Longitudinal Examination of Prenatal Tobacco Switching Behaviors and Birth Outcomes,Including Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) and Dual Use

Maternal and Child Health Journal - In the US, approximately 8% of pregnant women smoke, and 5–11.9% currently use ENDS products. The health effects of ENDS use are debated; however, most...     

Generalized Self-Disclosure Explains Variance in Outness Beyond Internalized Sexual Prejudice Among Young Adults

Archives of Sexual Behavior - Outness, or self-disclosure of sexual orientation, plays a key role in the sexual identity development of LGB individuals and is linked with mental health. Lower...     

Antitrust exemption: are health providers crying wolf?

Demands by health providers for relief from federal antitrust law have reached a new high as they examine the likely impact of managed competition on the way they do business. Indeed, the American Medical Association endorsed managed competition on the condition that doctors get an antitrust exemption; the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association recently said that drug makers needed to discuss prices before they could hold back increases. But the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency, has shown no signs of revising its antitrust measures to reflect the enormous changes that lie before the health industry.     

Trust is the prescription for hospital/physician relations under health care reform

Hospitals are reacting to health care reform by forming collaborative physician/hospital organizations and other ventures. The success of these new partnerships depends on what shape the reformed system takes and establishing trust between all players.     

Basal glucose turnover inPsammomys obesus

The aim of this study was to examine wholebody glucose turnover and glucose uptake into individual tissues inPsammomys obesus. The animals were classi-fied according to the level of circulating glucose and insulin in the fed state: group A was normoglycaemic and normoinsulinaemic (glucose <8.0 mmol/l, insulin <150 mU/l), group B was normoglycaemic and hyperinsulinaemic (glucose <8.0 mmol/l, insulin 150 mU/l), and group C was hyperglycaemic and hyperinsulinaemic (glucose 8.0 mmol/l, insulin 150 mU/l). The animals were deprived of food for 6 h, after which they were anaesthetized and cannulated, using the jugular vein for infusions and the carotid artery for blood sampling. Whole-body glucose turnover was measured using a primed-continuous infusion of 6-[³H]-glucose and saline to quantitatively assess hepatic glucose production (HGP), glucose disposal (Rd), and the metabolic clearance rate of glucose (MCR). Following the 2-h infusion period, the glucose metabolic index (Rg) of individual tissues was measured using a fixed-dose bolus of 2-deoxy-[¹⁴C]glucose. Under the steady-state conditions of the experiment, HGP was assumed to be equal to Rd, and both variables were found to be significantly correlated to the fasting glucose concentration (r=0.534,P<0.05,n=19). On the other hand, MCR was found to be inversely correlated to the fasting plasma glucose concentration (r=0.670,P<0.01,n=19). When the animals were divided into three groups as described above, HGP in group C animals was significantly elevated compared with group A (20.8±2.6 vs 12.7±0.6 mg · kg^–1 · min^–1;P<0.05), and MCR showed a tendency to be lower in group C than group A, although the difference was not statistically significant. HGP and MCR were not significantly different between groups A and B. Measurement of the glucose metabolic index in individual tissues showed that group C animals had significantly higher Rg values in muscles and adipse tissues compared with those in group A (P<0.05). In addition, Rg in group B white gastrocnemius and soleus were significantly higher than in group A despite similar rates of HGP and levels of glycaemia. These findings suggest that an early increase in skeletal muscle glucose uptake and hyperinsulinaemia can be demonstrated in group BPsammomysobesus before significant hyperglycaemia.     

Telephone ownership and deaf people: implications for telephone surveys.

OBJECTIVES: This study was done to determine the prevalence of telephone ownership in different deaf populations and to explore its implications for telephone-based surveys. METHODS: Multivariate analyses, with adjustments for sociodemographics and health status, were done of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data from 1990 and 1991, the years in which the NHIS Hearing Supplement was administered. RESULTS: Prelingually deafened adults were less likely than members of the general population to own a telephone (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.35; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.15, 0.82), whereas postlingually deafened adults were as likely as members of the general population to own one (AOR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.78, 1.28). CONCLUSIONS: Telephone surveys risk marginalizing prelingually deafened adults because of low telephone ownership and language barriers between the deaf and hearing communities.     

HIV-1 vaccine-induced immune responses which correlate with protection from SHIV infection: compiled preclinical efficacy data from trials with ten different HIV-1 vaccine candidates

The specific immune mechanisms necessary and/or sufficient to elicit HIV-vaccine protection remain undefined. Utilising the SHIV rhesus macaque model the immunogenicity as well as the efficacy of ten different HIV-1 vaccine candidates was evaluated. Comparison of the immune responses induced, with the ability of the vaccine to protect from SHIV infection provided a means to determine which type of immune responses were necessary for protection. Vaccine candidates included VLPs, DNA, subunit protein with novel adjuvant formulations, ISCOMs and pox-virus vectors. Protection from SHIV infection was achieved in approximately half of the animals which received a primary intravenous cell-free challenge. The presence of CTL in the absence of other effector responses did not correlate with protection from this route and type of challenge. Virus neutralising antibodies (Nab) appeared to be necessary but alone were insufficient for protection. If Ag-specific IFN-gamma and/or IL-4 as well as lymphoproliferative (LP) responses were found with the lack of a detectable IL-2 response, then protection was not observed. Immunity correlated with the magnitude of Nab responses, beta-chemokines and as well as balanced, qualitative T-helper responses.