After decades of successful anti-tobacco campaigns, we’re all familiar with the risks of smoking. But how do the health harms of cigarettes compare with those of other smoking devices? The hookah, also…
Pulse oximetry is usually done by clipping a small sensor onto a baby’s foot.
Flickr/storyvillegirl
A quick, cheap and non-invasive test on newborn infants is effective in picking up heart defects missed by some prenatal ultrasounds, a UK study has found. Pulse oximetry involves clipping a sensor to…
Home help is much more effective than written instructions from a doctor.
The new Victorian Health Plan 2012-22 offers a bleak prognosis: forever rising medical costs, doctors in the wrong places, hospitals overwhelmed. To make matters worse, it claims that patients can’t be…
Guidelines say no TV for under 2s, then no more than two hours a day.
Keenen Brown
If you’ve ever sat your toddler down in front of the television to give yourself a few minutes of much-needed rest, you’re certainly not alone. But for many parents, those few minutes of bliss that come…
We are bombarded with health messages on an almost daily basis. Many of these encourage us to monitor ourselves for worrying signs that might be signals of an underlying problem. Ovarian cancer is the…
The alcohol industry’s move to attach warning labels to booze bottles will have limited impact because the messages selected are so weak they “sound like a greeting card”, an expert on alcohol-related…
Living close to fast food outlets drives up junk food consumption, a US study found. But Australian researchers say that’s not necessarily the Antipodean experience.
Fotopedia/Marius Mézerette
Living near fast food outlets leads to higher consumption of junk foods but living close to supermarkets stocked with fruit and vegetables doesn’t mean a healthier diet, a U.S. study has found. However…
More studies are needed to conclude that early treatment provides long term benefits for sufferers of psychosis, a major literature review has found.
Flickr/Arturo Sotillo
Early intervention mental health policies may be gaining favour in Australia, Europe and the U.S. but there is limited evidence to show they help sufferers of psychosis in the longer term, a major literature…
Synthetic cannabis, known commercially as Kronic, K2, Kaos or Spice, was designed to circumvent drug laws and give users a “legal high”. But Western Australia banned the product earlier this month and…
Is legal action becoming a bad habit for tobacco companies?
effb/Flickr
This week’s legal action by tobacco giant Philip Morris to overturn the federal government’s plain packaging proposals is not its first attempt to stifle anti-tobacco legislation. Philip Morris is also…
Since mandatory bike helmet laws were introduced in 1991, researchers, cyclists and campaigners have debated the law’s role in cyclist safety and the desirability of bike riding. A new analysis reveals…
There is an association between poor mental health and health risk factors for diabetes such as physical inactivity, poor diet, smoking and obesity, the report said.
Flickr
More than 40% of Australian adult diabetics also experience mental health problems, according to a report released by the government’s Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). More than 800,000…
In its latest attempt to derail the plain cigarette packaging legislation, Big Tobacco has pulled out one of its favourite pro-tobacco messages: say no to a nanny state. The print advertisements and website…
The number of people smoking daily has dropped but 60% of Australian adults are now overwight or obese, a government study found.
Flickr
Over 60% of Australian adults are now overweight or obese, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The report, Key indicators of progress for chronic disease…
In a world first study, Victorian researchers showed that the number of girls presenting with abnormal pap smear results dropped after the introduction of a broad-based vaccination program.
Flickr
Australian researchers have shown for the first time that the number of girls presenting with pre-cancer cells on the cervix has dropped following the introduction of a wide ranging vaccination program…
Plain packaging could spell the death of the cigarette brand in Australia and beyond.
thana/flickr
British American Tobacco Australia has launched yet another attack on the Australian government’s plain packaging legislation. On top of its latest “Where’s the proof?” campaign, launched today, it is…
It’s time to begin preparing for the “tertiary effects”.
AAP
Public health experts have warned for more than two decades that climate change will harm human health. Initially their attention focused on “primary” health effects (e.g heat waves, bush fires and flooding…
The WHO’s cancer agency IARC has said mobile phones “possibly” cause cancer.
Flickr
Mobile phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The IARC classified…
A full English breakfast just doesn’t cut it.
Iban
Piping hot cups of coffee. A fat laden fried breakfast. Going for a run. Or maybe just going back to bed. There are plenty of claims about how you can cure a hangover. So, what’s the reality? If you’ve…
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand