1 in 4 grandparents keep meds where kids can reach them

A new poll shows nearly one in four grandparents say they store prescription medicines in places that can be accessed by children. Unintentional poisonings cause more visits to the emergency room for young children — one every 10 minutes — than car accidents, to say nothing of the threat of theft, a factor in the prescription-drug epidemic that is killing more Kentuckians than such accidents.

The most common type of prescriptions that are accidentally ingested are opioids, the poll found. The most common type of over-the-counter medicine ingested is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, reports research-reporting service Newswise.

The poll found that 23 percent of grandparents and 5 percent of parents store prescription meds in easy-to-access places. Eighteen percent of grandparents and 8 percent of parents said they store over-the-counter medicine in easily accessible spots.

"Emergency room visits for accidental poisonings among young children have become much more frequent in the last decade," said Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. "We hope the results of this poll are a reminder to parents, grandparents and all those who care for young children: check around your homes to make sure that medicines are safely stored out of reach." (Read more)

Though the numbers are on the rise, on the whole, American children are safer than they ever were, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of death from unintentional injuries dropped 29 percent from 2000 to 2009. Deaths dropped from 12,400 in 2000 to about 9,100 in 2009.

Poisoning death rates rose dramatically, however‚ going up 91 percent in youths aged 15 to 19, "a byproduct of the rising prescription-drug abuse among teens who either obtain the pills illegally or swipe them from medicine cabinets of their parents or others," reports Timothy Martin for The Wall Street Journal. (Read more)

Read More

A healthy recess during school can cut down on bullying, improve learning, study finds

New research shows a healthy recess period during the school day can cut down on bullying and strengthen the school climate.

The report from researchers at Mathematica Policy Research and Stanford University compared schools in five cities who used Playworks — a program that uses a full-time coach to work to engage students in safe, healthy play during recess and throughout the day — to similar schools who did not use the program.

Schools that used the Playworks method had less bullying; better recess behavior and readiness for class. Teachers reported quicker transition to learning activities after recess and the students felt safer and more included at recess. Nearly 100 percent of teachers in Playworks said they wanted to use the program again the next school year. (Read more)

Read More

Beshear vetoes parts of budget, but health spending is intact

Though Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed 45 parts of the state budget yesterday evening, health-related spending was safe from the cut.

The budget will help reduce caseloads for social workers who investigate child abuse and neglect, funds colon cancer screenings for 4,000 uninsured Kentuckians, substance-abuse treatment for Medicaid recipients and includes funding for an elder abuse registry to protect senior citizens from unscrupulous caretakers.

"This is the most difficult budget I have ever drafted, and it will also be a challenge to implement and manage over the next two years," the governor said in a statement.

In the two-year, $19 billion budget, Beshear voted more than three dozen line-item appropriations, including "portions of the General Fund budget that limited his ability to manage the state's budget or spent money that doesn't exist," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

He also cut some earmarks, including $100,000 for Actors Theatre of Louisville and $150,000 for the International Mystery Writers' Festival in Owensboro. "I am vetoing these parts because they identify new spending earmarks yet the General Assembly failed to appropriate additional funds to finance them," Beshear said. (Read more)

Read More

Board of Dentistry's relaxation of limits on hygienists is the latest sign of hope in Kentucky's all-too-grim story of oral health

By Al Smith
Kentucky Health News

With nearly a fourth of Kentucky’s 1 million children living in poverty and suffering some of the worst oral health in America, the state Board of Dentistry voted Saturday to develop regulations to permit hygienists to treat children in a public health setting perhaps stemming a near epidemic of tooth decay in the very young.

Hygienists will still be responsible to dentists when working in public-health settings such as schools, where they can apply preventive treatments on their own if the new regulation wins legislative committee approval. It isn’t as far as we want to go in confronting our horrific problems, but it may remove stones in our path that have kept a tight control on the use of hygienists.

In the past, organized dentistry in Kentucky, fearing competition from hygienists, has opposed expanding their scope of practice, but as Kentucky remains stalled near the bottom of state rankings of oral health, younger dentists are accepting the need for change, says Dr. James Cecil, a retired dentistry professor at the University of Kentucky.

Saturday’s action by the Board of Dentistry partly may have been “from desperation, over recent bad publicity as the popular press portrays the profession as unresponsive to the needs of our poor citizens,” Cecil said in an interview.“While dentistry still remains where medicine was 20 years ago,” when many doctors opposed licensing physician assistants and nurse practitioners, Cecil said dentists “will learn they can make more money when their services become more available through greater use of auxiliaries such as the hygienists.”

Cecil, former chief dental officer for the U.S. Navy and distinguished as a national leader in public health, earlier last week participated with Kentucky Youth Advocates in the organization of a new Kentucky Oral Health Coalition, whose startup is funded by a foundation grant to KYA.

This coalition of various organizations, including public health departments, nurses, physicians, insurers, and some dentists, will be independent of dental associations or the state’s two dental colleges, and it will campaign for better programs for general as well as oral health.

In the early months of a year when the Kentucky General Assembly, like the U.S. Congress, has reached little agreement on public issues, the state Department of Public Health, actively supported by Gov. Steve Beshear, seems to be gaining traction on oral-health needs.

Grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission are expected to go to two of 13 new local health coalitions in Eastern Kentucky. The grants will pay for one mobile dental van and equipment to reach out to an area with children whose teeth are so decayed they were one focus of an ABC "20/20" documentary viewed by 11 million people in 2009.

Through funding by the federal government, the oral health program will begin training general dentists in more pediatric care. And with additional funding from ARC, this project focuses on dentists in the ARC counties for participation.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cecil and KYA hope to organize more local dental coalitions in rural Western Kentucky. Coalitions may decide to include ‘senior days’ to help older citizens with appalling dental health needs.

There are now 25 such coalitions in the state. As more are established, the challenge is to expand the reach of the state’s 3,000 hygienists, to assist and encourage the state’s 2,400 active dentists to become more pro-active about solving problems that drag down oral health in Kentucky, and to educate parents to care for their children’s teeth, beginning in their first year of life.

Historically, in a culture with so much poverty, Kentuckians have stoically accepted being toothless in old age as part of the price. First, though, there are awful workforce problems. What starts with neglect in childhood evolves into a workforce of adults with severe tooth loss and poor self-image, plus illnesses associated with dental disease (obesity, diabetes, strokes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s) and last, a distressing cohort of toothless elderly poor, sadly, among the highest in the country.

It's a grim story, but Cecil sees determination in the profession to address the problems. With a new added role for hygienists, he says, “The dam may be broken.”

Journalist Al Smith, Lexington, a former federal cochairman of the ARC, and co-founder of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at UK, is the retired host of KET’s "Comment on Kentucky."

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Read More

New federal rules on vending machines in schools are expected in the next few weeks

With new lunch standards set to kick in by next school year, the Obama administration is looking at its next target in the school food landscape: vending machines. New guidelines are expected to be released in the coming weeks "for foods that children can buy outside the cafeteria," reports Ron Nixon of The New York Times. Kentucky already has some rules in place, may get stronger as a result of the new guidelines. (NYT photo by Kirsten Luce)

Students eat from one-fifth to one-half of their daily diet at schools, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report 20 percent of American children are obese. As of 2007 in Kentucky, more than 37 percent of children were either obese or overweight, a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures shows. The administration wants to ensure that students eat what is good for them and avoid becoming overweight, Nixon reports, but there is strong pushback from the food and beverage industries.

A study by the National Academy of Sciences reports that about $2.3 billion worth of snack food and drinks are sold each year in schools nationwide. Schools have a stake in the fight as well, with candy sold in fundraisers often used to help pay for sports, music and arts programs. In Kentucky, the changeover to water, lowfat milk and fruit juices caused a downturn in revenue from the machines, but in most cases it appears to have rebounded to earlier levels.

The forthcoming guidelines are unknown, but officials predict they will be similar to the changes in the school lunch program, which reduced sugar, salt and fat. Those changes were a compromise after a fight between health advocates and the food industry. Nancy Huehnergarth, executive director of the New York State Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Alliance, said she expects another fight. "I think the food and beverage industry is going to fight tooth and nail over these rules," she said.

In Kentucky, schools are not allowed to sell food that competes with the national school lunch and breakfast programs from the minute students arrive until 30 minutes after the last lunch period. Only water, 100 percent fruit juice, lowfat milk and any beverage that contains no more than 10 grams of sugar per serving are allowed to be sold in school vending machines, as per state mandate. There are no limits as to what foods or drinks that can be sold in fundraisers. (Read more)

Read More

USDA issues new school lunch rules; not as broad as first written, but will make meals healthier

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released new, finalized requirements that will make school lunch a healthier meal for students.

The guidelines will mean:

• Students will be given both fruit and vegetables every school day.

• More foods will be made with whole grains.

• Students will be offered only fat-free or low-fat milk.

• Calories will be limited by portion size, based on the age of children being served.

• There will be less saturated fat and trans-fats in the food served.

• The amount of sodium will decrease gradually over the next 10 years.

Though the changes represent the first school-lunch overhaul in 15 years, they are not as comprehensive as the Obama administration initially wanted them to be. A bill passed late last year "would require the department to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now," reports Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press. "The initial draft of the department's guidelines, released a year ago, would have prevented that." Congress also kept USDA from limiting potatoes to two servings a week. Potato farmers and frozen-pizza companies lobbied hard against those proposals, some conservatives said the government shouldn't be telling children what to eat, and some school districts said the changes were too broad and too expensive.

Some of the changes will be incorporated by September, and others will be phased in. The changes affect lunches that are subsidized by the federal government in the National School Lunch Program, which serves 32 million children. Participation rates are very high in Kentucky. The Covington and Owsley County school districts have the highest percentage of students — 88 percent — eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Magoffin County has the second highest with 86 percent followed by Newport (85 percent); Bell County (83 percent); and West Point Independent in Hardin County (81 percent). (Read more)

The changes are aimed in part at curbing childhood obesity. That has also been the target of measure to limit junk food in schools, which have been called into question. A recent study of almost 20,000 students found no link between junk food at school and weight gain in children. "The researchers examined the children's weight and found that in the eighth grade, 35.5 percent of kids in schools with junk food were overweight while 34.8 percent of those in schools without it were overweight — a statistically insignificant increase," reports Benjamin Radford of Discovery News. (Read more)

Read More

Rural women are less likely to complete vaccinations for cervical-cancer virus; study finds vaccine does not increase sexual activity

Women living in rural areas of the U.S. were far less likely to return for their follow-up doses after they get the initial injection of the human papillomavirus vaccine, a study in the Journal of Rural Health has found. (Photo by Pete Rodman, Bowling Green Daily News)

The study contrasted the rates of vaccination follow-up by young women recruited from two rural locations and one urban location. "Despite being free, the researchers concluded that uptake of booster doses by rural women was problematic," states an article in the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention's "RAP Time" publication. "This barrier might be resolved by providing the HPV doses at easy-to-access locations in rural communities, such as large grocery stores and area events."

The HPV vaccine requires three doses. The women who went to the rural clinic were seven times less likely to return for at least one follow-up dose.

The vaccine, which has proven to prevent most cervical cancers, has been approved for use in women ages 9 to 26 years, as well as boys. The vaccine is generally given at the age of 11 or 12 and is effective only if administered before a person becomes sexually active. As many as 80 percent of men and women become infected with HPV during their lives, but most do not develop symptoms or illness.

The vaccine has been met with reluctance by parents, some of whom fear it encourages sexual activity, but a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found girls or women who received the vaccine "were no more likely to be sexually active or have more partners than those not vaccinated."

Last year, just 49 percent of adolescent girls nationwide had received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and only a third had gotten all three. In Kentucky, just 25 percent of adolescent females had gotten the first dose and fewer than 11 percent had received all three doses.

In Kentucky, the annual death rate caused by cervical cancer is 2.9 deaths per 100,000. In the United States, it's 2.4 per 100,000. "The U.S. is remaining stable. Kentucky's is actually falling," gynecologist Dr. Mark Yurchisin told Alyssa Harvey of the Bowling Green Daily News.

The decrease is being attributed to an increase in screenings. "In certain counties in Kentucky there is a high incidence, they implemented outreach clinics because they didn't have clinics where they could get Pap screenings done," Yurchisin said. "They can diagnose it at an earlier and treatable stage." (Read more)

Read More

Kentucky is 43rd among the states in health rankings report

Kentucky is near the bottom of the list in a ranking that determines which states are the healthiest. It came in 43rd, up from 44th last year.

Kentucky's low ranking is attributed to its unusually high numbers of people who smoke, are obese, die of cancer and are hospitalized for preventable reasons, according to America's Health Rankings, funded by the United Health Foundation.

"As it has for the last decade, Mississippi was ranked 50th on this year's list, which was topped by Vermont at No. 1," Louisville's Business First reports.

"Kentucky's rank of 43rd is a reminder that, while are making progress, as Kentuckians we still have much to do to keep ill health from holding us down," said Susan Zepeda, president/CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. "The good news is there are many concerned civic leaders working to reduce rates of smoking and obesity in the state and keep young people from starting to smoke."

Highlights of the report show:

• While smoking has decreased from 30.5 percent to 24.8 percent of Kentucky adults in the past 10 years, 822,000 still smoke. Recently, Kentucky ranked 36th in the nation for its smoking cessation efforts.

• Almost 1.1 million Kentuckians are obese, 353,000 more than 10 years ago.

• Diabetes decreased from 11.5 percent to 10 percent of the populations in the past year, but there are still 322,000 adults in Kentucky with diabetes.

• In the past five years, the percentage of people without health insurance increased from 13 percent to 15.4 percent.

• In the past 10 years, the percentage of children living in poverty increased from 15.2 percent to 24.7 percent.

As for the entire country, overall health has not improved this year over 2010. "Between 1990 and 2000, the overall health of the nation ... improved by an average of 1.6 percent each year. After 2000, however, the upward trend slowed to 0.5 percent annually," until this year, Health.com reports.

"Physical activity, nutrition, and tobacco: If we could get people focused on those three, we could take a huge bite out of the chronic-disease epidemic," said Georges Benjamin, the executive director of American Public Health Association. "This is not an infinite list of things that people have to address."

America's Health Rankings has been assessing health data for the past 22 years, making it the longest-running health assessment report in the country. For its methodology, researchers look at four groups of health determinants: behaviors, such as smoking and obesity rates; community and environment, such as children living in poverty, violent crime and infectious disease; public and health policies, such as lack of health insurance and public health funding; and clinic care, such as prenatal care, the number of primary care physician and preventable hospitalization rates.

Each of these four determinants are intimately connected with one other, researchers contend. "For example, an initiative that addresses tobacco cessation requires not only efforts on the part of the individual but also support from the community in the form of public and health policies that promote non-smoking and the availability of effective counseling and care at clinics," the report reads.

Data sources include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; American Medical Association; Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S. Census Bureau; and National Center for Health Statistics.

Read More

County data paint specific pictures of health; Ashland paper is one of first to pick up on it and do a story

More progress is needed to make sure children from low-income families are going to the dentist is just one of the findings of the 2011 Kentucky Kids Count County Data, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates.

The data paint a detailed portrait of each county's health for Kentucky's children, showing results of prenatal care, the percentage of mothers smoking during pregnancy, rates of preterm birth and low birthweight, breastfeeding, the number of children enrolled in Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, early-childhood obesity rates, asthma hospitalizations, and access to recreational facilities.

Statewide, the numbers show nearly one of every four children lived in poverty between 2005 and 2009, a 10 percent increase from 2000. The rates of preterm births and low-birthweight babies also increased. Overall, however, the numbers show improvement, particularly when it comes to children being covered by state or federal insurance. The number of children enrolled in KCHIP increased by 45 percent and in Medicaid more than 50 percent.

That data is supported by a reported released Tuesday by Georgetown University, which found the number of children without health insurance has dropped by 1 million nationwide in the past three years, Kelli Kennedy of The Associated Press reports. (Read more)

For an example of how to localize the data, click here. Mike James of The Independent in Ashland used it to assess the health status of children in Greenup, Carter and Boyd counties. He also spoke to a local school district and found officials will use the findings to bolster "requests for competitive grants that fund ... programs and ... identify gaps in services," he reports.

Read More

Kentucky Youth Advocates gets $100,000 to push for income-tax policies aimed at helping the poor improve their health

Kentucky Youth Advocates is one of 12 coalitions nationwide to receive a "Roadmaps to Health" grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The non-profit children's advocacy organization will receive $100,000 for two years to build statewide support for tax policies that would help low-income families keep more of their income to pay for doctor visits, healthier diets and weight-loss or smoking-cessation services.

The 12 grantees were selected from more than 300 initial applicants. "Kentucky Youth Advocates has long been a proponent of improving economic policies for families, and promoting child health throughout the state," said Tara Grieshop-Goodwin, deputy director of the coalition. "We know income can impact health, and we are excited to ahve the opportunity to combine our economic well-being efforts with our health work and look forward to fostering partnerships between advocates from both disciplines throughout the state." (Read more)

Read More

Twice as many kids are killed on roads and streets on Halloween as on any other day, but many parents fail to discuss safety

Only one-third of parents talk to their children each year about how to stay safe on Halloween, a study released by the Safe Kids Fayette County Program has found, even though on average, twice as many child pedestrians are killed during the holiday than on any other other day of the year. (Photo by zirconicusso)

"Given children's limited attention spans, repeated and consistent messages about safe behaviors are key to preventing injuries," said Sherri Hannan, a nurse and coordinator of Safe Kids Fayette County. "By following the basic safety tips provided by Safe Kids, Halloween can be a fun and safe night for children of all ages."

Of the 935 parents surveyed, most said they had talked to their kids at some point about Halloween safety but don't make it an annual conversation. The study also showed 40 percent of parents allow their children to use one or more unsafe items on Halloween, such as a mask, loose-fitting clothing and/or a sharp object.

The study found that 12 percent of children 5 or younger are allowed to trick-or-treat without an adult. "It is alarming to hear that children ages 5 years and younger are trick-or-treating without adult supervision," Hannan said. "If they are old enough and mature enough to trick-or-treat without an adult, parents should make sure children go out in groups and stick to a predetermined route with good lighting."

To keep children safe, Safe Kids recommends:
• Children under 12 should trick-or-treat and cross streets with an adult.
• Children and parents should always walk on sidewalks or paths. In the absence of those, they should walk facing traffic as far to the left as possible.
• Parents and children should cross at corners, using traffic signals and crosswalks.
• Costumes and trick-or-treat bags should be decorated with reflective tape or stickers.
• Parents should check treats for signs of tampering before children are allowed to eat them. Candy should be thrown away if the wrapped is faded, torn or unwrapped.
• Drivers should slow down and be especially alert in neighborhoods.
• Drivers should anticipate heavy traffic and turn on their headlights early in the day.
• Drivers should reduce distractions while driving and pay attention to the road.

Read More

Tips for staying safe this Halloween include avoiding decorative contact lenses

Though ghouls and goblins willbe out in full force, there will be other, unexpected dangers lurking on Halloween, some before kids even leave the house.

Though glowing, oddly-colored eyes might seem like the ultimate spooky touch to kids' costumes, officials with the Kentucky Optometric Association, along with the Food and Drug Administration, warn against using decorative, non-corrective contact lenses that are sold without a prescription from an eye doctor. (FDA photo)

"Consumers who purchase lenses without a prescription or without consultation from an eye doctor put themselves at risk of serious bacterial infection, or even significant damage to the eye's ability to function, with the potential for irreversible sight loss," said Lisa Sanford Howard, an optometrist in Middlesboro. Risks involve conjunctivitis (pink eye), swelling, allergic reaction and corneal abrasion due to a poor lens fit.

In considering costumes, parents should make sure their children can see well through masks and walk without tripping on their costume, Kentucky State Police advise. While they're on the street, children should carry a flashlight or have reflective tape on their costumes to make them more visible.

"On Halloween evening, we're placing our children in probably some of the most dangerous traffic situations you could imagine," said KSP Lt. David Jude. "Our children are outside after dark, they walk along and cross unfamiliar streets, and they often wear dark colors, which are difficult for motorists to see."

When children get home with their haul, they should not eat treats until they have been checked by an adult. Parents should discard unwrapped or suspicious candy.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 41 million kids between ages 5 and 14 will go trick-or-treating this year.

Read More

Promising tooth varnish that prevents tooth decay will be applied to 25,000 students in 16 Kentucky Appalachian counties

Using an innovative fluoride technique, about 25,000 children in 16 Appalachian Kentucky counties will receive preventive dental care at school, under a $1.25 million pilot project announced by Gov. Steve Beshear yesterday. The counties are Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Knott, Knox, Lee, Magoffin, Menifee, Owsley, Perry, Russell and Wolfe.

In the Smiling Schools program, children in first to fifth grades "will have their teeth painted with two fluoride treatments over a four- to six-month period," reports Mike Wynn of The Courier-Journal. "Fluoride prevents and reverses the early affects of tooth decay and slows the progress of existing problems."
(Photo by James Mann, The Winchester Sun: Emily Havens of Clark County gets the treatment)

The University of Kentucky Dental School will examine the children before and after the tooth varnish treatments to assess the effectiveness of the program. Results of a project that Beshear said inspired the program are promising. About 3,000 children in Clark County had their teeth painted with the varnish and decay rates in a group of sixth graders fell dramatically. By the third year of the treatment, decay rates had fallen from 50 percent to 14.5 percent, one of the lowest rates in the state, said dentist Rankin Skinner, who spearheaded the project.

In 2001, Kentucky children had tooth decay in their baby teeth almost twice as often as the national average, Beshear said Thursday. More than 46 percent of children ages 2 to 4 went untreated that year. "The impact of these dental problems is much more than just an uneven smile or a poor national image, Beshear said. "Dental problems affect overall health and development — everything from nutritional choices to speech development to performance in school." (Read more)

Rachel Parsons of The Winchester Sun reports that the impetus for the project was a December 2007 New York Times story about Kentucky's poor dental health, particularly that of children. Prompted by his son who read the story, Will Hodgkin of the Clark County Community Foundation contacted Skinner, who had learned of the varnish while completing a study in Ecuador, where dentists had noted big decreases in decay rates after using the substance on teeth. The foundation funded treatment for all preschool and elementary students in 2008-09, and the program is now run by the Clark County Health Department. (Read more)

Read More

Kentucky ranks 41st in nation for child welfare, report finds

"In the face of poverty and other economic woes, Kentucky is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to children's health," reports Jenna Mink of Bowling Green's The Daily News.

The state ranked 41st, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2011 Kids Count Data Book. "We no longer are close to being a bottom-10 state. We are among the bottom 10 states," said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates.

Kentucky scored particularly low when it came to child poverty, ranking third highest in the country. The study found 26 percent of Kentucky children live in impoverished homes. Kentucky also ranked low because of its poor economy and because it ranked high in the number of babies that are born with low birth weights, which can cause anything from infant death to behavioral and learning disorders. "While some causes are associated with chronic diseases among mothers, such as diabetes, Kentucky tends to have a high rate due to smoking during pregnancy," Mink reports.

The state also ranked high in terms of the number of children who have at least one parent unemployed. In 2010, about 122,000 Kentucky children had at least one parent who was looking for work. Only four other states and the District of Columbia had higher rates.

Brooks said Kentucky can improve its standing, and improve the welfare of its children, by doing three things. "First, Kentucky families should be given more information about benefits for which they qualify — last year, Kentuckians left $300 million in unclaimed benefits, such as food stamps and tax credits," Mink reports.

Brooks said he is also strongly in favor of passing a state earned income tax credit, which he said would help families make ends meet. Lastly, he recommends cracking down on businesses that advertise payday loans. "Those kinds of predatory practices contribute to the high price of being poor in Kentucky," he said.

The results of the report were not all bad, however. Kentucky improved on the number of teenagers who stay in school. The average number of kids in Kentucky affected by foreclosure was also lower than the rest of the country. Compare 2.3 percent, or 38,000 children, to the nation's average of about 4 percent. Brooks said the disparity is due to the fact that many Kentuckians rent and live in rural areas. (Read more)

Read More

Kentuckians gather to support breastfeeding; part of world event

Kentuckians gathered in several places Saturday to show their support of breast feeding. Events were held in Ashland, Edgewood, Lexington, Louisville, Nicholasville, Owensboro and Paducah as a part of the Big Latch On, “a one-minute synchronized nursing event in multiple locations” sponsored by the La Leche League USA, Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. (H-L photo)

Shayna Chasteen of London told Spears she attended the Lexington event “to help make other mothers aware of the benefits of breast-feeding and to promote ‘normalizing breast-feeding in public.” Brion Barnhill, the only father who attended the Lexington event, told Spears, “Luckily my wife cares more about my baby’s health than what somebody else thinks.”

Kentucky law supports breast feeding, allowing mothers to breast-feed or express milk in any public or private location without it being considered public indecency or indecent exposure, Spears reports. “We stress breast-feeding as the gold standard in infant feeding, because of the nutritional and health advantages it provides,” Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Janie Miller said in a statement. “Women have more success with breast-feeding when they receive consistent and accurate information and are supported by their health care providers, family and community.” (Read more)

The Big Latch On was part of the World Breastfeeding Week, Aug. 1-7. To learn more about the event or locate a La Leche League in your area, click here.

Read More

Study indicates risk of fatal birth defects is higher in counties with mountaintop-removal coal mining

"Children born in counties home to mountaintop coal mines had a 26 percent higher risk of suffering" a fatal birth defect "compared to ones born in non-mining regions," according to a new study, Dan Vergano of USA Today reports. The study, led by health economist Melissa Ahern of Washington State University in Spokane, will appear in the upcoming Environmental Research Journal. (Map shows counties with coal mines in 1996-2003, with "mountaintop" mining counties in darker gray)
Air and water pollution from mountaintop mining led Ahern and her colleagues "to look for health effects on infants" in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, Vergano writes. The researchers found birth defects in mountaintop mining areas were elevated above non-mining areas in six of seven categories, including heart, lung and gastrointestinal. Because of an already established connection between poverty and birth defects, the researchers then "controlled for social factors such as smoking, drinking, mother's education, race and other poverty-related factors" and found a 26 percent increased risk of fatal birth defects in mountaintop-mining counties, Vergano reports.

A spokesman for the National Mining Association "suggested adding more demographic factors to the study might remove the elevated birth defects," Vergano writes, then quotes environmental and pediatric-health expert Lynn Goldman of George Washington University as saying "It isn't proof of cause and effect" and paraphrases her: "Because the study is the first of its kind, public health researchers will need to reproduce the study results to feel confident it has uncovered a real link, she cautions. Further studies will be needed to show how exposures in mountaintop mining communities could lead to more birth defects." (Read more)

Read More

New immunization rules for children take effect July 1

Starting July 1, Kentucky will have new immunization requirements for infants, toddlers and schoolchildren, including age-appropriate pneumonia vaccine for children up to 5 years of age and meningitis vaccine for entry to the sixth grade.

Additional requirements include a second dose of varicella vaccine for students going into kindergarten and sixth grade; one dose of tetanus-diphteria-acellular pertussis vaccine for students going into sixth grade; and a second dose of measles-mumps-rubella for children by the time they turn 6.

The new regulations bring the state more in keeping with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with national pediatric standards. For more information about the Kentucky Immunization Program, click here. For a story from The Associated Press, click here.

Read More

Teens don't need sports drinks unless they are playing sports, and shouldn't consume energy drinks, experts say

Though teens are increasingly consuming sports and energy drinks, the beverages don't offer them any benefits, a report contends. In fact, teens should only consume sports drinks like Gatorade if they're actually playing sports and avoid caffeinated energy drinks like Red Bull entirely, reports Alice Park of Time magazine's Healthland. "Water, not sports drinks, should be the major source of hydration for adolescents," said Dr. Marcie Schneider said.

The report was compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Nutrition and its Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. It found many teens consume sports drinks (Getty Images photo) in the school cafeteria, in part because sodas are increasingly being taken out of school vending machines. Sports drinks have extra carbohydrates and electrolytes, which can be beneficial after intense workout sessions. "But outside that setting — and honestly most of our teens and children are way outside that setting — they don't need sports drinks," Schneider said. The extra carbs are just extra calories. They also can erode enamel from teeth and cause dental problems.

Energy drinks are similar to sports drinks, but have the added ingredient of caffeine, which kids also don't need. "We know that caffeine raises heart rate, blood pressure, speech rates and motor activity, and affects how much acid your stomach secretes, your body temperature and how much you sleep or don't sleep" Schneider said. These drinks can make children who are already anxious have more anxiety and rev up kids with attention deficity hyperactivity disorder even more. "Do these kids really need caffeine as part of their lives? The answer is no." (Read more)

Read More

Pediatrics academy tells parents to monitor kids' online activities

A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics stresses children's physicians can play a vital role in educating parents about setting limits for kids when it comes to technology like texting and Facebook.

"Pediatricians are in a unique position to help families understand these sites and to encourage healthy use," the report says. The academy recommends that parents communicate often with their kids about time spent on computers, both to make sure it is not harmful to them and it doesn't conflict with family time. "I think even in the tween years, this has to be happening because ... more and more, pop culture is percolating down to tweens," Dr. Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, a North Carolina pediatrician and co-author of the report, told The Courier-Journal's Darla Carter.

Parents should look for signs of sleep deprivation and "Facebook depression," which can happen when children spend a lot of time on social media sites. Parents should also have a plan regarding when electronics should be allowed to be used at home, during dinner or at bedtime, for example. Parents should also talk to their children about how to be a "responsible digital citizen," Clarke-Pearson said, which involves talking about subjects like sexting, cyberbullying or posting inappropriate matter or comments.

Kids and teens can be influenced by social media and other websites to try risky behavior, such inhaling chemicals or trying the choking game, experts say. "The mantra basically is it's not going to happen to me, so they will do these things because everybody else is," Dr. Hatim Omar, a pediatrics professor at the University of Kentucky, told Carter.

Earlier this year, the academy reported about one in five teens log onto their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day, and more than half log on more than once a day. "It also notes that 75 percent of teens own cell phones and 25 percent use them for social media while 54 percent use them for texting and 24 perfect use them for instant messaging," Carter notes. (Read more)

Read More

Never leave kids in a hot car, officials say in press conference planned even before Louisville toddler died

Following a 2-year-old Louisville boy's death from hyperthermia after he was left alone in a hot car Saturday, health officials warned of the dangers of vehicle-related heat stroke at a news conference in Frankfort yesterday.

"The loss of a child due to hyperthermia is a horrific tragedy that, sadly, we are seeing every year in this state," said Dr. Susan Pollack, coordinator for Kentucky's Safe Kids Coalition.

According to the group, one of 600 such coalitions and chapters around the country, two other child vehicular deaths — one in Texas, another in Louisiana — have already happened this year. Last year was the worst on record with 49 deaths nationwide. There have been 494 deaths in the country from 1998 to 2010, 13 of which happened in Kentucky.

About half the deaths occur when a parent forgets their child is in the car and leaves. "Something in a caregiver's daily routine changes, and the caregiver forgets to drop off the child at day care or with another caregiver and leaves the child in the car," Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. As such, Safe Kids recommends setting a cell phone alarm to remind parents or placing a purse or cell phone near the child to act as a similar memory prompt.

In some cases, parents know they've left their child in the car, but do not realize how hot the car can get. "If you crack the windows, it doesn't make it cooler," Pollack said. One study found the temperature in a vehicle can rise 20 degrees in 10 minutes during warm weather. Moreover, a child's body temperature rises three to five times faster than adults.

About 30 percent of related deaths happen when a child is playing in a car and becomes trapped inside. Safe Kids recommends always locking a vehicle to prevent kids from getting in.

The news conference was planned before the death of 2-year-old Kenton Brown, Musgrave reports. Anyone who intentionally leaves a child in a hot car can face manslaughter charges if the child is younger than 8, Kentucky State Police Lt. David Jude said. (Read more)

Read More