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Tag: Harvard School of Public Health
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Science & Tech
School of Public Health tests new emergency management software
CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) is a suite of software programs used by professionals such as emergency management agency specialists, firefighters, hazardous materials teams, industrial hygienists and emergency department personnel. The system helps professionals plan for emergencies and deal with them as they are happening. Recently, the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for…
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Science & Tech
American females at highest risk for murder
A female in the United States is three times more likely to be murdered than a female in Canada, five times more likely to be murdered than a female in Germany, and eight times more likely to be murdered than a female in England and Wales. The U.S. female homicide victimization rate is five times…
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Science & Tech
State of U.S. public health drinking water reliable
“Over the last century, the U.S. has set the world standard for ensuring a reliable, relatively safe drinking water supply to the general public,” said Ronnie B. Levin, a research scientist in the Environmental Epidemiology Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. “But population demands, continuing scientific research and past public policy have created…
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Science & Tech
Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs grows rapidly
In the first analysis of patterns of direct-to-consumer advertising before and after 1997 guidelines issued by the Food and Drug Administration, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and the Sloan School of Management at MIT have found that such advertising increased three-fold between 1996 and 2000. Still, direct-to-consumer advertising accounted…
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Science & Tech
Physicians vs. the Internet
Each day, about 7.5 million people in the United States use the Internet to get health information, while less than 3 million consult their doctors. Of the 110 million Americans who surf the Internet, more than 60 percent use it for health advice. But many doctors are worried because they believe there is much misinformation…
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Health
Study links Western dietary pattern with greater risk for type 2 diabetes in men
About 16 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, which can cause blindness, kidney failure, and heart disease. Now researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have linked a diet high in consumption of red meat, processed meat, high-fat dairy products and refined grains, combined with obesity and inactivity, with a high risk for type…
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Health
Mouse model devised that develops asthma
A Harvard research team led by Laurie Glimcher, Irene Heinz Given professor of immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine, two years ago discovered a molecule that they named T-bet. T-bet seemed to help control the immune system response by determining the actions of helper T…
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Science & Tech
Powerful mutagen found in Massachusetts water
Mutagen X, a by-product of chemicals used to disinfect public water supplies, is not monitored or regulated in the U.S. water supply. A new report from researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health provides the first broad evidence that Mutagen X, first discovered in Finland’s drinking water more than ten years ago, also lurks in…
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Science & Tech
Tuning the system: Program buffers health care collisions
The Health Care Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program at the Harvard School of Public Health, led by Leonard Marcus, trains health care professionals to minimize the conflicts that inevitably arise. The four-step program outlined below is called “Walk in the Woods” after a famous story about arms control negotiators who found common interests that led…
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Health
Biostatisticians crunch data vital to AIDS research, genetics
Broadly defined, statistical genetics is the development of methods to analyze DNA. In recent years, the term has been more specifically applied to gene mapping, or the search for locations of genes related to diseases, and to the analysis of drug therapies. Statistical genetics plays a significant role in what some experts predict to be…
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Health
High levels of Epstein-Barr virus antibodies in women linked to risk of multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Nationwide, there are an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people with MS. Researchers have long wondered how MS develops and why it targets certain individuals, though they have long suspected that a virus was involved. Alberto Ascherio, associate professor in the Departments of Epidemiology…
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Health
Technique enables quick accounting of gene function
Now that whole genomes have been sequenced, a group of scientists has geared up for the next phase: identification and classification of newly discovered coding regions. The DNA microchip, developed just a few years ago, has already become a standard tool in the geneticist’s repertoire. With genomic sequence in hand, the researcher can synthesize all…
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Science & Tech
Analysis of potential mad cow risk in U.S. finds little chance of disease spread
The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA), part of the Harvard School of Public Health, performed an analysis for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine what the effects would be if “mad cow” disease were introduced into the United States. Mad cow disease, which is the popular term for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has not…
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Health
Research suggests optimistic attitude can reduce risk of heart disease in older men
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, working with colleagues from the Department of Veterans Affairs, studied some 1,306 Boston area men who were part of the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study. In 1986, the volunteers completed a questionnaire that judged whether they were optimistic or pessimistic. They all were healthy individuals with no…
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Health
HIV-1 infected children benefit greatly from combination therapy
Combination therapy including protease inhibitors has been available since 1996 for adults with HIV-1 infection. The therapy has slowed the progression of HIV-1 and drastically reduced the rate of mortality in adults. But how does the combination therapy work in children with HIV-1 infection? In the first prospective study in the United States to look…
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Health
“Heart of glass” may be more than just a metaphor
Jeffrey Fredberg is a professor of bioengineering and physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. His primary research interest is asthma. Fredberg was intrigued by the plasticity of the smooth muscle cells that surround the lung’s airways, and which are impaired in asthma, so he and some colleagues began to probe the mechanical properties…
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Science & Tech
Survey shows Americans not panicking over anthrax
In the wake of biological terror attacks perpetrated by unknown persons sending anthrax-laced letters through the U.S. mail, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched their Survey Project on Americans’ Response to Biological Terrorism. The first report of the ongoing survey, released on Nov. 8, 2001, found that most…
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Science & Tech
Student investigates investing in Mother Earth
Managers of “green” mutual investment funds seek to invest their clients’ money in socially responsible and environmentally friendly companies. But those managers, and individual investors, are often hampered by a lack of information about a company’s effect on the environment. While an index such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory contains a lot…
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Health
Study shows strong public interest in genetic testing for Alzheimer’s disease
A genetic test to determine a person’s chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease is still hypothetical. But scientists are getting closer and closer to being able to determine who is likely to get the disease. A study by Harvard researchers and their colleagues found that, once such a genetic test is developed, approximately 80 percent of…
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Health
Nutrition book author Willett rebuilds USDA food pyramid
For more than 20 years researchers at Harvard and elsewhere have been looking at the long-term health effects of eating certain types of foods. These researchers now have a good idea what’s good for you and what’s not, and in what quantities. However, that information is not reflected in the “food pyramid” produced by the…
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Health
Study shows obesity can increase risk of pancreatic cancer
Each year almost 30,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. About the same number of people are killed by it. Pancreatic cancer is the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. A study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Dana-Farber…
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Science & Tech
Study examines hazardous seating of children in fatal motor vehicle crashes
A recent study by Harvard School of Public Health scientists examined how often adults placed children in the rear of vehicles, and what factors affected that placement. The study, led by Eve Wittenberg of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, examined more than 28,000 fatal crashes between 1990 and 1998. The proportion of vehicles carrying…
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Science & Tech
Some video games contain more violence than parents expect
If a video game is rated “E” for “suitable for everyone,” that is supposed to be a signal to parents that the game is acceptable for their children. But a study by Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that of 55 E-rated games that they surveyed, 64 percent contained intentional violence. The average amount…
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Science & Tech
Dating violence linked with teen pregnancy, suicide attempts
About one in five girls experience physical or sexual dating violence, according to a new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, the Boston University School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. These girls are significantly more likely to engage in other behaviors that pose serious health risks.…
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Science & Tech
Preventing cervical cancer in developing nations
Cervical cancer kills approximately 190,000 women each year, most of them in developing nations. It is the third most common cancer world wide. Women who live in more affluent nations have access to Papanicolaou (Pap) tests, which allow pre-cancerous lesions to be detected and treated before they develop into full-blown cancer. But such screening and…
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Health
Deadliest form of malaria is younger than previously believed
Malaria kills more people than any other communicable disease except for tuberculosis. It is the world’s most serious parasitic tropical disease, resulting in 1 million to 3 million deaths annually. The most lethal form of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, accounts for the majority of infections, 200 million to 300 million annually. Now researchers from the Harvard-Oxford…
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Science & Tech
No-fault compensation for medical injury proposed
Three jumbo jets filled with patients crashing every two days — that’s the analogy for the number of patients estimated to die annually from medical injury in the U.S. A big part of the problem is that the current malpractice system for compensating victims of medical injury does little to encourage hospitals to voluntarily report…
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Science & Tech
Children from working-class families twice as likely to be depressed adults
Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds have an elevated risk of depression throughout their lifetimes, even if they become more professionally successful than their parents. That’s the conclusion of a study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health researcher Stephen Gilman and colleagues. The study also suggests that girls raised in working-class households are more likely…
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Health
Green vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C reduces risk of heart disease
Regularly eating fruits and vegetables, in particular green leafy vegetables and fruits that contain vitamin C, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. In a study, individuals who increased consumption of fruits and vegetables by one additional serving per day helped reduce their risk for…