Property values signal obesity
Neighborhood property values predict obesity rates better than education or incomes, according to a study from the University of Washington published online by the journal Social Science and Medicine.
For each additional $100,000 in the median price of homes, researchers found, obesity rates in a given ZIP code dropped by 2 percent.
The study, based on analyses of responses to a telephone survey conducted in King County by the local health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found sixfold disparities in obesity rates across the Seattle area. Obesity rates reached 30 percent in the most deprived areas but were only around 5 percent in the most affluent Seattle-area ZIP codes.
“Obesity is an economic issue,” said Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the university’s Center for Obesity Research and leader of the study.
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Social activities dampen teen smoking
School and church social activities may help reduce smoking among disadvantaged children, a new study reports.
The study included 824 9th-grade students at four schools in Flint, Mich. The students, all with a grade point average of 3.0 or lower, were asked about their smoking habits, as well as those of their friends and family.
“Researchers are getting more interested in how social and environmental factors influence adolescent behavior,” study co-author Marc Zimmerman, a professor with the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Kids who are at risk for a certain behavior such as smoking do not all become smokers. So, we tried to figure out why some overcome these risks, while others don’t.”
The study found that students who took part in extracurricular school activities or church programs were less likely to smoke, even if they had the same kinds of neighborhood risk factors as teens who smoked.
The findings were published online in the American Journal of Public Health.
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Migraine drug softens cluster headaches
The severely painful type of headaches called cluster headaches respond to a medication frequently used for migraines, a new study found.
Research shows that zolmitriptan nasal spray, part of a family of migraine drugs called triptans, can reduce pain within 10 to 30 minutes, depending upon the dosage, according to Dr. Alan M. Rapoport, the study’s lead author.
“People with cluster headaches have such severe headaches they can’t stand it. It’s the worst type of headache that we know of. It comes on very quickly, so you need to have a medication that works quickly and is easy to use,” said Rapoport, who conducted the research when he was director of The New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Conn.
With a spray of zolmitriptan in one nostril (5 milligrams) or two nostrils (10 milligrams), it “will rapidly relieve cluster headaches in a significant number of people,” Rapoport said.
The study found that 50 percent of the patients using the lower dose and 63 percent using the higher dose experienced pain reduction within 30 minutes.
