Kids Are Active But Not Eating Their ‘5-A-Day’ According To UK Study

Most children are still failing to eat five pieces of fruit and veg a day, though their levels of physical activity do meet current Government recommendations, according to the SPEEDY study (Sport, Physical activity and Eating behaviour: Environmental Determinants in Young people). The original results for the study are published in the open access journal BMC Public Health.

The study was performed by a team of researchers from The Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit and The University of East Anglia, coordinated by Esther van Sluijs. During the Summer term 2007, they studied the diet, physical activity and body shape of 2064 Year 5 pupils (aged 9-10 years) in 92 schools across the county of Norfolk. They also investigated their socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and school and home neighborhood environments. According to van Sluijs, “To date, the extent of the problem of physical inactivity and unhealthy dietary habits in children has been largely unknown. Good data about physical activity, assessed using valid and reliable measures in large samples, are scarce – especially in children”.

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access To Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage For Workers Younger Than Age 65, According To EBRI

The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports. The report states that this year’s rise in unemployment rates and food and gasoline prices suggest a future decline in the number of workers who have or are able to afford employer-sponsored health insurance.

Canadians Without Risk Factors Need Bone Density Measurements Only Once Every 5 Years According To Largest Ever Canadian Study On Osteoporosis

Dr David Goltzman and his team from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) and McGill University – along with colleagues from across Canada – have issued new recommendations to public health authorities about how to best cope with osteoporosis, a bone disease which leads to increased risk of fracture, particularly in the elderly. Their recommendations derive from the latest results of the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study (CaMos), published in the

Health IT Might Not Produce Immediate Savings, But It Could Improve Quality Of Care, Reduce Health Disparities, According To Analysts

Health IT Now! Coalition on Friday at a Capitol Hill briefing asked lawmakers to pass legislation that would subsidize health care providers for the adoption of electronic health records, ensure interoperability among health care information technology platforms and address privacy concerns, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 6/13).

At the briefing, RAND researcher Richard Hillestad cited a study he led that found implementation of an interoperable health care IT system by 90% of the U.S. health care system would save $80 billion annually after 15 years. He added that preventive care and chronic disease management efforts that use health care IT could prevent 400,000 deaths and add 40 million workdays annually (Wyckoff, CQ HealthBeat, 6/13). Hillestad also said that use of health care IT could prevent more than 2.2 million adverse events related to medications annually (CongressDaily, 6/13).

Physicians’ Failure To Address Cultural Needs Of Patients Leads To Racial Health Care Disparities, According To Study

Physicians’ lack of attention to cultural differences among patients might contribute to racial health care disparities, according to a study published on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the New York Times reports. For the study, Thomas Sequist, an assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues analyzed electronic health records of 6,814 patients in Massachusetts who were treated for diabetes between 2005 and 2007. The patients were treated by at least one of 90 primary care physicians with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, which operates 14 walk-in clinics in the eastern region of the state. Each physician treated at least five white patients and five black patients. Researchers examined the patients’ medical data for three standard measures of effective diabetes control: blood pressure, LDL cholesterol levels and hemoglobin A1C, which reflects the blood sugar levels.

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access To Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage For Workers Younger Than Age 65, According To EBRI

The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports. The report states that this year’s rise in unemployment rates and food and gasoline prices suggest a future decline in the number of workers who have or are able to afford employer-sponsored health insurance.

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access To Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage For Workers Younger Than Age 65, According To EBRI

The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports. The report states that this year’s rise in unemployment rates and food and gasoline prices suggest a future decline in the number of workers who have or are able to afford employer-sponsored health insurance.

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access To Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage For Workers Younger Than Age 65, According To EBRI

The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports. The report states that this year’s rise in unemployment rates and food and gasoline prices suggest a future decline in the number of workers who have or are able to afford employer-sponsored health insurance.

Employment Rates, Economic Factors Could Decrease Access To Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage For Workers Younger Than Age 65, According To EBRI

The percentage of U.S. residents younger than age 65 who had health coverage through their employer remained at 62.2% between 2006 and 2007, but that percentage likely will decline in 2008, according to a Employee Benefit Research Institute report, the Kansas City Star reports. The report states that this year’s rise in unemployment rates and food and gasoline prices suggest a future decline in the number of workers who have or are able to afford employer-sponsored health insurance.

Health IT Might Not Produce Immediate Savings, But It Could Improve Quality Of Care, Reduce Health Disparities, According To Analysts

Health IT Now! Coalition on Friday at a Capitol Hill briefing asked lawmakers to pass legislation that would subsidize health care providers for the adoption of electronic health records, ensure interoperability among health care information technology platforms and address privacy concerns, CongressDaily reports (CongressDaily, 6/13).

At the briefing, RAND researcher Richard Hillestad cited a study he led that found implementation of an interoperable health care IT system by 90% of the U.S. health care system would save $80 billion annually after 15 years. He added that preventive care and chronic disease management efforts that use health care IT could prevent 400,000 deaths and add 40 million workdays annually (Wyckoff, CQ HealthBeat, 6/13). Hillestad also said that use of health care IT could prevent more than 2.2 million adverse events related to medications annually (CongressDaily, 6/13).