Why Poor Kids May Make
Sicker Adults
Cornell University researchers have identified several
key mechanisms in 13-year-olds that may help explain how low socio-economic
status takes its toll on health. In the first longitudinal study on the physiological
effects of poverty in young children, the Cornell researchers report that
the longer 13-year-olds have lived in poverty, the less efficient their bodies
become in handling environmental demands. "We think that these mechanisms
may be related to the fact that children who grow up in poverty have a steeper
life trajectory of premature health problems than other children, regardless
of their socio-economic status in adulthood."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/why-poor-kids-m.php
**************************************************************************
Have a Website? Place HandsNet
Headlines on your site – visit http://www.handsnet.org/addheadl.htm
************************************************************************
St. Jude Program Reduces
Weight Gain in Young African-American Girls
A community-based weight
control program designed by investigators now at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is the first such intervention to
succeed for up to two years in reducing the prevalence of overweight children,
according to a report presented at the American Heart Association meeting
in Orlando, Florida. The study, begun at the University
of Memphis (Tennessee) and called Girls health Enrichment Multisite
Studies (GEMS), demonstrated a significant reduction in the prevalence of
obesity among a group of 8- to 10-year old African-American girls, two years
after the beginning of a program designed to reduce their body mass index
(BMI).
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/st-jude-program.php
Study of Minority New York City Youth Finds Unequal Burden of Poor
Dental Health
Hispanic youth report better
dental health habits than their non-Hispanic peers, according to a study of
northern Manhattan adolescents by researchers at Columbia
University Mailman School of Public Health. The study, which is published
in the November issue of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved,
provides insight into the oral health of the diverse Hispanic community in
America. The study, a snapshot of more than
3,200 children ages 12 to 16, who live in the northern Manhattan communities of Central Harlem and Washington Heights/Inwood, found that 94 percent of the youth responding to the
study were Hispanic or black.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/study-of-minori.php
Non-Maternal Care Linked
to Reduced Physical Aggression in Children of Mothers with Less Education
Among children of mothers
with low education levels, those who receive regular care from other adults
during preschool years may be less likely to have problems with physical aggression,
according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry,
one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Children of mothers who graduated from
high school were at lower risk of developing physical aggression problems,
and non-maternal care had no additional effect on their behavior.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/nonmaternal-car.php
Maternal Alcohol Drinking
During Pregnancy Associated with Risk for Childhood Conduct Problems
Maternal alcohol drinking
during pregnancy appears to be associated with conduct problems in children,
independently of other risk factors, according to a report in the November
issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
For each additional day per week that mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy,
their children had an increase in conduct problems. This association remained
even after factoring in other variables such as the mothers' drug use during
pregnancy, education level or intellectual ability.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/maternal-alcoho.php
'You're not a victim
of domestic violence, are you?'
Doctors who ask the right
questions in the right way can successfully encourage abused women to reveal
that they are victims of domestic violence, even in a hectic emergency department,
a team of researchers from the United States and Canada has found. "Taking the time
to be empathic, voicing concern, checking to be sure that the patient is not
in any current danger, and reinforcing the importance of following up with
referrals are all part of effective provider-patient communication that can
stop domestic violence."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/youre-not-a-vic.php
**Civic Engagement
Exhibit Educates Americans
on Election Process
Do you have what it takes
to be the next president? The exhibit opens at the Freedom Museum on Nov. 9 and runs through Nov.
9, 2008 - the week
Americans hit the polls to select their new leader. To celebrate the opening
of the Vote4Me! Visitors get a behind-the-scenes perspective of the fast-paced
campaign season by working their way from presidential hopeful to Commander
in Chief. "This is an opportunity for Americans to take a shot at being
a leader of the free world," said the director of exhibits, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/freedom-museums.php
**Community Development
National Rural Housing
Group Supports South Arkansas Community Development
The Housing Assistance Council
is proud to be counted among the many supporters of South Arkansas Community
Development as SACD breaks ground on Monday for its new Somersett Subdivision. HAC, which works to improve housing
conditions for lower-income residents of rural communities throughout the
United States, has worked with SACD since 2000.
HAC has made several low-interest loans to SACD totaling approximately $1.38
million. SACD has focused on working with first-time low-income homebuyers
who use "self-help" techniques, working for hundreds of hours to
help construct their own homes.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/national-rural.php
**Economic Security
Increase Child Care,
Higher Education Assistance and Service Sector Pay to Combat Poverty
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) says
that about 23 million American kids are growing up in low-income working families
- families that struggle to make ends meet, parents who worry daily about
how to pay the bills, put food on the table and afford needed medical care,
let alone get ahead. On average, says NCCP, families need an income equal
to about two times the federal poverty level ($20,650 for a family of four)
to meet their most basic needs. "If these children do not succeed the
growth and prosperity of our country is threatened."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/increase-child.php
Higher Energy Forecasts,
Impending Presidential Veto Make Low-Income Advocates Shiver
Recent forecasts of higher
energy prices and colder months ahead have many low-wage working families
concerned about how much energy they will need to stay warm this winter.
In its energy and winter fuels outlook released today, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration predicted the average U.S. household will pay 11 percent more
for heating fuels this winter than last. "It is impossible for low-wage
workers, retirees and their families to pay bills this much higher without
sacrificing food, medicine and other essentials," said the executive
director of National Community Action Foundation, the Washington advocate for Community Action Agencies.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/higher-energy-f.php
**Education
'Doing What Works' Web
Site Launched to Help Educators
The U.S. Department of Education
launched a new Web site to provide teachers, administrators and other educators
with recommendations on effective teaching practices and examples of possible
ways to implement those practices to help promote excellence in American education
and improve student achievement. The new "Doing What Works" site,
http://dww.ed.gov, offers a user-friendly interface
to quickly locate teaching practices that have been found effective by the
department's research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, and similar organizations. In addition,
it cites examples of possible ways, although not necessarily the only ways,
this research may be used to help students reach their academic potential.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/doing-what-work.php
Studies Examine California's School Readiness and Student Achievement
Gaps and State's System of Publicly Funded Programs for Preschool-Age Children
California's sizeable achievement
gaps in English-language arts and mathematics in second and third grades have
early roots, with the same groups of children that lag in academic performance
in elementary school trailing in measures of school readiness when they enter
kindergarten, according to RAND Corporation research. Participation in effective
preschool programs has the potential to narrow these gaps, but the state's
current system of publicly funded early care and education programs are not
designed to maximize the child development and school readiness benefits,
according to the two new RAND studies.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/rand-studies-ex.php
Almost $1 Million Awarded
to University of South Florida for Special Education Technical Assistance Center
The U.S. Department of Education
announced a $999,490 grant to the University of South Florida to create a national special education
technical assistance center. With help from its partners, the University of Connecticut and University of Oregon, South Florida will establish a Center on State Implementation
and Scaling-Up of Evidence-Based Practices (SISEP) at its Tampa campus to initially work with six
states to give local school districts the know-how for building education
programs that work for all students, including those with disabilities. It
is anticipated that the lessons learned from those half-dozen states will
be shared and used by other states nationwide.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/almost-1-millio.php
Teamwork Increases Student
Learning and Career Success
A two-year study of college
students at The Pennsylvania State University (PSU) proves that students learn
better and develop higher-level skills by participating in cooperative (team)
activities, compared to traditional classroom teaching methods. The specialized
course was designed around a cooperative learning model that required students
to work in teams on a variety of activities. It was found that students participated
more in the lecture part of the course as team activities were completed.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/teamwork-increa.php
Hispanic Students Increasingly
Successful at California State University, Northridge
Hispanic students are more
likely to succeed academically at Cal State Northridge than at most state-supported
schools throughout the U.S., according to a report released recently
by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The report
- which uses the U.S. Census Bureau catchall term "Hispanic" for
anyone with ancestry in a Spanish-speaking country - focused on 11 campuses,
including Northridge, that were invited to participate in the study because
they "retain and graduate Hispanic students at much better rates than
their peers."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/hispanic-studen.php
Designing State Community College Data and Performance Measurement Systems
to Increase Student Success
According to Jobs for the Future, across higher education,
there is growing interest in strengthening state data and performance measurement
systems that track and make visible student progress and success. The goal
is to improve student results, particularly at community colleges and non-selective
four-year institutions. The strategy is to identify at-risk students early
and provide them with supports that can help them stay in school and graduate.
This policy brief grew out of the work of the Cross-State Data Work Group,
a collaboration among seven states that are participants
in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/designing-state.php
Building a Culture of
Evidence in Community Colleges: Lessons from Exemplary Institutions
According to Jobs for the Future, across the education sector,
calls for accountability and results---and for greater transparency in the
reporting of student outcomes---have been increasing. While this pressure
began two decades ago in K-12 education, community colleges are now also paying
closer attention to how they can and should use data on student outcomes to
drive better results. Some creative and entrepreneurial community colleges
are taking a hard look at how they can create and sustain an internal culture
of evidence-based practice.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/building-a-cult-1.php
**Health
UCLA Research Shows Dramatic
Savings for Medicaid when Head Start Parents Learn to Care for Kids
Research proves that a "dose"
of hands-on health care training can transform parents' abilities to care
for common childhood ailments at home -- and save Medicaid millions of dollars
annually. Tracking 9,240 Head Start families enrolled in a health literacy
program -- and impacting nearly 20,000 children in 35 states -- researchers
found that visits to a hospital ER or clinic dropped by 58 percent and 42
percent, respectively, as parents opted to treat their children's fevers,
colds and earaches at home.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/ucla-research-s.php
Immigration Not Driving
the Erosion of Health Insurance
According to the Economic
Policy Institute, the number of people in the United States without any type of health insurance
continued its steady climb in 2006, to 47 million uninsured. Some analysts
have argued that this increase is driven by the fact that there are more immigrants
living in the United States, and that immigrants are less likely than native-born
people to have health insurance. While both of these facts are true, these
facts are not driving the overall decline in coverage.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/immigration-not.php
Researchers Find Increase
in Disability among Older, Obese Adults
Researchers at the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report that older
adults today are much more likely to suffer from disability than those 10
years ago. "Obesity is more hazardous to the health of the elderly than
we previously suspected," says the lead author of the study. The study
reveals that obesity, which has become more common among older Americans,
is having an increasingly profound impact on their day-to-day activities and
overall health.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/penn-researcher.php
**Hunger and Nutrition
Foods, Not Specific Nutrients,
May Be Key to Good Health
In a recent academic review,
a University of Minnesota professor in the School of Public Health has concluded that food, as opposed
to specific nutrients, may be key to having a healthy
diet. We are confusing ourselves and the public by talking so much about
nutrients when we should be talking about foods. People should shift the
focus toward the benefits of entire food products and food patterns in order
to better understand nutrition in regard to a healthy human body.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/foods-not-speci.php
**Substance Abuse
Nicotine-Alcohol Interaction
Impacts Learning, Could Have Implications for Addiction Treatment
The interaction between
nicotine and alcohol, two of the most abused and co-abused drugs, can impact
a person's ability to learn and could have implications for treating addiction,
according to researchers at Temple University. Smokers and drinkers develop tolerance
and consume greater amounts of each drug, and then when they try quitting
one or the other, they then have this cognitive deficit and may reach for
either alcohol or nicotine or both to try and reverse it, but they just spiral
into the addiction again.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/nicotinealcohol.php
Study Examines Substance
Abuse Prevalence among Teens Receiving Routine Medical Care
Approximately 15 percent
of teens receiving routine outpatient medical care in a New England primary care network had positive
results on a substance abuse screening test, according to a report in the
November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of
the JAMA/Archives journals. Addiction often begins during adolescence and
can predict future addictive disorders. About 80 percent of teens have begun
to drink and half have used an illegal drug by senior year in high school.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/study-examines-1.php
Behavior Therapy Plus
Medication May Help Teens with Depression and Substance Use Disorders
New research from the University
of Colorado Denver School of Medicine has found that
a common antidepressant is showing promising success when combined with cognitive
behavior therapy to treat adolescents with depression and substance use disorders.
The report was published in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The study titled is
the first randomized controlled trial of combined pharmacotherapy for depression
and behavioral intervention for substance use disorders in adolescents.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/landmark-study-1.php
Survey Identifies Characteristics
of Teens Who Smoke Marijuana but Not Tobacco
A study suggests that teens
who use only cannabis appear to function better than
those who also use tobacco, and are more socially driven and have no more
psychosocial problems than those who abstain from both substances, according
to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Although teens who smoke both
marijuana and tobacco seem to have more psychosocial problems and thus may
be worthy targets for preventive intervention, those who smoke marijuana only
also should be monitored closely and counseled.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/survey-identifi.php
Medication Plus Counseling
May Help Teens Kick the Smoking Habit
The medication bupropion
plus counseling appears to help adolescents quit cigarette smoking in the
short term, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics
& Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Almost one-fourth
of U.S. high school students currently smoke
cigarettes, according to background information in the article. Though the
results suggest that 300 milligrams of bupropion
plus brief counseling sessions may help teens quit smoking over the short
term, abstinence rates at the end of the treatment period were lower than
those seen in adults taking the same medication, the authors note.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/11/medication-plus.php
