Culture | Page 1803 | Science Codex

What motivates people to walk and bike? It varies by income

Lower- and middle-income King County residents who live in denser neighborhoods -- with stores, libraries and other destinations within easy reach -- are more likely to walk or bike, according to new University of Washington research.

But neighborhood density didn't motivate higher-income residents to leave their cars at home, the transportation engineers found. Of the environmental factors they studied, the only one that significantly influenced how frequently that group walked or biked was how attractive they found their neighborhoods to be.

Half of primary care doctors provide unnecessary specialty referrals upon patient request

A study recently published in the American Journal of Managed Care found that more than half of primary care providers reported that they made what they considered unnecessary referrals to a specialist because patients requested it. Many physicians said they yielded to patient requests for brand-name drug prescriptions when cheaper generics were available.

'Dry eye' linked to chronic pain syndromes

Physician-researchers with Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, part of UHealth--the University of Miami Health System, have found a link between "dry eye" and chronic pain syndromes -- a finding that suggests that a new paradigm is needed for diagnosis and treatment to improve patient outcomes.

Is there a bubble in the art market?

Researchers at the University of Luxembourg are warning of an overheating art market, one of the fastest-growing investment sectors of the past decade, after applying a new bubble detection method analysing millions of auction records.

Archaeological discovery yields surprising revelations about Europe's oldest city

Recent fieldwork at the ancient city of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete finds that during the early Iron Age (1100 to 600 BC), the city was rich in imports and was nearly three times larger than what was believed from earlier excavations. The discovery suggests that not only did this spectacular site in the Greek Bronze Age (between 3500 and 1100 BC) recover from the collapse of the socio-political system around 1200 BC, but also rapidly grew and thrived as a cosmopolitan hub of the Aegean and Mediterranean regions.

First clinical practice guidelines call for lifelong maintenance of restored teeth

UConn School of Dental Medicine's Dr. Avinash Bidra is the lead author of the first national clinical practice guidelines for caring for patients with teeth restorations such as crowns, bridges, veneers and implants.

Do no harm: Examining the impact of medical students' short-term international study

As American medical students increasingly want and expect to have international work experience, more and more short-term programs are being offered to give them that opportunity, according to Melissa Melby, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Delaware.

The trouble is, she writes in a new article in Academic Medicine, that too many of these programs -- called STEGH, or short-term experiences in global health -- focus on the needs of the student trainees and not on what's best for their patients or for overall health care in the countries they visit.

Does urban living make us gain (or lose) weight?

We are not all equal when it comes to obesity. While genetics plays a role, the main causes of excess weight relate to the social environment. In the United States, researchers have long been aware that obesity levels in low-income groups are above average. The same is true in Europe and in the Swiss cities of Geneva and Lausanne, according to researchers in western Switzerland.

The waiter's weight

Whether you order a dessert or a drink might depend on your waiter. It's not what they say; it's how much they weigh.

A new Cornell Food and Brand Lab study of 497 diners in 60 restaurants shows that diners who ordered their dinner from heavier wait staff were four times more likely to order dessert, and ordered 17% more alcohol.

January Health Affairs: Impact of violence on Mexico's life expectancy

One of the studies in the January issue of Health Affairs examines life expectancy trends in Mexico between 2000 and 2010 and notes that homicide rates in the second half of the decade caused male life expectancy to stagnate. Although homicide has typically been associated with Mexican states linked to drug cartel operations, these results highlight increasing rates of male homicide in states with historically low levels of homicide (exhibit below).

Fast & sharp: Medicaid expansion gives hospitals immediate relief from uninsured care

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Just six months after opening up health insurance to more low-income people, states saw a huge drop in the amount of care their hospitals provided to uninsured patients, and a rise in care for people with coverage, a new study finds.

The fast, sharp effect suggests one of the key parts of the Affordable Care Act works as intended, giving hospitals a chance to recoup more of the cost of care they provide instead of having to absorb it when a low-income patient can't pay.

Heavy users of mental health care have substantially different patterns of health care use

TORONTO, January 5, 2016 - While a small number of people account for a disproportionately large portion of health services use, heavy users of mental health care have substantially different patterns of health care use than other heavy users of health care, according to new research by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

During Great Recession employees drank less on the job, but more afterwards

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Periods of economic uncertainty tend to influence drinking problems among people who lose their jobs, as some turn to alcohol due to stress or because they have more free time and fewer responsibilities.

But what about the drinking habits of people who remain employed?

A new study from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions explored the effects of the Great Recession of 2007-09 on alcohol use among people who remained employed.

Injuries among Dungeness crab fishermen examined in new OSU study

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Commercial Dungeness crab fishing on the West Coast is one of the highest risk occupations in the United States, based on fatality rates. But non-fatal injuries in the fishery appear to go largely unreported, a new study from Oregon State University shows.

While the fatality rates in the Dungeness crab fleet have been reported in the past, the incidence of non-fatal injuries have not been previously studied, said Laurel Kincl, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health and safety in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

How to improve cardiac arrest survival in 3 easy steps

WASHINGTON --Although survival rates for people who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital are extremely low in most places, emergency physicians propose three interventions to improve survival rates and functional outcomes in any community and urge additional federal funding for cardiac resuscitation research in an editorial published online last Wednesday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("IOM Says Times to Act to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival ... Here's How").