ANN ARBOR, Mich.—As the country emerges from the Great Recession, a substantial number of U.S. families are underwater—and not just with their mortgages.
According to a new University of Michigan report, about one out of every five U.S. households owe more on credit cards, medical bills, student loans and other noncollateralized debts than they have in savings and other liquid assets.
Wondering why your toddler is acting up? University of Alberta researcher Christina Rinaldi says it may be time to take a look at your parental style—and your partner's.
Americans spend, on average, only about two hours each week participating in sports and fitness activities, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Maryland who examined U.S. government data from the American Time Use Study.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults aged 18 to 64 get about four hours of physical activity each week by exercising moderately for 2.5 hours per week and engaging in a vigorous activity, such as running and muscle strengthening, for an hour and fifteen minutes per week.
Antidepressive drugs reduce the mortality rate of schizophrenic patients, while treatment with bensodiazepines greatly increases it, especially as regards suicide. Giving several antipsychotics simultaneously, however, seems to have no effect at all. This according to a new study examining different drug combinations administered to patients with schizophrenia.
"We weren't aware that the beneficial effects of antidepressives were so powerful," says Jari Tiihonen, professor of clinical psychiatry at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Clinical Neuroscience in Stockholm, Sweden.
To calculate physicians' fees under Medicare – which in turn influence some state and private payers' decisions on how they will pay doctors -- the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) relies on the recommendations of an American Medical Association advisory panel. A study led by Miriam Laugesen, PhD at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, found that the Medicare and Medicaid agency closely followed the committee's recommendations on the fees physicians are paid, which are based on an assessment of time and effort associated with various physicians' services.
Television viewing and unhealthy eating habits in U.S. adolescents appear to be linked in a national survey of students in the fifth to 10 th grades, according to a report published in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA Network publication. The study is part of the Nutrition and the Health of Children and Adolescents theme issue.
Among adults with depression and poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, or both, a collaborative care intervention incorporating a team-centered care approach is associated with improvements in depression-free days and quality-adjusted life-years, according to a report in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, a JAMA Network publication.
Exercise can counteract muscle breakdown, increase strength and reduce inflammation caused by aging and heart failure, according to new research in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal.
The benefits for heart failure patients are similar to those for anyone who exercises: there's less muscle-wasting, and their bodies become conditioned to handle more exercise.
Age of the patients didn't matter, either, researchers found.
If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually -- about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Consumer-directed health plans, which include high deductibles and personal health accounts, are a market-based approach that many employers have adopted to address health care spending. Such plans now account for about 13 percent of all employer-sponsored health coverage.
BOSTON – Living close to a major highway poses a significant risk to heart attack survivors, reinforcing the need to isolate housing developments from heavy traffic areas, a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study concludes.
Patients with atrial fibrillation (A-fib) who cannot take blood thinners now have an alternative to reduce their risk of stroke, which is five times more common in people with the rhythm disorder. The non-surgical procedure works by tying off the left atrial appendage (LAA), the source of most blood clots leading to stroke in patients with A-fib. Northwestern Medicine® heart rhythm specialists from the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute were the first to perform this procedure in Illinois.
After the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, many proclaimed that the country had entered a post-racial era in which race was no longer an issue. However, a new large-scale study shows that racial attitudes have already played a substantial role in 2012, during the Republican primaries. They may play an even larger role in this year's presidential election.
Political leaders such as Barack Obama and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt may be popular among Swedes. However, they are not as popular as Swedish Crown Princess Victoria, according to the results of the latest SOM survey - University of Gothenburg, Sweden - which were presented Tuesday during the seminar Focus on the Leaders.
Although Swedes' confidence in the Swedish Royal Court is at a record low, it turns out that Crown Princess Victoria is the most popular of all royalties included in the survey.
(WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012) – A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP).
Birthdays, graduations, Christmas, baby showers, bridal showers, bar and bat mitzvahs, Mother's Day, Father's Day, first marriages (and second.. and third…), wedding anniversaries, the spontaneous friendship gesture, the occasional sorry-about-that gesture, hostess gifts and presents that don't even fall into a recognizable category. The year is filled with opportunities and obligations to give and receive.