Health Highlights: April 22, 2007
Mar. 23 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Baby Boomers Say They're Not So Healthy After All
Despite more health benefit options available to them than at any time in history, America's Baby Boomers may not be even so healthy as their parents.
The Washington Post reports that as the first wave of Baby Boomers -- a generation of Americans born between 1948 and 1964 -- heads toward retirement, surveys indicate they describe their own health as less than ideal.
As a matter of fact, the Post reports, a major study indicates that Boomers say they have more problems with cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure and physical exertion than the previous generation born between 1936 and 1941.
"We're seeing some very powerful evidence all pointing to parallel findings," the newspaper quotes Mark Hayward, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, as saying. "The trend seems to be that people are not as healthy as they approach retirement as they were in older generations. It's very disturbing."
One of the primary reasons for the decline in good health, researchers speculate, is that previous generations were much more physically active in their daily routines, the Post reports. The number of Baby Boomers who said they were overweight might be a key to the decline in good health, the newspaper said.
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Obesity, Poverty Spur Infant Death Rate Hike in the South
The adage "the South will rise again" has taken on a new and foreboding meaning.
The New York Times reports that after years of progress, the infant mortality rates in Mississippi and neighboring states have started to increase.
Mississippi's infant mortality rate is particularly alarming, the Times reports. Between 2004 and 2005 it jumped from an average of 9.7 deaths of babies per 1,000 to 11.4. And while the infant death rate increased for both whites and blacks, it was dramatically higher among blacks, the newspaper said.
The number of infant deaths among blacks in Mississippi in 2004 was 14.2 per 1,000 births; in 2005 it was 17. For whites the rate was 6.1 deaths per 1,000 in 2004, and in 2005 it was 6.6. Both of these figures are considerably above the national average.
Researchers say that diet and poverty go hand-in-hand in causing the infant mortality increase, the Times reports. Obesity has reached epidemic levels, the newspaper says. "The mothers in general, black or white, are not as healthy," says Dr. Bouldin Marley, one of the Mississippi physicians interviewed for the story. He said complications from obesity were the primary causes of health problems.
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