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Issue 100

August 2009

If you report a story, we ask that you credit Elsevier’s journal as the source.

Welcome to the 100th edition of Flash, our bi-weekly alert for science, health and medical journalists. Flash is a courtesy service with access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s online platform, providing full text access to some 2,000 scientific, technical and medical journals.

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ARTICLES

1. BEER AND BONES – A NEW STUDY ON DRINKING AND WOMEN’S BONE MASS

Osteoporosis is a major health care issue, and with more women in the 21st century going on to live longer into their postmenopausal years, finding solutions to prevent this crippling disease is essential.

In Elsevier’s latest Nutrition, a new study explores the effect of beer consumption on bone mass in a group of 1,697 healthy women by using phalangeal bone ultrasound. Of the total, 710 were pre-menopausal, 176 were perimenopausal and 811 were postmenopausal. The questionnaire contained detailed sections on current cigarette, alcohol, caffeine and nutrient consumption. The women, in turn, were classified as moderate, light or non-drinkers.

Based on the ultrasound data, values were greater in the beer drinkers compared with the no beer and/or wine drinkers. The researchers do not recommend the consumption of beer, wine or any other alcoholic beverage for bone health, but they say these findings do illustrate beer ingestion seems to maintain bone mass with beneficial effects for those women who had moderate alcohol consumption. They state the positive effect on bone might be due to the synergic effect of a combination of silicon and phytoestrogen compounds in the beer.

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2. THE U.S. FOOD STAMP PROGRAM AND OBESITY – IS THERE A LINK?

Even though the U.S. is one of the richest countries in the world, food insecurity is still a major issue for millions of Americans. In 2007, an estimated 36.2 million Americans had at least one episode of food insecurity – and many of these individuals turn to the U.S. Food Stamp Program for help. Because obesity is more prevalent among the poor, some have raised concerns that food assistance programs may encourage excess weight.

To explore this notion further, a new paper in Elsevier’s Economics & Human Biology investigates whether the U.S. Food Stamp Program contributes to adult participants’ weight as measured by body mass index (BMI). BMI was examined prior to food stamp usage, during and after.

BMI rose over all three periods, but it increased the most during the period of food assistance. Female food stamp participants particularly see an increase, more than one unit higher than a matched control who is not in the program.

This study does not prove the Food Stamp Program causes weight gain, but it does suggest programme changes to encourage the consumption of high-nutrient, low-calorie foods. For example, subsidising the price of fresh produce and other healthy foods would provide a simple economic incentive to encourage healthier eating habits.

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3. SIBLING DIFFERENCES – ONE EXPLANATION TO THE GREAT FAMILY MYSTERY

One of the great mysteries in family life is how siblings from the same parents, raised in the same house, with the same values could turn out so differently. Think of your own brother or sister. Chances are you’ve grown to have different friends, different goals and different lifestyles. Still, you’re family. How do you explain why one is a church-going, university geek and the other is a rock n’ roll junkie that craves risks and extremes?

In Elsevier’s latest Journal of Adolescence, a new study examines the association between adolescents’ friendship experiences and their aspirations for self-acceptance, affiliation and financial success. Using a sample of 102 same-sex sibling pair, participants were asked to fill out questionnaires to assess how they interact with their friends, as well as how they see themselves in the future.

Based on the data, only a small degree of sibling similarity was found for aspirations and friendship experiences. In turn, self-acceptance and affiliation were positively linked to general friendship positivity. In general, results indicate growing up in one home and being socialised by the same parents does not make adolescent siblings similar in their aspirations. Rather, non-shared experiences like those with close friends are related to aspiration dissimilarity of siblings.

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4. DRIVER PERCEPTIONS AND REACTIONS TO ROADSIDE MEMORIALS

Road crashes are a leading cause of death and injury around the world. In fact, it is believed approximately 1.2 million people globally are killed annually on the roads. Despite these statistics, road fatalities are often received with great shock, and increasingly, families and friends mourn by placing roadside memorials to mark the spots where their loved ones die.

To learn more about the perception of these memorials, and if they impact driving violations in those respected areas, Elsevier’s Accident Analysis & Prevention provides findings from an online survey of 810 drivers, as well as insights from an on-road experiment.

Results from the online survey indicate public support of roadside memorials is divided, but more individuals were in favour of allowing them. In the on-road experiment, in which a roadside memorial was placed at two intersections, the number of red light violations in a six-week period were found to be significantly lower than the violation rates in the six-week period prior to the installation of the roadside memorial.

Based on these combined results, author Richard Tay recommends roadside memorials be allowed, at least for a period of time. However, restrictions and control should also be considered to protect the safety concerns of pedestrians, cyclists and maintenance workers. Placing some boundaries around size of the memorial and types of materials used could ensure both drivers and others using the sidewalk are protected.

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5. IMPLICIT ASSOCIATIONS AND SOCIAL STATUS – THE RESULTS JUST MIGHT DETERMINE YOUR FUTURE SPOUSE

In the 21st century, dual-income spouses share the bills and the chores. Men and women speak about equal pay for equal work. Everyone has a shot at university and careers. Still, science is powerful, and there’s no denying our species has innate instincts on choosing mates that offer good genes and material benefits.

A considerable body of evidence exists showing women tend to be attracted to men who show reproductive prowess and the means to support a family, but does this happen implicitly or explicitly? In Elsevier’s new Evolution and Human Behavior, a study tests the proposition that relationship involvement influences the implicit responses of women to high- and low-status professions. Participants included 123 women recruited from a large urban university who were in turn primed to either think about a high-involvement relationship or low-involvement relationship. They were then presented examples of high-status occupations or low-status occupations.

Results revealed women primed in the high-involvement context implicitly associated more positive responses with high-status occupations. In contrast, when a low-involvement context was primed, the difference disappeared. This study indicates that subtle contextual changes can automatically recalibrate the evaluation of traits in potential mates. In other words, the presentation of a context can cause certain traits to become more or less desirable without conscious thought or control.

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6. BULLYING GOES HIGH-TECH

With cell phones, mobile apps and rampant Internet use, it was really only a matter of time. Changing technology has opened up new avenues for bullying using texting on cell phones to videos on websites as yet another way to terrorise one another. Enter the new age of cyberbullying.

Elsevier’s Journal of Adolescence reveals findings from a new study examining text and traditional bullying in New Zealand, as well as the relationship between text bullying and traditional bullying and feeling unsafe at school. Using a self-reported online survey, 1,169 15-year-olds were asked a series of questions around bullying that occurs in the form of text messages, rumours, exclusion, teasing and physical bullying. The sample was almost evenly split among boys and girls, and both rural (378) and urban (791) students were included.

Overall, 47 percent of the sample had been bullied “sometimes or often” during the current school year. The most common forms were teasing/name calling (29 percent), having rumours passed around (22 percent), being excluded (19 percent), being physically hurt (15 percent) and having unwanted text messages sent to them (11 percent). Students who experienced text bullying were also significantly more likely to experience every other form of traditional bullying, regardless of gender.

The authors conclude a significant number of New Zealand students were bullied via text, and the possibility for this type of bullying increasing in the future is likely as more students gain access to mobile devices. They state text bullying will not replace traditional forms of bullying, but it will serve as another mechanism to facilitate bullying.

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The Scirus tool bar makes it easier than ever to find scientific, technical and medical information on the Web and is quick and easy to install. After installing, the Scirus toolbar conveniently appears below your Internet Explorer address bar, meaning you have scientific searches at your fingertips, wherever you are on the Web. Link to Scirus: http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/toolbar/ If your browser does not support HTML, you may need to copy the links below and paste them into your browser to access the articles:

1. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2009.02.007
2. doi:10.1016/j.ehb.2009.05.003
3. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.05.001
4. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2009.03.006
5. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.05.002
6. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.06.001