Author Archives: Croakey

What does recession mean for health? And other questions

November 19, 2009 – 3:31 pm

Continuing the theme of the previous post, Research Australia has also been looking into the impact of an economic crunch on the community’s health.
Their investigations raise concerns for the wellbeing of many vulnerable groups – especially in rural Australia – but also show there are many unanswered questions about the relationship between recession and health.
Dr [...]

Posted in Health inequalities, global health, public health, rural and remote health | Comments (0)

Starving America?

November 19, 2009 – 12:13 pm

What does economic crisis mean for a country’s health? Hunger and hardship for the population’s most vulnerable, judging by the news coming out of the US.
Croakey’s North American correspondent, Dr Lesley Russell, writes:
“While an excellent discussion is underway on Croakey about the value of calorie labeling in tackling obesity, it has been shocking this week [...]

Posted in Food, Health inequalities, child health, global health, poverty, public health | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

More breast, less hypocrisy please

November 19, 2009 – 11:47 am

Australia does a pretty woeful job of making sure babies get the best start to life – mother’s milk. A new national strategy aims to boost the uptake of breast feeding recommendations so that far more babies are still being breast fed at six months.
But Ron Batagol, a pharmacy and drug information consultant, says this [...]

Posted in child health, childbirth and maternity services, public health | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Let’s have some balance in breast cancer screening discussions

November 19, 2009 – 10:24 am

Reaction to the recent study suggesting breast cancer screening leads to significant over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment has been, as you might expect, quite mixed.
Some of the most critical comments have come from breast cancer consumer advocates – overtones, perhaps, of how prostate cancer consumer groups have sometimes reacted to evidence about the potential harms of [...]

Posted in Media-related issues, cancer, consumer health information, screening | Comments (0)

Would calorie-counting menus help bust Oz girths?

November 17, 2009 – 11:59 am

As previously reported in Croakey below, there is a weight-busting move afoot in the US to introduce calorie-counting menus in chain restaurants. These have been in place in New York City since last year but may be more widely introduced.
Would such a move be useful and welcomed in Australia? Read on…

Posted in Food, obesity, public health | Tagged , , | Comments (5)

Some hard truths about health care

November 17, 2009 – 9:35 am

Health reform is in the wind but perhaps it won’t really make the difference that is being sought unless it acknowledges and addresses some hard truths about health care.
That is the suggestion of this very interesting piece below from Patrick Bolton, who has long and diverse experience in the industry.  He has worked as a [...]

Posted in Hospitals, health reform, quality and safety of health care | Tagged , | Comments (4)

Asbestos – the town that needs to leave its past behind

November 16, 2009 – 11:54 am

In the late 1800s, when the people of eastern Quebec realised the money that could be made from what was known locally as “cotton rock”, they decided to name their settlement after it. They never could have guessed what it might one day mean to come from a town called Asbestos.
All these years later, Canada [...]

Posted in global health, public health | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Breast cancer screening gets an indepth examination

November 13, 2009 – 12:18 pm

The study investigating over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening, as previously described at Croakey, is attracting widespread interest and discussion.
Andrew Penman, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Council NSW, has been considering the complexities of the issues involved, and writes:

Posted in cancer, consumer health information, screening | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Reads of the week

November 13, 2009 – 11:48 am

I know, I know – we’re all too busy, no time to read etc – but here are a few articles from recent times that are worth the effort, if you haven’t spotted them already. They cover everything from the health impacts of inequality to mental health, alcohol policy, and the ties that bind pharma [...]

Posted in Health inequalities, Journal articles, Media-related issues, alcohol, conflicts of interest, global health, health & medical marketing, health and medical education, pharmaceutical industry, public health | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

How many calories would you like with that order?

November 13, 2009 – 10:42 am

The health care reform bill in the US is so weighty that many people haven’t yet twigged that it contains a significant provision for those concerned about a healthy food supply and obesity. The provision would require anyone who operates chain restaurants or vending machines with more than 20 locations to provide a calorie count [...]

Posted in Food, health reform, obesity, public health | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)