Category Archives: National Institutes of Health
Public Health News Roundup: February 4
USDA Releases New Regulations on Snack Foods Sold at Schools
New rules proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture would require snacks sold at schools to be lower in fat, salt and sugar and include more nutritious items such as whole grains, vegetables and fruits. The rules also require a limit of 200 calories on food items not sold in the school cafeteria. According to Reuters, the rules would apply to about 50 million children who are part of the school lunch program. “These proposed nutrition standards, the first update in more than 30 years, are long overdue and badly needed,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The proposed regulations will be open for public comment once the rule is published in the Federal Register, which is likely to be this week. The final rule would probably not take effect before the fall of 2015. Read more on obesity.
Flu Shot May Protect Older People Against Heart Attacks
A new study from researchers at the University Of Iowa College Of Public Health suggests that the flu vaccine may provide protection against heart attacks in older adults, especially people over age 80. The researchers suspected acute infection caused by flu may trigger events leading to heart attacks and strokes, so they created a set of time-series models using inpatient data from a national sample of more than 1,000 hospitals and used flu activity to predict the incidence of heart attack and stroke. The team produced national models, as well as models based on four geographical regions and five age groups and across all models, and found consistent significant associations between heart attacks and influenza activity.
Flu Season 2013 Update: The most recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that while there is still widespread flu activity in much of the country, an increasing number of states are starting to see a decline in reported flu cases.
Read more on flu.
Public Health School Partners with Churches to Improve Healthier Living
As part of a project led by the University Of South Carolina Arnold School Of Public Health, about 1,250 members of 74 African Methodist Episcopal churches in South Carolina participated in a program to help members lead healthier lifestyles through increased physical activity and healthier food choices. The five-year project was funded by the National Institutes of Health and found that members of churches who were part of the healthier lifestyle training were more likely to engage in physical activity and eat more fruits and vegetables than members from churches that did not undergo the training. The study's findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. “Churches are natural partners to help eliminate health disparities in the African-American community, says Sara Wilcox, PHD, director of the school’s prevention research center. “For many, especially in the South, the church is the center of their life and is a trusted institution.” Read more on prevention.
Public Health News Roundup: February 1
New CT Device Offers Improved Imaging, Substantially Reduced Radiation
A new type of CT scanner from National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers and engineers at Toshiba Medical Systems offers improved image quality while reducing the amount of potentially harmful radiation to patients by as much as 95 percent. This device will enable doctors to better diagnose conditions such as heart disease, according to coauthor Andrew Arai, MD, chief of the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Branch at the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Author Marcus Chen, MD, a clinician in the NHLBI’s Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Laboratory, said the “improvements could help clinicians identify problems in even the smallest blood vessels or enable them to conduct complicated tests like measuring blood flow in the heart while limiting radiation exposure.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the CT scanner, which still requires additional study. Read more on heart health.
Study: Black Patients Less Likely to Receive Kidney Transplants before Needing Dialysis
Patients who are black or do not have private insurance are less likely than others to receive a kidney transplant before having to go on dialysis, according to a new study in Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The study was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including lead author Morgan Grams, MD, who told Reuters it shows "just another disparity" for African American patients. Douglas Scott Keith, MD, head of the kidney transplant program at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville and not part of the study, said studies "over the last 10 to 15 years have consistently shown that minorities have poorer access to transplantation. This article basically shows that it's persisting, it hasn't gotten much better.” African American patients are about 56 percent less likely than white patients to receive a kidney transplant before needing dialysis. Read more on health disparities.
Medical School Conflict of Interest Policies May Affect New Doctors’ Prescription Habits
Doctors who graduate from medical schools with policies restricting gifts from pharmaceutical companies may be less likely to prescribe new medications over current options, according to a new study in the BMJ. "Our findings suggest that conflict of interest policies, which have been increasingly adopted by medical schools since 2002, may have the potential to substantially impact clinical practice and reduce prescribing of newly marketed pharmaceuticals," wrote Marissa King, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale University School of Management, and colleagues. The researchers say further study is needed to determine whether the measures affect the prescription of all new medications, or if the effect is more selective. Read more on prescription drugs.
