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ASCO Study Finds Varying Interpretation Of HIPAA Privacy Rule Can Delay Cancer Research
A study conducted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) finds that different interpretations of the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule can result in significant delays or abandonment of important clinical cancer research projects. The study also outlines measures that research sites can undertake to resolve these differences and speed the pace of research. The study results were published online today by the Journal of Clinical Oncology in an ASCO special article, "The Impact of the Privacy Rule on Cancer Research: Variations in Attitudes and Application of Regulatory Standards".

Prenatal Malaria Exposure Increases Risk Of Malaria And Anemia For Some Children
Some babies who are exposed to malaria before birth develop a tolerant
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Strength Training And Aerobic Exercise Both Lower Cardiovascular Risks, Reduce Pain
Different types of work site exercise programs have multiple benefits, including reduced neck and shoulder pain for employees who do all-around exercise and lowered heart disease and stroke risk factors for those who do strength training, reports a study in the July Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).
Mental Health

Local Food Environments Can Lead To Obesity

Living in an area with more fast food outlets and convenience stores than supermarkets and grocers has been associated with obesity in a Canadian study. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health have shown that your local food environment can affect your weight. John Spence from the University of Alberta, Canada, worked with a team of researchers to study associations between the "Retail Food Environment Index" (RFEI) and levels of obesity. He said, "The RFEI is based upon a ratio of the number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores to supermarkets and specialty food stores in a given radius around a person"s house. We"ve shown that it correlates very well with the odds that that person may be obese". The availability of fast food and scarcity of outlets for natural ingredients within 800m of a person"s home was shown to be associated with weight, while the RFEI within a 1600m radius did not have the same effect. The researchers claim that this demonstrates that the proximity of the unhealthy environment is an important risk factor for obesity. According to Spence, "These findings may help explain the observation that geographic concentration of fast-food restaurants is associated with mortality and hospital admissions for acute coronary events in Canada". Fast-food is cheaper and more energy-dense per measure of weight than other healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables that are purchased in a grocery store. If governments want to reduce people"s intake of these energy-efficient, but ultimately unhealthy "meals", the authors recommend that they intervene to limit the creation of areas where tempting junk-food outlets are so much more prevalent than other shops. They write, "A plausible policy option for decreasing the prevalence of obesity among adults is improving the retail food environment, possibly through zoning by-laws". Notes: Relation between local food environments and obesity among adults John C Spence, Nicoleta Cutumisu, Joy Edwards, Kim D Raine and Karen Smoyer-Tomic BMC Public Health (in press) Article available at journal website. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central"s open access policy. BMC Public Health is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of epidemiology and public health medicine. BMC Public Health (ISSN 1471-2458) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE, Thomson Scientific (ISI) and Google Scholar. Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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