Female Obesity Affects College Attendance

Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as non-obese girls, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin.



The study also shows obese girls are even less likely to enter college if they attend a high school where obesity is relatively uncommon. The findings appear in the July issue of the journal Sociology of Education.



The study tracked nearly 11,000 American adolescents, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.



"Obesity has been identified as a serious public health issue, but these results indicate the harmful effects extend far beyond physical health," said Robert Crosnoe, author of the study and a sociologist at the university.



Crosnoe suggests a number of mental health and behavioral issues seem to play a significant role in keeping obese girls from enrolling in college. The study found obese girls were more likely to consider committing suicide, use alcohol and marijuana and have negative self-images.



The disconnect between obesity and college enrollment was more pronounced among non-whites and among girls whose parents did not graduate from college. Obese boys did not differ from their non-obese peers in college enrollment.



"That girls are far more vulnerable to the non-health risks of obesity reinforces the notion that body image is more important to girls' self-concept and that social norms have greater effects on the education of girls than boys," Crosnoe noted.






Source: Robert Crosnoe


University of Texas at Austin

Interstitial Cystitis Treatment?

This letter was sent to blog offering, perhaps, a treatment idea for Interstitial Cystitis


To Whom It May Concern:


 
This letter is concerning women's health.  The disease is Interstitial Cystitis (I.C.) of the bladder. The bladder is inflamed and pain worsens when urine fills it.  Women are disproportionately afflicted with I.C.  Conventional therapy is palliative treatment for an unknown etiology without a cure.  My wife was diagnosed with I.C. 


 
Her doctor bravely allowed me to offer a therapy that promotes the production of mucin, a protective glycoprotein that is also secreted onto the bladder membrane.  Most over the counter products for menstrual discomfort can inhibit mucin production - to be avoided!  The trade name drug Cytotec, prostaglandin agonist for gastric ulcer, was chosen because it can increase mucin production.  I designed the drug protocol for my wife. After nine months of treatment, she has remained asymptomatic for five years.


 
I believe that Cytotec needs formal clinical investigation to assess a potential off-label treatment.  Your influence can facilitate an audience with doctors to study this drug.  Bringing attention to I.C. may encourage investigators to identify causative agent(s) and gain a better understanding as to how the bladder membrane becomes inflamed.  


 
Sincerely,
 
 
 
Norman A. Smith

normanasmithcox

China Daily Examines Campaign Against Cross-Generational Sex In Uganda To Fight Spread Of HIV Among Girls, Women

China Daily on Wednesday examined a campaign against cross-generational sex in Uganda that aims to fight the spread of HIV among girls and women. The campaign, called "Go-Getters," was launched in 2003 and is widespread among many Ugandan schools and universities, according to China Daily. The campaign was launched in response to "shocking statistics that show HIV prevalence in Uganda is five times higher in girls aged 15 to 19 than in the boys the same age," according to program materials.

As part of efforts to curb cross-generational sex, posters have been placed around busy areas in Kampala, Uganda, and at universities. One poster that pictures an older man asked, "Would you let this man be with your teenage daughter?" Another poster, titled "Something for Something Love," shows a man in police custody while a pregnant girl hands her mother a cell phone that the man gave her for sex, China Daily reports.

Helen Mukiibi, deputy news editor of Uganda's New Vision, said, "We know that some rich men in Uganda have HIV/AIDS and [that] many young girls have been infected because they willingly became mistresses of these men, many of whom are married." Peter Mugyenyi, chief of Kampala's Joint Clinical Research Centre, said, "Only a low percentage of women [in Uganda] have jobs, and most women can't control money in their households because they don't work." He added, "Women should be more independent, and it will be a way to stop cross-generational sex" (Li, China Daily, 6/11).


Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Obama, Sen. Snowe Discuss Women's Health Needs As Part Of NBC's 'A Woman's Nation' Series

NBC News recently aired a series called "A Woman's Nation" looking at the findings of "The Shriver Report," a collaboration between California first lady Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress that examines the shift in gender roles in the American work force. Wednesday's segment of the series featured an interview with President Obama, who said that when he is making policy decisions, he is "constantly thinking about how can we strengthen families, how can we provide more resources, greater flexibility, so that women can thrive." He added that he thinks "if women are thriving, everybody's going to be thriving" (Guthrie, "Nightly News With Brian Williams," NBC, 10/21).

An interview with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was included for a segment on women and health care reform. When asked about addressing the practice of gender rating -- charging women more for the same coverage as men -- in the private health insurance market, Snowe said it is "critical" to restructure the private market so women who work for small businesses or are self-employed "have access to more affordable health care." Snowe also emphasized the need to reduce medical costs in the U.S., adding that thousands of people lose their health coverage annually. The situation is "a crisis that's only going to get worse over time," she said, adding that "in the short term, we are seeing double-digit [cost] increases ... and that will only grow exponentially worse." Higher health care costs "will be detrimental to women and their children, without question, because they are the first one[s] who bear the brunt of ... rising health care costs," Snowe said (Mitchell, MSNBC, 10/21).

Another segment in the series focused on the role of women as caregivers to their families and included comments from Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center. Women continue to "carry the overwhelming burden of dealing with family needs," and they are "often the deciders of health care not only for themselves and their children, but also of elderly parents or relatives," Greenberger said. NBC News Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman reports that women caregivers are twice as likely to have chronic health conditions as noncaregivers but are less likely to have health insurance. They also face higher insurance rates than men in some states, "and it's taking a toll," Snyderman reports. "Women are more likely to go into bankruptcy because of unpaid medical bills than men," Greenberger said. She added that women "scrimp so that they can put food on the table for their kids," and will do things like avoid filling prescriptions to save money (Snyderman, NBC News, 10/21).

In conjunction with the series, MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" also featured an interview with Shriver about the report. During her appearance on the program, Shriver discussed the role of women in the workplace, their home environments and as caregivers to their families. "Women are using their voices to demand changes in the workplace and from their government," Shriver said. She added, "They're not going to accept gender discrimination in health care. I thought it was great to see Olympia Snowe, a Republican woman, be so forceful this past week in the debate," when she became the first Republican to vote for a health reform bill (Matthews, "Hardball with Chris Matthews," MSNBC, 10/19).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Women With Certain Types Of Migraines Have Higher Risk Of Heart Disease; Many Study Authors Did Not Report Ties To Pharmaceutical Companies

Women who have migraines with visual problems have increased risk for heart disease, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Long Island Newsday reports. For the study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital analyzed the records of 27,800 women older than age 45 who participated in the Women's Health Initiative. None of the women had heart disease when they entered the study between 1992 and 1995. Researchers focused on the records of 5,125 women who had a history of migraines. According to the study, participants who had migraines with migraine aura had more than twice the normal risk for major cardiovascular events. Migraine aura "is a visual sensation -- like lights flashing or lines zigzagging, with some reports of temporary blindness" -- that often lasts for 20 minutes to one hour before migraines begin, Newsday reports. Women who had migraines without migraine aura did not have an increased risk for major cardiovascular events, the study finds. Lead study author Tobias Kurth said that researchers did not determine the cause of the link between migraine aura and heart disease and that the increased risk was small, with about 18 additional cases of heart disease per 10,000 women with migraine aura. Mark Gudesblatt, a neurologist at South Shore Neurologic Associates, said, "It's an important study because it tells you not to take these things lightly" (Talan, Long Island Newsday, 7/19).

Study Authors Did Not Report Financial Ties
The six authors of the study did not disclose to JAMA that they have consulted for, or received research funds from, pharmaceutical companies that manufacture treatments for heart disease or migraines, the AP/Miami Herald reports. JAMA in January implemented a policy that requires financial disclosures from researchers before acceptance of studies for publication, and an editorial published in the journal last week indicated that "JAMA was getting tougher as a result of ... recent breaches" of the policy, the AP/Herald reports. JAMA Editor in Chief Catherine DeAngelis said that journal editors were not aware of the financial ties until the Associated Press informed her about them last week. The authors said they did not report the financial ties because the study does not promote a treatment. JAMA on Tuesday published online a letter from the authors of the study to explain their failure to disclose the financial ties, as well as a response from DeAngelis and a correction. DeAngelis said that the letter, her response and the correction will appear in a future print edition of JAMA. "Let me decide what's pertinent or not," DeAngelis said, adding, "Authors should always err on the side of full disclosure." Kurth in an interview said that the financial ties "do not represent a conflict of interest" (Tanner, AP/Miami Herald, 7/19).

WSJ Examines Issue
In related news, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined how a "spate of recent lapses" from several medical journals has prompted "calls for more journals to ban offending authors from publication." In addition, "medical schools are being urged to regulate relationships between their researchers and industry more closely," the Journal reports. Sheldon Krimsky, a professor at Tufts University who has studied the issue, said, "If journals are going to have ethical standards and if those ethical standards are going to mean anything, there has to be sanctions associated with them." However, many journal editors "are reluctant to ban authors, partly out of concern these researchers will shop their work to a different publication," the Journal reports. DeAngelis has asked medical schools to investigate potential conflicts of interests among their researchers and issue sanctions when appropriate. She said that sanctions have resulted each time she has asked medical schools to investigate their researchers. Jerome Kassirer, a former New England Journal of Medicine editor, said that medical schools require "more stringent policies" because "faculty members are just up to their ears in financial conflicts and academic medical centers are just not doing anything about it" (Armstrong, Wall Street Journal, 7/19).















"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

In Inaugural Address, Obama Vows To 'Restore Science' To 'Rightful Place'

President Obama on Tuesday in his inaugural address pledged that the U.S. "will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost," the New York Times reports. As one of his first steps, Obama is expected to rescind former President George W. Bush's restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research next week, in contrast to the Bush administration which, according to the Times, "sought to tame, and in some cases suppress the findings of many of the government's scientific agencies" on issues such as stem cells, sex education and contraceptives.

According to Raynard Kington, acting director of NIH, during the Bush administration "there was a fair degree of discussion and one might even say tension between the views of the agency" and those of the administration regarding stem cell research. Kington said NIH is "prepared to respond quickly" to implement stem cell research policy changes, adding that the process could take months. According to Obama transition officials, the new administration also plans to loosen existing regulations regarding oversight on federal scientific agencies. Although reversing the current policies could take time, "[i]f you look at the science world, you see a lot of happy faces," Frank Press, former president of the National Academy of Sciences and former science adviser to former President Carter, said. Press added that scientists are hopeful because of Obama's "recognition of what science can do to bring this country back in an innovative way."

According to some analysts, the biggest challenges for the new administration might involve funding priorities, particularly during the current economic downturn. However, Obama's proposed stimulus package already contains funding provisions for several scientific agencies, Ken Koizumi, senior budget analyst at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said. According to Koizumi, this proposal is "an early indication that the administration will go for more science funding in priority areas, even at a time of big deficits" (Harris/Broad, New York Times, 1/21).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

Women With MS Need Individual Support

The women who I asked would like to have time and opportunity to express grief and vulnerability in contact with health services. They also expect a response based on their individual situation and needs, "said Malin Olsson, Ph.D. at Lule?? University of Technology.


The purpose of Malin Olsson's research is to describe women's experience of living with MS: She has interviewed 25 women with MS, focusing on their daily lives, experiences of extreme tiredness, treatment and their experiences of feeling well. The illness MS means a big change for the women affected, according to Malin Olsson,


-- It's about to go from being healthy and independent to being dependent on others to meet the basic needs of daily life, "she says.


The study shows that woman's experiences of changing relationships between one's own body, self and the outside world is the knowledge needed to identify the individual experiences of women living with MS. This in turn is a precondition for the health care system to be able to communicate on the conditions of women and understand their situation.


Malin Olsson also shows in her research that women living with MS in today's individualistic society are more likely than before at greater risk to be discriminated in their everyday lives.


-- To not feel equal and involved in a community with others is in itself exclusion, "she says.


Source: Lulea University of Technology