News by Subject Social & Behavior

Patients with autoimmune diseases often have an illness experience riddled with symptom ambiguities and shifting diagnoses. A new Drexel University study found that one way patients and physicians can work through the difficulty and frustration of communicating about these conditions is to use both broad diagnostic terms, like 'autoimmune disease,' as well as narrow ones, such as 'lupus or MS.'

Caregivers in low-income settings will be able to respond to the challenges of bringing up children with disabilities, thanks to a new model created by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).

Leaving an infant to 'cry it out' from birth up to 18 months does not adversely affect their behaviour development or attachment, researchers from the University of Warwick have found, they also discovered that those left to cry cried less and for a shorter duration at 18 months of age.

The damaging impact of poverty on children and their families and the growing problem of exploitation are revealed in a new report by researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and University of Warwick. The triennial analysis of serious case reviews (SCR) found an increase in the number involving adolescents, which produced new insights into the threats some of these young people, both those living at home and in care, were experiencing from various aspects of exploitation.

New findings from a Dartmouth-led study, published in the February issue of Health Affairs, show that despite effort and attention on the part of some healthcare providers to better address their patients' social needs, little progress is being made to integrate social services with medical care.

An Australian study examining the relationship between flexibility and parent health has revealed formal family-friendly workplace provisions alone are not meeting the demands of working mothers and fathers.

Most people want to change an aspect of their personality, but left to their own devices, they may not be successful in changing, research shows.

A parenting program, developed by Somali and Bhutanese refugees in partnership with Boston College researchers, retained a majority of participants and showed promise reducing reports of childhood depression and family conflict and improving behavior among children, according to findings published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

New research from Kaiser Permanente finds that post-menopausal women with colorectal cancer were more likely to die from their disease or from any cause if they had low social support before diagnosis. The analysis of 1,429 women in the national long-term health study Women's Health Initiative, which included patients from Kaiser Permanente and other health systems, was published in the journal Cancer Jan. 23.

Women in low and medium-income countries struggle with many health issues in pregnancy and childbirth, but little attention is given to antenatal depression -- which is on the rise in many developing countries, new PLOS ONE paper shows. A study by Flinders University public health researchers found rising levels of reported antenatal depression in these countries, and recommends more services are urgently needed -- particularly in low-income economies.