Dr. Buttery's Public Health BLOG

New research at the University of Calgary shows premature infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy may be at higher risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) than preemies whose mothers did not smoke. This is the first study to investigate the effect of low oxygen and cigarette smoke exposure on infants' heart rate and breathing responses. “Smoking during pregnancy has two very serious effects with respect to SIDS,” says Dr. Shabih Hasan, a neonatologist and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. “Not only does it raise the likelihood of a mother having a preterm baby, who are already among the most vulnerable to SIDS, but it increases those infants’ susceptibility to SIDS even further.”

Posted by at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago. According to Schnittker’s research, genetic arguments have, in fact, increased public support for medical treatment but at the same time aren’t clearly associated with improvements in overall tolerance levels. The study explores tolerance in terms of social distancing: unwillingness to live next door to a mentally ill person, have a group home for the mentally ill in the neighborhood, spend an evening socializing with a mentally ill person, work closely with such a person on the job, make friends with someone with a mental illness or have a mentally ill person marry into the family. Comment: I wonder how much of the problem cited above has to do with lawyers who use ‘mental ill health’ as a technique to get people out of punishment (99% of the time it fails) and the efforts of mental health activists to take over the entire budget of the US.

Posted by at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A "toxic combination" of poverty and social injustice is killing people on a grand scale, a World Health Organization report said Thursday, urging states to fund healthcare to cut inequalities. The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, a report commissioned by the WHO and chaired by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, said these health inequalities were avoidable but only if concerted efforts were made by governments and civil society."Reducing health inequities is an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale," the report said.

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wed, 08/27/2008 - 15:53. By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service. Hundreds of thousands of children are going to school this fall without protection from deadly diseases. More parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children against mumps, measles, rubella, polio and other dangerous diseases. The parents are refusing to vaccinate because of concerns that the vaccinations themselves are harmful, or because of the growing cost and complexity of getting the shots. Comment: The Harm done by ignorant activists seems to make raise few concerns!

Posted by at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ScienceDaily — California's state tobacco control program saved $86 billion -- in 2004 dollars -- in personal healthcare costs in its first 15 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. California’s state tobacco control program saved $86 billion--in 2004 dollars--in personal healthcare costs in its first 15 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. During the same period, the state spent only a total of $1.8 billion on the program, a 50-to-1 return on investment, according to study findings. The study is the first that has been able to quantifiably connect tobacco control to healthcare savings, say its authors.

Posted by at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Medscape reported that "for decades, women have been urged to perform a monthly breast self-examination (BSE), but recently, an increasing number of organizations have backed away from recommending routine self-exams." Several "studies evaluating the benefit of BSE have shown decidedly mixed results and, last month, a flurry of media stories reported on a Cochrane analysis that showed that BSE does not improve breast cancer survival and might, in fact, cause harm." But, "Mark Kane Goldstein, Ph.D., and H.S. Pennypacker, Ph.D., both members of the...research team that identified and validated the standards for proficient breast examination, with the support of the National Cancer Institute, pointed out in a detailed response that the media coverage was misleading, contained a number of errors, and omitted critical information."

Posted by at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)