California’s Adult Smoking Rate Has Dropped

According to the Department of Health Services, California’s adult smoking rate dropped to 14.0 percent last year, the state’s lowest level on record.

Information on this report and other related tobacco reports are available online at the Tobacco Control Section Website http://www.dhs.ca.gov/tobacco/

Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey Findings

The Commonwealth Fund has released a report indicating that "Gaps in health insurance coverage—a problem that has long afflicted lower-income U.S. families—is increasingly becoming an all-American problem."

Citation: S. R. Collins, K. Davis, M. M. Doty, J. L. Kriss, and A. L. Holmgren, Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem, The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006.

The report is available online at
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=367876

Trust in Health Care Providers

According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, African Americans (44.7%) were more likely than whites (33.5%) to report low levels of trust in health care providers. The study "evaluated the association between trust in health care providers and prior health care experiences, structural characteristics of health care, and sociodemographic factors among African Americans and whites."

Citation: Halbert, CH, et al. Racial Differences in Trust in Health Care Providers. Arch Intern Med. April 24, 2006;166 (8):896-901. Available online at http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/166/8/896

LactMed

LactMed, a free online database with information on drugs and lactation, is a new addition to the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) TOXNET system, a Web-based collection of resources covering toxicology, chemical safety, and environmental health. Geared to the healthcare practitioner and nursing mother, LactMed contains over 450 drug records. It includes information such as maternal levels in breast milk, infant levels in blood, potential effects in breastfeeding infants and on lactation itself, the American Academy of Pediatrics category indicating the level of compatibility of the drug with breastfeeding, and alternate drugs to consider. References are included, as is nomenclature information, such as the drug’s Chemical Abstract Service’s (CAS) Registry number and its broad drug class.

LactMed is part of TOXNET (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov) and can be searched together with all the TOXNET database or separately at the following URL: (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT)

Internet Use To Promote Sexual Health

Health care officials in San Francisco and Los Angeles are using the Internet to promote testing for sexually transmitted infections, provide counseling and to help people notify partners about their infections. The San Francisco Department of Public Health recently launched the site hookinguponline.org, which aims to promote safe sex. Los Angeles County and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation introduced the site inspotla.org which allows HIV-positive users to anonymously notify sex partners via electronic postcards that they should be tested. Also, AIDS Project Los Angeles on Valentine's Day launched mysexycity.com, an interactive site for young gay men that allows them to interact with animated characters in risky sexual situations. In addition to sites dedicated to STD awareness, gay sex site manhunt.net has begun providing advertising space at no cost to nearly 100 public health agencies and allowing counselors to answer sex-related questions. Counselors with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center identify themselves on manhunt.net and myspace.com with online names such as "letstalkaboutsex" and "askmeabouthealth" and provide tips according to Jeff Bailey, the center's director of education.

Taken from: TODAY IN iHEALTHBEAT San Francisco, L.A. Use the Internet To Promote Sexual Health April 04, 2006 http://www.chcf.org/

Air Pollution and Health

According to a study by California State University-Fullerton economists, air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley region costs $3.2 billion annually in medical bills, lost productivity and premature death. Researchers calculated the health and economic costs of the region's air quality, which is ranked among the worst in the nation. The study found that Latino and black residents were exposed to more days of air pollution than other residents in the eight-county area.

According to the researchers, the valley would save an average of $1,000 per resident annually if the air quality were brought to federal ozone and dust standards and the savings would double if the air quality met California clean air standards.

The report is available online http://business.fullerton.edu/centers/iees/reports/SJVFinalReport.pdf