Studies and Analyses

UMHS researcher finds gap between what parents, children report

Parents think their children use bicycle helmets and seatbelts more often than children say they use them, according to a new study by a University of Michigan Health System pediatric surgeon.

In a survey of 731 fourth and fifth grade pupils and 329 of their parents, researchers found that while 70 percent of parents say their child always wears a bicycle helmet while riding, only 51 percent of children report we

Women can markedly lower the risk of neural tube defects in their offspring by ingesting tablets before or just after conception

Only about 25 per cent of women in many countries voluntarily take folic acid tablets before conception, says a U of T researcher.

Dr. Joel Ray, along with fellow researchers Gita Singh of McMaster University in Hamilton and Robert Burrows of Monash University in Australia, reviewed nearly 50 studies conducted in about 20 countries between 1992 an

Variability in weight ranges and drug content of split tablet may put patients at risk of receiving too much/too little medication

Back and neck pain sufferers who divide the most frequently prescribed muscle relaxant may be getting anywhere from half to one-and-a-half times the amount of medicine they believe they are taking, suggests a new study examining the practice of tablet splitting. This may place them at an increased risk of encountering side effects such as drowsiness and f

While sound can disrupt sleep, scents cannot. People cannot rely on their sense of smell to awaken them to the danger of fire, according to a new Brown University study.

Study participants easily detected odors when awake and in the early transition into sleep (Stage One sleep) but, once asleep, did not. The findings indicate a significant alteration of perceptual processing as a function of sleep.

“Human olfaction appears insufficiently sensitive and reliable to act as a sentinel s

People who followed a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet lost more weight than people on a low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-calorie diet during a six-month comparison study at Duke University Medical Center. However, the researchers caution that people with medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure should not start the diet without close medical supervision.

“This diet can be quite powerful,” said lead researcher Will Yancy, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Duke U

A study by researchers at U of T suggests that music teachers are routinely exposed to noise levels that could result in hearing loss

Led by research associate Alberto Behar and electrical and computer engineering professors Hans Kunov and Willy Wong, the team found that while general noise exposure over the course of an average day is marginally acceptable, noise levels during teaching periods could damage the inner ear. “The hair cells of the inner ear simply crumble under the load