Lots in the in-box worth discussing – with a focus on a determinants of health and inequities.
Socioeconomic status:
Screening for poverty – another contribution from the folks at St.
Mike’s in Toronto speaking about the need for screening for poverty in family practice. It
seems to have initiative a series of articles in the blogosphere as well. Relatively high level discussion about how
poverty contributes to poor health.
Lacking is any tool for undertaking screening that would make it easy for
health care providers to incorporate into their health assessments. Healthy
Debate - screening for poverty and Kevinmd
blog in response .
Literacy and health –
a topic for blogging unto itself. This
nifty BMJ article better documents risks of health literacy as it relates to
mortality. Lower health literacy,
higher risk. Just as importantly, in the
random sample of seniors from the UK survey on ageing. The hidden gem in the data that isn’t
mentioned is Table 1 is the very neat nice gradient of how literacy levels are
better in younger populations, with over 75% of the 50-59 age group in the high
literacy bracket. BMJ article on low literacy
. Well worth the read for those that
are advocating for more literacy instruction. You might also want to read the
criticism incorporated into Dr. Schreker’s blog mentioned below.
Personal health practices:
As evidence mounts on the health benefits of exercise that exceed the
reductions in disease risk factors, the race is on as to what form of exercise
has the best benefit. An entry in the
cycling category confirms the intuitive about cardiovascular diseases. The study does not seem to lay to rest concern about
the injury risks of cycling Cycling as a health
intervention . Walkers, swimmers and those with your
favourite exercise need their own evidence reviews.
On the flip of exercise was a nice piece on foods that have
more sugar than a Twinkie. You will
likely be surprised even though you no doubt someone who thinks they are health
conscience Huffington
Post high sugar foods (see the nifty formula on estimating sugar content of yoghurt submitted in the comments)
To close – two blogs on social inequities – another from the
St. mike’s site http://healthydebate.ca/ the blog at Healthy
equity missing in action and a more
optimistic view from Ottawa’s Dr Ted Schreker who speaks to igniting a social
movement about inequities based on evidence A
social movement based on evidence
Happy surfing.
Am very glad the Huffington laid bare the amount of added sugar in "non-bare" yogurt. This has been a pet-peeve of mine for years. To figure out the added sugars in yogurt look at 2 things: the total carbohydrates, and the % DV of calcium. For every 10% DV of calcium in a milk product, there are 4 g of naturally occurring lactose. If your 175 mL yogurt has 20% DV calcium and 26 g of total carb, then 26 g minus 8 g lactose equals 18 g of added sugar. That's 4.5 tsp of sugar. Don't be fooled into thinking that comes from fruit. Most flavoured yogurts contain less than a teaspoon of real fruit. Buy plain yogurt, and add your own fruit -- super easy to do with all the frozen chopped/whole fruit you can buy now.
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