Culture | Page 2691 | Science Codex

Role-playing games make students want to exercise more, says study

Research performed at the University of Granada (Spain) say it has proved that role-playing games (RPGs) have a very positive effect on the knowledge and habits of physical and sports practice from a health viewpoint in students of Secondary Education and that role playing can make exercise and healthy life habits more attractive for teenagers.

To conduct the study, the authors prepared an intervention program based on a role-playing game at the Institute of Secondary Education of Granada. The study was carried out over 3 months with 1-hour sessions twice per week.

Obese teens who receive gastric banding achieve significant weight loss

A higher percentage of severely obese adolescents who received laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding lost more than 50 percent of excess weight and experienced greater benefits to health and quality of life compared to those in an intensive lifestyle management program, according to a study in the February 10 issue of JAMA.

New study examines the impact on children of food product placements in the movies

LEBANON, NH-– (February 5, 2010) New research from the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) for the first time sheds light on the significant potential negative impact that food product placements in the movies could be having on children.

Anorexics found to have excess fat-- in their bone marrow

Boston, Mass.-- People with anorexia nervosa, paradoxically, have strikingly high levels of fat within their bone marrow, report researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. Their findings, based on MRI imaging of the knees of 20 girls with anorexia and 20 healthy girls of the same age, appear in the February issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Fictional TV drama more persuasive regarding birth control than news media, study finds

COLUMBUS, Ohio -– Sorry, Walter Cronkite wanna-bes. The mainstream media may be losing some of its advocacy power in our culture. A new study says a fictional television drama may be more effective in persuading young women to use birth control than a news-format program on the same issue.

Researchers found that college-age women who viewed a televised drama about a teen pregnancy felt more vulnerable two weeks after watching the show, and this led to more support for using birth control.

No surprise: Cell-phone bans have greater impact in dense traffic areas

CHAMPAIGN, Ill.-— A new study analyzing the impact of hand-held cell phone legislation on driving safety concludes that usage-ban laws had more of an impact in densely populated urban areas with a higher number of licensed drivers than in rural areas where there are fewer licensed drivers, according to a University of Illinois researcher.

Childhood obesity: Blame the junk food commercials, not the parents who buy the junk food

The association between television viewing and childhood obesity is directly related to children's exposure to commercials that advertise unhealthy foods, according to a new UCLA School of Public Health study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study, conducted by Frederick J. Zimmerman and Janice F. Bell, is the first to break down the types of television children watch to better determine whether different kinds of content may exert different effects on obesity.

Mystery of Modigliani's "Portrait of Maud Abrantes" solved?

A century after Amedeo Modigliani painted the 'Portrait of Maud Abrantes', the mystery behind the painting might be solved. Ofra Rimon, Director and Curator of the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa, discovered that hidden in the painting is the portrait of another woman. "Modigliani was probably not happy with that painting and decided to paint over it in favor of a portrait of Maud," she claims.

Nicotine replacement therapy is over-promoted since most ex-smokers quit unassisted

Health authorities should emphasize the positive message that the most successful method used by most ex-smokers is unassisted cessation, despite the promotion of cessation drugs by pharmaceutical companies and many tobacco control advocates.The dominant messages about smoking cessation contained in most tobacco control campaigns, which emphasize that serious attempts at quitting smoking must be pharmacologically or professionally mediated, are critiqued in an essay in this week's PLoS Medicine by Simon Chapman and Ross MacKenzie from the School of Public Health at the University of

Morality and the evolution of religion

The details surrounding the emergence and evolution of religion have not been clearly established and remain a source of much debate among scholars. Now, an article published by Cell Press in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences on February 8 brings a new understanding to this long-standing discussion by exploring the fascinating link between morality and religion.

Canadian healthcare and the private sale of drugs in public hospitals

Governments are under increasing pressure to provide access to expensive new drugs. Canadian patients who want access to drugs that are not publicly insured are seeking to pay for these drugs within public hospitals, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj081137.pdf.

New CATCH rule to determine need for CT scans in children with minor head injury

A new tool may help standardize the use of computed tomography (CT scans) in children with minor head injury and help reduce the number of scans, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091421.pdf.

Not buying it: Few women taking tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer

PHILADELPHIA – Researchers with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have found that the prevalence of tamoxifen use for the prevention of breast cancer among women without a personal history of breast cancer is very low.

Tamoxifen can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer in women who are at increased risk for developing the disease. Details of this survey are published in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Ironic endorsement: Smokers more likely to accept HPV vaccination for their daughters

PHILADELPHIA – A parent's existing health habits or behaviors, like cigarette smoking, may influence the likelihood that they will have their daughters vaccinated against HPV.

According to survey results on correlates of HPV vaccine use, whether parents would choose to vaccinate their daughters was not associated with one's background or medical history, but was more closely associated with certain behavioral factors of the parents.

No laws needed: Family meals, adequate sleep, limited TV lower childhood obesity

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new national study suggests that preschool-aged children are likely to have a lower risk for obesity if they regularly engage in one or more of three specific household routines: eating dinner as a family, getting adequate sleep and limiting their weekday television viewing time.

In a large sample of the U.S. population, the study showed that 4-year-olds living in homes with all three routines had an almost 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than did children living in homes that practiced none of these routines.