Public Health

National Public Health Week

National Public Health Week is April 6 -12, 2009.

?óÔé¼?ó U.S. life expectancy reached a record high of 78.1 years but still ranks 46th (of industrialized nations).
?óÔé¼?ó Baton Rouge ranked 4th for AIDS case rates among the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2006; New Orleans ranked 8th.
?óÔé¼?ó Minorities experience a disproportionate burden of preventable disease, death, and disability compared with non-minorities.

All of us have the potential to greatly improve our population?óÔé¼Ôäós health. Join the National Public Health Week Organization and the American Public Health Association in promoting their campaign ?óÔé¼?ôBuilding the Foundation for a Healthy America?óÔé¼?Ø locally as well.

Online Cancer Risk Tool Omits Minorities (NYT)

An article from the New York times discusses problems with a new colorectal cancer risk assessment tool from the National Cancer Institute that only works for whites.

A new interactive online tool can help older Americans assess their risk for developing colon cancer. The catch is that it only works for whites.

That?óÔé¼Ôäós too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening…

N.C.I. officials said they are modifying the risk assessment tool so it will be applicable to blacks, Hispanics and Asians, but said the data they used to test the model?óÔé¼Ôäós precision were drawn from studies with mostly older white participants.

Read the full article.