Culture

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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").

It's political season and there's one thing you're sure to hear a lot about from candidates vying for support--religion. Talking directly or subtly about religion has become part of the American way in political campaigns.

A new study suggests including religion in campaign speeches feeds a belief that those who are religious to some extent are trustworthy and viewed more favorably. The study was conducted by Scott Clifford of the University of Houston Department of Political Science and Ben Gaskins of Lewis & Clark College.

Among obese older patients with a common type of heart failure, calorie restriction or aerobic exercise training improved their ability to exercise without experiencing shortness of breath, although neither intervention had a significant effect on a measure of quality of life, according to a study in the January 5 issue of JAMA.

Nyon, Switzerland - January 4, 2016 A new editorial published by an International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Working Group urges physicians to individualize treatment decisions based on their patients' fracture risk, rather than automatically interrupting or stopping bisphosphonate therapy after five or three years.

The concept of a bisphosphonate 'holiday' arose following concerns about osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) and atypical femoral fracture (AFF), rare events which have recently been linked to long-term use of bisphosphonates.

By analyzing peer-reviewed scientific papers that examined the effectiveness of a surgical procedure, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine provide evidence suggesting that the conclusions of these studies appear to be influenced by the authors' mentors and medical training. The study is published January 4 by the Annals of Neurology.

A device developed by University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers to automatically monitor and regulate blood-sugar levels in people with type 1 diabetes will undergo final testing in two clinical trials beginning in early 2016.