South Central Family Health Center is one of several community health centers that serves the southside. (Mae Ryan/KPCC)
Here are the latest health headlines folks in South Los Angeles ought to know about:
Study: Community health centers sometimes top private practices: Federally-funded community health centers are equal to or better in quality than private practices on several counts, says a new study, indicating that these kinds of clinics are capable and skilled at providing care to populations that are often overlooked and that face complicated health outcomes. Many health providers say clinics will play a huge role in helping facilitate the expansion of care that will result from new provisions of the Affordable Care Act. | Los Angeles Times
Doctors hesitant to deal with patients' weight problems: Only 30 to 40 percent of the nation's primary care doctors screen their patients for obesity, which usually means computing a person's body mass index (BMI). That may be because the patient-doctor conversation about weight can be uncomfortable and sensitive. | KPCC/NPR
Selflessness Can Threaten Clergy Members' Health: Prioritizing the needs of others over their own can take a toll on the health of the clergy, and may account for why chronic diseases and depression are more prevalent among clergy than the laity. The study's authors said it's difficult to encourage clergy members to get medical care because they often focus on helping others first. | MSN/HealthDay
Quitting Smoking Does Mean Weight Gain for Many: Study: The number of pounds smokers gain in their first year after quitting is more than previously thought: an average of about eight to 11 pounds, says a new European study. Most of that occurs within the first three months of quitting. Still, gaining weight is better than smoking, said researchers. | HealthDay
Motherhood, Breast-Feeding May Affect Long-Term Weight: Having a kid is associated with an increased risk of obesity, but for every six months a woman breastfeeds, she cuts that risk by about one percent. While this reduction in obesity is small on an individual scale, researchers said it's significant and substantial when it comes to obesity-related ailments across the population. | MSN/HealthDay
To Your Health: Moderate Alcohol Confers Some Benefits, Some Harms for Women's Health: The key is still moderation, but with that in mind, two new studies say alcohol can help women avoid rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. In this case, "moderation" means about half a glass per day for avoiding arthritis and up to two drinks a day for avoiding osteoporosis. Researchers said despite the findings, alcohol may not be the best solution for improving bone health. | ABCNews.com
Food In Smaller Pieces May Help Control Weight: Eating a large piece of food that's cut up into smaller pieces is more satisfying than just eating the large piece, says a new study, in part because humans tend to equate larger "numbers" of food with more food. Cutting food into pieces could help people better control their eating and, thus, their weight. | Medical News Today
Report: Too little mental health care for seniors: Up to 20 percent of American seniors have a mental health or substance abuse issue, and the country is severely lacking in doctors and services that can take care of them, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine. Depressive disorders and symptoms related to dementia are the most common manifestations of these problems. | USA Today
Why do low-income couples marry less and divorce more? Although low-income folks value the institution of marriage just as much as their higher-income counterparts, a new study found that those with a lower income were more likely to report money problems, drinking and drug use as having a negative effect on their relationship – and yet those same people still had more traditional marriage views than those with higher incomes. They were also more likely than higher-income people to value the economic aspects of marriage. | Press release, Journal of Marriage and Family
Contraceptive use averts 272,000 maternal deaths worldwide: Using contraception helps more than 272,000 women avoid dying at childbirth each year, says a new Johns Hopkins study. Were the further global need for contraception to be satisfied, the number of maternal deaths avoided would jump another 30 percent. | Press release, The Lancet
UC Davis study finds stray-bullet shootings frequently harm women and children: The majority of people who are killed or hurt in stray-bullet shootings are unaware of the events that led to the gunfire that hit them; about 33 percent of victims were children and nearly half were women. About 41 percent of the people hurt by this type of violence were at home when it happened, and of those, more than two-thirds were indoors. | Press release, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery
