likelyhealthy:

Escape From Diab

This childhood obesity prevention video game proves that story immersion can initiate behavior change.  Players who shared more similarities with their avatars reported better outcomes in healthy decision-making.  Click here to read the study.

caraobrien:

Every 90 seconds, a mother dies from complications related to pregnancy childbirth; that is 1,000 women every day. Yet almost every one of these deaths can be prevented. Every Mother Counts (EMC), founded in 2010 by Christy Turlington Burns, is an advocacy and mobilization organization focused on maternal mortality reduction globally. Now in 2012, EMC is gearing up to offer new ways to get involved and take action to help prevent these needless deaths.

Starting today, make every action count. This video introduces Every Mother Counts’ new focus to encourage creative actions to benefit maternal health. With every action you take on our website, we’ll be sending a message. With every dollar we raise, we’ll be funding programs to provide transportation, examinations, medication, midwives and hospital care. One hundred percent of every dollar raised goes directly toward these life saving programs around the world where women-just like you-just need a chance.

Every action counts. Every dollar counts. Every voice counts. Every song counts. Every mile counts. Every Mother Counts.

ucsdhealthsciences:

Child brides in Rayer Bazar, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Images courtesy of MH Kawsar

Girl Child Marriages Decline In South Asia, But Only Among Youngest
Findings mixed in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh

Each year, more than 10 million girls under the age of 18 marry, usually under force of local tradition and social custom. Almost half of these compulsory marriages occur in South Asia. A new study suggests that more than two decades of effort to eliminate the practice has produced mixed results.

Writing in the May 16, 2012 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, Anita Raj, PhD, professor of medicine in the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and colleagues, report that marriage rates for girls under the age of 14 in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh – the South Asian countries with the highest historical rates – have significantly declined since 1991. Conversely, the rate among girls aged 16 and 17 continues largely unchanged or, in the case of Bangladesh, has increased 36 percent.

Childhood marriage, which mostly involves girls, is widely condemned as a violation of individual human rights. Numerous studies have found that child brides are more likely to die young, suffer from serious health problems, live in poverty and remain illiterate.  

“There is a global effort to eliminate girl child marriage,” said Raj. “Our findings are heartening in terms of eliminating the practice among very young girls, but not among older girls. There needs to be a greater focus on prevention of marriage among later adolescents. If we cannot impact reduction of marriage in this age group, we’ll continue to see inadequate change on reduction of girl child marriage as a whole.”

Raj and colleagues examined randomized cluster samples from multiple demographic, health and nutrition surveys taken between 1991 and 2007 in India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where the prevalence of girl child marriages has historically reached or exceeded 20 percent.

More here

From NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation.