Over the next five years, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research will 1) Investigate the personal and environmental factors that influence the uptake and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle and 2) Evaluate mechanisms for translating evidence into sustainable public policy.
Officials in Madison launched a project to identify and resolve barriers to bike accessibility. Current Madison city law requires private developers to include bicycle racks in new construction projects. To ensure that the city is holding itself to the same standard, city officials teamed up with the University of Wisconsin to identify all the public bicycle racks in the city, as well as any areas where large volumes of bikes were chained to trees or fences in the absence of bicycle racks. Researchers also evaluated the condition of existing bicycle racks. City officials then tapped Global Positioning System technology to create a virtual map that bikers can use to navigate local bike routes and identify available bike racks. To further improve the city’s bike friendliness, officials have entered the data into a geographical information system that determines the city’s current bike capacity and indicates where improvements are needed.
Friday Oregon released its plan for slowing an “alarming” acceleration in obesity-related diabetes. In 2007 the Governor signed a bill, which declared an emergency related to diabetes and obesity. The bill directed the Oregon Department of Human Services to develop a strategic plan to start to slow the rate of diabetes caused by obesity and other environmental factors by 2010. The plan was to identify actions, including funding and statutory recommendations, that would reduce morbidity and mortality from diabetes by 2015. The plan was developed through a strategic planning process organized and staffed by the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Section and Office of Family Health of the Oregon Public Health Division in DHS. Find the actual 36 page report here: http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/diabetes/docs/hb3486/diabstratgicplnbig.pdf
A new study in the November issue of the journal Appetite finds that obese women display significantly weaker impulse control than normal-weight women. In men, the impulsivity levels are nearly the same.
Food- and activity-related establishments are increasingly viewed as neighbourhood resources that potentially condition health-related behaviour. The objective of the current study was to establish, using on-site verification, the validity of measures of availability of food stores and physical activity establishments that were obtained from commercial database and Internet searches. Such commercial data sources may provide a valid alternative to field observations and could prove a valuable tool in the evaluation of commercial environments relevant to eating behaviour. In contrast, this study did not find strong evidence in support of commercial and Internet data sources to represent neighbourhood opportunities for active lifestyle.
Kellogg Company paid LSRO to prepare this review. Using the FDA definition for whole grains as a selection criterion to evaluate the scientific literature is limiting because most of the studies use a broader concept of whole grains. The few studies that meet the FDA whole grains definition provide insufficient scientific evidence to support a CVD health claim. A short extract is avalliable for free. The 35 page report costs 35 US$ to download. Latest: The report is now available for free.
This study evaluated weight self-perception in 4.167 14-15 years old children in London, UK. Weight perceptions were recorded on a simple scale from ‘too thin’ to ‘too fat’. Results indicated that under-estimation was more common than over-estimation, with more than a quarter of overweight or obese adolescents unaware of their excess weight.
600 low-income pregnant women in Pennsylvania enrolled in a cohort study at <20 weeks' gestation. These women reported usual dietary intake in the three months around conception on an FFQ. Cereal eaters had significantly higher intakes of folate, Fe, Zn, Ca, fibre and vitamins A, C, D and E. Read more
Researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK have found that a walk of just fifteen minutes can reduce chocolate cravings. Following three days of abstinence, 25 regular chocolate eaters were asked to either complete a 15-minute brisk walk or rest, in a random order. They then engaged in tasks that would normally induce chocolate cravings, including a mental challenge and opening a chocolate bar. After exercise participants reported lower cravings than after rest.
Nurses in dermatology settings are conducting high-quality screenings to identify suspicious lesions and non-melanoma skin cancer. In the October 2008 issue of Dermatology Nursing, Deborah L. Phelan and Maureen Heneghan explore how dermatology nurses participate in skin cancer screening and detection in their practices.