The February issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/ In this edition:

Can Pets Help Keep You Healthy? Exploring the Human-Animal Bond
People have lots of reasons for owning pets. Now a small but growing body of research suggests that owning or interacting with animals may have the added benefit of improving your health.
full story

Thyroid Diseases: What You Need to Know
You can’t see it, you can’t feel it and most people have no idea what it does. In fact, most people don’t know about their thyroid unless they’ve been affected by the often-elusive symptoms of thyroid disease.
full story

Health Capsules:
•    Web Tool Predicts Colon Cancer Risk
•    Therapy Curbs Parkinson’s Symptoms
•    Featured Web Site: Aim for a Healthy Weight

The Hesperian Foundation http://www.hesperian.org/ is a non-profit publisher of books and newsletters for community-based health care. They have recently published two titles in Spanish: Un manual de salud para mujeres con discapacidad, the Spanish version of A Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities and Helping Children Who are Deaf, Ayudar a los nios sordos. Packed with simple activities, this book is a great resource for parents, caregivers, health promoters, and others in teaching children who do not hear well how to communicate to the best of his or her ability.
Both titles can be downloaded and purchased from their new Spanish website http://www.espanol.hesperian.org/ and the online library with free downloads http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php

The January 2009 issue The IHS Primary Care Provider can be viewed on-line in .pdf format by going to http://www.ihs.gov/PublicInfo/Publications/HealthProvider/Provider.asp and selecting the January link. The direct link is http://www.ihs.gov/PublicInfo/Publications/HealthProvider/issues/PROV0109.pdf
In this issue, you can read “Native Health Database: One Stop for Native Health Information” written by medical librarian Pat Bradley. “The Native Health Database (http://hsc.unm.edu/library/nhd/) is a freely-available resource on the Internet forfinding health and medical information as it pertains to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Nations.”

When physicians use health information technology to its full potential, the result is fewer deaths, fewer complications, and lower health care costs, according to the first study to directly measure physicians’ use of health IT in a hospital setting.

In the study, Clinical Information Technologies and Inpatient Outcomes: A Multiple Hospital Study http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=796345 (Archives of Internal Medicine, Jan. 26), a team led by Ruben Amarasingham, M.D., of Southwestern Medical School surveyed physicians from 41 Texas hospitals treating patients for a variety of conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. The researchers found that relatively modest increases in technology use had dramatic results. For example, a 10-percentage-point increase in the use of electronic notes and medical records resulted in a 15 percent decrease in patient deaths. And when doctors electronically entered their instructions for patient care, death rates dropped up to 55 percent for some procedures. [Commonwealth Fun e-alert]

State of the U.S.A. Health Indicators
Committee on the State of the USA Health Indicators, Institute of Medicine, 2008
Available online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12534
“………..Policymakers, the media, and the public should focus on 20 specific health indicators as “yardsticks” to measure the overall health and well-being of Americans, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
By providing information that can be compared over time, these 20 indicators will also help Americans track the nation’s progress on improving our health and the effectiveness of public health and care systems.
The indicators are intended for the health section of a new Web site that the nonprofit State of the USA Inc. (SUSA) http://stateoftheusa.org/ is building as a tool for measuring and monitoring the nation on several fronts. The site will aim to help people become more-informed and active participants in national discussions about important topics — such as health, education, and the environment — by giving them a way to measure national progress from year to year and to compare it to that of other countries. Until recently, only researchers and academics have had the capacity for this kind of analysis.
The 20 proposed indicators together provide a broad picture of Americans’ health and the nation’s health systems. They reflect a range of factors that determine well-being, including how many individuals engage in certain risky or healthy behaviors, how well patients fare from the care they receive, and to what extent health professionals and facilities are meeting specific goals. [posted on PAHO/WHO Equity list]

Reducing Inequities in Health and Safety through Prevention
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/documents/HealthEquityMemo_012309.pdf
Prevention Institute and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Institute for Health Policy have released a position paper, Reducing Inequities in Health and Safety through Prevention. The paper emphasizes the need for a national commitment and elements of an agenda focused on achieving equitable health outcomes for all. [Prevention Institute Alert]

Access to healthy foods worse in poor areas
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_74043.html
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who live in poorer neighborhoods in the US are less likely to have easy access to supermarkets carrying a wide variety of fresh produce and other healthy food, an analysis of 54 studies confirms.
But they probably have plenty of unhealthy fast food joints to choose from, Dr. Nicole I. Larson of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and her colleagues found.
“The research I reviewed suggests there is a need for new policies and other local actions to address the problem of poor access to healthy foods in many lower income, rural, and minority communities,” Larson told Reuters Health.
Evidence is mounting, Larson and her team note, that segregation of neighborhoods by “income, race, and ethnicity” plays a major role in US health disparities, and accessibility to healthy — and unhealthy — food may be a factor. [posted in MedlinePlus Health News, Thursday January 22, 2009]

Wisconsin Pandemic Inflenza Toolkit for Families http://pandemic.wisconsin.gov/category.asp?linkcatid=2834&linkid=904&locid=106
Emergency Prparedness programs working on Pandemic Influenza planning have concerns about getting home care info to family members. If/when a Pandemic hits, the medical system will be overwhelmed and families will have to care at home for those stricken with flu, as well as other health conditions if health care facilities close and send patients home. For influenza it’s mostly controlling fever, hydration, and knowing when to call for further assistance. [Posted on HealthLiteracy listserv]

Annual CDC Report Finds High Burden of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Especially among Women and Racial Minorities
http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/Newsroom/PressRelease011309.html
Reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the United States exceeded 1.4 million in 2007, according to an annual report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These diseases continue to be the most commonly reported infectious diseases in the nation and pose persistent and preventable threats to fertility in the United States. The report shows persistent racial disparities across sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and a particularly heavy burden of disease among women. [posted on PHPartners http://phpartners.org/ - New Links for the week of Jan 16, 2009]

Some teenagers and young adults might overestimate how often they use condoms during sex, according to a study published recently in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Reuters Health reports ( http://tinyurl.com/a38sh6 ). Eve Rose of Emory University and colleagues conducted the study among 715 black women and girls ages 15 to 21 who were enrolled in an HIV prevention program. An abstract of the study is available online. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/163/1/61 [posted on Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report  - Thursday, January 15, 2009]

International Medical Interpreters Association Publishes Guide to Medical Translations
The IMIA Guide to Medical Translation is the second in a series of guides to be published by the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA). The publication underwent a peer-review process and is intended to be a short primer on the topic. The new publication can be downloaded at http://www.imiaweb.org/uploads/pages/438.pdf.  To see the full press release, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/8nhkv5 [posted on CLAStalk listserv]

The American Library Association (ALA) Public Information Office announced the release of “Increasing Relevance, Relationships and Results: Principles & Practices for Effective Multicultural Communication—Library Edition,” http://tinyurl.com/7xdtvo written by the Metropolitan Group, a leading strategic communication and resource development agency specializing in work with libraries.

The article defines eight principles and practices for effective multicultural communication, and highlights the important, integrated role multicultural communication plays in creating social change. Read more at http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2009/january2009/piomulticulturalcomm.cfm

Special Olympics, Healthy Athletes, Health Literacy Blog
http://healthlit.wordpress.com/ {Health Literacy listserv]

Identical Fake Testimonial Diet Sites Spreading Like Herpes
http://consumerist.com/5127945/identical-fake-testimonial-diet-sites-spreading-like-herpes

National Assessment of Adult LiteracyReport
Today, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the National Assessment of Adult Literacy: Indirect County and State Estimates of the Percentage of Adults at the Lowest Literacy Level for 1992 and 2003, which provides estimates on the percentage of adults – for all states and counties in the U.S. – who lack basic prose literacy skills.  The study provides data for 2003 and 1992. This new data is currently the only available snapshot of adult literacy rates for individual states and counties.
The report can be found at:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009482
The Interactive Web Tool can be accessed at:
http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx [Health Literacy Listserv]

Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy
Since 2002, reading has increased at the sharpest rate (+20 percent) among Hispanic Americans, Reading rates have increased among African Americans by 15 percent, and among Whites at an eight percent rate of increase. http://librarian.lishost.org/?p=1980 [REFORMANET listserv]