John Schrom

Epidemiologist and political junkie

High Schoolers on Twitter

One of the three high schools I attended (don’t ask) is apparently jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon with the help of the U of Mn. Roosevelt High School is somehow integrating Twitter and other social media websites with their English class to help engage students. Very interesting idea. Perhaps most interesting for me was seeing my Open English teacher, Delainia Haug, teaching the class. She’s probably one of the best and most enthusiastic teachers I had during my high school career.

I couldn’t find much about the DigMe program in particular, but here’s the video from the U:

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by on January 16, 2010No Comments
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I’m good enough, smart enough…

Apparently, for minority children, self-affirmation has a significant effect on their GPA. A two-year follow-up study was published last week in Science. This study had children, starting in 7th grade, write about relationships, interests, and personal values. Students in the test group showed as much as a 0.41 increase in their GPA compared to the control group. This relationship was not found in white students. Researcher Geoffrey Cohen explains why:

“It takes the sting out of potential failure. ‘I feel like, Even if I do poorly here on this test or in school, I am still fundamentally a good person. It anchors my sense of self-integrity.’”

Another study released last week suggests that Facebook users have lower grades than non-users. Although the researcher admitted to Time that it could be bad students are attracted to Facebook:

“Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators.”

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
filed in Mental Health
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Mercury in HFCS

Apparently one-third of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) containing products are contaminated with mercury. The worst offender? Chocolate milk. Well, dairy products in general (60% contained mercury). Mercury was also found in every food/drink category tested, including dressings, syrups, snacks, and soups. On the bright side, only 16% of beverages (e.g. non-diet soda) contained mercury. For the record, the levels found were below the EPA requirements — if that makes you feel any safer…

Mercury is used to produce “caustic soda” which is in turn used to help separate the corn starch from the kernels. Mercury plants have a pretty bad record for keeping track of where their mercury goes:

The nine mercury cell plants operating in 2003 reported consuming 38 tons of mercury, but emitting just eight tons into the environment. What happened to the other 30 tons? The plants cannot account for it.

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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What HIV Problem?

A new study by the Kaiser Foundation found that people are becoming less concerned about HIV. The percent of respondents reporting HIV/AIDS as the top health concern in the US dropped from 44% in 1995 to 6%.

While the majority of people understand how HIV is transmitted, there are still a significant handful of people that don’t. Did you know you can get HIV from…

  • sharing a drinking glass (20%, up from 15% in 2000)
  • using a toilet seat (12%)
  • swimming in a pool (7%)

Just to be clear, you can’t get HIV from any of the above routes. Well, maybe you could in an extreme situation – but as a general rule, I don’t think people would sit on a bloody toilet seat. It’d be interesting to see the survey broken down by risk factor, as I’d imagine hope that people at high risk (e.g., MSM, IDU) would better be able to identify the routes of transmission than people at very low risk.

Nonetheless, this survey underscores the importance of continued public health efforts, including President Obama’s HIV campaign, NineAndAHalfMinutes.org.

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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Rabies isn’t my only infectious fear…

Rabies is rather frightening to me, but it’s not nearly as freaky as viral hemorrhagic fevers. My manager recently told me that she knows the wife of Ryan Havelka, a 29 year old North Dakota man that died in September of Hantavirus. He developed Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome after doing some construction work outdoors, where he presumably and inadvertently aerosolized infected rat feces. Eek.

On a slightly different, and perhaps more uplifting note, the woman in Germany who accidentally pricked herself with a needle while working with ebola was declared healthy and released from isolation last week. An experimental vaccine was administered within 48 hours of the needle stick. She did generate a small antibody response, but without sensitive tests against ebola’s nuclear proteins, they can’t be sure if the response was against the vaccine or the virus. At this point, they’re not even sure the virus ever entered her body. Hopefully this incident will push the development and further testing of an ebola vaccine, if for no other reason than to help the hypochondriacs sleep at night.

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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Best Place to Work in the US…

Nursing Professionals Magazine, a magazine for nursing students, announced recently that Abbott Northwestern Hospital was the best place to work for nurses across the country in 2009! This was based on surveys sent out in early 2008 that asked questions about the flexibility of working arrangements, the work environment, opportunities for professional development, and more.

Of course, this was all before the layoffs and lawsuit – so, if that’s taken its toll on employees, we might see some significant movement for the 2010 survey…

Other ranking hospitals in Minnesota include:

* 37. Mayo Clinic
* 63. St Cloud Hospital
* 84. U of Mn Medical Center

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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We’re all a little less illiterate…

The National Endowment for the Arts released the results of its reading survey this week. The survey, started in 1982, has measured the number of people who read (or don’t read, as the case may be), and is commonly cited by those that believe we’re getting stupider. With only 50% of adults not reading anything (book, short story, play — I don’t think the tabloids at the grocery store count), they almost have a point.

This year was different, though. Readership is up across the board, and one of the largest increases was seen by yours truly. 18 to 24 year old males saw a 21% increase in literature reading in the last 4 years. Other increases were seen by African Americans, Hispanics, and high school drop-outs (interestingly, college educated folks didn’t change).

Dana Gioia, the chair of the NEA, seems a little biased against the young folks with their new technologies:

A decline in both reading and reading ability was
clearly documented in the first generation of teenagers and young adults raised in a society full of videogames, cell phones, iPods, laptops, and other electronic devices.

Yet the report continues to talk about high book readership among online readers:

84 percent of adults who read literature (fiction, poetry, or drama) online or downloaded from the Internet also read books, whether print or online. For adults who read online articles, essays, or blogs, the book-reading rate is 77 percent.

Once again, proof that our parent’s generation just never will understand. Technology increases reading and literacy, just not necessarily in traditional media.

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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Midwest State of Mind

A new study to be published in June in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found a link between the state that you live in, and your mental state. The study looked at BRFSS respondent’s frequencies of depression, stress, and other mental problems; the actual measure used was the percent of respondents reporting 14 or more mentally unhealthy days. Naturally, Hawaii had the lowest rate in the country (6.6%), and Kentucky had the highest (14.4%).

The other state-level data isn’t currently available, but the CNN article about this study suggests that the Upper Midwest (ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL) has the lowest rates (<8%), while the region by Kentucky had the highest rates (>12%). I’ll need to wait patiently to see where exactly Minnesota falls on this list…

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
filed in Mental Health
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I Do Like Sponge Bob

Sometimes I wonder if “adults” (~35+) really do ever understand adolescents. Well, I sometimes wonder if journalists portraying youth in the media actually understand them. I read an article this week about the link between TV watching and depression in teens. Depressed teens watched 2.64 hours of TV a day, compared with 2.28 hours in non-depressed teens. That difference equates to one episode of Sponge Bob per day…

With any study, remember that correlation does not imply causation — just because depressed youth watch more TV doesn’t mean TV causes the depression. This is acknowledged in the news article by a psychologist not associated with the study:

“A warning sign would be a teen who doesn’t seem to enjoy doing anything else. A teen who watches a lot of TV, but is also on the football team or belongs to clubs, they may just be using the TV to relax and enjoy some down time.”

This doesn’t invalidate the study. The psychologist is right: TV usage, combined with other factors, might make for a quick screen for depression. My problem regarding this article lies with the conclusions (”red flags”) noted in the article:

Is your teen interested in socializing with others? Be concerned if he doesn’t want to do anything other than watch TV or get on the computer.

Watch for other signs of depression: changes in sleep habits, significant weight gain or weight loss, irritability, pessimism, indifference.

There’s a significant chunk of the youth population that primarily utilizes the computer to socialize with people. Their parents may truly not understand this, and perceive them to not be “socializing” as they aren’t playing sports or musical instruments. I think one of the biggest differences between this generation and their parent’s generation is the use of technology — the kids that used to be ostracized by their peers can now find friends on the internet. Those friendships are just as valuable and rewarding as the relationships established in “real life.” To downplay the importance of this, and completely write these youth off as being “depressed” is unfortunate. After all, the time I spent on the computer growing up has helped me network, gain skills, and get jobs, while I haven’t touched my clarinet since middle school.

And about those symptoms of depression: find me a teen that isn’t irritable, pessimistic, or indifferent, and I’ll show you a youth who hasn’t hit puberty yet.

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by on October 25, 2009No Comments
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