Serious Injury In Children Prevented By Both Child Safety Seats And Lap-And-Shoulder Seat Belts
For young children, all states currently require the use of child safety seats, and the minimum age and weight requirements to graduate to seat belts has been increasing over time. A new study in the journal Economic Inquiry reveals that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. However, safety seats tend to be better at reducing less serious injuries.
Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago and author of the book Freakonomics and Joseph J. Doyle of the Massachusetts Institute of... Technology analyzed three large representative samples of crashes reported to the police, as well as linked hospital data, among motor vehicle passengers aged 2-6 years of age. Researchers used the data to compare seat belts and child safety seats in preventing injury.
Results show that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. Safety seats were associated with a statistically significant 25 percent reduction in less serious injuries. Lap belts are somewhat less effective than the other two types of restraints, but far superior to riding unrestrained.
"Our comparisons across restraint types incorporate the way they are used, or misused, in practice," the authors conclude. "Because many child safety seats are, in actual use, improperly installed, our estimates are likely to understate the benefits associated with their proper use. From a public policy perspective, however, understanding how safety devices work in practice, as opposed to under ideal circumstances, is of great importance."
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Read More..
Steven D. Levitt of the University of Chicago and author of the book Freakonomics and Joseph J. Doyle of the Massachusetts Institute of... Technology analyzed three large representative samples of crashes reported to the police, as well as linked hospital data, among motor vehicle passengers aged 2-6 years of age. Researchers used the data to compare seat belts and child safety seats in preventing injury.
Results show that lap-and-shoulder seat belts perform as well as child safety seats in preventing serious injury. Safety seats were associated with a statistically significant 25 percent reduction in less serious injuries. Lap belts are somewhat less effective than the other two types of restraints, but far superior to riding unrestrained.
"Our comparisons across restraint types incorporate the way they are used, or misused, in practice," the authors conclude. "Because many child safety seats are, in actual use, improperly installed, our estimates are likely to understate the benefits associated with their proper use. From a public policy perspective, however, understanding how safety devices work in practice, as opposed to under ideal circumstances, is of great importance."
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Link Found Between Bisphenol A And Metabolic Syndrome In Human Tissue
New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) implicates the primary chemical used to produce hard plastics - bisphenol A (BPA) - as a risk factor for metabolic syndrome and its consequences.
In a laboratory study, using fresh human fat tissues, the UC team found that BPA suppresses a key hormone, adiponectin, which is responsible for regulating insulin sensitivity in the body and puts people at a substantially higher risk for metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a combination of risk factors that include lower responsiveness to insulin and higher blood levels of... sugar and lipids. According to the American Heart Association, about 25 percent of Americans have metabolic syndrome. Left untreated, the disorder can lead to life-threatening health problems such as coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
Nira Ben-Jonathan, PhD, and her team are the first to report scientific evidence on the health effects of BPA at environmentally relevant doses equal to "average" human exposure. Previous studies have primarily focused on animal studies and high doses of BPA.
They report their findings in the Aug. 14, 2008, online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. This scientific data comes just before a key Federal Drug Administration meeting about the safety of the chemical in consumer products scheduled for Sept. 16, 2008.
"People have serious concerns about the potential health effects of BPA. As the scientific evidence continues to mount against the chemical, it should be given serious attention to minimize future harm," says Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cancer and cell biology at UC who has studied BPA for more than 10 years.
"Experimenting with human tissue is the closest we can come to testing the effects of BPA in humans. It's a very exciting breakthrough because epidemiological studies looking at BPA effects on humans are difficult since most people have already been exposed to it," she adds.
Scientists estimate that over 80 percent of people tested have measurable BPA in their bloodstream. The UC study was designed to mimic a realistic human exposure (between 0.1 and 10 nanomolar) so that a more direct correlation between human exposure and health effects could be drawn.
To conduct this study, the UC team collected fresh fat tissue from Cincinnati patients undergoing several types of breast or abdominal surgery. These samples included three types of fat tissue: breast, subcutaneous and visceral (around the organs).
Tissue was immediately taken to the laboratory and incubated with different concentrations of BPA or estrogen for six hours to observe how the varied amounts of BPA affected adiponectin levels. The effects of BPA were then compared to those of estradiol, a natural form of human estrogen.
They found that exposing human tissues to BPA levels within the range of common human exposure resulted in suppression of a hormone that protects people from metabolic syndrome.
"These results are especially powerful because we didn't use a single patient, a single tissue source or a single occurrence," she adds. "We used different fat tissues from multiple patients and got the same negative response to BPA."
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------
Read More..
In a laboratory study, using fresh human fat tissues, the UC team found that BPA suppresses a key hormone, adiponectin, which is responsible for regulating insulin sensitivity in the body and puts people at a substantially higher risk for metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a combination of risk factors that include lower responsiveness to insulin and higher blood levels of... sugar and lipids. According to the American Heart Association, about 25 percent of Americans have metabolic syndrome. Left untreated, the disorder can lead to life-threatening health problems such as coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
Nira Ben-Jonathan, PhD, and her team are the first to report scientific evidence on the health effects of BPA at environmentally relevant doses equal to "average" human exposure. Previous studies have primarily focused on animal studies and high doses of BPA.
They report their findings in the Aug. 14, 2008, online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. This scientific data comes just before a key Federal Drug Administration meeting about the safety of the chemical in consumer products scheduled for Sept. 16, 2008.
"People have serious concerns about the potential health effects of BPA. As the scientific evidence continues to mount against the chemical, it should be given serious attention to minimize future harm," says Ben-Jonathan, a professor of cancer and cell biology at UC who has studied BPA for more than 10 years.
"Experimenting with human tissue is the closest we can come to testing the effects of BPA in humans. It's a very exciting breakthrough because epidemiological studies looking at BPA effects on humans are difficult since most people have already been exposed to it," she adds.
Scientists estimate that over 80 percent of people tested have measurable BPA in their bloodstream. The UC study was designed to mimic a realistic human exposure (between 0.1 and 10 nanomolar) so that a more direct correlation between human exposure and health effects could be drawn.
To conduct this study, the UC team collected fresh fat tissue from Cincinnati patients undergoing several types of breast or abdominal surgery. These samples included three types of fat tissue: breast, subcutaneous and visceral (around the organs).
Tissue was immediately taken to the laboratory and incubated with different concentrations of BPA or estrogen for six hours to observe how the varied amounts of BPA affected adiponectin levels. The effects of BPA were then compared to those of estradiol, a natural form of human estrogen.
They found that exposing human tissues to BPA levels within the range of common human exposure resulted in suppression of a hormone that protects people from metabolic syndrome.
"These results are especially powerful because we didn't use a single patient, a single tissue source or a single occurrence," she adds. "We used different fat tissues from multiple patients and got the same negative response to BPA."
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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More Mental Health Problems Reported By Older Vietnamese
Vietnamese Americans over 55, most who came to the United States as political refugees, report more mental health problems than non-Hispanic whites, according to a UC Irvine Center for Health Care Policy analysis of state data.
Vietnamese Americans participating in the California Health Interview Survey were twice as likely as whites to report needing mental health care but were less likely to discuss such issues with their doctor. In addition, they were more prone to have trouble functioning in their daily lives because of these problems.
While the study highlights the need for improved community mental health services, it also reveals long-standing mental health issues among older Vietnamese related to... the Vietnam War and to adjusting to life in the U.S. as older immigrants, said study leader Dr. Quyen Ngo-Metzger.
"Many Vietnamese refugees who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s,'80s and '90s suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and they continue to have mental health issues today," said Ngo-Metzger, medicine assistant professor. "Despite this, little is still known about the health status of these older Vietnamese Americans."
Mental health issues rarely are talked about in the Vietnamese community, added Ngo-Metzger, who studies health disparities facing Vietnamese Americans. "In fact, there's not even a word in Vietnamese for 'depression,'" she said, which compounds the problems.
One important step, she noted, is to make more resources available for community mental health services, which can help remove the significant resistance among older Vietnamese Americans to discussing mental health. Another step, she added, is to train primary-care physicians to properly screen older Vietnamese Americans and to direct them toward treatment.
Orange County, Calif., is home to the nation's largest Vietnamese American community, and it is projected that by 2030 they will form the largest Asian American subgroup in California.
Vietnamese refugees have come to the U.S. in multiple waves since the end of the Vietnam War. The first arrived in 1975 when many Vietnamese with ties to the U.S. government left their country for fear of reprisals under the new communist regime. The second wave came between 1978 and 1984 with the "boat people" escaping religious and political persecution on small fishing vessels.
A third group, from 1985 to 1990, consisted of Amerasian children of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese mothers. And a fourth and current wave of immigration began in 1990, when the U.S. government humanitarian operation allowed political prisoners recently released from labor camps to immigrate to the U.S. Many older Vietnamese adults migrated to the U.S. under this last program.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------
Read More..
Vietnamese Americans participating in the California Health Interview Survey were twice as likely as whites to report needing mental health care but were less likely to discuss such issues with their doctor. In addition, they were more prone to have trouble functioning in their daily lives because of these problems.
While the study highlights the need for improved community mental health services, it also reveals long-standing mental health issues among older Vietnamese related to... the Vietnam War and to adjusting to life in the U.S. as older immigrants, said study leader Dr. Quyen Ngo-Metzger.
"Many Vietnamese refugees who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s,'80s and '90s suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and they continue to have mental health issues today," said Ngo-Metzger, medicine assistant professor. "Despite this, little is still known about the health status of these older Vietnamese Americans."
Mental health issues rarely are talked about in the Vietnamese community, added Ngo-Metzger, who studies health disparities facing Vietnamese Americans. "In fact, there's not even a word in Vietnamese for 'depression,'" she said, which compounds the problems.
One important step, she noted, is to make more resources available for community mental health services, which can help remove the significant resistance among older Vietnamese Americans to discussing mental health. Another step, she added, is to train primary-care physicians to properly screen older Vietnamese Americans and to direct them toward treatment.
Orange County, Calif., is home to the nation's largest Vietnamese American community, and it is projected that by 2030 they will form the largest Asian American subgroup in California.
Vietnamese refugees have come to the U.S. in multiple waves since the end of the Vietnam War. The first arrived in 1975 when many Vietnamese with ties to the U.S. government left their country for fear of reprisals under the new communist regime. The second wave came between 1978 and 1984 with the "boat people" escaping religious and political persecution on small fishing vessels.
A third group, from 1985 to 1990, consisted of Amerasian children of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese mothers. And a fourth and current wave of immigration began in 1990, when the U.S. government humanitarian operation allowed political prisoners recently released from labor camps to immigrate to the U.S. Many older Vietnamese adults migrated to the U.S. under this last program.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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