Approximately 40 percent of Americans skipped the dentist over the past year, with the majority citing cost as the reason. (Irina Patrascu/Flickr Creative Commons)
Here are the latest health headlines folks in South Los Angeles ought to know about:
Cost Keeps Many Americans from Good Dental Care: Study: About 40 percent of Americans are skipping routine checkups for their pearly whites, mostly because of cost. Other stats: About 75 percent of Americans say their teeth are in good condition, and 10 percent cited fear as the reason they hadn't seen a dentist over the past year. | HealthDay
Stressful Jobs Put Strain on Women's Hearts, Study Says: Women who rate their jobs as highly demanding are more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from heart disease, says new research. Stress factors include the pace of a job, the amount of work, demands, required skills and control over decision-making. Women with jobs like that are 38 percent more likely to have a heart problem, says the study. | ABCNews.com
Kids' Sexual Behavior Influenced by Movie Scenes: Study: Teens exposed to more sexual content in movies started having sex younger, had more sex partners and were less likely to use condoms with casual sex partners, says a new study, indicating that sex scenes play a considerable role in adolescents' developing sexuality. The study focused on a trait called "sensation-seeking," which usually peaks between the ages of 10 and 15. For kids who had early exposure to movie sex scenes, though, sensation-seeking can last into the late teens and even early 20s. | HealthDay
Gay, bisexual black men at high risk for HIV: Black men who have sex with men account for around 25 percent of new HIV infections in the U.S., says a new report by the Black AIDS Institute. The report also says a black gay man has a one-in-eight chance of becoming infected by the time he's 20; by the time he's 40, the likelihood of that happening is 60 percent. Black men who have sex with men are more affected by HIV than any other group in the developed world. | CNN
New metric for obesity strongly correlated to premature death: A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is a new way of measuring obesity that combines the existing metrics of the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference and produces a better correlation with premature death rate than either of the individual measures does on its own. | Press release, PLoS ONE
Photo by Irina Patrascu via Flickr Creative Commons.
