BTCD Youth Coalition Development RFP Announced

BTCD has released an RFP to help in Youth Coalition Development. The RFP Solicitation# is ADHS11-00000446. Please visit this link for more information. Click on attachment withiin the link to view the RFP document.

Smoking, obesity to blame for lag in U.S. lifespan

U.S. has worse life expectancy than many nations, new report says

updated 2 hours 14 minutes ago 2011-01-25T19:15:44

WASHINGTON — The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation yet has worse life expectancy than many — and a new report blames smoking and obesity.

That may sound surprising, considering that public smoking is being stamped out here while it’s common in parts of Europe. And obesity is a growing problem around the world.

But the U.S. led those unhealthy trends, lighting up and fattening up a few decades ahead of other high-income countries. And the long-term consequences are life expectancy a few years shorter than parts of Europe and Japan, the National Research Council reported Tuesday.

Phone chats plus web program help smokers quit

NEW YORK | Wed Jan 12, 2011 (Reuters Life!)

Trying to quit smoking as part of New Year’s resolutions? Personalized phone counseling along with web-based guidance may help, according to a study.

About one in five adults in the U.S. smokes, and about half of those who don’t quit will die from the habit, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventing, which also estimates that smoking costs the economy $183 billion each year.

Smokers who got phone calls from experienced counselors and took part in a web-based cessation program had nearly double the quit rates after 18 months of smokers who just used the web program, according to a study led by Amanda Graham, director for research development at the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at the American Legacy Foundation.

“This is one of the few large trials that have looked at the internet and telephone counseling combined,” Graham told Reuters Health in an interview about the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

BTCD welcomes newest member of the Research and Evaluation Team

I am pleased to announce that Heather Fauland is the newest member of the Research & Evaluation Team.  Most of her time will be devoted to cancer control and we look forward to ramping up data and evaluation in that area. 

Heather’s previous public health research includes time with the China Environment and Health Initiative at the Social Science Research Council in New York, studying zoonotic diseases in developing nations and the green initiatives of the 2008 Beijing Olympics; and working on several anthropological projects with the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, largely dealing with preservation and use of historical and cultural landmarks across the Southwest.  She has a BA in Anthropology and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Arizona, and an MA in Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences from Columbia University.

Please join me in welcoming Heather to our bureau.

Gowri Shetty