Posted by Clarence Jones Chubby Babies? Isn’t anything sacred? As a lifelong, card carrying member of the “Chubby Baby” club, I was recently surprised by the results of a new study published in February 2010 in the journal Clinical Pediatrics entitled “Identifying the “Tipping Point” Age for Overweight Pediatric Patients” that found over half of […]
Author: anderslj@umn.edu
Maternal deaths on the decline?
New research published in the Lancet (April 2010) shows a sharp decrease in maternal deaths for the first time in decades: from 525,300 maternal deaths in 1980, to 342,900 in 2008. As the New York Times reported last week, the news came as a surprise to many maternal health advocates—who assumed data would be similar […]
Is Inequality Making Us Sick? Unnatural Causes – Free screening at UMN April 29, 2010
FACT: The average U.S. life expectancy, at 78.2 years, remains far below that of other developed nations. FACT: Even after adjusting for behaviors and access to health care, middle-class Americans live an average of three fewer years than their upper-class counterparts. FACT: African Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders have consistently poorer health outcomes than […]
Food Revolution
The United States is dealing with an obesity crisis. For the first time, the current generation of children in the United States is not expected to live as long as their parents. Alarming statistics such as these has prompted Jamie Oliver, chef, author, and television personality from the United Kingdom, to take America by storm […]
Child Nutrition Act cut in half
Not much of a surprise for those of us who’ve been watching this bill — last week, the Senate voted to cut President Obama’s proposed budget for the School Nutrition Act in half, from $10 billion to $4.5 billion. $4.5 billion sounds like a lot, just like $10 billion sounds like a lot, so let’s […]
Camel No. 9
A study published online in Pediatrics this week again demonstrated the persuasive power of big tobacco’s marketing campaigns. In 2007, R.J. Reynolds introduced Camel No. 9, and their branding effort came complete with pink packaging as well as a name mimicking perfume. Advertisements for Camel No. 9 were run in magazines such as Glamour and […]
Health ads from the past
These health-related ads from the previous century provide a funny (crazy? depressing?) reminder of how far we’ve come in public health. A few of them might also remind us that advertisements are not always the best place to get health information…
Against All Odds
Englewood is not a place that usually attracts attention for its successes. Though located not far from the University of Chicago and the former Obama home, news about the South Side Chicago neighborhood is often grim, telling a story of striking poverty, crime, and gang violence. Against all odds, Urban Prep— the city’s only public […]
Let’s Move: What’s next?
My last post on “Let’s Move,” Michelle Obama’s new anti-obesity initiative, brought up a number of questions about the program’s ambitious goal: “To solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.” The main question, of course, is this: where will the money come from? Obama’s $400 million dollar Healthy Food Financing Initiative, as described […]
Lancet retraction of article linking autism and MMR vaccines 12 years later: A symptom of a bigger problem?
On February 2nd, the British medical journal The Lancet issued an official retraction of the article published 12 years ago that theorized the links between MMR vaccines, gastrointestinal inflammation, and autism, based on results from a study of 12 children. The retraction came after Britain’s General Medical Council ruled that Dr. Andrew Wakefield (the lead author) […]
Utah criminalizes illegal abortions and some miscarriages
If signed into law, a bill passed by the Utah House and Senate last week would criminalize illegally induced abortions and some miscarriages. The bill was motivated by a recent case in Utah in which a 17-year-old girl, who was seven months pregnant, paid a man $150 to beat her in hopes that it would […]
Let’s Move: Michelle Obama’s new plan to end obesity
The Obama Administration’s new childhood health campaign, “Let’s Move,” has just one goal: “To solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.” Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? Maybe not. Let’s take a look at the plan’s specific objectives: 1) Parental support. As letsmove.gov notes, parents “play a key role in making healthy choices for their children.” “Let’s […]
National Condom Week, February 14-21
As Planned Parenthood reminds us, February 14th-21st marks the 30-something anniversary of National Condom Week. To celebrate, we bring you an assortment of banned condom commercials. Please note: none of these are safe for work, but all of them are quite funny:
Super Bowl Sunday: A Failed Opportunity to Redirect our Focus on Family Planning
In a break from the typically light-hearted ads promoting cars, soda, and beer, this year’s Super Bowl was the first in history to feature an advertisement from an advocacy organization. Created by Focus on the Family—an evangelical group opposed to abortion—the ad highlighted the story of Tim Tebow, a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback for the Florida […]