Culture

Westchester, Ill. —A study in the Sept.1 issue of the journal SLEEP shows that current or past exposure to workplace bullying is associated with increased sleep disturbances. Associations also were found between observed bullying and sleep disruption, indicating that bullying has detrimental effects even when it is experienced indirectly.

Retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other stores can provide care for routine illnesses at a lower cost and similar quality as offered in physician offices, urgent care centers or emergency departments, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

About three-quarters of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer have a friend or family member with them at their first visit with a surgeon. And that person plays a significant role in the patient's decision of what type of surgery to have, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Parents who sign their children up for sports as part of an educational experience and to learn about teamwork may be learning some of the same lessons themselves, according to new research from Purdue University.

"People often think about how youth sport benefits children because of physical activity, self-confidence and friendships, but we found that parents also are affected when their children play organized team sports," said Travis Dorsch, a doctoral student in health and kinesiology who led the study.

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have recently documented a growing trend in the centralization of cancer surgery —— more patients seeking care at high volume centers, which are generally located in metropolitan areas. While trends like this should improve patient outcomes, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that there are still a good number of patients who will not travel a long distance to get their care.

Fish in U.S. waters from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian border have moved away from their traditional, long-time habitats over the past four decades because of fundamental changes in the regional ecosystem, according to a new report by NOAA researchers.

The 2009 Ecosystem Status Report also points out the need to manage the waters off the northeastern coast of the United States as a whole rather than as a series of separate and unrelated components.

Paradoxically, mortality rates during economic recessions in developed countries decline rather than increase, according to an analysis http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj090553.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmja.ca. In poor countries with less than $5000 GDP per capita, economic growth appears to improve health by increasing access to food, clean water and shelter as well as basic health services.

The risk of infant death following planned home birth attended by a registered midwife does not differ from that of a planned hospital birth, found a study http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj081869.pdf published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca.

Canada should extend universal health coverage to fund in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, writes Dr. Renda Bouzayen, Division Head, Reproductive Endocrine and Infertility, Dalhousie University in an editorial http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj091344.pdf with the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca editorial writing team.

Weighty. Heavy. What do these words have to do with seriousness and importance? Why do we weigh our options, and why does your opinion carry more weight than mine?

New research suggests that we can blame this on gravity. Heavy objects require more energy to move, and they can hurt us more if we move them clumsily. So we learn early on in life to think more and plan more when we're dealing with heftier things. They require more cognitive effort as well as muscular effort.

Last year, after a published paper found serious security holes in the way DNA data is made publicly available, health institutes in the United States and across the world removed all genetic data from public access.

"Unfortunately, that knee-jerk response stymied potential breakthrough genetic research," says Dr. Eran Halperin of Tel Aviv University's Blavatnik School of Computer Sciences and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology. He wants to put this valuable DNA information back in circulation, and has developed the tool to do it — safely.

Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: NORDISTEMI: first trial to study the effect of early PCI after fibrinolysis in rural areas with very long transfer delays.

Results from the NORwegian study on DIstrict treatment of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NORDISTEMI) show that patients presenting with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in rural areas have a better treatment outcome with thrombolysis followed by immediate transfer for angiography than with thrombolysis and conservative, community-hospital follow-up.

Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) result from a negative interaction between genes, lifestyle and environment. To prevent CVD, it is necessary to influence the natural history of the disease development in an individual. While we cannot change our genes, we can do a lot to our lifestyles and environments. It is generally agreed that individuals alone should not be blamed for chronic diseases such as CVD, but that society also has its role and responsibilities.

Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Raising livestock also accounts for around 18% of greenhouse gases. It is therefore possible to act against climate change and reduce cardiovascular and cancer deaths, by cutting the production and consumption of 'red meat' from these animals. The World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research have recommended that an individual should eat no more than 500 grams of red meat per week.

Barcelona, Spain, 30 August: The anticoagulant dabigatran is more effective than warfarin in the prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, according to results from the RE-LY study (Randomized Evaluation of Long-term anticoagulant therapY).

"Although researchers have been looking for a replacement for warfarin for several decades, nothing has been successful as an oral blood thinner," says Professor Stuart Connolly, Director of the Division of Cardiology at McMaster University, Canada, and one of the leading investigators of the study.