New research published on bmj.com today supports a change to the lifetime ban on blood donations from homosexual men.
In the 1980s, blood services in many countries introduced a lifetime ban on blood donations by men who had ever had oral or anal sex with a man. Some other groups at increased risk of HIV (drug users) are allowed to donate blood after a year's deferral since last risky activity under the rationale that you can stop using drugs but can't choose to stop being gay.
Bethesda, MD—A new commentary published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) argues that patients should be diligent and demand proof of safety and benefit before beginning any treatment regimen for chronic pain, as some treatments have very little scientific evidence that they actually alleviate the conditions for which they are prescribed. In the article, Phillip J.
CORAL GABLES, FL (September 8, 2011) – University of Miami Frost School of Music Professor Carlos R. Abril has recently published findings of a research study designed to construct a national demographic profile of high school band, choir, and orchestra students in the U.S. using evidence from the 2004 follow-up wave of the Education Longitudinal Study. The article, published with Kenneth Elpus (University of Maryland) in the Journal of Research in Music Education, is titled "High School Music Ensemble Students in the United States: A Demographic Profile."
WASHINGTON, DC—September 8, 2011—The U.S. public and private sectors invested $140.5 billion in 2010 on research to find new ways to treat, cure and prevent disease and disability, according to Research!America's latest annual estimate, available at http://www.researchamerica.org/uploads/healthdollar10.pdf.
With the police service undergoing budget reductions, and calls for more officers on the streets, a new study offers some reassuring conclusions. Researchers at UCL's Department of Security and Crime Science found no evidence that successful police crime prevention activity, such as problem-oriented policing, results in problems being moved elsewhere (as sceptics argue). In fact, the study identified knock-on crime reduction benefits for nearby areas in some cases.
A specially commissioned set of essays, published in the September 2011 issue of the Geographical Journal, argues that in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks the world did change, but not always in ways anticipated by policy-makers and pundits.
Edited by Simon Dalby of Carleton University the commentaries and essays, written by distinguished geographers and social scientists including Derek Gregory and Neil Smith, puncture the more hyperbolic claims regarding the longer-term significance of the attacks.
CINCINNATI—Although society's perception might be that surgeons endure greater mental challenges and stress in their work duties than a primary care doctor, new research from experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) shows that this isn't necessarily the case.
Almost one third of students at a university in Uganda say that they have been subject to sexual coercion, an experience which was often linked to risky sexual behaviour. This is shown in a study from Lund University in Sweden. The study's findings could lead to a new approach in the work to combat HIV in Uganda.
The link between being subjected to sexual coercion and engaging in risky sexual behaviour by making an early sexual debut and having many sexual partners is significant in the work to prevent HIV, in the view of to Anette Agardh, the researcher who has led the study.
News coverage of Washington politicians and their rhetoric appears to have less influence on the American public compared to other news coverage, according to a political scientist. Using the news media as a bully pulpit to influence public opinion has decreased, though the groundswell of media support for Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign might lead many to believe otherwise.
WASHINGTON — Factoring health and related costs into decision making is essential to enhancing public well-being, says a new report from the National Research Council, which adds that a health impact assessment (HIA) is a promising tool for use by scientists, communities, and government and private sector policymakers.
Links between hundreds of millions of names belonging to people around the world have been analysed by geographers from UCL and the University of Auckland. The results reveal how our forenames and surnames are connected in distinct global networks of cultural, ethnic and linguistic communities.
The researchers say their methods could be of use to social scientists and health researchers investigating migration, identity and integration.
Within hours this summer, 30 American troops died in a strike in Afghanistan and millions of American investors watched the Dow Jones Average shed an astonishing 634 points in one day.
While it might be difficult to find similarities in the two events, social psychologists can detect a common theme: in each case investments (money and human lives) were made, and those resources were painfully lost.
Fast-rising health costs have eaten nearly all the income gains made by a median-income American family of four over the past decade, leaving them with just $95 per month in extra income, after accounting for taxes and price increases, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Had health care costs risen only as fast as the cost of other goods and services in the United States from 1999 to 2009, the same family would have an additional $545 per month to spend in 2009, according to findings published in the September edition of the journal Health Affairs.
Increased consolidation among health plans nationally may benefit consumers by lowering hospital prices, at least in those regions where health plans are the most consolidated, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Researchers found that hospital prices were about 12 percent lower in the metropolitan areas with the fewest health plans, lending support to the view that when health plans become bigger they can negotiation lower prices from health providers.
WASHINGTON-- A new report released jointly today by AARP's Public Policy Institute, The Commonwealth Fund and The SCAN Foundation shows some states significantly out-perform others in the delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS) to older adults and people with disabilities.