Kids of Depressed Moms
More Prone to Behavioral Problems and Injury
Young children whose mothers
are depressed are more prone to behavioral problems and injury, suggests US research published in Injury Prevention.
The mothers and their children were all taking part in the National Longitudinal
Study of Youth, which has been tracking the health of young mothers and their
children from birth since 1986. Children whose mothers scored persistently
high marks on the depression scales were more than twice as likely to have
been injured as those whose mothers had a low rating. And children whose
mothers had a high rating were significantly more likely to have behavioral
problems and to "act out."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/kids-of-depress.php
Child Mental Health Experts
Issue Psychiatric Medication Treatment Guidelines for Preschoolers
The number of preschool-age
children being treated with stimulants, antidepressants and other psychiatric
drugs is on the rise, despite limited research and a lack of clinical practice
guidelines. In a first step toward standardizing treatment approaches, child
mental health professionals from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center
of Brown University and 11 other institutions have developed recommendations
for specific disorders to help clinicians who are considering medications
for children ages 3 to 6.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/child-mental-he.php
Preventing Childhood
Obesity: the Need to Create Healthy Places
This brief published by
the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health examines the relationship
between childhood obesity, economic hardship and availability of open spaces
in dozens of LA County cities and communities. The brief defines economic
hardship as an index of 6 indicators that includes poverty, as well as educational
attainment. Childhood obesity rates are ranked and comparisons with each community
are provided. Finally, general recommendations on what communities and cities
can do to reduce obesity rates are presented.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/preventing-chil.php
Overweight Adolescents
Projected to Have More Heart Disease in Young Adulthood
A new study investigating
the health effects of being overweight during adolescence projects alarming
increases in the rates of heart disease and premature death by the time today's
teenagers reach young adulthood. A team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University Medical Center used a computer-based statistical
modeling system known as the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model to
estimate the potential impact of an increasingly overweight U.S. adolescent population on future adult
health nationwide.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/overweight-adol.php
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Palo Alto Medical Foundation Launches Updated
Health Website for Parents
The Palo Alto Medical Foundation
(PAMF) has a new and improved resource for parents looking for answers about
a newborn's development, advice on talking to a preteen about difficult topics
or supporting a teen struggling with making the right decision. The foundation
recently launched the updated health Website for the parents of teens, preteens
and younger children at www.pamf.org/parents. To help parents stay up-to-date
on the latest studies and discoveries in adolescent health research, PAMF
physicians and researchers review and provide a summary of new and important
information on a range of subjects with links to the relevant study or organization.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/palo-alto-medic-1.php
Heavy Drinking, Conduct
Disorder Linked to High-Risk Sexual Behavior
Psychiatry researchers at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a clinical diagnosis
of alcohol dependence in young adults is associated with having a high number
of sex partners. The study, published in the December issue of the journal
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also found links between
a conduct disorder diagnosis and high numbers of sexual partners as well as
between problem drinking and more partners. Alcohol dependence is an excessive
use of alcohol that's harmful to physical and mental health.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/heavy-drinking.php
Why Do High School Seniors
Drink?
Most high school seniors
drink because they want to experiment with alcohol, some drink for the thrill
of it, and others because it helps them relax. A new study finds that a fourth
group of high school students share all those reasons for drinking, but they
also drink to get away from problems and to deal with anger or frustration
issues. Kids with multiple reasons to drink, including reasons related to
coping with life, show the heaviest and most problematic drinking behaviors,
according to the study published in the December issue of Prevention Science.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/why-do-high-sch.php
Finding the Right Words:
Provider-Patient Discussions Can Help Domestic Violence Victims Speak Up
Researchers at University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and other sites have found that doctors
and other health care providers can better their chances of identifying and
helping victims of domestic violence by changing the way they ask patients
questions. In a large study recently published in the Annals of Internal
Medicine, researchers found a number of communication pitfalls when emergency
care providers discussed domestic violence with patients.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/finding-the-rig.php
**Civic Engagement
Walk a Mile Program-
Making Politics Personal
Start the New Year off involving
policymakers, low-income constituents, and youth in foster care in the Walk
a Mile experience. Walk a Mile is an educational one month experience where
policymakers and either a low-income parent or a youth living in foster care
are paired together so the pairs can learn about each other's lives through
conversations and personal experiences. Since 1994 Walk a Mile (WAM) has
helped communities in 36 states, open the eyes and hearts of policymakers
and the general public to the real-life challenges facing people living in
poverty. WAM provides the venue for a non-confrontational, up-close, hands-on
educational opportunity for policymakers.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/walk-a-mile-pro.php
**Community Development
Housing in the Nation's
Capital 2007
This is the sixth in a series
of annual reports from the Urban
Institute about housing in the Washington metropolitan region. It assembles
and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the
District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. Last
year's report focused on linkages between housing and schools in the District of Columbia and the metropolitan region. This
year's report takes a regional perspective, examining how the region addresses
housing for special needs populations. More specifically, the report assesses
the housing options and services available to the elderly, disabled, and homeless
and explores the consequences and opportunities for housing policy across
the region.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/housing-in-the.php
Restrictions Make Handguns
Hard to Get in Some U.S. Cities
When police make it a priority
to crack down on illegal guns, it reduces the amount of guns available to
youths and criminals and makes guns harder to obtain, according to a new study
based on interviews with gang members and illicit gun dealers in two high-crime
Chicago neighborhoods.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/restrictions-ma.php
**Economic Security
Working Women in Transition
Stephanie D., a recovering
addict and single mother, spoke of her experience in the Women's Bureau's
Working Women in Transition (WWIT) program. The appropriately-named Hope Center, a faith-based organization, conducted
the graduation ceremony for current and past recipients of Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) who completed the WWIT program. WWIT uses the Bureau's
strategy of combining both "high tech" and "high touch"
components (online and interpersonal resources) to assist women in finding
employment, increasing their earnings, entering into career education/training
opportunities, and/or starting a business.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/working-women-i.php
New Effort to Recognize
Computing Education as Critical to 21st Century Workforce
ACM (the Association for
Computing Machinery) has created a high-level committee of acclaimed computer
scientists and educators to improve opportunities for quality education in
computing and computer science. Chaired by Bobby Schnabel, dean of the Indiana
University School of Informatics, ACM's new Education Policy Committee (EPC)
will develop initiatives aimed at shaping national education policies that
impact on the computing field. The EPC will initially focus on steps to
ensure that computer science education is identified as a critical component
of education policy in the U.S. at both federal and state levels.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/association-for-1.php
**Education
Value-Added Analysis
and Education Policy
This brief from the Urban
Institute describes estimation and measurement issues relevant to estimating
the quality of instruction in the context of a cumulative model of learning.
It also discusses implications for the use of value-added estimates in personnel
and compensation matters. The discussion highlights the importance of accounting
for student differences and the advantages of focusing on student achievement
gains as opposed to differences in test scores. Despite potential shortcomings,
value-added analysis can provide valuable information for use in evaluating
and compensating teachers.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/valueadded-anal.php
**Health
Canada's Health System Beats U.S. in Cost and Results
The Canadian health care
system was derided by conservatives in the United States during the 1993 debates around proposed
reforms. An easy comparison of the changes in per capita costs from 1993 to
2005 in those two countries should make the original doubters think again
(especially when considering that Canada also has better infant mortality and
life expectancy rates that we do). Get the facts at a glance in the Economic Policy Institute’s Snapshot.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/canadas-health.php
Can California's Proposed Coverage Reform Be a Model
for the District of Columbia?
According to the Urban Institute,
the ongoing debate in California over two competing 2007 proposals
for universal health coverage highlights both the strengths and weaknesses
of the current insurance system in the District of Columbia as a platform for coverage expansion.
The District's advantages include its relatively small uninsured population
and existing mechanisms for administering a public coverage program tied to
income. But its fiscal base is relatively small compared with California's,
its largely unregulated insurance market could lead to severe adverse selection
problems for new programs, and it is at much greater risk for border-crossing
by both individuals and businesses in response to reform.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/can-californias.php
Toward a Rational, Value-Based
Drug Benefit for Medicare
While Medicare beneficiaries
give high marks to the new prescription drug benefit, the actual performance
of Medicare Part D has so far been mixed. With support from The Commonwealth
Fund, two health policy experts outline steps for putting the drug benefit
onto a more value-driven path. A long-term objective should be integrating
drug benefits with comprehensive health coverage, the authors say. A patient's
contribution should not vary with the cost of a drug, the authors say, and
beneficiaries should not have to wonder how much they will be required to
pay at the pharmacy.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/toward-a-ration.php
**Hunger and Nutrition
Kids Eat More Fruits,
Vegetables When Schools Offer Salad Bar
A new UCLA study has found
that elementary schools can significantly increase the frequency of fruit
and vegetable consumption among low-income students by providing a lunch salad
bar. The findings, published in the December issue of the international peer-reviewed
journal Public Health Nutrition, show that the frequency of students' fruit
and vegetable consumption increased significantly --- from 2.97 to 4.09 times
daily --- after a salad bar was introduced. "One of the major contributing
factors to the high rate of overweight children in the United States is that they do not consume the daily
recommended servings of fruits and vegetables."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/kids-eat-more-f.php
**Seniors
Computer Calls Can Talk
Couch Potatoes into Walking
Computer-generated phone
calls may be an effective, low-cost way to encourage sedentary adults to exercise,
according to a recent study by researchers at the Stanford University School
of Medicine. Results of the yearlong study found that regular telephone calls
delivered from either live health educators or by an automated computer system
successfully prodded inactive adults into a regular 150-minute per week exercise
program. "This is the first study to directly compare the efficacy of
a physical activity program delivered by a computer versus humans and found
them to work similarly well."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/computer-calls.php
Mental Health Treatment
Extends Lives of Older Patients with Diabetes and Depression
Researchers at the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine report that older
adults with diabetes and depression are half as likely to die over a 5-year
period when they receive depression care management than depressed patients
with diabetes who do not receive depression care management. The first known
study to examine the relationship between diabetes and mortality in a depression
intervention trial appears in the December issue of Diabetes Care.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/mental-health-t.php
**Substance Abuse
Participation in Organized
High School Activities Lowers Risk of Smoking 3 Years after Graduation
Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania reported today that students who participate
in high school sports or individual physical activity are less likely to smoke
than their classmates. The new study indicates that the protective effect
of participation extends at least three years beyond graduation. The Penn
team discovered, however, that girls do not derive the same level of protection
from school sports as do boys.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/participation-i.php
Addiction Treatment Practitioner's
Research Bulletin
Join Together, a project
of the Boston University School of Public Health, is launching the Treatment
Practitioner's Research Bulletin (TPRB), a free e-publication written by practitioners
for practitioners. Every month, TPRB will take a focused look at the most
important research affecting alcohol and drug addiction counselors, giving
front-line treatment professionals information they can incorporate into their
clinical practice.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/12/addiction-treat.php
