Low socioeconomic status means worse health -- but not for everyone

Poverty is bad for your health. Poor people are much more likely to have heart disease, stroke, and cancer than wealthy people, and have a lower life expectancy, too. Children who grow up poor are more likely to have health problems as adults.  But despite these depressing statistics, many children who grow up poor have good health. In a new article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Edith Chen and Gregory E. Miller of the University of British Columbia suggest a possible reason: some children have role models who teach them to cope with stress.  "Who are these bright spots who, despite a lot of adversity, make it through and do well?" Chen asked. She suspects...

Read more »

Is modern medicine ill with dehumanization?

"Anyone who has been admitted into a hospital or undergone a procedure, even if cared for in the most appropriate way, can feel as though they were treated like an animal or object," says Harvard University psychologist and physician Omar Sultan Haque. Health care workers enter their professions to help people; research shows that empathic, humane care improves outcomes. Yet dehumanization is endemic. The results can be disastrous: neglect of necessary treatments or prescription of excessive, painful procedures or dangerous drugs.  What are the causes and effects of dehumanization in medicine? And what can be done about it? In Perspectives in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Haque and...

Read more »

Making Big Tobacco pay smokers' health bills: lessons from the United States

Reports that Nicola Roxon plans to encourage state governments to consider legal action to recover around A$31 billion in smoking-related health-care costs from the tobacco industry highlight the incoming attorney-general’s commendable commitment to reducing the impact of smoking-related illness and mortality.  The legacy of the US Master Settlement Agreement holds significant lessons for policy makers in Australia [Credit: Razvan Caliman] Such litigation is a potentially powerful way of countering the tobacco industry, but has been largely limited to the United States to date. As part of preliminary work on the proposal, Roxon has brought Matthew Myers, president of the leading US tobacco control organisation, Campaign for Tobacco-Free...

Read more »

Disabled children do matter

Many disabled children fail to reach their full potential because they continue to be marginalised in schools, health and social care, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).  "We found that disabled children often experience discrimination, exclusion and even violence," say Professor Dan Goodley and Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole, who implemented the study at the Manchester Metropolitan University. "The biggest barriers they meet are the attitudes of other people and widespread forms of institutional discrimination."  "Disabled children are seldom allowed to play and act like other children because of concerns about their 'leaky and unruly' bodies. But our study shows that many children...

Read more »

New report calls for decriminalization of assisted dying in Canada

A report commissioned by the Royal Society of Canada, and published today in the journal Bioethics, claims that assisted suicide should be legally permitted for competent individuals who make a free and informed decision, while on both a personal and a national level insufficient plans and policies are made for the end of life.  End-of-life decision-making is an issue wrapped in controversy and contradictions for Canadians. The report found that most people want to die at home, but few do; most believe planning for dying is important and should be started while people are healthy, but almost no one does it. And while most Canadians support the decriminalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, both remain illegal under...

Read more »

Should doctors encourage people to donate a kidney to a stranger?

With three people on the kidney transplant list dying in the UK every day, should doctors encourage their patients to put themselves at risk for the benefit of others? Two experts debate the issue on bmj.com today.  Associate Professor Walter Glannon from the University of Calgary argues that, although living kidney donation is relatively safe, "this does not imply that doctors should encourage healthy adults who are their patients to donate a kidney to a stranger."  He points out that "doctors have an obligation of non-maleficence to their patients" and says: "It is one thing for a doctor to expose a patient to some risk in order to treat a disease; it is quite another to encourage a patient to put his or her own physical health...

Read more »

Doctors' own alcohol consumption colors advice to patients

Doctors who drink more themselves are more liberal in their advice to patients on alcohol consumption. They set higher thresholds for what is harmful, and while men who are heavy drinkers get to continue drinking, women are often advised to stop altogether, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.  Doctors who drink more themselves are more liberal in their advice to patients on alcohol consumption Researchers at the University of Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Academy have for the first time looked into how family doctors' own drinking habits affect their advice to patients. The study, which took the form of a questionnaire for doctors in the county of Skaraborg, revealed that those who...

Read more »

Obesity and depression independently increase health costs

Obesity and depression both dramatically increase health care costs, but they mainly act separately, according to a study published in the November 2011 Journal of General Internal Medicine by Group Health Research Institute scientists. Gregory Simon, MD, MPH, a Group Health psychiatrist and Group Health Research Institute senior investigator, led the research.  “Previous research shows that both depression and obesity are associated with higher health care costs,” he said. “But depression and obesity often occur together, so it was important to know if the relationship between obesity and cost is really due to depression—or vice versa.”  Simon and his colleagues tested whether depression confounds the increase in health care...

Read more »