The following capsule news summaries reflect emerging areas of research that will likely capture the attention of various media and news outlets. These capsule reviews are derived from the New in Review section of the Journal on page 2004.
Less than half of American children who live relatively close to school regularly walk or ride a bike to class, concludes a new study published in the August 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Among those least likely to walk or pedal to school are students living in the south and in rural areas. The study also suggests that parents with a college education are more likely to drive their kids to school or place them on a bus, than those parents with high school diplomas. “Given the presence of health disparities in the US, it is interesting to note that these data reveal that many of the most often under-served groups (eg, lower levels of parent education, single parents, low income) are the ones more likely to travel to school actively,” according to Sarah L. Martin, PhD, and her colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 7,000 families were surveyed using the database from the CDC’s 2004 Youth Media Campaign Longitudinal Survey, with balanced distributions across age, region, and urbanicity categories.
Bottom Line: Researchers didn’t explore the reasons why so many children are driven to school, but possible explanations given include concerns about safety or parental attitudes towards exercise. “Promoting safe routes to schools for active travel seems a viable strategy to increase youths’ physical activity levels,” note the researchers. “The lowest proportions of active travelers among the independent correlates include students in the south, students living in rural areas, and students of parents with advanced degrees. Efforts should be tailored to meet the needs of these various subgroups to make active travel a feasible and attractive alternative for commuting to and/or from school.”
House Call: Housing Conditions Linked to Diabetes Risk
Poor housing conditions may contribute to the risk for diabetes in urban, middle-aged African-Americans, according to a study conducted by a team of researchers led by Mario Schootman at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. The African American Health Study database was used to examine the relationship between a subjective poverty rating score and the incidence of diabetes in an urban area (St Louis, MO). A total of 644 middle-aged African-Americans were interviewed at home at baseline and then 3 years later. Interviewers rated the dwellings based on cleanliness inside the building, the physical condition of the building’s interior and exterior, as well as the condition of the furnishings inside the home; housing was then classified as “fair,” “poor,” “good,” or “excellent.” Investigators also rated the external appearance of each participant’s neighborhood. About a quarter of the respondents rated “fair” or “poor” for housing and neighborhood conditions, according to the study published in the August 2007 issue of American Journal of Epidemiology, and at the 3-year follow-up, 10.3% reported having developed diabetes.
Bottom Line: “Urban, middle-aged African-Americans who lived under adverse housing conditions were more likely to develop diabetes three years later,” note the researchers in their closing statement. It remains unclear how housing conditions may contribute to an increased risk of diabetes, but researchers emphasized the importance of more studies to understand the importance of an individual’s environment and its impact on a person’s health.
Not So Fast: “Healthy” Fast Food No Better for Your Heart
How “healthy” are fast-food alternatives to the classic fast-food trifecta of burger, fries, and soft drink? In a study commonly referred to as the “Hamburg Burger trial” led by Dr Tanja K. Rudolph of the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, researchers measured the initial endothelial function and other markers of cardiovascular disease in 24 healthy volunteers who followed no particular diet and took no vitamin supplements. The 14 women and 10 men then consumed each of the three readily available fast-food meals in random order, divided by 1-week separation periods. Researchers purchased the following meals anonymously at McDonald’s restaurants in Germany: beef burger, fries, ketchup, and a lemon-flavored carbonated drink; a vegetarian burger, fries, ketchup, and a lemon-flavored carbonated drink; a vegetarian burger, salad, fruit, yogurt, and orange juice, the researchers report in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Bottom Line: “Against common expectations, a conventional beef burger meal and presumably healthier alternatives such as vegetarian burgers with or without vitamin-rich side orders did not differ significantly in their acute effects on vascular reactivity,” write the authors.
This article was written by Tony Peregrin, a freelance writer in Chicago, IL.
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