One in three older people who have difficulty reading and understanding basic health related information may be at increased risk of death, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.
The findings have important implications given rising levels of long term conditions and the UK government's plans for patients to become responsible and active partners in their care.
Highlights
Smoking, the leading preventable cause of mortality in the United States, continues to disproportionately impact lower income members of racial and ethnic minority groups. A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, looked at how perceived discrimination influences smoking rates among these groups.
NEW YORK (March 15, 2012)—New evidence on the link between suicide and the economy shows that the monthly suicide rate in New York City from 1990 to 2006 was 29% higher at the economic low point in 1992 than at the peak of economic growth in 2000.
The study, conducted by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy, the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, and Weill Cornell Medical College, appears in the February 22 American Journal of Epidemiology and is available online.
New evidence that physician attitudes and stereotypes about race, even if unconscious, affect the doctor-patient relationship in ways that may contribute to racial disparities in health care
Primary care physicians who hold unconscious racial biases tend to dominate conversations with African-American patients during routine visits, paying less attention to patients' social and emotional needs and making these patients feel less involved in decision making related to their health, Johns Hopkins researchers report.
Mothers who financially struggle to provide food for their families tend to put themselves at risk for obesity while trying to feed their children, according to Penn State sociologists.
Special conservation zones known as marine protected areas provide many direct benefits to fisheries and coral reefs.
However, such zones appear to offer limited help to corals in their battle against global warming, according to a new study.
To protect coral reefs from climate change, marine protected areas need to be complemented with policies that can meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new national study suggests that adults who receive an inheritance save only about half of what they receive, while spending, donating or losing the rest.
The results are good news for retailers, restaurant owners and people in the service industry who will receive that windfall.
But it is bad news for those who are concerned about the low U.S. savings rate, said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and research scientist at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research.
A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that children who are exposed to passive smoke have almost double the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adulthood compared with non-exposed children.
At Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, researchers examined patients with COPD (433) and control subjects (325) who participated in the Bergen COPD Cohort Study during 2006-2009. Ane Johannessen, PhD, and co-workers assessed risk factors for COPD and analyzed by gender.
Ever wondered what other people do with their inheritance? Do they save, spend or turn it down? According to Jay Zagorsky, from The Ohio State University in the US, it would appear that for roughly every dollar inherited, people save about one-half and either, spend, donate or lose the rest. His work, based on the analysis of data from two large samples of the US population, is published online in Springer's Journal of Family and Economic Issues.
WASHINGTON – The times are changing, and not necessarily for the better when it comes to giving back to society, according to 40 years of research on 9 million young adults. Since the baby boomer generation, there has been a significant decline among young Americans in political participation, concern for others and interest in saving the environment, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.
Prison inmates frequently have a strong history of drug use and misuse, especially during the time prior to incarceration, and drugs often are the driving force behind the offense itself. New research, published in BioMed Central's newly launched open access journal Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, shows that ex-offenders struggle to remain drug free after release from prison and identifies factors that can help them succeed.
Some NHS trusts consistently outperform others on a range of measures of patient experience, finds research published online in BMJ Quality & Safety.
Furthermore, the top performers tend to be Foundation Trusts and teaching hospitals, the study shows.
Patient experience is one of the five domains for assessing NHS performance (NHS Outcomes Framework) and is recognised internationally as a key dimension of healthcare quality.
But it is one of the more difficult areas to measure because of the many contributory factors involved, say the authors.
Music is a very strong emotional communicator, and different cultures have different emotional associations for different musical "modes". Now, a new cross-cultural study shows that tonal trends used to express feelings in music are consistent in different cultures and are similar to those used in speech. The full report is published March 14, in the open access journal PLoS ONE.