Signs drive shoppers to take the stairs
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:30:37 GMTBy MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - Attention all shoppers: taking the stairs protects your heart. That's the message researchers tried at a suburban shopping mall by putting up colorful signs along the steps of a staircase, and it worked. Over six weeks, use of the stairway next to an escalator more than doubled.
Normally, about 4 percent of people at the mall take the stairs but after adding the signs, that went up to nearly 10 percent. The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Health Promotion.
"A certain segment of the population clearly responds to these messages," said Frank Eves, one of the study's authors, and a senior lecturer in applied psychology at the University of Birmingham.
Eves and colleagues counted the number of people at a mall who climbed the 15 steps before the signs went up and after they were posted. They counted more than 82,000 shoppers at the mall in Coventry in western England,
"If we can persuade more people to take the stairs, then we might really have something in the war against obesity," he said.
With fewer daily opportunities for physical activity in modern society, public health officials are increasingly focusing on stairs at schools, workplaces, and even the mall. Past studies have also shown that the decision to take stairs can be manipulated relatively easily with a few signs.
Eves and his co-author, Oliver Webb of Loughborough University, also found more people walked down the stairs at the mall, even though they couldn't see the signs. The 25 percent increase suggested people had remembered the messages from going upstairs earlier, and consciously decided to take the stairs on the way down, Eves said.
Still, experts think that to change behavior long term, the signs need to be seen regularly. At the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control in Atlanta, physical activity experts tested that in a 2002 campaign to boost internal stair use.
By tacking up signs promoting stair use and transforming their ugly, concrete stairs into a carpeted, bright stairwell with artwork and piped-in music, CDC officials have bumped up stair use by nearly 20 percent.
"The cultural norm in the building has clearly changed," said Dr. Michael Pratt, director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Center for Physical Activity and Health Promotion at the CDC.
"We're a pretty good example of the fact that knowledge alone doesn't lead people to take the stairs," Pratt said. "Once the stairs were made more attractive and we added incentives, numbers went up quite a bit."
Experts emphasize that just climbing one flight of stairs at a shopping mall is not going to improve your health. But they hope the signs may inspire some people to regularly forgo escalators in the future.
"Unless you're climbing six or seven flights of stairs a day, it's probably not a substitute for daily exercise, but every little bit helps," said Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the WHO.
Eves and Webb estimated that climbing stairs for seven minutes every day could reduce your risk of developing heart disease by about 60 percent.
In a previous study in Glasgow, Eves found that overweight people responded better to the signs than normal-weight people. Overweight people are also the ones who benefit the most from stair climbing. Since the activity involves raising your own weight against gravity, the more you weigh, the more you burn.
"An overweight person might not want to do aerobics or go swimming, but stair climbing is very doable," Pratt said. "You can exercise without even really thinking about it."
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On the Net:
CDC StairWELL project: http://tinyurl.com/23tpcz
Over 35.5 million found hungry in 2006
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:31:02 GMTBy HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - More than 35.5 million people in this country went hungry in 2006 as they struggled to find jobs that can support them, a figure that was virtually unchanged from the previous year, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.
Single mothers and their children were among the most likely to suffer, according to the study.
The 35.5 million people represented more than 1 in 10, or 12.1 percent, who said they did not have enough money or resources to get food for at least some period during the year, according to the department's annual hunger survey. That is compared with 35.1 million people who made similar claims in 2005.
"This is encouraging, but we know we have more work to do," said Kate Houston, USDA's deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. She said the numbers aren't much different from 2005, which saw a decline after five straight years of increases.
Of the 35.5 million people, 11.1 million reported they had "very low food security," meaning they had a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat. For example, among families, a third of those facing disruption in the food they typically eat said an adult in their family did not eat for a whole day because they could not afford it.
"No one in America should go hungry," Houston said.
The survey was based on Census Bureau data and does not include the homeless. About three-quarters of a million people were homeless on a given day in 2005, according to federal estimates.
Among the findings:
_Among families, about 12.6 million, or 10.9 percent, reported going hungry for at least some period last year. Those disproportionately reporting hunger were single mothers ; black households ; Hispanic households ; and households with incomes below the official poverty line .
_States with families reporting higher prevalence of hunger from 2004-2006 included: Mississippi ; New Mexico ; Texas ; and South Carolina .
_Of the 35.5 million people reporting periods of hunger last year, 12.6 million were children.
"This report comes at a critical time for hungry Americans and those of us who help serve them," said Vicki Escarra, president of the nation's largest hunger relief group — America's Second Harvest-The Nation's Food Bank Network. "There simply may be no food for many families when the rest of the nation gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving and religious holidays."
In the report, the terms "low food security" and "very low food security" replace the old descriptions of "food insecurity without hunger" and "food insecurity with hunger." The change was made last year based on a recommendation by the National Academies, which advise the government on science issues, a move that has drawn criticism by some Democrats who say the report speaks too euphemistically.
Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, said he is troubled by the report. He said figures for 2007 could prove to be worse, given rising food prices and an uneven economy this year.
"We need to do more to make sure that households have access to healthy food by improving and expanding proven programs that help," he said.
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On the Net:
Hunger Report:
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome
AMA recommends public cord blood banks
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:28:44 GMTHONOLULU - The nation's largest doctors' group this week adopted new ethical guidelines for how physicians should talk to pregnant patients about donating their babies' umbilical cord blood.
The American Medical Association voted during a two-day meeting in Hawaii to encourage mothers wishing to donate to give the blood to public cord blood banks.
The stem cells in cord blood have the potential to save lives.
They're the same stem cells that make up the bone-marrow transplants that help many people survive certain cancers and other diseases. But cord blood is more easily transplanted into unrelated people and can be thawed at a moment's notice, giving it advantages over bone marrow.
"Umbilical cord blood stem cells are useful for some therapeutic purposes and as a potential source of stem cells," board member Dr. William A. Dolan said in a statement Monday. "Physicians should be prepared to discuss cord blood banking options with their patients during pregnancy."
About 50,000 cord blood donations are stored in more than 20 public banks around the country.
The National Cord Blood Inventory aims to triple that number so that almost everyone who needs stem cell treatment may find a match.
The American Medical Association's new ethical guidelines said doctors will ideally obtain their patient's consent to donate the baby's cord blood before the mother goes into labor.
Doctors should also disclose any ties they have to a cord blood bank, the guidelines said.
Further, doctors should never accept fees for a referral to a chord bank, the association said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics earlier this year issued its own set of guidelines on the issue.
Those urge more parents to donate their babies' cord blood.
The pediatricians' group also addresses whether patients should keep the cord blood in a private bank for their child's own if they should donate the blood to a public bank.
The academy concluded parents should consider private storage only if an older sibling has cancer or certain genetic diseases that cord blood is proven to treat.
Otherwise, they should consider donating their child's cord blood to a public bank.
The academy said a child has only between one in 1,000 and one in 200,000 chance of needing an infusion of his or her own cord blood later in life.
Separately, the American Medical Association said it would support routine HIV testing while continuing to advocate for the protection of patient privacy.
"AMA's new policy calls on physicians to routinely test consenting adult patients for HIV," board member Dr. Ardis Hoven said in a statement.
The doctor said HIV patients can lead full and productive lives if their infections are detected early.
U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases
Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:29:01 GMTBy MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they think better and more intensive screening accounts for much of the increase, but added that chlamydia was not the only sexually transmitted disease on the rise.
Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics.
Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis — which can deform or kill babies — rose for the first time in 15 years.
"Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend," said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University's School of medicine.
The CDC releases a report each year on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, three diseases caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.
Chlamydia is the most common. Nearly 1,031,000 cases were reported last year, up from 976,000 the year before.
The count broke the single-year record for reported cases of a sexually transmitted disease, which was 1,013,436 cases of gonorrhea, set in 1978.
Putting those numbers into rates, there were about 348 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in 2006, up 5.6 percent from the 329 per 100,000 rate in 2005.
Since 1993, the CDC has recommended annual screening in sexually active women ages 15 to 25. Meanwhile, urine and swab tests for the bacteria are getting better and are used more often, for men as well as women, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of the CDC's Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention.
About three-quarters of women infected with chlamydia have no symptoms. Left untreated, the infection can spread and ultimately can lead to infertility. It's easily treated if caught early.
Health officials believe as many as 2.8 million new cases may actually be occurring each year, he added.
Chlamydia infection rates are more than seven times higher in black women then whites, and more than twice as high in black women than Hispanics. But it's a risk women of all races should consider, CDC officials said.
"If providers think young women in their practice don't have chlamydia, they should think again," said Dr. Stuart Berman, a CDC epidemiologist.
The gonorrhea story is somewhat different.
In 2004, the nation's gonorrhea rate fell to 112.4 cases per 100,000 people in 2004, the lowest level since the government started tracking cases in 1941.
But since then, health officials have seen two consecutive years of increases. The 2006 rate — about 121 per 100,000 — represents a 5.5 percent increase from 2005.
Health officials don't know exactly how many superbug cases there were among the more than 358,000 gonorrhea cases reported in 2006. But a surveillance project of 28 cities found that 14 percent were resistant to ciprofloxacin and other medicines in the fluoroquinolones class of antibiotics.
Similar samples found that 9 percent were resistant to those antibiotics in 2005, and 7 percent were resistant in 2004. The appearance of the superbug has been previously reported, and the CDC is April advised doctors to stop using those drugs against gonorrhea.
Douglas said it doesn't look like the superbugs are the reason for gonorrhea's escalating numbers overall, but they're not sure what is driving the increase.
Other doctors are worried. The superbug gonorrhea has been on the rise not only in California and Hawaii, where the problem has been most noticeable, but also in the South and parts of the Midwest.
"Suddenly we're starting to see the spread," Ghanem said.
Syphilis, a potentially deadly disease that first shows up as genital sores, has become relatively rare in the United States. About 9,800 cases of the most contagious forms or syphilis were reported in 2006, up from about 8,700 in 2005.
The rate rose from 2.9 cases per 100,000 people to 3.3, a 14 percent increase.
For congenital syphilis, in which babies get syphilis from their mothers, the rate rose only slightly from the previous year to 8.5 cases per 100,000 live births.
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On the Net:
The CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats
Diabetes obesity on rise for children in China
Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:08:01 GMTBEIJNG - More Chinese children are becoming overweight and prone to diet-related diseases like diabetes due to unhealthy lifestyles and high stress linked to their studies, state media reported on Thursday, citing a top health official.
More than one in five children were classified as obese and over 2 percent suffered type 2 diabetes, the China Daily said, citing a survey of 17,311 children aged eight to 18 by the Beijing Children's hospital.
Type 1 diabetes, a genetic condition, is the most common form of diabetes in children, whereas Type 2 diabetes is linked with poor diet and a lack of exercise and is far more prevalent in adults.
&;The number of children with type 2 diabetes has risen sharply in recent years,&; Kong said.
&;The figures reflect the trend that the number of children suffering from type 2 diabetes might soon exceed the number of those with type 1 diabetes,&; the paper ed Kong Lingzhi, deputy director of the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau under the Ministry of Health, as saying.
There are about 20 million people suffering from diabetes in China, according to the Ministry of Health Web site .
&;The number of children with diabetes has accounted for 5 percent of all patients, and it is increasing by 10 percent every year,&; Xinhua news agency ed Li Qiang, an endocrine secretion professor, as saying.
The rise in diabetes and obesity rates in China comes hand in hand with an economic boom that has brought more wealth for families to spend on food and less need to toil in fields for a living.
The World Health Organization and Chinese Health Ministry warned last year that a surge in chronic diseases could kill up to 80 million people in China alone in the next decade.
