School Flu Immunization Reduced Student Absences
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Results from a new study found that free, on-site, mass flu immunization had a positive impact on school attendance. With the help of school nurses, more students may be able to avoid getting sick in the next flu season. The study is published in the latest issue of The Journal of School Nursing.
School nurses in Indiana, where the study was conducted, found that schools that have a high population of children with a low socioeconomic status were showing a higher absentee rate caused by influenza. Many of these children lived in multifamily dwellings, where there is increased person-to-person contact, which promotes the spread of bacteria and viruses. Although influenza vaccines were available in the community, these families often did not have the funds or transportation to receive preventive health care.
The benchmark attendance rate for the state of Indiana in the 95th percentile is 97.8%. School nurses noted that none of the local Title 1 schools met this benchmark. Title 1 is a federal entitlement program allocated on the basis of student enrollment and census poverty data. As part of the No Child Left Behind Act, children should have the opportunity to obtain a high quality education and to reach grade-level proficiency.
Balance the Key to Protecting Teenaged Athletes from Injury
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Staying active is important for teenagers - and so is staying injury free. Unfortunately, injury is all too common, according to one study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). But, according to another CIHR-funded study, innovative training techniques can help reduce the injury rate.
A survey of Victoria teens has found that nearly 40% had sports injuries serious enough to limit their normal daily activity. Unexpectedly, nearly three-quarters of the injuries - 70% - occurred in organized sports. Unorganized sports, such as biking, rollerblading or skateboarding, had much lower injury rates.
Dr. Bonnie Leadbetter of the University of Victoria, who conducted the study, fears that these injuries could discourage teens from continuing to participate in sports, which will contribute to increasing youth obesity rates.
Expert Offers Tips on Avoiding Backpack Injuries in Children
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In the rush to buy back-to-school supplies for their children, parents may unknowingly purchase backpacks that do more harm than good, warns a University of Florida occupational therapist.
In a study of American students, published in the Indian Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that six out of 10 students ages 9 to 20 reported chronic back pain related to heavy backpacks.
Overloaded and improperly worn backpacks can result in chronic back pain, poor posture and numbness in the hands and arms, said Joanne Jackson Foss, director of professional programs in occupational therapy and assistant dean of academic affairs at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions.
Impulsive preschoolers at risk for teen drinking
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How preschoolers behave may help predict whether they will drink alcohol or use illegal drugs like marijuana in adolescence, research hints.
In a long-term study, children who had less control over their behavior and impulses between 3 and 5 years of age and those who gained behavioral control more slowly were more likely to drink alcohol at age 14. They were also more likely to develop an alcohol problem and try illicit drugs.
Moreover, adolescents with higher resiliency in early childhood—meaning they were flexible and could readily adapt to a changing environment—were less apt to start drinking alcohol in the early teenage years.
Sleep deprivation doubles risks of obesity in both children and adults
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Research by Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick has found that sleep deprivation is associated with an almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese for both children and adults.
Early results of a study by Professor Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick’s Warwick Medical School were presented to the International AC21 Research Festival hosted this month by the University of Warwick.
The research reviewed current evidence in over 28,000 children and 15,000 adults. For both groups Professor Cappuccio found that shorter sleep duration is associated with almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese.
Childhood growth affects mid-life physical ability
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People who hit key developmental milestones on time in early childhood may have a lower risk of becoming disabled in later life, a new study suggests.
Dr. Diana Kuh of the Royal Free and University College London Medical School and associates had previously shown that middle-age subjects who were healthier, wealthier and more active than their peers also fared better on two tests of physical performance known to predict the risk of becoming frail and disabled. The tests, one of a person’s ability to rise from sitting to a standing position and the other of how well a person can balance while standing, are considered accurate indications of overall physical function, as well as “underlying biologic aging processes,” Kuh and her team note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Researchers isolate rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia
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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s Hospital Boston and their colleagues have isolated rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia in a mouse model of the human disease.
The leukemia stem cells isolated proved to be surprisingly different from normal blood stem cells—a finding that may be good news for developing a drug that selectively targets them.
Cancer stem cells are self-renewing cells that are likely responsible for maintaining or spreading a cancer, and may be the most relevant targets for cancer therapy. The discovery provides answers to the longstanding questions of whether cancer stem cells must be similar to normal stem cells, and what type of cell first becomes abnormal in leukemia, the most common form of cancer in childhood. The journal Nature has posted the study’s findings online in advance of print publication.
Melanoma May Be Over-Diagnosed
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Exercise Instructor Back on the Job Five Days After Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery
Diagnosed with a carcinoid tumor, Barbara Wolfe underwent surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to have the upper lobe of her right lung and the lymph nodes in her chest removed. But the 54-year-old exercise instructor lost little time before going back to work, thanks to the minimally invasive procedure performed by thoracic surgeon Robert McKenna Jr., M.D.
“I went home (from the hospital) the next day, and the fifth day I was back at the gym teaching my Power Pump class with 50 people,” says the Camarillo resident, referring to an aerobic workout that employs weights, bands and a step. A fitness instructor for nearly 25 years, she did not use the weights in that first workout. Even so, her boss, who was teaching another class nearby, quickly intervened to be sure she was really OK.
Indoor pools may contribute to high asthma rates
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Children who live in regions with more indoor swimming pools are more likely to have asthma, a new European study shows.
The findings support the “pool chlorine hypothesis,” which proposes that exposure to this toxic chemical and its byproducts may play at least some role in the development of the disease, Drs. Alfred Bernard and M. Nickmilder of the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels conclude.
Recent studies have linked frequent pool visits to a greater risk of asthma, especially among young children, the researchers note in their report, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. And chlorine gas in the indoor pool environment has become “one of the most concentrated air pollutants to which children are exposed,” they add.
It’s never too late to start exercising!
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According to German researchers it’s never too late to start exercising and even long time couch potatoes can reduce their risk of heart disease, by just getting off the sofa and going for a walk.
Researchers at the University of Heidelberg in Germany say this need not entail strenuous activity such as a work out at the gym, and just walking can make a difference.
Dr. Dietrich Rothenbacher of the University of Heidelberg says people who change their physical activity patterns in late adult life reduce their risk for coronary heart disease.
British American Tobacco and cigarette smuggling in China
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New research based on the internal documents of one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, British American Tobacco (BAT), suggests that it been complicit in the smuggling of tobacco into China and has benefited from this illicit trade.
Millions of BAT internal documents were made publicly available following a court case in the USA. The researchers, Dr. Kelley Lee of the London School and Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Dr. Jeff Collin of the University of Edinburgh, have analysed documents, available via the company’s Guildford Depository, and online from the BAT Document Archive. In their paper, ‘Key to the future’: British American Tobacco and cigarette smuggling in China, which is published in the journal PLoS Mecidine, they present evidence that smuggling has been strategically critical to BAT’s efforts to penetrate the Chinese market.
The facts on dieting
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According to researchers from Tufts University in the U.S. when overweight or obese individuals were placed on currently popular diets such as Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone diet, after one year, most who stuck to the regime lost weight and all four diets worked equally well.
It appears however that the old adage eat less and exercise more may not be the definitive answer to obesity and other factors may be at work such as a lack of sleep, modern medications, heating and air conditioning, genes, giving up smoking, birth weight, and aging.
Shingles pain eased with two-pronged therapy
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A new approach could bring much-needed relief to people suffering from severe nerve pain following a bout of shingles.
Shingles is caused by reactivation of chickenpox virus, which lies dormant in nerve fibers until stress or illness triggers a resurgence. The resulting rash can damage nerves, causing sometimes-excruciating pain, called postherpetic neuralgia.
Now researchers report in the Archives of Neurology that a course of intravenous treatment with the antiviral drug acyclovir, followed by oral treatment with a similar drug, valacyclovir, helps at least some patients with shingles pain.
77 die from rare tropical disease on island paradise
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Travellers to an exotic island in the Indian Ocean have been issued with warnings against a rare tropical disease.
Seventy seven people have already died in Mauritius from the rare chikungunya virus which is carried by mosquitoes.
Mauritius, an island paradise particularly popular with honeymooning couple has about 700,000 visitors annually, generating more than £400 million.
Following the outbreak the number of French tourists who normally account for about a quarter of the total, plummeted.
Women who develop dementia start to lose weight a decade earlier
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Researchers in the U.S. have discovered that prior to developing dementia, women experience a decline in weight as early as 10 years before they begin to lose their memory.
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota carried out a retrospective study on a group of women by analyzing the medical records of those seen by doctors in Olmsted County, who were diagnosed with the onset of dementia between 1990 and 1994.
Lead study researcher Dr. David Knopman, a Mayo Clinic neurologist says they saw that the weight of those women who developed dementia was drifting downward many years before the onset of symptoms.
