PARENTAL INFLUENCE: Nine out of 10 children say their parents are their most important source of information on food and healthy eating. Parental guidance, support and learning to love physical activity are the keys to fit and healthy children, according to a study of over 4,000 parents and children in Britain, France, Italy and Sweden.
Parents' attitudes to their children's weight were also found to be linked to the child's attitude towards their weight. Parents of obese children were found to indulge them with treats more.
HEART ATTACK HAZARD: The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine have accused the authors of an article on the painkiller Vioxx of under-reporting the number of heart attacks that occurred in a study published five years ago. Although the article did report a higher rate of heart attacks in Vioxx users compared with people taking another painkiller, the unreported cardiac events "call into question the integrity of the data ... in this article". Vioxx was removed from the market last year by its maker, Merck, after evidence emerged that it increased the risk of heart attack in some users. As of late September, heart attack victims or relatives had filed 6,500 lawsuits against Merck, alleging that the company should have stopped selling Vioxx earlier, or at least warned patients of the drug's hazards. In a statement, the company said it did not suppress any data about heart attacks in the study. It said the three heart attacks the journal editors say should have been mentioned occurred "after the pre-specified cut-off date and therefore were not included in the primary analysis".
NUTRITIONAL NEEDS: Poor nutrition has a significant negative effect on quality of life of older people and particularly so in the colder, darker months of winter. Poor nutrition can delay wound healing, reduce a patient's response to therapy and decrease their resistance to infection. Studies have found that malnourished patients with gastro-intestinal, respiratory and neurological disease have a 6 per cent higher GP consultation rate, require 9 per cent more prescriptions and have a 25 per cent higher hospital admission rate.
CHILDHOOD CANCERS: Common infections that affect mothers and babies may trigger certain types of childhood cancers, researchers said yesterday.
They found that leukaemia and brain tumours - leading cancers in children - occurred in clusters which suggests that outbreaks of infections are a contributing cause of the disease. "We found that place of birth was particularly significant, which suggests that an infection in the mother while she is carrying her baby, or in a child's early years, could be a trigger factor for the cancer," said Dr Richard McNally, of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England.