Culture

(Toronto) November 12, 2013 – Adults with developmental disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome are having a harder time accessing health care even though they have more health issues than people without developmental disabilities, according to research done at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Montreal, November 12, 2013 — Why put a big comfy couch in the corner of the local bookshop? Why provide stacks of board games free of charge at the corner café? Why give out complimentary backstage passes after the show?Because by making people feel at home in a commercial space, marketers can turn their own clients into salespeople.

Over the last decade, the biggest driver of the high health care costs in the United States has been neither the aging of the population nor the large numbers of tests and treatments being prescribed.

An examination of health care in the U.S. finds that despite the extraordinary economic success of many of its participants, the health care system has performed relatively poorly by some measures; and that outcomes have improved, but more slowly than in the past and more slowly than in comparable countries, according to an article in the November 13 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on critical issues in U.S. health care.

Patients Report High-Quality Care in Federally Supported Health Centers

Patients seen in federally supported community health centers in the United States generally report high quality of care, according to data from a nationally representative survey of more than 4,500 patients.

Eight-four percent of patients surveyed reported excellent or very good overall quality of services; 81 percent reported excellent or very good quality of clinician care; and 84 percent were very likely to refer friends and relatives.

WASHINGTON — Diabetic patients treated in the emergency department who were enrolled in a program in which they received automated daily text messages improved their level of control over their diabetes and their medication adherence, according to a study published online today in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Trial to Examine Test Message Based mHealth in Emergency Department Patients with Diabetes (TExT-MED): A Randomized Controlled Trial") http://tinyurl.com/n2frbbb.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Twitter clips human thoughts to a mere 140 characters. Animals' scent posts may be equally as short, relatively speaking, yet they convey an encyclopedia of information about the animals that left them.

In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a Michigan State University researcher shows that the detailed scent posts of hyenas are, in part, products of symbiotic bacteria, microbes that have a mutually beneficial relationship with their hosts.

WASHINGTON, DC – As congressional budget leaders continue negotiations over Fiscal Year 2014 spending levels, three organizations representing the nation's leading public and private research universities today released the results of a new survey looking at sequestration's impact on research across the country. The survey is a bellwether of the devastating impact that sustained cuts to research and higher education will have on the economy and the United States' role as a global innovation leader.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — According to the World Health Organization, approximately 30 percent of women in North and South America experience intimate partner violence during their lifetimes. In North America, domestic violence also is the most common cause of non-fatal injuries among women, often resulting in broken bones.

LEBANON, NH – Producing more healthcare providers is often touted as the principle solution to the looming shortage in the primary care workforce. A quicker and less costly approach to offset primary care physician shortages can occur with the workforce already in place, through efforts to reduce the widespread waste and inefficiency in the typical physician workday.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Although it may not receive high marks these days as a public body, Congress should actually be empowered so it can uphold the constitutional checks and balances that help to curb overreach by the other two branches of government, a University of Illinois expert in administrative law says in a newly published paper.

By adopting a doctrine of "complete delegation," courts have systematically hamstrung the ability of Congress to influence bureaucratic decision-making, says Jamelle Sharpe, a professor of law at Illinois.

Registered nurses in hospitals often lack the time for nursing care activities, such as comfort or talk with patients or educating patients and relatives. A study by the Institute of Nursing Sciences at the University of Basel shows that all European countries are affected, but variability in these and other important aspects of nursing care between and within countries was found. The results have been published in the journal "BMJ Quality & Safety".

Alumni from Case Western Reserve University School of Nursing switched roles from being nurses to patients with depression and substance abuse issues. They made the change to give Case Western Reserve University's student nurses some special training in communications.

The novel use of alumni as standardized patients, the name for actors playing the role of patients, was reported in the Clinical Simulation in Nursing article, "Nursing Alumni as Standardized Patients: An Untapped Resource."

Researchers from the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) at the University of Southampton have identified key 'turning-points' in young adults' lives which influence whether or not they return to the parental home.

Dr Juliet Stone, Professor Ann Berrington and Professor Jane Falkingham have found that factors such as leaving full-time education, unemployment, or a relationship break-up, are highly significant in whether young people go back to living with their parents.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The amount of gun violence shown in PG-13 films has more than tripled since 1985, the year the rating was introduced.

In fact, the most popular PG-13 movies of 2011 and 2012 showed significantly more gun violence than R-rated movies of the same time period, a new study reveals.

"It's shocking how gun use has skyrocketed in movies that are often marketed directly at the teen audience," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at The Ohio State University.