Study looks at cost-effectiveness of testing heart patients to help decide who needs implanted defibrillators
Next week, the Medicare agency will announce whether it will cover the cost of a $400 heart test that assesses a person’s risk of dying suddenly from a heart condition. Today, a study led by University of Michigan researchers suggests that the test could actually save Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run.
The researchers used a sophistic
A study published in the 2006 March issue of Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics by a Swedish group of investigators points to the effects of social isolation and low mood on the progression of coronary disease.
Although both depressive symptoms and social isolation in relation to coronary heart disease have been studied previously, few have examined their joint effects on coronary atherosclerosis progression in women.
Among the women enrolled in the Stockholm Female Corona
Coinciding with International Brain Awareness Week (13- 19 March 2006), The George Institute for International Health will launch the second phase of a large-scale study on mild-Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) among non-elite rugby union and league players in Sydney.
The study will provide the evidence upon which guidelines/policies can be developed that manage a player’s return to the sporting field following a concussion. Last year, more than 1200 rugby players from various sch
The classic stereotype of an engineer – a man who is brilliant at and passionate about technology, but not so good at dealing with people – bears little resemblance to actual engineers or their work, according to new research from the University of Edinburgh. These stereotypes hamper the engineering profession’s efforts to recruit women, says Dr Wendy Faulkner who carried out the study.
Dr Faulkner, who interviewed and observed 66 men and women engineers working in a range of industr
The behavior of a massive ice sheet that existed in northern Europe at the end of the last Ice Age has been outlined for the first time, and researchers believe it may provide a sneak preview of how major ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica will act in the face of global warming.
The study, which will be published Friday in the journal Science by researchers from Oregon State University, shows that ice sheets can react quite differently depending on the climatic conditions
Preeclampsia, the development of high blood pressure and protein in the urine during pregnancy and its more severe complications such as eclampsia, can threaten the lives of both mother and child. While there is no therapy to prevent preeclampsia, a link to calcium deficiency has been suggested. In a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers across the globe, under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), investigated whether a
Salamanders and the tuatara, a lizard-like animal that has lived on Earth for 225 million years, were the first vertebrates to walk and run on land, according to a recent study by Ohio University researchers.
After studying the creatures at the Toledo Zoo, Stephen Reilly, associate professor of biological sciences, and doctoral student Eric McElroy determined that they use both forms of locomotion, which are energy-saving mechanisms generally believed to be important only in f
Psychological pressures experienced by people who belong to racially or socially stigmatized groups interfere with their ability to exhibit self-control when entering a threatening environment or after being made aware of their stigmatized status
Controlling what you eat, how often you study or whether you engage in addictive or criminal behaviour might be harder if you belong to a group targeted by negative stereotypes or prejudice, according to a University of Toronto study, pub
In a new study forthcoming in the April 2006 issue of The American Naturalist, Peter Nonacs (University of California – Los Angeles), Aviva E. Liebert (Tufts University) and Philip T. Starks (Tufts University) explore a theory of social behavior that seeks to explain why some individuals willingly sacrifice their own reproduction to help raise others’ offspring.
“Transactional Skew” (TS) theory proposes that such cooperation is possible through “shared reproduction,” making i
A study of the UK’s pathologists, carried out by a scientist at the University of Liverpool on behalf of the Department of Health and the Royal College of Pathologists, has sparked concern over the numbers leaving the profession – particularly in academia.
Pathologists are skilled scientists whose role is to identify the nature, origin and process of a disease. Professor Christopher Foster from the University’s School of Cancer Studies carried out the audit of academic pathologi
University of Chicago researchers and colleagues have found strong support that a disturbance of a specific neurochemical can lead to sudden infant death syndrome, the primary cause of death before age 1 in the United States. Approximately 3,000 infants die each year from SIDS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the March 8, 2006, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers describe what happens during hypoxia when levels of the hormone seroton
With the popularity of Web-based retailers, knowing online buying behavior may be the difference between success and failure for Web marketers, according to Swinder Janda, an associate professor of marketing at Kansas State University.
Internet use has grown tremendously over the last few years — about 95 million Americans have online access — and current trends indicate a steady increase in consumers’ willingness to make online purchases, Janda said.
Janda,
First-ever national analysis of local TV news health coverage reveals opportunities for both broadcasters and health experts to improve
Local television newscasts, where most Americans get most of their news, are packed with medical stories and health information. But the first-ever national study of that coverage finds many problems with it, and sees room for improvement by both TV stations and the health experts whose work fills the news.
In the March issue of the Ame
Study addresses feedbacks to climate change
Significantly more carbon is stored in the world’s soils than is present in the atmosphere. In a process called a “positive feedback,” global warming may stimulate decomposition of soil organic matter, thus releasing heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere, possibly causing the rate of global warming to increase further. Disagreement exists, however, regarding the effects of climate change on global soil carbon stocks.
Using makeup to cover a severe facial blemish may not improve the quality of a woman’s life, a new study suggests.
It did not matter how severe or what kind of blemish she had, whether it was a case of severe acne, a noticeable facial scar or pronounced dark spots covering the face.
“The women who used foundations to cover these kinds of marks reported having a lower health-related quality of life than did the women who didn’t wear the same kind of makeup,” sai
When mothers experience symptoms of depression after the birth of their children they are less likely to breastfeed, play with, read to or perform other interactive parenting tasks with their newborns, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Columbia University. The nationwide study is the largest to examine whether a mother’s depressive symptoms impact her parenting practices post partum. The results appear in the March 2006
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