STAT Medical News: Food Labels Don't Work Because Few People Read Them
June 2, 2006 <p> -- IGNORANCE IS BLISS Amid calls to extend nutrition labeling to fast-food and other types of restaurants, researchers from the University of Vermont have learned a good portion of us don't actually read the labels already in place. Published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a telephone survey of more than 600 adults and 300 college students finds approximately half of the students and a third of the general population don't usually look at food labels. Two-thirds of respondents did not know how many calories they were supposed to be consuming, and between 44 percent to 57 percent of the combined sample said they were not likely to read restaurant labels, even if they were provided.
AIDS in AMERICA The United States has made great strides in reducing new HIV/AIDS cases, as revealed in a new report by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of U.S. AIDS cases rose through the 1980s and peaked in 1992 at 77,916, but has declined in recent years to about 40,000 annually. The number of babies born with HIV peaked at approximately 1,650 in 1991, but had declined to around 240 in 2002. Despite these improvements, racial disparities are still a large problem, with rates of HIV infection 8.5 times higher among blacks and 3.5 higher among Hispanics as compared to whites.
SWISS MAKE HEROIN "A LOSER" DRUG The Swiss government has taken all the fun and glamour out of being a heroin user, according to a new study published in the medical journal Lancet this week. Drug rehabilitation programs using methadone and needle exchange have made heroin less chic, a "loser drug," resulting in a steep drop in new users. Researchers in Zurich, Switzerland, reported an 82 percent decrease in new heroin users -- from 850 in 1990 to 150 in 2002. In comparison, new-user decrease in the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia was only 4 percent.
STAT is a brief look at the latest medical research and is compiled by Joanna Schaffhausen, who holds a doctorate degree in behavioral neuroscience. She works in the ABC News Medical Unit, evaluating medical studies, abstracts and news releases.
