases based on the collective experience of countries with available data on asbestos use and the disease.
Hospitalizing teen girls with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) costs six times as much as treating them in the emergency room, and up to 12 times more than treating them in an outpatient clinic, according to a small study conducted at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
Men are more willing to receive human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when they learn the vaccine can prevent cancer, according to a recent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
Depression and diabetes appear to be associated with a significantly increased risk of death from heart disease and risk of death from all causes over a six-year period for women, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The smoking cessation medications bupropion and varenicline may both be associated with changes in the way the brain reacts to smoking cues, making it easier for patients to resist cravings, according to two reports posted online today that will appear in the May print issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Even after young women reach adulthood, their mothers can play a key role in convincing them to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, new research suggests.
Children who live in areas with fewer pediatricians are more likely to suffer life-threatening ruptures of the appendix than those in areas with more pediatricians, even when accounting for other factors such as the number of hospitals, imaging technology, insurance coverage and the number of surgeons in an area, according to a study from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Eating a Southern staple, fried fish, could be one reason people in Alabama and across the “stroke belt” states are more likely than other Americans to die of a stroke, according to a study published in the December 22, 2010, online issue of Neurology.
Motivational interviewing, a popular counseling technique for many addictive behaviors, might not be the ideal treatment choice for those who smoke cigarettes. A University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher says the reason might be, well — motivation.
In findings published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Peter S. Hendricks, Ph.D., says that motivational interviewing produced only modest improvement for people in treatment for smoking-cessation. The results were surprising because the technique has been effective for other addictive substances.
The language that doctors use with low-income, rural patients can help determine whether these patients agree to participate in clinical trials testing new cancer treatments, a new study found.
A survey conducted by Johns Hopkins faculty found strong support among their peers for working more closely with the minority, inner-city community that surrounds the institution. Overall, 91 percent of faculty responders said closer ties make research more relevant to those it ultimately serves, and 87 percent said it improves the quality of research.
1) Gaps in the system: Addressing the need for ongoing coverage among uninsured working-aged adults with chronic health care needs; 2) Higher minimum wages do not hinder access to health care for low-skilled U.S. workers; 3) Drug arrests not found to deter hard drug users over time.
With the publication of the nation's first comprehensive, federally funded guide to hospital emergency preparedness exercise development, Dr. Nathaniel Hupert at Weill Cornell Medical College and his collaborators have provided a new toolset for strengthening hospitals' ability to protect communities nationwide against public health disasters, such as creating care centers during an influenza pandemic or treating casualties in the wake of a bioterrorism attack.
Living in an area where amenities of daily life – groceries, playgrounds, post offices, libraries and restaurants – are within walking distance is linked to higher levels of social capital, such as trust among neighbors and participation in community events, new research finds.
An evaluation by UNC researchers concluded that fewer N.C. youths are taking up smoking, more public places have become smoke-free and more adults that smoke are quitting, thanks to tobacco prevention programs funded by the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund.
Elvis sang of a blue Christmas, but a 'flu Christmas' would be even worse. The dean of UMDNJ-SOM says there is still time to get a vaccine to make sure you don't give or get the gift of flu this year.
The American Association for Cancer Research commends the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General for its continued focus on tobacco, one of most pressing public health issues of our time. The Surgeon General today released a new report, How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease, that details the scientific evidence on how smoking causes cancer and numerous other diseases.
New data shows that people exposed to the mineral erionite found in the gravel of road materials in North Dakota may be at significantly increased risk of developing mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer most often associated with asbestos exposure, according to research presented at the 2010 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. This symposium is sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (ISLAC) and The University of Chicago.
Parents are often believed to have a strong influence on children’s eating behaviors however, findings on parent-child resemblance in dietary intakes are mixed.
A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy finds that youth generally perceive community street outreach workers positively, regardless of whether they have personally worked with one. This study, available online in advance of publication in the Journal of Community Health, is the first peer-reviewed study to include the perceptions of youth who are not former or current clients of community street workers.
The number of people admitted to the hospital because of dog bites increased by 86 percent – from 5,100 to 9,500 hospital stays – between 1993 and 2008.
Among smokers with military-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), integrating smoking cessation treatment with mental health care for PTSD resulted in higher rates of prolonged smoking abstinence, compared to referral for assistance with quitting smoking, according to a study in the December 8 issue of JAMA.
Four years after the LouseBuster prototype made headlines when research showed the chemical-free, warm-air device wiped out head lice on children, a new study reveals that a revamped, government-cleared model is highly effective.
A wide-scale study of the effectiveness of flu vaccine in children is needed in Europe to fully assess the benefits, not only in keeping the kids from getting sick, but limiting the spread of flu to adults.
That is the conclusion of a doctor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, writing in the December issue of The Lancet Infectious Disease journal based in London.
West Virginia University researcher Ian Rockett, PhD, says the latest suicide data is misleading and most likely under-reported, since many deaths by drug overdose are not counted as suicide.