Health Highlights: Oct. 7, 2009

October 7, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Less Opposition to U.S. Health Care Reform Plans: Poll
Menu Calorie Info Doesn't Change Eating Habits: Study
Eating Licorice During Pregnancy May Harm Child: Study
Woman's Education Affects Male Partner's Lifespan: Study

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Less Opposition to U.S. Health Care Reform Plans: Poll

Opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reforms has decreased significantly in the past few weeks, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

The poll found a 40-40 split in opposition or support for the health care overhaul, compared with 49 percent opposition and 34 percent support in early September. Opposition among older Americans dropped 16 percentage points, from 59 percent to 43 percent.

The poll also found that support among Democrats increased from 57 percent to 68 percent, while opposition from independents decreased from 51 percent to 36 percent. Four out of five Republicans oppose the health care reform plans.

"It's very significant that there's an upturn in support for the plans because after August there was a sense that the whole effort was beginning to decline and would not come back in terms of public support," Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor who tracks public opinion on health care, told the AP.

"Even with this, the country is still divided over whether or not moving ahead is the right ting to do," he added.

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Menu Calorie Info Doesn't Change Eating Habits: Study

A law requiring New York City restaurant chains to list calories on menus hasn't changed the eating habits of low-income people, according to a study published Tuesday.

New York University and Yale researchers studied people eating at Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's and Wendy's in lower-income neighborhoods with high obesity rates and found that half of the customers noticed the calorie information, CBS and the Associated Press reported.

Twenty-eight percent said the calorie postings influenced what they ordered and 90 percent of those people said they made healthier food choices as a result. However, the researchers analyzed the customers' receipts and found they ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer did before the law took effect in July 2008.

The findings show that calorie postings don't have enough impact, study lead author Brian Elbel, an assistant professor at the New York University School of Medicine, according to published reports.

The study was published in the journal Health Affairs.

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Eating Licorice During Pregnancy May Harm Child: Study

Eating large amounts of licorice during pregnancy could have a detrimental impact on a child's intelligence and behavior, say European researchers who studied 8-year-old children in Finland, where many young women consume licorice.

The study found that children born to women who ate a lot of licorice while pregnant scored lower on tests than other youngsters, BBC News reported.

A component in licorice called glycyrrhizin may enable stress hormones to cross through the placenta from mother to child. These hormones may affect fetal brain development and have been linked to behavioral disorders, the researchers said.

The findings show "that eating licorice during pregnancy may affect a child's behavior or IQ and suggests the importance of the placenta in preventing stress hormones that may affect cognitive development getting through to the baby," said Professor Jonathan Seckl, of Edinburgh University's Centre for Cardiovascular Science, BBC News reported.

The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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Woman's Education Affects Male Partner's Lifespan: Study

Well-educated women and their male partners are more likely to live a long life than less-educated women and their men, according to a Swedish study of 1.5 million working people ages 30 to 59.

The study found that women with a university education were 53 percent less likely to die at an early age than those with only a school education. Men whose female partners had a university education were 25 percent less likely to die early than those who lived with a woman with a school education, BBC News reported.

"Women traditionally take more responsibility for the home than men do and, as a consequence, women's education might be more important for the family lifestyle -- for example in terms of food habits -- than men's education," said lead researcher Dr. Robert Erikson.

He and his colleagues found that men's income and social status affect their female partner's lifespan, BBC News reported.

The study appears in the journal Epidemiology and Community Health.