A program that combines advice from a primary care physician with computer assessment, mailings and phone calls may help teens improve some aspects of their diets and physical activity levels, according to a study in the February issue of
If the United States were to launch an annual influenza-vaccination program among the nation's school children, resources also should go to evaluate the program's success in reducing community-wide flu transmission, according to a "Policy Forum" editor
Children with asthma living in multi-family housing who are exposed to certain levels of indoor nitrogen dioxide, a poisonous pollutant byproduct of gas stoves and unvented heaters, are more likely to experience wheeze, persistent cough, shortness of b
Nearly half of the low income, nutritionally-vulnerable Latino children surveyed by Penn State researchers in WIC clinics were treated with herbs by their caregivers for common ills such as diaper rash, c
Researchers in the U.S. say that couples who fight in front of their children or even those who ignore each other, encourage negative thoughts and distress about marriage and family life which is sometimes evident up to a year later.Marital con
A project led by a researcher from the University of Western Sydney has found that music therapy can help sick babies in intensive care maintain normal behavioural development, making them less irritab
If a child often stops in the middle of a sentence and repeats individual sounds or syllables, this does not inevitably mean that the child is a stutterer. A lot of repetitions, pauses or fillers are thus not necessarily a reason for panicking.
More pediatricians should counsel children and their parents about preventing skin cancer, according to dermatology researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. A review of research
Whooping cough (pertussis) is most easily diagnosed in young children because they develop a characteristic cough - paroxysms of coughing followed by a long inspiration that makes a whooping sound. However, infants, immunized children, adolesce
For years, researchers have known that children who grow up in homes with high levels of conflict tend to have behavior and learning problems. But they didn't know why. Now a new study published in the January/February 2006 issue of the journal
Dr. Daniel A. Salmon of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland and his colleagues, in an attempt to understand why some parents choose not to vaccinate their children, reviewed surveys from 2435 parents about their vaccination choices. Two hundred and seventy-seven children had received a non-medical exemption from some type of vaccination and the researchers found that almost 7 out of 10 parents who requested non-medical exemptions said they did so out of concern that the vaccine may cause harm.
Salmon says vaccine safety was really the biggest issue.
Parents of exempt children were more likely to say they had little faith in the vaccine's safety and efficacy, but were unconcerned about their children's risk of vaccine-preventable diseases and tended to have less faith in vaccine information provided by the government, medical sources and public health officials.
Previous reports that linked the MMR vaccine to autism were responsible for much of that concern despite recent research overwhelmingly proving that they are unconnected.
Salmon says the vaccines are "extremely safe and effective," and parents who do not vaccinate their children are leaving them, and other children, vulnerable to deadly diseases.
He and his colleagues say unvaccinated children have a 35-fold higher risk of measles. Many parents in England and Scotland have chosen not to vaccinate their children against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), causing outbreaks of these life-threatening illnesses.
Salmon recommends that public health officials focus their efforts on educating parents about the safety of vaccines, and the dangers of the diseases they prevent.
He says some parents that have concerns must be re-assured that vaccines are extremely safe and effective.
A recent survey suggested a growing number of U.S. parents are beginning to question either the need for vaccines for their children, or the need to follow the recommended schedule of multiple shots between the ages of 3 months and 3 years.
The report is published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, May, 2005.