(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Older people who live in racially segregated neighborhoods with high crime rates have a much higher chance of developing cancer than do older people with similar health histories and income levels who live in safer, less segregated neighborhoods.
That is one of the key findings of a new study forthcoming in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The study was conducted by Vicki Freedman, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and colleagues at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
One of a growing number of studies documenting the connection between neighborhood characteristics and chronic health conditions, it is the first to show that living in more highly segregated areas with higher crime rates is linked with an increased risk of developing cancers of all kinds---for whites as well as Blacks.
The chance of developing cancer is 31 percent higher for older men living in these kinds of neighborhoods, and 25 percent higher for older women.
The study also found that living in low-income neighborhoods increased the chances that older women would develop heart problems by 20 percent. They found no impact on older men.
The researchers based their analysis partly on data from the ISR Health & Retirement Study, a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of more than 20,000 Americans age 50 and over, funded primarily by the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.
For their analysis, the researchers analyzed detailed measures of self-reported individual health histories, matched with multiple indicators of the social, economic, and physical conditions of the neighborhoods in which individuals lived.
According to the authors, the study's findings point to potentially new pathways through which the neighborhood environment may influence the development of chronic disease. For example, much of the previous research on cancer and the environment has emphasized lifestyle factors such as tobacco use, diet and exercise, and exposure to cancer-causing agents, rather than the social and economic aspects of the environment.
Although the link between racial segregation and health is often cited as a fundamental cause of health and mortality disparities between Blacks and whites, the most common explanation for the link is that segregation influences socioeconomic deprivation and individual socioeconomic attainment. "But we found that segregation and crime increased the chances of developing cancer even after we controlled for socioeconomic resources at both the individual and the neighborhood level," Freedman said.
The researchers also examined levels of exposure to air pollution and other environmental toxins, but found that crime rates and racial segregation levels independently predicted cancer onset.
"The remarkable similarity in the size and strength of this relationship for both men and women is quite surprising given differences in the types of cancer each gender develops," she said. "This suggests that a nonspecific biological mechanism may be involved, possibly a stress response that interrupts the body's ability to fight the development of cancer cells."
Freedman and co-authors call for further research into the social and biological mechanisms that underlie this link, noting that the addition of biological measures to the ISR Health & Retirement Study, the ISR Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and other longitudinal national surveys will makes this type of analysis possible in the near future.
###
Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is the world's largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and in educating researchers and students from around the world. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world's largest digital social science data archive. Visit the ISR Web site at http://www.isr.umich.edu for more information.
Living in certain neighborhoods increases the chances older men and women will develop cancer
2010-12-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
When their tools get dull, leaf-cutters switch jobs
2010-12-10
EUGENE, Ore. -- (Dec. 9, 2010) -- When their razor-sharp mandibles wear out, leaf-cutter ants change jobs, remaining productive while letting their more efficient sisters take over cutting, say researchers from two Oregon universities.
Their study -- appearing online ahead of regular publication in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology -- provides a glimpse of nature's way of providing for its displaced workers.
"This study demonstrates an advantage of social living that we are familiar with -- humans that can no longer do certain tasks can still make very ...
Buprenorphine treatment produces improved outcome for babies born addicted
2010-12-10
Babies born into the world addicted to drugs because of their mother's dependence on pain medication, or opioids, may be weaned off the substance more comfortably, with a shorter hospital stay and at a reduced cost, if the mother receives a new treatment option during pregnancy.
A New England Journal of Medicine study published Dec. 9, co-authored by Vanderbilt's Peter Martin, M.D., director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry, found that the newer buprenorphine is at least as good for both mother and child as the standard care methadone, when both were combined with ...
Unraveling Alzheimer's: Simple small molecules could untangle complex disease
2010-12-10
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---New molecular tools developed at the University of Michigan show promise for "cleansing" the brain of amyloid plaques, implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
A hallmark of Alzheimer's disease---a neurodegenerative disease with no cure---is the aggregation of protein-like bits known as amyloid-beta peptides into clumps in the brain called plaques. These plaques and their intermediate messes can cause cell death, leading to the disease's devastating symptoms of memory loss and other mental difficulties.
The mechanisms responsible for the formation of these ...
2 decades of Nuss procedure outcomes: Refinements in groundbreaking surgery for chest deformity
2010-12-10
Since 1987, when a surgeon at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters developed a minimally-invasive surgery to correct sunken chest, the procedure has been adopted world-wide as a standard of care and continually refined to increase its effectiveness and safety, according to a paper published in the December issue of the Annals of Surgery.
Coming more than two decades after the procedure was developed by surgeon Donald Nuss, the article summarizes the cases of 1,215 patients who had the Nuss Procedure at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and focuses on ...
Patients may not have to stop taking anti-platelets for some surgeries
2010-12-10
Despite the common clinical practice among surgeons to discontinue their patients' anti-platelet therapy prior to surgery, a recent study of patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) indicated that this practice may be unnecessary. The study will be published in the December issue of the Annals of Vascular Surgery.
The use of clopidogrel (Plavix, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi-Aventis), an antiplatelet agent prescribed for patients with acute myocardial infarction (severe heart attack), recent stroke or peripheral arterial disease, continues to rise with U.S. sales ...
UCLA researchers find that Medicaid-funded ADHD treatment for children is failing
2010-12-10
Whatever its final incarnation, the recently enacted landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will expand Medicaid eligibility and is expected by 2013 to provide coverage, including mental health care, to an estimated 4.1 million children currently uninsured.
That's a good thing. But what will the quality of care be, especially for vulnerable children with special health care needs? Poor, according to a new report in the current online edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
In cooperation with LA Care, one of ...
Fox Chase researchers uncover new risk factors for brain metastases in breast cancer patients
2010-12-10
SAN ANTONIO, TEX. (December 9, 2010)––Nearly one-fifth of all metastatic breast cancer patients develop brain metastases and have significantly shorter overall survival than patients who do not have brain involvement. One way to improve the affected patients' survival might be to prevent the brain metastases from arising in the first place. With that in mind, researchers have been working on a predictive model that accurately identifies these high risk patients. Now, Veeraiah Siripurapu, M.D., and colleagues from Fox Chase Cancer Center have verified several factors––including ...
Web of international collaboration boosts worldwide nanotechnology research
2010-12-10
Despite their initial focus on national economic competitiveness, the nanotechnology research initiatives now funded by more than 60 countries have become increasingly collaborative, with nearly a quarter of all papers co-authored by researchers across borders.
Researchers from the two leading producers of nanotechnology papers – China and the United States – have become each nation's most frequent international co-authors. Though Chinese and U.S. researchers now publish roughly the same number of nanotechnology papers, the U.S. retains a lead in the quality of publications ...
A double block of blood vessels to starve cancerous tumors
2010-12-10
A novel strategy of blocking the growth of blood vessels with antibodies should result in improved treatment of cancerous tumors.
The growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vasculature is called angiogenesis. In adults, angiogenesis occurs only during wound healing and menstrual cycling, but is abundant and harmful in cancerous tumors and the old-age eye disease frequently leading to blindness called age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Without the formation of new blood vessels, tumors cannot grow beyond a small size due to lack of oxygen and nutrients. Inhibition ...
ACP commends Congress for preserving patient access by stopping scheduled Medicare SGR cuts
2010-12-10
(Washington) – The American College of Physicians (ACP) today commended Congress for taking bipartisan action to preserve access for patients enrolled in Medicare and TriCare by stabilizing physician payments through 2011. The College noted, though, that the incoming 112th Congress will need to enact legislation to provide longer-term stability in payments and lead to repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula.
The legislation, passed unanimously by the Senate yesterday and passed by an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives today, will avert ...