Staying Well. Connected.

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Franks, PW et al. Childhood Obesity, Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and Premature Death. New England Journal of Medicine, 362(6): 485-493, February 11, 2010) reports that childhood obesity can be considered a predictive risk for death before age 55. The study, which followed a cohort of American Indian children born between 1945 and 1984, assessed whether body-mass index (BMI), glucose tolerance, and blood pressure and cholesterol levels predicted premature death. Within this population, nearly 29% of the children studied were considered “obese” with a BMI greater than or equal to the 95th percentile on the 2000 CDC growth charts. This is similar to the contemporary rates of obesity seen among Hispanic and African American children. The study concludes: “obesity in children who do not have diabetes is associated with an increased rate of death from endogenous causes during early adulthood, an association that may be partially mediated by the development of glucose intolerance and hypertension in childhood.”

On Thursday, February 4, Paula Maez and Linda Levy taught two classes on WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders: http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov/) and REMM (Radiation Emergency Medical Management: http://www.remm.nlm.gov/) to employees of the Laredo Health Department, to fireman and EMTs from the Laredo Fire Department, and to area HazMat specialists. Both WISER and REMM are resources produced by the Specialized Information Services division of the National Library of Medicine as part of a continuing effort to bring important information about disaster management to those who need it. WISER provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances, including substance identification support, physical characteristics, human health information, and containment and suppression guidance, and REMM provides guidance for health care providers and hospitals about clinical diagnosis and treatment during transportation events involving radiation, terrorist incidents, or mass casualty radiological/nuclear events.

Class participants said that the classes were very informative and indicated that the sites pulled together
multiple resources in an easy, understandable, accessible format.

Yesterday, Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra joined the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition in the official launch of a new health information service for new mothers and mothers-to-be: text4baby.  Here’s how it works:

• Pregnant women or new mothers can text the word BABY to 511411 on their mobile phones (or BEBE to 511411 to receive information in Spanish), or can sign up online at http://text4baby.org.
• Each week through pregnancy and the baby’s first year, the mother will receive three free text messages with information relevant to where they are in the timeline of their pregnancy or baby’s development.  Messages also help connect them with local clinics and support services for prenatal and infant care.  These short messages include information on topics including immunization, nutrition, seasonal flu, mental health, smoking and alcohol, oral health, and safe sleep.
• More than 100 entities participate in the government-industry-healthcare partnership making this possible, including CDC and HRSA, the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition, mobile health platform provider Voxiva, the CTIA Wireless Foundation and wireless providers, Grey Health Group, and Johnson & Johnson.  Participating providers at this time include Alltel, Assurance Wireless, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Cellular South, Cellcom, Centennial Cellular, Cincinnati Bell, Metro PCS, N-Telos, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular,Verizon Wireless. and Virgin Mobile USA.