HHS Launches New Alzheimer’s Initiative
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the National Alzheimer’s Plan, which was developed with input from 3,600 people or organizations who submitted comments on the draft plan.
About 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease and that number could double in coming years.
The initiatives announced today include:
- Research. Research priorities include both treatment and prevention. One study currently being funded is on an insulin nasal spray for treating Alzheimer’s disease. Another funded study is a prevention trial, the first of its kind, in people at the highest risk for the disease.
- Tools for Clinicians. The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $2 million in funding through its geriatric education centers to provide training for doctors, nurses and other health care providers on recognizing the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and how to manage the disease.
- Information. A new website, Alzheimers.gov, has multiple, vetted resources for patrients, family and caregivers in easy to understand language as well as video interviews with family on dealing with the illness.
- Awareness campaign. A media campaign will begin this summer to help reach patients and family members about the disease and resources.
What do budget cuts have to do with a recent outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in Washington State? Possibly quite a bit, according to a recent article in the New York Times. The state has seen 1,284 cases through early May—the most in at least three decades and 10 times last year’s total by this time of year (128).
The article finds that recent state and local funding cuts have impacted the outbreak in several ways:
- In Skagit County, the hardest-hit section of the state based on pertussis cases per capita, the local Public Health Department has half the staff it did in 2008 and most preventive care programs have been shuttered.
- The county’s chief medical officer has told physicians and hospitals to stop testing for pertussis, a $400 test, in order to save money. Instead, health officials are encouraged to use a person’s symptoms plus contact with an infected person as a basis for treatment—which could result in many cases going unreported. The decision was made in part because about fifteen percent of the county’s residents have no health insurance.
- At least one school district has lost nurses over the past four years, impacting testing and reporting.
Read the article here [subscription may be required].
Expect Inconsistent Sunscreen Labels this Summer
The Food and Drug Administration is delaying new sunscreen rules for smaller manufacturers until December 2012. That may result in some confusion at the sun protection counter since larger firms will have new labels in place by June while smaller labels will not be required to use them until December. Some private labels, including Target’s in-house brand, have already started using the new labels in anticipation of the guidelines coming into effect.
The basic new label requirements, decades in the making, include the new term “broad spectrum” for sunscreens that protect against UVA and UVB rays, a ban on the terms “waterproof” and “sweatproof” to be replaced by how many minutes, based on testing, the product is water resistant. There is also a new requirement that only sunscreens with an SPF of 15 or higher will be able to post on the label that they help prevent sunburn and reduce the risk of skin cancer and early skin aging. Read more on cancer prevention.
Study Finds Injury Risk for Very Young Children Linked to Common Kids’ Products
A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that 45,398 children under age three were treated in the hospital emergency department between 1991 and 2010 for injuries linked to bottles, pacifiers or sippy cups. Most injuries (86 percent) occurred from falls while using the products, and 83 percent of falls resulted in lacerations or contusions to the mouth and face. The authors also found that two-thirds of injuries occurred among one-year-olds, an age when children are unsteady on their feet and more likely to fall. The researchers recommend that given the high number of injuries, parents should help their children transition to a cup around age one.
A second study in Pediatrics found a very high rate of emergency room visits linked to babies and toddlers swallowing “button” batteries, such as those used in some toys and remote controls. Read more children’s health news.
HHS Provides Funding for School Health Clinics
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced availability of up to $75 million in new funding for the construction and renovation of school-based health centers, which provide care for children with chronic and serious illnesses as well as prevention and wellness programs for all school children. Read more on school health.
Howard Frumkin, University of Washington School of Public Health
Defining and measuring what makes a community healthy is a key component of the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, which helps create solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their own communities, focusing on specific factors that we know affect health, such as education and income. The 2012 Rankings were released last month, and this year includes the Roadmaps to Health Prize for communities working at the forefront of population health improvement.
Creating healthier places is a conversation every town, city and state is having now. To help advance that conversation, NewPublicHealth spoke with Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, PhD, dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, and the former chair of the County Health Rankings Advisory Board.
NPH: What does a healthy community look like? Are we getting there?
Dr. Frumkin: There ought to be places where the inhabitants of a community can thrive and do well. That’s your metric of success. People need certain things in order to thrive. They need some privacy, but they also need contact with other people. They need clean air, clean water and healthy, uncontaminated food. They need contact with nature, and they need beauty and inspiration. We could go on and on, but most of us would probably agree with what that core list of needs looks like. And then you can work with the community members to ask whether their community provides those needs for people, and we haven’t been doing that well over the last 50 years.
NPH: Why haven’t we been doing that well?
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Increasing the number of people who bike to work, school or even the grocery story has become a priority among many health experts, but just introducing people to the wheels and spokes isn’t always enough. A recent article in Bicycling told the story of a middle schooler who decided to bike to school, accompanied by his mom, during a local bike-to-work day only to find that the school, for safety concerns around school buses, prohibited riding bikes to school. Contrast that with this story in Atlantic Cities about children in the Netherlands who are expected to begin riding their bikes, safely, to school, by age 12.
But change is happening. Last week National Center for Safe Routes to School sponsored National Bike to School Day, which boasted 700 events in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
>>Related: Read a Q&A with Deb Hubsmith, founder and director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
>>Weigh In: Has your community developed safety rules to help encourage biking to school?
Fitness in Middle Age Can Mean Lower Health Costs Later On
Physically fit, healthy middle-aged adults have significantly lower health care costs as they age, compared to their less physically fit counterparts, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.
The study tracked Medicare coverage in 20,489 healthy people, who had not had a prior heart attack, stroke or cancer over a ten year period. Compared to people in the lowest fitness category, those in the highest categories at age 51 had significantly lower healthcare costs after age 65. Read more on physical activity news.
Young People Still Getting Sunburns and Indoor Tans
Young adults are increasing their risk for developing skin cancer, according to two studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute.
One study, of people aged 18-29, found that 50 percent reported at least one sunburn in the past year, despite an increase in protective behaviors such as sunscreen use, seeking shade, and wearing long clothing to the ankles. Another report found that indoor tanning is common among young adults, with the highest rates of indoor tanning among white women aged 18 to 25 years. Read the latest on cancer prevention.
Prenatal Smoking Linked to Worse Asthma in Kids
Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy may have more uncontrolled asthma, according to a new study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study was conducted on nearly 2,500 largely black and Latino children ages eight to 17. Close to 20 percent of mothers of Black children, and 5.5 percent of Hispanic mothers, smoked while pregnant and the study found that those children had a harder time controlling asthma symptoms. Read up on asthma.
In honor of Mother’s Day and National Women’s Health Week, May 13 through 19, Text4Baby is launching a 2012 State Enrollment Contest. The top three states that enroll the most users between May 17 and October 22, 2012, will be recognized during the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA in October.
Text4Baby is a novel text messaging service in the United States that provides health information and resources via cell phone text messages. Current research shows that over 85 percent of Americans own a cell phone and 72 percent of cell users send or receive text messages. In its first two years, Text4Baby has reached more than 335,000 users, and the program is working toward a goal of 1 million users by the end of 2012—hence the contest!
Pregnant women and new mothers who text “BABY” (or “BEBE” for Spanish) to 511411 receive weekly text messages, timed to their due date or their baby’s birth date through the baby’s first year.
>>Bonus for Women’s Health Awareness Week: Throughout the nation, communities are sponsoring health-centered programs for women next week including such programs as free HIV testing, free sessions at gyms and more. See what’s on tap in your area.
FDA Panel Backs HIV Drug to Prevent Transmission of the Virus
Reuters is reporting that an FDA advisory committee has recommended that the HIV drug Truvada be approved for the prevention of HIV for people at highest risk of contracting the infection, such as men who have sex with other men. The agency is expected to rule on the recommendation next month. While the drug has been effective in preventing transmission of the infection in clinical trials, drawbacks include the high cost of the drug and a risk for serious kidney problems when the drug is used long term. Read more on HIV.
Washington State Declares Whooping Cough Epidemic
This week the governor of Washington State, Chris Gregoire, made emergency funds available to the state Department of Health to help curb the outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis) underway in Washington. The state’s Health Secretary declared a whooping cough epidemic last month. Gregoire also urged health care professionals to get vaccinated and vaccinate their patients, and announced federal approval for health officials to re-direct some funds to buy several thousand doses of pertussis vaccine for adults.
“I’m especially concerned about the vulnerable babies in our communities that are too young to be fully immunized,” said Gregoire. “These actions will help state and local health leaders get vaccine into people’s arms so we can stem the tide.” According to the Department of Health 1,132 cases of whooping cough have been reported in the state through April 28—that’s compared to 117 over the same time last year. There were 965 cases reported in all of 2011. Read more on vaccine-preventable illnesses.
Stores Recall Thousands of Water Slides Linked to One Death, Two Critical Injuries
In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Toys R Us Inc., are announcing the recall of about 21,000 inflatable Banzai in-ground pool water slides. During use, the slide can deflate, allowing the user to hit the ground underneath the slide and become injured. The slide is also unstable and can topple over in both still and windy conditions and carries inadequate warnings and instructions. The CPSC says it is aware of one death, a paralyzing injury and a neck fracture linked to use of the slides.
CPSC urges consumers to immediately stop using the product and return it to the nearest Wal-Mart or Toys R Us for a full refund. Consumers can also cut the two safety warning notices out of the slide and just return that portion.
The CPSC has also recently published a roundup of recalls this past year of products most likely to be used in the spring and summer, such as playground sets, gas grills and kiddy bikes. Read more on injury prevention.
Frank Chaloupka, University of Illinois at Chicago
A new study by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago found that in the first 60 days following a 2009 federal tobacco tax, at least 220,000 young people were prevented from using tobacco. The research, which was published online today by the National Bureau of Economic Research and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Cancer Institute, demonstrates the substantial and immediate impact of the tobacco tax on reducing youth smoking and youth smokeless tobacco rates.
A 2009 law approved by Congress, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act , increased the federal tax rate on cigarettes by 61.66 cents per pack (from 39 cents to $1.0066 per pack) and on moist snuff, the most common form of smokeless tobacco, by 92.5 cents per pound (from 58.5 cents to $1.51 per pound). Taxes were also increased on other forms of smokeless tobacco.
NewPublicHealth spoke with study co-author Frank J. Chaloupka, PhD, distinguished professor in the division of Health Policy and Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.
NewPublicHealth: What were the key study findings?
Frank Chaloupka: We found that the 2009 federal tobacco tax increases led to significant reductions in the number of kids who smoke and who use smokeless tobacco products.
I think the study is really nice in that it shows how quickly the tax affects youth smoking. We estimate somewhere around a quarter of a million kids were deterred from taking up smoking just in the first couple of months following the tax increase.
NPH: The study looked at the short-term impact of the tobacco tax increase. Does the impact grow over time?
Read More »
FDA Issues Draft Recommendations to Improve Imaging Safety in Kids
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released draft guidance for the x-ray manufacturing industry recommending that new X-ray imaging devices be designed with protocols and instructions specific to children, or include a label that the machine is not intended for pediatric use.
According to the FDA, the use of X-ray equipment settings designed for adults can result in a larger radiation dose than necessary to produce a useful image for a smaller pediatric patient. The FDA will hold a workshop in July to discuss the draft guidance.
USDA Awards Grants to Increase Farmers’ Market Participation in SNAP
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of grants to help states expand the availability of wireless technology in farmers’ markets not currently participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. Farmers’ markets typically don’t have access to phone lines or electricity, making it difficult for them to redeem SNAP benefits electronically. There are currently more than 1,500 farmers’ markets that do have the technology to accept SNAP benefits electronically, and since 2008, SNAP expenditures at farmers’ markets have risen by 400 percent.
The USDA National Farmers Market Directory lists farmers markets that accept SNAP and other federal nutrition programs.
Some New York Hospitals to Stop Giving Free Baby Formula Samples
The New York Times is reporting that the New York City health department began a campaign this week urging hospitals not to give mothers free samples of baby formula, in an effort to support and encourage breast-feeding. Under the new campaign, in which 23 New York City hospitals are participating so far, the hospitals will not give formula samples unless the mother asks for it or the doctor orders it. Read more on maternal and infant health.
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