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AJPH NEWS Release
EMBARGOED UNTIL Nov. 22, 2005, 4 PM (ET)
CONTACT: For copies of articles, call Natalie Raynor, (202) 777-2511
or email at natalie.raynor@apha.org
All articles are online at www.ajph.org
American Journal of Public Health December 2005 Highlights
· Maternal age, race increase stillborn
risk
· A few highly educated neighbors can improve community's
health
· Low birth weight infants more likely to die at minority-serving
hospitals
· Choice of infants' bedding, bedroom environment could
contribute to childhood asthma
· Exercise one key to staying mentally sharp in middle
age
The articles highlighted below appear in the December 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of the American Public Health Association.
Maternal age, race increase
stillborn risk
Although the rate of stillbirth in the United States has dropped significantly over the past three decades, black women are still much more likely to suffer a stillbirth than white women, and stillbirth rates have actually risen among women older than 35.
Researchers analyzed more than 71 million singleton births from 1981-2000 in the United States and found stillbirth rates dropped 33 percent among blacks and 46 percent among whites during that time period. Stillbirths were more common among mothers older than 35 or younger than 20. Depending on their mother's age, black babies were up to three times as likely to be stillborn as white babies during the study's time period.
The study's authors noted that one of the Healthy
People 2010 goals is to reduce health disparities, including those
related to pregnancy outcomes. They recommend further study into
the issue to determine causes for the persistent racial disparity
for stillbirths and more study into the "biological mechanisms
of aging" to help explain rising stillbirth
rates among older mothers. [From: "Stillbirths in the United
States, 1991-2000: An Age, Period and Cohort Analysis." Contact:
Cande V. Ananth, PhD, MPH, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,
New Brunswick, N.J., cande.ananth@umdnj.edu.]
Highly educated neighbors can improve community's
health
A few highly educated residents sprinkled throughout a low-income
neighborhood can mean better health for the entire neighborhood.
Researchers studied the association between distribution of education
and rates of eight health indicators, such as access to prenatal
care and death from several chronic diseases, in 59 neighborhoods
in New York City.
In separate adjusted ecological models, neighborhoods with fewer
higher-educated residents had better population health indicators
that might plausibly be associated with short-term changes such
as homicide and infant mortality rate, in the social environment.
They found there was no association between education distribution
and health indicators more likely to be associated with long-term
accumulation of social and behavioral stressors, such as cardiovascular
disease and chronic lung disease mortality rates.
The presence of highly educated people in a neighborhood may be
helpful for all residents, independent of the potentially harmful
consequences of poverty, the study's authors concluded.
[From: "Distribution of Education and Population Health:
An Ecological Analysis of New York City Neighborhoods." Contact:
Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, University of Michigan School of Public
Health, Ann Arbor, sgalea@mich.edu.]
Low birth weight infants more likely to
die at minority-serving hospitals
In hospitals where more than 35 percent of very low birth weight
infants are black, neonatal death rates are significantly higher
than in hospitals where less than 15 percent of very low birth
weight infants are black.
Researchers analyzed medical records for 74,050 black and white
very low birth weight infants treated by 332 hospitals from 1995-2000.
Very low birth weight was defined as infants born weighing between
500 and 1,500 grams, or 1.1-3.3 pounds.
So-called "minority-serving hospitals" had a higher
infant mortality rates for babies of all races, and the higher
rates were not explained by hospital or treatment variables. "Minority-serving
hospitals may provide lower quality of care to [very low birth
weight] infants compared with other hospitals," the study's
authors said. "Because [very low birth weight] black infants
are disproportionately treated by minority-serving hospitals,
higher neonatal mortality rates at these hospitals may contribute
to racial disparities in infant mortality in the United States."
[From: "Mortality Among Very Low-Birth weight Infants in
Hospitals Serving Minority Populations." Contact: Leo S.
Morales, MD, PhD, Los Angeles, morales@rand.org.]
Choice of infants' bedding, bedroom environment
could contribute to childhood asthma
Infants who sleep with synthetic or natural fiber blankets and
pillows that trap allergens are more than twice as likely to suffer
wheezing at age 7 than those infants whose parents avoid such
bedding, according to an Australian study.
The study was based on 863 children whose parents participated
in a 1988 survey when the children were infants and a follow-up
survey in 1995 in Tasmania, Australia. At the time of the first
survey, sheepskin "cocoons," similar to a sleeping bag
with a hood, were popular bedding for infants. Researchers found
a marked increase in asthma symptoms among children who, as infants,
had slept with pillows, synthetic or sheepskin blankets or cocoons
that were likely to trap house dust mites. The asthma risk was
increased if the children had, as infants, slept in heated bedrooms
with wall-to-wall carpeting or where the room had been painted
within the previous year.
[From: "Infant Sleeping Environment and Asthma at 7 Years:
A Prospective Cohort Study." Contact: Anne-Louise Posonby,
PhD, MBBS, FAFPHM, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Australia,
anne-louise.posonby@mcri.edu.au.]
Exercise one key to staying mentally sharp
in middle age
Middle-aged couch potatoes are upping their risk for losing cognitive
function.
Based on data collected from 10,308 British civil servants age
35-55 at baseline and 46-68 at the end of the study period, researchers
found low levels of physical activity were a risk factor for poor
performance on a measure of fluid intelligence. Previous studies
have shown a lack of exercise affects mental functioning among
the elderly.
"Our results showed a small but significant association between
physical activity and cognitive functioning in middle age,"
the study's authors wrote. "Further research is required
to examine whether fluid intelligence remains at risk as individuals
age and whether other aspects of cognitive ability, such as verbal
fluency, also become increasingly associated with levels of physical
activity."
[From: "Effects of Physical Activity on Cognitive Functioning
in Middle Age: Evidence From the Whitehall II Prospective Cohort
Study."Contact: Archana Singh-Manoux, PhD, National Institute
of Health and Medical Reasearch, France, archan.singh-manoux@st-maurice.inserm.fr]
The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly journal of the American Public Health Association, the oldest organization of public health professionals in the world. APHA is a leading publisher of public health-related books and periodicals promoting high scientific standards, action programs and policy for good health. More information is available at www.apha.org.
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